Question 1

What does "stat steal" mean in TFT?

Accepted Answer

Stat steal is a two-sided effect: a source removes a stat (typically Armor, Magic Resist, Attack Damage, or Ability Power) from a target and grants that same stat to itself or an ally for the steal's duration. The target loses the stat at the same time the source gains it, so a single proc both weakens the enemy and strengthens the holder. This distinguishes stat steal from one-way reductions like Sunder or Shred, which only subtract from the enemy and grant nothing back to the source.

Question 2

How is stat steal different from Sunder, Shred, or Wound?

Accepted Answer

Sunder, Shred, and Wound are pure debuffs — they reduce a stat or its effectiveness on the target, but the source gets nothing back. Stat steal is a transfer: the same value the target loses is added to the source's stat pool. Practical consequence: stat steal scales the holder's defense or damage as the fight progresses, while Sunder/Shred only amplify damage against the debuffed target. Stat steal stacks with Sunder/Shred on the target side because they affect different keywords.

Question 3

Where does stat steal come from in TFT — items, traits, or abilities?

Accepted Answer

All three categories. The most visible current sources are Artifact items that periodically steal Armor or Magic Resist from nearby enemies, and a unique trait that marks enemies at combat start and steals a percentage of their Attack Damage and Ability Power the first time they take damage. Champion abilities, augments, and charms can also apply stat steal — implementations vary by source, so always read the source's tooltip for the exact stat, percent or flat amount, and trigger condition.

Sources

Question 4

Does stolen Armor or Magic Resist stack across the combat round?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Periodic stat-steal items add a small amount each tick — for example, 3 Armor or 3 MR per proc — and those values accumulate on the holder for the duration of that round of combat, while subtracting the same amount from each affected enemy. The longer the holder survives in range, the larger the swing. The current item-side cadence is once every 2.5 seconds, dropping to once every 1.25 seconds when both Armor- and MR-steal items are equipped on the same unit.

Question 5

Do stolen stats carry over to the next round, or do they reset?

Accepted Answer

Stat steal from current item and trait sources resets between rounds. The trait-side mark-and-steal effect re-marks enemies at the next combat's start — its tooltip explicitly says "Combat Start: Mark all enemies" and "each combat," meaning the steal is recomputed per round. Item-applied steal effects accumulate during one round of combat and don't persist into the next. For carry-over stat gains you would want a permanent stat-stacking effect; that is a different mechanic class than stat steal.

Sources

Question 6

Can stat steal reduce an enemy's Armor or MR below zero?

Accepted Answer

No. TFT floors resistances at 0. Once stat-steal procs and other reduction effects bring a target to 0 Armor or 0 Magic Resist, further steals against that resistance can't push the value into negatives — incoming damage of the matching type is fully unmitigated, but it isn't amplified beyond that. Riot patched the floor in around Set 9 (patch 13.16, August 2023) after a champion's reduction kit was pushing Armor below 0; the floor has held across all Armor/MR reduction and steal sources since.

Question 7

Does stat steal still proc on shielded or invulnerable targets?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the steal's trigger. Periodic timed-tick steal items don't require damage to land — they fire on a fixed cadence and can pull stats from enemies in range whose hit points are still being absorbed by a shield. Damage-triggered steals are different: an Invulnerable target takes 0 damage and explicitly prevents on-damage effects from triggering, so a steal gated on "the first time the enemy takes damage" will not fire while the target is Invulnerable. Read each source's trigger wording to predict the interaction.

Question 8

What's the difference between flat-value and percent-value stat steal?

Accepted Answer

Flat steal moves a fixed number — for example, 3 Armor — from each affected target to the holder per proc, regardless of how much Armor the target had. Percent steal takes a fraction of the target's current stat (for instance, 12% of Attack Damage and Ability Power) and grants that fraction to the source. Percent steal scales with the target's stat pool, so it hits harder against high-AD or high-AP enemies; flat steal is consistent but caps faster once the target reaches 0 of the stolen resistance.

Stat Steal

Items (4)

Traits (1)

Frequently asked questions

Description

Items (4) #

Traits (1) #

Frequently asked questions

Items (4)

Traits (1)