Early Game Lifesteal

Has anyone studied the validity of a first-item LifeSteal? Let's say a 1st item Soul Eater. It would allow you to make a few early game kills since you can stand and auto-attack longer than they can. Put them behind early. Most people take some form of Boots as a 1st item, which would put the LS guy as the minority. You know that you would always be able to win a 1v1 battle.

Good idea? Bad idea?

thats an interesting theory. I come to do little xperiments with squishy AD gods. And I sometimes start with devourer glove which gives you lifesteal and phys power. Both stacks are permanent. And than I usually take celerity boots. If I open the game well I have phsy power stacks, good sustainability and Im lightning fast...the rest of the build is a matter of taste and routine :D
So answer to your question - AN IDEA WORTH TO STUDY :)))

I was even thinking something that DIDN'T require stacks. Gloves, etc, are slow to get ramped up. So, their initial impact on the first couple of levels are minimal. Something that gives just a flat boost seems like it would be worthwhile even before a bunch of minion waves. So, you could probably go after that first kill or two at levels 2-5. At it wouldn't be a useless item late game.

Hmm I will try to make sense then answering this..

1) The short answer to your question "Is early lifesteal a good idea?" No it is actually a poor idea. (You can trust me and just accept this answer or to read the fallowing wall of text).

2) The long answer :
Early game lifesteal might sound like a good or okeyish idea but not then you look at the numbers or even spend time thinking about what happens in early game so lets start with the number problem

a) All lifesteal is based on percentages which means the more damage you do the more life you get with each auto attack(basic attack) but early game no matter which god you pick your basic attacks will be very weak for this test I used Anhur in a practice math and took level 2 soul eater because it gives the most physical lifesteal 10% from the get go (so does beatstick but I prefer eater) but because I get no physical power from this item I was hitting minions for 45-50ish and with 10% life steal I was getting between 4-5 health points back with each hit but I had to invest 1250 gold so you might as well just pick up deaths toll if you feel like getting 5 health is worth it also for 1250 gold you could just pick up the executioner and start hitting for around 65-70 damage which in my opinion is just better now as for your suggestion that you could just stand there and use basic attacks to kill your enemy (lets assume that you are in mirror match Anhur vs Anhur and both of you are using basic attacks only) even if you would be hitting me for 50 and restoring 5 hp on each hit with executioner I would be hitting you for 70 the difference is quite visible and the person who started with executioner would be the winner of that battle 100% of the time not to mention the physical power he is getting from it would also increase the damage from his abilities...

b) In the early game the majority of damage that players inflict to each other comes from skills because until latemid- late game your skills do a lot more damage then your basic attacks thus making any early life steal even less useful as you don't get hp back from using skills...


Hope this makes sense if not I will explain it further

Thank you! Very well thought out.

I really see now why my suggestion turns out NOT to be a good idea. I've also been experimenting with it myself, mostly in arena matches. You are absolutely correct: i was only ticking about 5 hp returns but I was getting hit a lot harder than I was hitting. I lost a lot more 1v1 than I anticipated in the early games. In the late games, I got back to even, because it seems that late game is where life-steal becomes effective. It just isn't worth the effort or the gold in the early game.

Life-steal just not a good option it seems for first-pick item.

Life steal is a good idea in 1v1 scenarios or as 4th and later item but in the grand scheme of things I just think there are better items out there to pick from then LS