Guide to AD Starting Items
-Cull will grant 5 ad and 3 life on hit. It costs 450 gold and will grant 400 gold at 100 cs plus 180 gold from sale price.
-Doran's Blade will grant 8 ad, 80 hp, and 3% lifesteal It costs 450 gold and will sell for 180 gold as well
-Long Sword will grant 10 ad. It costs only 350 gold.
The Cull will provide the most consistent healing of the early-game ad items. The three health on hit passive of this item is superior to lifesteal during the laning phase as it will proc on far more attacks. This item and the life on hit will benefit champions like Renekton more due to his Q and skirmishing nature allowing him to win short trades. Cull will let you get a fairly large chunk of gold when you complete your 100 cs and sell the item. You will want to sell the Cull after the unique gold passive is used up because 3 life on hit will fall off in effectiveness very quickly as the game progresses. Quickly getting 100 cs with the Cull and then selling it will allow you to buy a "big-purchase" item sooner than your lane opponent but keep in mind that it won't be until around the 10 minute mark that you can even attain 100 cs and that on average it will take 13-15 minutes depending on elo (even longer in bronze).
Starting with the Long Sword will give you the most ad of the three attack damage starting items but no other benefits on it's own. Because the Long Sword is a component item you will get the full amount of gold worth out of it when upgrading it and allow you to get to a more advanced component item such as a Vampiric Scepter sooner. Your extra starting gold is also very important with this purchase as that money will be spent on two extra potions which will be much better for healing up after losing a lot of health compared to the Cull or Doran's Blade. You can even take the Refillable Potion for more long-term gold value if you desire. The Long Sword and potion buy will provide greater quick-sustain from damage over the course of the laning phase as well as having better synergy with some masteries due to your ability to take more potions into the start of the game. You may also choose to forego your extra potions and grab an early vision ward instead.
Doran's Blade is inferior as a starting item compared to the other two but can become more gold efficient than the others over time. Doran's sustain is much less than the Cull at the start of the game due to only being able to lifesteal from auto attacks as well as needing to inflict 100 damage to just break even with the Cull's health-restoring properties. You will have to hold on to Doran's Blade for a while to get more gold value from its lifesteal compared to other starting items; it will surpass the others eventually so do not sell it until you need the inventory space in order to justify this item purchase. Avoid Doran's Blade on champions who don't auto attack constantly throughout the course of the game.
