Should I not be building life-steal early?

Teh Song·Sep 10, 2016·1 votes·1,431 views

In the majority of my custom item-sets for AD champions, I build as my first (non-starting) item.

I can't help but notice, though, that not many recommended item sets build any life-steal until late, and the people I play with/against often haven't even reached the life-steal in their builds when the match ends.

Am I fooling myself thinking it's good to start building life-steal early? Should I be putting it off?

Feel free to provide different answers for the different types of champions, if you must.

12 Comments

oSEXYPLATYPUSoSep 10, 20162 votes

with the mastery giving you life steal and starting dorans blade you start with 5% life steal at lvl 1 , that should be enough to sustain early. typically most adc guides have you rushing to items item 1038 for damage item 3086 for crit/as/ms both of these basic items build into your big ticket items they provide a good mix of stats that most if not all adcs need. by getting a item 1053 early you are slowing the process in which you get those and complete the bigger items. but early lvls when your damage is lower more life steal isnt going to yield much in return.

for example we are gonna take a item 1038 item 1055 vs a item 1053 item 1001 item 2003 item 2043 as 1st back buys bf costing 1300g and the other set up being 1275 so practically the same amount.

now item 1038 is +40ad item 1055 +8ad +3% lifesteal giving 48ad and +3 lifesteal (+2% masteries) for 5% you auto and do 48 damage and get 5% lifesteal in return being 2.4hp per auto

and with item 1053 is +15 ad +10% lifesteal + item 1055 +8ad+3%lifesteal (+2%from masteries) for 5% giving you 23 ad and 15% lifesteal you audo and do 23 damage and get 15% life steal giving you 3.45 hp back. a difference of 1hp from 10% more life steal

but you get more damage with item 1038

this is with out runes/base ad and other masteries. those will all adjust the #s say ad rune page is flat ad reds for +9 ad and we are gonna use Caitlyn base ad at lvl 6 which is 62

so 71 ad + 40ad+8ad= 119ad with 5% lifesteal item 1038 item 1055 you auto and do 119ad X 5%lifesteal = 6hp per auto

71ad +15ad+8ad=94ad with 15% lifesteal item 1055 item 1053 you auto and do 94ad X 15% lifesteal = 14hp per auto

this is calculated not taking armor into consideration or any other damage reduction or masteries/runes

maybe it might help you decided what is best for what you wanna do. either way is fine.

Teh SongSep 11, 20161 votes

Numbers, always helpful in a response. Will help with decisions.

Meep ManSep 10, 20161 votes

Depends on who you are playing. Usually someone that gets a ton of free AD or attack speed can get a Vampiric Scepter early.

dominusxSep 10, 20161 votes

show us your champion pool so we know for sure. I personally am a cdr junkie i'd buy 40% even if i sacrifice dmg. lifesteal is good mostly for champs with attack speed early imo. but can work out for champs like Riven and shit that get a lot of dmg on their auto's from passives etc etc. i personally usually put of lifesteal till 3rd or 4th item in the game. unless i'm playing Jax/Yi

Teh SongSep 10, 20161 votes

It's really more of an in general question for AD, although I figured different types might have different answers.

Jhin Kalista Kindred MasterYi Shaco Sion Sivir Yorick for some.

Feel free to check who I own on my profile if you wish. At least I think it tells you that. Or my mastery levels if it doesn't I suppose.

dominusxSep 10, 20161 votes

Jhin doesnt need lifesteal buts its good becuz he has a lot of dmg on autos. kalista kindred yi sivir get alot of attack speed so its good. sion doesnt get lifesteal. shaco also has a lot of dmg and rather heavy attack speed builds. yorick same as sion he doesnt get it. nor needs it tbh

Teh SongSep 10, 20161 votes

Sion doesn't build lifesteal? You ever read his passive? You gotta build at least one lifesteal item on him if not more to amp up the power of that ability.

dominusxSep 11, 20161 votes

I have not seen a single Sion build lifesteal since forever unless they play full ad. closest thing i've seen in terms of lifesteal was te MAW passive

PermabannedGarenSep 11, 20162 votes

[{quoted}](name=Teh Song,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ueeVEXxN,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2016-09-10T15:00:38.228+0000)

It's really more of an in general question for AD, although I figured different types might have different answers.

for some.

Feel free to check who I own on my profile if you wish. At least I think it tells you that. Or my mastery levels if it doesn't I suppose.

Jhin doesn't build lifesteal at all, preferring a full AD big boy build.

Kalista rushes a blade of the ruined king so it's fine on her.

Well I mean, if you're jungling Kindred you should really be rushing your bloodrazor lol. But getting a vamp scepter after to work on your blade of the ruined king or hold you over while you complete runaan's is fine.

Sort of same deal with Kindred. If you're jungling with Yi you should rush your blade of the ruined king after bloodrazor, though I prefer building the attack speed components first. He scales very well with attack speed.

Shaco no, the lifesteal on Hydra should be the last thing you build. Tiamat's active is too important.

Sion shouldn't be building lifesteal at all. Really, he shouldn't be building damage at all IMHO. Sion functions well as a full tank.

Sivir should be going Warlord's Bloodlust most games IMO. She doesn't need early lifesteal, and should rush her essence reaver.

Not sure what Yorick will end up building. I could see Hextech Gunblade or, more likely, death's dance becoming good items on him, but you shouldn't rush lifesteal.

I general though you shouldn't really rush a vampiric scepter. The reason is this: it doesn't provide very good combat stats.

If I'm playing an AD top and I got a pickaxe on first back and you got a vampiric scepter I will probably be able to outrade you every time.

You want combat stats early game to trade with your laning opponent.

ModWulf HelhammerSep 10, 20161 votes

Most ADCs do well enough with Doran's that they don't need to buy much lifesteal early

Fighters break into two categories: those that get lifesteal, and those that build tanky. Take Riven and Olaf: Olaf isn't likely to build much lifesteal, as he wants to be more tanky because he has to run through the whole team to get to his target. Riven does like lifesteal, but often she'd be better off buying another component first (if you're going even or ahead), like a tiamat.

ShadòwSep 10, 20161 votes

depends

do you want damage or sustain?

usually i would go for damage first, but when you are getting poked a lot and want to sustain to be able to just farm without getting bullied out of lane, go for item 1053 .