Build Path for Essense Reaver that provides the effects earlier

Essence Reaver is currently the only BF item that you don't get the desired effect while building into the full item.

With the Bloodthirster you have the Vamp Scepter giving you the early lifesteal and damage, which is your desired effect of a large amount of Lifesteal and a shield.

With the Infinity Edge you are looking for critical strike chance and damage which you get while building and you get your desired effect of increased crit damage.

With the Mercurial Scimitar you are looking for damage and escapes from CC lock and MR which you get while building into it along with your desired effect of a short speed burst and freedom from CC lock with MR and damage.

Yet in the case of the Essence Reaver, you're looking for mana sustainability and light sustain with damage, and while you get the health sustain and damage, you never receive the actual effect you're wanting in any way until it is COMPLETELY built. You have the BF sword for damage, and a vamp scepter for the lifesteal, but that is the same buildpath as the Bloodthirster.

Could we get an item (in place of the Vamp scepter?) that would make a little more sense for Essence Reaver's role?

I would recommend a 'Soul Reaver' item. I would price it around 1200 (similar to the Bilgewater Cutlass) and it would be basically the diminished form of the Essence Reaver (similar to how the Bilgewater Cutlass is a sort-of diminished Blade of the Ruined King).

Soul Reaver: 1200 g +20 Attack Damage +10% Life Steal +10% Cooldown Reduction UNIQUE Passive: 2-8 Mana is restored to the champion on hit (increasing based on how much mana they are missing)

Vampiric Scepter (800 G) + Fairie Charm (180 G) + Fairie Charm (180 G) + 40 G Combine Cost = Soul Reaver

Soul Reaver (1200 G) + B.F. Sword (1550 G) + 650 G Combine Cost = Essence Reaver

[VALUES SHOULD BE FINED TUNED, THESE ARE JUST EXAMPLES]

I love what the item offers, but the rewards come too late in the game to be impactful in my eyes. I feel as if the majority of cast-based fighting goes on in the early-mid game and having the option to have your Mana restoration sooner makes the item path more viable than say, going for a Blade of the Ruined King as a first item, and I think it would REPLACE most first-buy's for people (like me) who enjoy the heavy caster based ADC playstyle.

A key point to note: The passive on the Soul Reaver would be a FLAT return on hit (like Doran's Blade with health before the nerf). That way the lower AD values of the early-mid game won't give you an inconsistent amount of mana or a negligible amount of mana. However I think a percentage may work for this item too, given it was flat and not mana-level dependent.

What are your guys' thoughts on all of this? Any Red input? It seems like an outlier with huge potential to bring diversity to ADC builds, but as it currently is you just have to go through a long period of time where you don't get any effects at all like you're looking to have.

[Post Edit] I just saw another post similar to this, although I feel my idea is different enough to merit this staying up. I agree with some of his points, but for me; It's an end-game item with no incentive to build it that expresses the focus of the item.