I've started to watch replays. Yes, 'cause I've got that much time, or something. My goodness they're informative, especially when they're matches you were playing. Whole new perspective.
One of the things that's becoming apparent from these is that there's a need for a better understanding of what one needs to do to stay in lane during the laning phase (the opening 10-15 minutes of each game).
So, here's an overview (wall-o-text) of the things you can think about that'll help you stay in lane for longer, thus get more XP and more last hit opportunities (not going to cover improving last hits here... that can be another guide).
So, let's start with the obvious:
Why are you back at the fountain (again)?
There's the obvious answer, I suppose. You're low on health and the fountain is a safe way to recover. There's all sorts of reasons that might be, but the usuals are that you've been the target of a (unsuccessful) gank or that you've been in a laning scuffle and you came off badly.
So you run back to the fountain. You wait while you regen. Then you run back to your lane. Total time lost? Let's say 15 seconds running each way, plus another 10-15 seconds regening. That's 45 seconds out of lane where you're getting no XP and no last hit gold.
Let's put that in perspective:
A creep wave spawns every 30 seconds. Each early game wave is worth 227 XP (3x 62 XP for melee, + 1x 41 XP for ranged). Each wave is usually just about killed before the next one arrives. Let's pretend you're dual laning and that you'd normally stay in range for your share of the XP. So, in lane, you're getting 227 XP per minute (227 / 2 heroes * 2 waves). So, being out of lane for 45 seconds, you're missing out on 170 XP.
What's that in real terms? That's just under half the XP you need to get from level 3 to level 4. Yes, half a level! Knocked out of lane three times during the laning phase? You've probably dropped the XP you need to get from level 5 to level 6 completely.
That's not to mention the last hits you've missed out on. In practice, I'm hitting between 4 and 5 last hits per minute. In other words, I roughly last hit half the creeps that spawn every minute. In live matches I really only get half that. In real terms, each wave is worth (on average) 177 gold, so there's an option on 354 gold per minute in the early game. If, realistically, you're only going to get 25% of that (2 last hits per minute), then that's 88 gold per minute you're missing out on. Remember that you automatically get 60 gold per minute without doing anything, so you're pretty much halving your gold intake by being away from last hits.
So, being out of lane is bad news on all fronts. Given that, how do you stay in lane?
Well, you're out of lane and back at the fountain because your health is low, right? So we need to make sure that you can keep your health in tip-top shape without being out of lane. In the early game, there's four ways you can do that.
(NOTE: if you're skimming, life steal isn't a real option. Read details for why.)
I'll cover each in turn, though I've only included items that you have a decent chance of getting in the first 10 minutes (without pro skills). If it's an item over 1000 gold, it's not included below, though the same principles apply.
Healing Items
Healing items quickly or very quickly replenish your health but take up valuable space in your inventory and can end up being somewhat costly if you need to keep buying them. If you're using a guide, the starting items always include some form of healing item. Let's look at each in turn.
Tangos:
90 gold for 3 charges. Each charge heals 115 health over 16 seconds. Being hit does not cancel the healing. So, that's 345 points of healing provided you don't die to burst damage for the cost of 1 gold per 3.83 points of healing.
Healing Salve:
100 gold for 1 charge. Heals 400 health over 10 seconds. However, being hit cancels the heal, wasting the remaining potential. That's 1 gold per 4 points of healing.
Magic Stick:
200 gold for 0 charges initially, plus 1 charge for every opponent ability used "nearby" (I think this is around XP-gain range) up to a maximum of 10 charges. Each charge heals 15 health (and 15 mana) and all charges are used at once. The heal is instant. For a full stick that's 150 points of healing for the cost of 1 gold per 0.75 points of healing, though providing abilities are being used near you then that keeps filling.
Magic Wand:
509 gold for 0 charges initially, plus 1 charge for every opponent ability used "nearby" up to a maximum of 15 charges. Each charge heals 15 health (and 15 mana) and all charges are used at once. Like stick, the heal is instant. For a full wand, that's 225 points of healing for the cost of 1 gold per 0.442 points of healing, though this is refilled over time just like the stick. Additionally, this comes with +3 to all stats as a byproduct of combining 3 ironwood branches (that your starting build probably came with), which has its own benefits, but these are still fairly small.
Bottle:
600 gold for 3 charges, but can be refilled at the fountain (er, we don't want that), or by collecting a rune. Each charge heals 135 health over 3 seconds but like the salve, being hit cancels the healing. Additionally recovers 70 mana, but we're just focusing on health here. So, that's 1 gold per 0.675 points of healing, but that ignores that the bottle can be refilled, so that value improves over time.
Urn of Shadows:
875 gold for 0 charges initially, plus 1 charge for every enemy hero that dies within 1400 units. Each charge heals 400 health over 8 seconds but taking damage from a hero or a tower cancels the heal (and the charge is still lost). Assuming you can stock the urn with a charge, that's 1 gold per 0.457 points of healing, though clearly that improves with additional charges.
Analysis:
So, if you can stay out of trouble for 10 seconds (but within XP range, ideally) then a healing salve gives best bang for your buck. But you're not always down by 400 health (and if you are then, early game, you may be hanging on by a thread, which isn't great). So healing salves aren't the whole answer.
Tangoes still give pretty good effect for your buck, but to get their full effect you need to wait for 48 seconds! That's a long window to be out of the fight (not getting last hits) though at least you're getting XP.
Magic Stick and its bigger brother, Magic Wand, both look like great ways to harvest regen from your opponents, but they're both at the vagaries of your opponents' actions. If they don't used many abilities then you don't get much regen. Even if you assume that they're spamming abilities pretty quickly, you'll probably not fill the stick or wand in much under 2 minutes, which means that magic stick will take 10-12 minutes to be the same value as a healing salve, and magic wand even longer. Additionally, do you really want to trust your primary early-game regen to the control of your opponents?
Bottle seems like a good investment, but to catch up to the same bang for buck as a healing salve you need to use it completely 6 (!) times. If you're refilling off runes, then you better get every rune, and that'll (at fastest) be 10 minutes to achieve that cost effectiveness. Sure, bottles give other benefits such as holding runes for ganks, but from a health perspective it's way too expensive. Additionally, a team should only have one bottle between them all so that there's no fighting for runes, and this bottle should usually be in the solo mid position (easiest access to both rune sites).
Urn of Shadows is expensive and fractious. If you're not near any enemy hero deaths (and, worse, if you're not the closest one with an Urn) then it's useless. Assuming you can get charges at the rate of 1 every other minute (which is optimistic) then it'll take 18 minutes for it to offer the same value as a healing salve and with all the same drawbacks.
So, it seems the answer is some combination is healing salves (for big heals done quickly) and tangoes (for small heals that keep you in the fight).
If your guide or strategy doesn't include both at least one tango and one healing salve, question whether this is a good guide for you. Sure, a small number of heroes and more experienced players may choose differently, but for the newer player you need to make sure you can recover your health while in lane.
Later in the game, tango effectiveness is much less. Why? Because it recovers a much smaller portion of your health pool and scales very poorly against increasing quantities of damage. Healing salves come off much better later on, though ideally you've already addressed one of the next categories by then...
Magic Wand is, in many guides, an almost default purchase, but you have to question why. From a health regeneration perspective, it doesn't add up. Okay, it does mana too, and if you're needing both then it's not a bad buy, but timing is a consideration. If you're having the crap kicked out of you early game, that 350 gold (the difference between 3 ironwood branches and the magic wand) would be better spent on some other regen (e.g. 2 more healing salves plus another tango) that you can use when you want.
Regen Items
Regen items cover any item that gives +X to HP Regeneration. HP Regen is the number of points of health you recover each second. Commonly, this is around 0.7 at the start of the game (some less, some more). Later game, this can be 10 or more. Thus HP Regen is fairly slow but its effects are permanent. Note: pushing your health regen to a very high value (80-90 IIRC) is how the fountain replenishes your health.
Ring of Regen:
350 gold for +2 HP Regen. That's 120 health per minute, or 1 gold per 0.343 health per minute.
Ring of Health:
875 gold for +5 HP Regen. That's 300 health per minute, or 1 gold per 0.343 health per minute. Yes, the same bang for buck as a ring of regen, but much greater actual effect.
Headdress:
603 gold for +3 HP Regen, but as an 500 unit range aura so it helps your allies too. Just for you, that's 180 health per minute, or 1 gold per 0.299 health per minute. That's not huge, personally, but in a dual lane that's now just under 0.6 health per minute split across the two of you, making this a potentially good team support option. Additionally, the headdress gives +2 to all your stats.
Soul Ring:
800 gold for +3 HP Regen, but also offers 50% increase in mana regen (not great early on) and the ability to drain health to increase mana (not great from a health regen perspective!). So, 180 health per minute, or 1 gold per 0.225 health per minute. In many respects, Soul Ring shouldn't be considered a health regen item; it's a mana regen item that tries not to totally butcher your health while it's at it.
Helm of Iron Will:
950 gold for +3 HP Regen (and +5 Armour). That's a mere 180 health per minute, or 1 gold per 0.189 health per minute. Measured just on health regen, that's pretty poor, but the armour is reducing physical damage taken so (hopefully) less actual damage has been taken that needs regening. (Note: physical damage (from right click attacks) rather than magical or pure damage dealt by spells and other effects.)
Tranquil Boots:
975 gold +3 HP Regen and for infinite healing charges, but on a 60 second cool down. Each charge heals 170 health over 10 seconds. The boots temporarily lose these powers (a "break") if you're hit 4 or more times in a 10 second period and stay inactive until you've been hit 3 or less times in the last 10 seconds. Measured just on straight healing power, the boots offer 1 gold per 0.174 health, which is terrible, and will take over 23 uses (over 22 minutes) just to catch up to the bang for buck a healing salve offers. However, the regen substantially makes up for that, offering 180 health per minute provided the boots aren't broken. Combined at 350 health per minute, that's still not great at 1 gold per 0.359 health per minute. However, the boots also come with a substantial move speed increase provided they aren't broken.
Analysis:
Unlikely the direct healing items, many of the regen items also offer other benefits so straight-up comparisons are more tricky. However, if we consider health regeneration specifically...
350 gold for a Ring of Regen gives 240 health over 2 minutes. Compare that to, say, the 350 gold you need to spend to make 3 ironwood branches into a Magic Wand, which only gives 225 health over the same period, and that's optimistic (though it does do mana too). From a healing perspective, Ring of Regen comes out well in that comparison.
However, 350 gold could also be 3 healing salves (for 300 gold), for 1200 points of healing potential, which Ring of Regen will take 10 minutes to offer! Sure, HP Regen works even when you're being stabbed in the face, but if you are able to disengage then healing salves will get you back in the fight for less cost and less time.
However, Ring of Regen builds into many other items, including Headdress and Tranquil Boots, so its benefits are beyond its immediate utility. Headdress, in a dual lane is pitching out 360 health per minute between the two heroes there (providing they stay close) and that's starting to make the healing salves less attractive except for burst recovery.
Tranquil Boots distils the Headdress powers down to you personally (very roughly) and gives a massive move speed increase (+75, versus Boots of Speed at +50) but the fact that it can break and is 60% more expensive than Headdress should give a moment's pause if you're looking at these boots for healing purposes. Good for jungling and maybe safe laning, but actively dangerous in the mid or suicide lane (when they break, that move speed bonus drops to +25 and they lose their healing powers!).
So, we come back to Ring of Regen. It's expensive, certainly not a game opening item (it can be bought in the side shops, though), but if you're aiming for Headdress or something later than that then it can be well worth considering.
Ring of Health and Helm of Iron Will are only on the list by way of comparison, really. They're not realistic early game options, though both build into strong mid and late game items so again have their ancilliary benefits.
Strength Stat
Strength, for all heroes, governs both how much health you have and how much natural health regeneration you present. Median starting hero strength is around 22 (max 29, min 17) and this grows at different rates as different heroes level (from +3.8 per level, down to +1.8 per level, median +2.7). Additionally, each point put into attributes when levelling adds 2 to each attribute. Each point in strength confers the following: 19 health points, plus 0.03 HP regen per second. So, at the median, that's a starting health of 418 and a starting health regen of 0.66. Each point in strength increases the total punishment you can take and speeds your recovery from damage.
Ironwood Branch:
53 gold for +1 to all stats. 53 gold per strength. +19 HP, +0.03 HP/sec.
Gauntlet of Strength:
150 gold for +3 to strength. 50 gold per strength. +57 HP, +0.09 HP/sec.
Magic Wand:
509 gold for +3 to all stats, plus the ability to gain charges for healing and mana. 169.7 gold per strength. +57 HP, +0.09 HP/sec.
Bracer:
525 gold for +6 to strength, +3 to other stats, and +3 damage. 87.5 gold per strength. +114 HP, +0.18 HP/sec.
Headdress:
603 gold for +2 to all stats. 301.5 gold per strength. +38 HP, +0.06 HP/sec.
Ring of Aquila:
985 gold for +3 to all stats, an extra +3 to agility, +9 damage, +1 armour, and an aura offering bonus mana regen and armour. Just for strength, that's 328.3 gold per strength. +57 HP, +0.09 HP/sec.
Ogre Club:
1000 gold for +10 strength. 100 gold per strength. +190 HP, +0.3 HP/sec.
Analysis:
So, viewed from a health regeneration perspective, strength doesn't add up to much (when compared to health regeneration items), and that's true. But when combined with the HP pool increase that comes with each and every point in strength it becomes more apparent why this is an option.
When your starting health pool is only 400some, those 3x ironwood branches that you're starting out with are suddenly adding 13% to your health for a princely cost of 159 gold. Sure, you could bring that cost down by 9 gold and take a gauntlet of strength instead, but then you don't get the +3 in the other stats too (which buff your mana pool and regen, and your attack speed and armour), so ironwood branches, if you can fit them in, really rock the house.
Here's another thought for you:
6 strength = 114 HP instantly and permanently for 309 gold (1x gauntlet of strength + 3x ironwood branches)
1 tango = 115 HP fairly quickly but once for 30 gold
1 ring of regen = 120 HP per minute permanently for 350 gold
It's not a linear comparison by any means but it does mean that straight strength increases compare favourably to health regeneration, gold for gold, with the additional benefit of helping to protect you against high burst damage (nukes, criticals, rapid attacks, etc). While a cheap tango also covers the same job at a pinch, it does it only once and you can bet you'll be taking more than 115 points of damage in the game... more like 10 times that for a game that went brilliantly, 100 times for one that went badly. That'd be 300 gold on tangos in an excellent game, and 3000 in a bad one! Suddenly, strength and regen aren't looking so terrible are they?
Life Steal
While I've included life steal as an option, it really doesn't stack up early game. To be life stealing, you need to be damaging creeps. The reason you're away from the line in the first place is because your health is too low to cope with you being on the line, so life steal does nothing to get you back in the fight! Still, for completeness:
Morbid Mask:
900 gold for 15% life steal. This effect does not stack with any other unique effect (called orb effects). Assume you're successfully hitting something every 3 seconds and that your starting damage is around 80 (which is fairly high). That's 240 HP per minute stolen, which is respectable. However, in practice, you're probably getting less than half of that (there's no possible way you're standing on the line just hitting creeps for that all the time), so guess that more like half is closer to the truth. So 120 HP per minute, providing you can stay in the fight. That's 1 gold per 0.133 HP per minute.
Analysis:
For reference, Skeleton King's aura (at level 1) is just the same as a Morbid Mask, just shared and for free.
Treated realistically for early game potential, Morbid Mask's offered regeneration has worse bang for buck than even the most expensive HP regen items. Sure, it builds into neat items later, and can offer significant benefits for junglers who aren't being harassed off the line (and aren't chased for more than a few seconds if they need to disengage). For a laning hero, though, life steal isn't a real option as it relies on staying in the fight when you most need to get back, making you vulnerable to ganks. Seriously, just don't do it.
Conclusions (or tl;dr)
Of the four paths suggested for the early game, particularly the laning phase, only three have legs: healing items, HP regen items, and strength items. Life steal is too expensive and too dangerous to rely on. The costs are varied and there's no absolute winner, but there's some themes you can draw out.
(Almost) always start with both a Tango and a Healing Salve. If you're constantly needing to leave lane, add another tango or healing salve. Tangoes provide top-up health. Healing Salves quickly replenish a lot of health. Both aim to get you back in the fight quickly, but they cost more in the long run (but not more than being forced out of lane because you've not got enough regen!).
Ironwood Branches are hands-down the best early-game stat items, but don't ignore Gauntlets of Strength building into a Bracer if you're really needing to beef up a bit. Buffing your strength this way protects against burst damage and is a "permanent" tango if you care to look at it like that.
Ring of Regen is expensive and takes time to pay off but can build into some useful early and mid game items so shouldn't be overlooked. Remember you can get it in the side shop! Given enough time, a Ring of Regen can render tangoes irrelevant.
Headdress is regen for your lane, providing you're not constantly roaming all over. It's more expensive, though it is a component in some mid game items (e.g. Mekansm).
Magic Wand is bought too much, too automatically, without a good understanding of what it's good for and when it helps. If you're being forced out of lane and you've got a Magic Wand on 3 charges or something then it was a waste of 350 gold (we'll give you the Ironwood Branches for free). Are your opponents casting frequently? Do you need both mana and health? If the answer to either of these is no, don't get Magic Wand (and if you need to clear your inventory, sell those Ironwood Branches back to help get something bigger/better). Instead, consider a Ring of Regen, but likely you'll get more early game utility out of another couple of Healing salves and another Tango.
One of the things that's becoming apparent from these is that there's a need for a better understanding of what one needs to do to stay in lane during the laning phase (the opening 10-15 minutes of each game).
So, here's an overview (wall-o-text) of the things you can think about that'll help you stay in lane for longer, thus get more XP and more last hit opportunities (not going to cover improving last hits here... that can be another guide).
So, let's start with the obvious:
Why are you back at the fountain (again)?
There's the obvious answer, I suppose. You're low on health and the fountain is a safe way to recover. There's all sorts of reasons that might be, but the usuals are that you've been the target of a (unsuccessful) gank or that you've been in a laning scuffle and you came off badly.
So you run back to the fountain. You wait while you regen. Then you run back to your lane. Total time lost? Let's say 15 seconds running each way, plus another 10-15 seconds regening. That's 45 seconds out of lane where you're getting no XP and no last hit gold.
Let's put that in perspective:
A creep wave spawns every 30 seconds. Each early game wave is worth 227 XP (3x 62 XP for melee, + 1x 41 XP for ranged). Each wave is usually just about killed before the next one arrives. Let's pretend you're dual laning and that you'd normally stay in range for your share of the XP. So, in lane, you're getting 227 XP per minute (227 / 2 heroes * 2 waves). So, being out of lane for 45 seconds, you're missing out on 170 XP.
What's that in real terms? That's just under half the XP you need to get from level 3 to level 4. Yes, half a level! Knocked out of lane three times during the laning phase? You've probably dropped the XP you need to get from level 5 to level 6 completely.
That's not to mention the last hits you've missed out on. In practice, I'm hitting between 4 and 5 last hits per minute. In other words, I roughly last hit half the creeps that spawn every minute. In live matches I really only get half that. In real terms, each wave is worth (on average) 177 gold, so there's an option on 354 gold per minute in the early game. If, realistically, you're only going to get 25% of that (2 last hits per minute), then that's 88 gold per minute you're missing out on. Remember that you automatically get 60 gold per minute without doing anything, so you're pretty much halving your gold intake by being away from last hits.
So, being out of lane is bad news on all fronts. Given that, how do you stay in lane?
Well, you're out of lane and back at the fountain because your health is low, right? So we need to make sure that you can keep your health in tip-top shape without being out of lane. In the early game, there's four ways you can do that.
- Buy healing items (e.g. tango, healing salve, magic wand, bottle) - things that directly and quickly replenish your health
- Buy regen items (e.g. ring of regen, ring of health, headdress) - things that directly, slowly, but permanently replenish your health
- Increase your strength stat (e.g. ironwood branch, gauntlets of strength, bracer) - things that both increase your total health and very slowly but permenantly replenish your health
- Get life steal (e.g. morbid mask, laning with skeleton king) - things that covert some of your damage into health
(NOTE: if you're skimming, life steal isn't a real option. Read details for why.)
I'll cover each in turn, though I've only included items that you have a decent chance of getting in the first 10 minutes (without pro skills). If it's an item over 1000 gold, it's not included below, though the same principles apply.
Healing Items
Healing items quickly or very quickly replenish your health but take up valuable space in your inventory and can end up being somewhat costly if you need to keep buying them. If you're using a guide, the starting items always include some form of healing item. Let's look at each in turn.
Tangos:
90 gold for 3 charges. Each charge heals 115 health over 16 seconds. Being hit does not cancel the healing. So, that's 345 points of healing provided you don't die to burst damage for the cost of 1 gold per 3.83 points of healing.
Healing Salve:
100 gold for 1 charge. Heals 400 health over 10 seconds. However, being hit cancels the heal, wasting the remaining potential. That's 1 gold per 4 points of healing.
Magic Stick:
200 gold for 0 charges initially, plus 1 charge for every opponent ability used "nearby" (I think this is around XP-gain range) up to a maximum of 10 charges. Each charge heals 15 health (and 15 mana) and all charges are used at once. The heal is instant. For a full stick that's 150 points of healing for the cost of 1 gold per 0.75 points of healing, though providing abilities are being used near you then that keeps filling.
Magic Wand:
509 gold for 0 charges initially, plus 1 charge for every opponent ability used "nearby" up to a maximum of 15 charges. Each charge heals 15 health (and 15 mana) and all charges are used at once. Like stick, the heal is instant. For a full wand, that's 225 points of healing for the cost of 1 gold per 0.442 points of healing, though this is refilled over time just like the stick. Additionally, this comes with +3 to all stats as a byproduct of combining 3 ironwood branches (that your starting build probably came with), which has its own benefits, but these are still fairly small.
Bottle:
600 gold for 3 charges, but can be refilled at the fountain (er, we don't want that), or by collecting a rune. Each charge heals 135 health over 3 seconds but like the salve, being hit cancels the healing. Additionally recovers 70 mana, but we're just focusing on health here. So, that's 1 gold per 0.675 points of healing, but that ignores that the bottle can be refilled, so that value improves over time.
Urn of Shadows:
875 gold for 0 charges initially, plus 1 charge for every enemy hero that dies within 1400 units. Each charge heals 400 health over 8 seconds but taking damage from a hero or a tower cancels the heal (and the charge is still lost). Assuming you can stock the urn with a charge, that's 1 gold per 0.457 points of healing, though clearly that improves with additional charges.
Analysis:
So, if you can stay out of trouble for 10 seconds (but within XP range, ideally) then a healing salve gives best bang for your buck. But you're not always down by 400 health (and if you are then, early game, you may be hanging on by a thread, which isn't great). So healing salves aren't the whole answer.
Tangoes still give pretty good effect for your buck, but to get their full effect you need to wait for 48 seconds! That's a long window to be out of the fight (not getting last hits) though at least you're getting XP.
Magic Stick and its bigger brother, Magic Wand, both look like great ways to harvest regen from your opponents, but they're both at the vagaries of your opponents' actions. If they don't used many abilities then you don't get much regen. Even if you assume that they're spamming abilities pretty quickly, you'll probably not fill the stick or wand in much under 2 minutes, which means that magic stick will take 10-12 minutes to be the same value as a healing salve, and magic wand even longer. Additionally, do you really want to trust your primary early-game regen to the control of your opponents?
Bottle seems like a good investment, but to catch up to the same bang for buck as a healing salve you need to use it completely 6 (!) times. If you're refilling off runes, then you better get every rune, and that'll (at fastest) be 10 minutes to achieve that cost effectiveness. Sure, bottles give other benefits such as holding runes for ganks, but from a health perspective it's way too expensive. Additionally, a team should only have one bottle between them all so that there's no fighting for runes, and this bottle should usually be in the solo mid position (easiest access to both rune sites).
Urn of Shadows is expensive and fractious. If you're not near any enemy hero deaths (and, worse, if you're not the closest one with an Urn) then it's useless. Assuming you can get charges at the rate of 1 every other minute (which is optimistic) then it'll take 18 minutes for it to offer the same value as a healing salve and with all the same drawbacks.
So, it seems the answer is some combination is healing salves (for big heals done quickly) and tangoes (for small heals that keep you in the fight).
If your guide or strategy doesn't include both at least one tango and one healing salve, question whether this is a good guide for you. Sure, a small number of heroes and more experienced players may choose differently, but for the newer player you need to make sure you can recover your health while in lane.
Later in the game, tango effectiveness is much less. Why? Because it recovers a much smaller portion of your health pool and scales very poorly against increasing quantities of damage. Healing salves come off much better later on, though ideally you've already addressed one of the next categories by then...
Magic Wand is, in many guides, an almost default purchase, but you have to question why. From a health regeneration perspective, it doesn't add up. Okay, it does mana too, and if you're needing both then it's not a bad buy, but timing is a consideration. If you're having the crap kicked out of you early game, that 350 gold (the difference between 3 ironwood branches and the magic wand) would be better spent on some other regen (e.g. 2 more healing salves plus another tango) that you can use when you want.
Regen Items
Regen items cover any item that gives +X to HP Regeneration. HP Regen is the number of points of health you recover each second. Commonly, this is around 0.7 at the start of the game (some less, some more). Later game, this can be 10 or more. Thus HP Regen is fairly slow but its effects are permanent. Note: pushing your health regen to a very high value (80-90 IIRC) is how the fountain replenishes your health.
Ring of Regen:
350 gold for +2 HP Regen. That's 120 health per minute, or 1 gold per 0.343 health per minute.
Ring of Health:
875 gold for +5 HP Regen. That's 300 health per minute, or 1 gold per 0.343 health per minute. Yes, the same bang for buck as a ring of regen, but much greater actual effect.
Headdress:
603 gold for +3 HP Regen, but as an 500 unit range aura so it helps your allies too. Just for you, that's 180 health per minute, or 1 gold per 0.299 health per minute. That's not huge, personally, but in a dual lane that's now just under 0.6 health per minute split across the two of you, making this a potentially good team support option. Additionally, the headdress gives +2 to all your stats.
Soul Ring:
800 gold for +3 HP Regen, but also offers 50% increase in mana regen (not great early on) and the ability to drain health to increase mana (not great from a health regen perspective!). So, 180 health per minute, or 1 gold per 0.225 health per minute. In many respects, Soul Ring shouldn't be considered a health regen item; it's a mana regen item that tries not to totally butcher your health while it's at it.
Helm of Iron Will:
950 gold for +3 HP Regen (and +5 Armour). That's a mere 180 health per minute, or 1 gold per 0.189 health per minute. Measured just on health regen, that's pretty poor, but the armour is reducing physical damage taken so (hopefully) less actual damage has been taken that needs regening. (Note: physical damage (from right click attacks) rather than magical or pure damage dealt by spells and other effects.)
Tranquil Boots:
975 gold +3 HP Regen and for infinite healing charges, but on a 60 second cool down. Each charge heals 170 health over 10 seconds. The boots temporarily lose these powers (a "break") if you're hit 4 or more times in a 10 second period and stay inactive until you've been hit 3 or less times in the last 10 seconds. Measured just on straight healing power, the boots offer 1 gold per 0.174 health, which is terrible, and will take over 23 uses (over 22 minutes) just to catch up to the bang for buck a healing salve offers. However, the regen substantially makes up for that, offering 180 health per minute provided the boots aren't broken. Combined at 350 health per minute, that's still not great at 1 gold per 0.359 health per minute. However, the boots also come with a substantial move speed increase provided they aren't broken.
Analysis:
Unlikely the direct healing items, many of the regen items also offer other benefits so straight-up comparisons are more tricky. However, if we consider health regeneration specifically...
350 gold for a Ring of Regen gives 240 health over 2 minutes. Compare that to, say, the 350 gold you need to spend to make 3 ironwood branches into a Magic Wand, which only gives 225 health over the same period, and that's optimistic (though it does do mana too). From a healing perspective, Ring of Regen comes out well in that comparison.
However, 350 gold could also be 3 healing salves (for 300 gold), for 1200 points of healing potential, which Ring of Regen will take 10 minutes to offer! Sure, HP Regen works even when you're being stabbed in the face, but if you are able to disengage then healing salves will get you back in the fight for less cost and less time.
However, Ring of Regen builds into many other items, including Headdress and Tranquil Boots, so its benefits are beyond its immediate utility. Headdress, in a dual lane is pitching out 360 health per minute between the two heroes there (providing they stay close) and that's starting to make the healing salves less attractive except for burst recovery.
Tranquil Boots distils the Headdress powers down to you personally (very roughly) and gives a massive move speed increase (+75, versus Boots of Speed at +50) but the fact that it can break and is 60% more expensive than Headdress should give a moment's pause if you're looking at these boots for healing purposes. Good for jungling and maybe safe laning, but actively dangerous in the mid or suicide lane (when they break, that move speed bonus drops to +25 and they lose their healing powers!).
So, we come back to Ring of Regen. It's expensive, certainly not a game opening item (it can be bought in the side shops, though), but if you're aiming for Headdress or something later than that then it can be well worth considering.
Ring of Health and Helm of Iron Will are only on the list by way of comparison, really. They're not realistic early game options, though both build into strong mid and late game items so again have their ancilliary benefits.
Strength Stat
Strength, for all heroes, governs both how much health you have and how much natural health regeneration you present. Median starting hero strength is around 22 (max 29, min 17) and this grows at different rates as different heroes level (from +3.8 per level, down to +1.8 per level, median +2.7). Additionally, each point put into attributes when levelling adds 2 to each attribute. Each point in strength confers the following: 19 health points, plus 0.03 HP regen per second. So, at the median, that's a starting health of 418 and a starting health regen of 0.66. Each point in strength increases the total punishment you can take and speeds your recovery from damage.
Ironwood Branch:
53 gold for +1 to all stats. 53 gold per strength. +19 HP, +0.03 HP/sec.
Gauntlet of Strength:
150 gold for +3 to strength. 50 gold per strength. +57 HP, +0.09 HP/sec.
Magic Wand:
509 gold for +3 to all stats, plus the ability to gain charges for healing and mana. 169.7 gold per strength. +57 HP, +0.09 HP/sec.
Bracer:
525 gold for +6 to strength, +3 to other stats, and +3 damage. 87.5 gold per strength. +114 HP, +0.18 HP/sec.
Headdress:
603 gold for +2 to all stats. 301.5 gold per strength. +38 HP, +0.06 HP/sec.
Ring of Aquila:
985 gold for +3 to all stats, an extra +3 to agility, +9 damage, +1 armour, and an aura offering bonus mana regen and armour. Just for strength, that's 328.3 gold per strength. +57 HP, +0.09 HP/sec.
Ogre Club:
1000 gold for +10 strength. 100 gold per strength. +190 HP, +0.3 HP/sec.
Analysis:
So, viewed from a health regeneration perspective, strength doesn't add up to much (when compared to health regeneration items), and that's true. But when combined with the HP pool increase that comes with each and every point in strength it becomes more apparent why this is an option.
When your starting health pool is only 400some, those 3x ironwood branches that you're starting out with are suddenly adding 13% to your health for a princely cost of 159 gold. Sure, you could bring that cost down by 9 gold and take a gauntlet of strength instead, but then you don't get the +3 in the other stats too (which buff your mana pool and regen, and your attack speed and armour), so ironwood branches, if you can fit them in, really rock the house.
Here's another thought for you:
6 strength = 114 HP instantly and permanently for 309 gold (1x gauntlet of strength + 3x ironwood branches)
1 tango = 115 HP fairly quickly but once for 30 gold
1 ring of regen = 120 HP per minute permanently for 350 gold
It's not a linear comparison by any means but it does mean that straight strength increases compare favourably to health regeneration, gold for gold, with the additional benefit of helping to protect you against high burst damage (nukes, criticals, rapid attacks, etc). While a cheap tango also covers the same job at a pinch, it does it only once and you can bet you'll be taking more than 115 points of damage in the game... more like 10 times that for a game that went brilliantly, 100 times for one that went badly. That'd be 300 gold on tangos in an excellent game, and 3000 in a bad one! Suddenly, strength and regen aren't looking so terrible are they?
Life Steal
While I've included life steal as an option, it really doesn't stack up early game. To be life stealing, you need to be damaging creeps. The reason you're away from the line in the first place is because your health is too low to cope with you being on the line, so life steal does nothing to get you back in the fight! Still, for completeness:
Morbid Mask:
900 gold for 15% life steal. This effect does not stack with any other unique effect (called orb effects). Assume you're successfully hitting something every 3 seconds and that your starting damage is around 80 (which is fairly high). That's 240 HP per minute stolen, which is respectable. However, in practice, you're probably getting less than half of that (there's no possible way you're standing on the line just hitting creeps for that all the time), so guess that more like half is closer to the truth. So 120 HP per minute, providing you can stay in the fight. That's 1 gold per 0.133 HP per minute.
Analysis:
For reference, Skeleton King's aura (at level 1) is just the same as a Morbid Mask, just shared and for free.
Treated realistically for early game potential, Morbid Mask's offered regeneration has worse bang for buck than even the most expensive HP regen items. Sure, it builds into neat items later, and can offer significant benefits for junglers who aren't being harassed off the line (and aren't chased for more than a few seconds if they need to disengage). For a laning hero, though, life steal isn't a real option as it relies on staying in the fight when you most need to get back, making you vulnerable to ganks. Seriously, just don't do it.
Conclusions (or tl;dr)
Of the four paths suggested for the early game, particularly the laning phase, only three have legs: healing items, HP regen items, and strength items. Life steal is too expensive and too dangerous to rely on. The costs are varied and there's no absolute winner, but there's some themes you can draw out.
(Almost) always start with both a Tango and a Healing Salve. If you're constantly needing to leave lane, add another tango or healing salve. Tangoes provide top-up health. Healing Salves quickly replenish a lot of health. Both aim to get you back in the fight quickly, but they cost more in the long run (but not more than being forced out of lane because you've not got enough regen!).
Ironwood Branches are hands-down the best early-game stat items, but don't ignore Gauntlets of Strength building into a Bracer if you're really needing to beef up a bit. Buffing your strength this way protects against burst damage and is a "permanent" tango if you care to look at it like that.
Ring of Regen is expensive and takes time to pay off but can build into some useful early and mid game items so shouldn't be overlooked. Remember you can get it in the side shop! Given enough time, a Ring of Regen can render tangoes irrelevant.
Headdress is regen for your lane, providing you're not constantly roaming all over. It's more expensive, though it is a component in some mid game items (e.g. Mekansm).
Magic Wand is bought too much, too automatically, without a good understanding of what it's good for and when it helps. If you're being forced out of lane and you've got a Magic Wand on 3 charges or something then it was a waste of 350 gold (we'll give you the Ironwood Branches for free). Are your opponents casting frequently? Do you need both mana and health? If the answer to either of these is no, don't get Magic Wand (and if you need to clear your inventory, sell those Ironwood Branches back to help get something bigger/better). Instead, consider a Ring of Regen, but likely you'll get more early game utility out of another couple of Healing salves and another Tango.
