Life stealing

Life Stealing (a.k.a. "Vampirism") moves health from the target to the attacker. It is not considered damage and will not trigger or be affected by any skill/equipments effects related to damage.

Life Stealing Skills
The following skills do life stealing:
 * Necromancer
 * Vampiric Gaze
 * Vampiric Touch
 * Unholy Feast
 * Soul Leech
 * Mark of Subversion
 * Barbed Signet
 * Order of the Vampire
 * Shadow Strike
 * Insidious Parasite
 * Feast of Corruption
 * Taste of Death (Minion)
 * Soul Feast (Corpse)

Vampiric Weapons
Vampiric is a weapon feature, added by a "prefix" weapon upgrade.

It means that every time the weapon hits a foe on top of the normal damage it will steal the specified amount of health from the foe and heal the attacker for the same amount.

A weapon with a Vampiric name prefix is equipped with a weapon upgrade of the same name:


 * Vampiric Axe Haft (1-3
 * Vampiric Sword Hilt
 * Vampiric Hammer Haft
 * Vampiric Bow String

There are no Vampiric Staves available.

For more details, see: weapon upgrade

Effect

A Vampiric weapon upgrade provides the following bonus to the weapon (the user respectively):


 * Health gain on hit: 1-3 for Axes and Swords, 1-4 for Hammers, 1-5 for Bows
 * Health Regeneration: -1 (i.e. -2 health per second)

Every time a Vampiric weapon hits a foe the attacker will gain the specified amount of Health.

To balance the life stealing, Vampiric weapons always come with -1 Health Regeneration, which continues as long as you have the weapon equiped. When not in combat it is advisable to switch to another Weapon Set.

Notes

In order to actually have an overall Health surplus you must hit a foe according to the table below, Otherwise the -1 regeneration will take away more health than you will gain from successful attacks.

Attack rate (second/hit) for positive health gain

Only "Perfect" upgrades provide a chance of positive health gain, making "Green" Weapons more valuable in this respect. see Unique Items Quick Reference for a list of Green items.

The faster the attack rate of a weapon, the more Health gained. Skills that allow you to hit multiple foes (like Cyclone Axe or Barrage) are very useful in combination with Vampiric weapons. Also skills that increase the attack rate, for example Berserker Stance or Flurry.

Also note that the Vampiric upgrade does not provide any life stealing for attacks made whilst enchanted by Illusionary Weaponry.