I’m studying the proper strategy to succeed as ranged caster while fiddling with classes in Act 1. Coming from “Titan Quest” I was first looking for a staff with fireballs. NO! You’re supposed to get a melee weapon with most plus %fire/cast-speed and embed a component like “Searing Amber” and voilà! You’re a proper fire mage! Just favor energy-regen-armor and spirit in order to keep a sustained left mouse attack with the FireBlast that comes with Searing Amber.
As a frail mage I should be more concerned with defense since offense is a given. So one of the best specializations to pursue could be “% of attack damage converted to health”. Now the official guide states:
“… when on equipment, life steal applies only to your (basic) weapon attacks…”
Since Act 1 daggers and wands which are designed for casters are never actually swung with their negligent basic damages, do bonus like the third one in the Ghoul constellation “4% attack damage converted to health” are completely useless? These bonuses are neither on a weapon nor skill, where do they apply?
In resume, pure casters shouldn’t swing weapons. Unless within a skill, does “Life Steal” has no use for a caster? Even when using a component skill applied to a weapon as basic attack?
4% health on 25% chance on 10% weapon damage (mine is 6-9 right now)?
That’s roughly 0.075 health per shot. No, they can’t be using Fiend to get healthy!:rolleyes:
Now 4% on about 500 which is my current FireBlast damage would be 20 health per shot (without resistances). That helps. Do you know if this will apply when I get that bonus?
Therefore unrelated. 4% alone may be low but there are other sources that can add up to a powerful health strategy:
Bat - Ghoul - Revenant - Unknown Soldier - Vulture - Gallows
Maybe someone out there knows what I’m looking for. Thanks.
% Attack Damage Converted to Health only counts the damage done by % Weapon Damage on your skill. If your skill has no % Weapon Damage, then your ADCTH doesn’t affect it. If you wish to use a skill that has no % Weapon Damage as your main damage source, and still heal, your options are:
A) Use a devotion skill with % Weapon Damage bound to it, and heal off that.
B) Get some health regen and just be careful about it.
C) Run something with Nightblade or Occultist for their healing skills, and use potions as well.
D) Get healing devotions like Dryad and Tree of Life
Life Leech does exist, but it’s arguably one of the worst stats in the game, because it’s so ineffectual. If the numbers were tripled, it MIGHT reach relevance one day, but not as is, so it can’t help you.
Generally, what you’re looking for seems to be a fireball spell that allows you to heal. AFAIK, no such thing exists. Few spells even have weapon damage, so generally mages must use other healing strategies. Those strategies work just fine, however, because this isn’t Path Of Exile where lifesteal is king.
If if you just want life steal strategy for your caster to stay alive you’ll be very unhappy (unleass they are skills designed for that). Casters have other aces like regen or circuit breaker combo (mirror +Blast shield - sorcerer), powerful life steal skills like Devouring swarm, Wendigo totem, sigil of consuption mixed with wendigo’s mark devotion, Flash bang and other CC spells.
The only %life steal strategy that i’ve tried (no occultist or shaman skills) for fun is possible with Callidor tempest build (due to higher %weapon damage) and with a good proc on it like fiend. I tried blind fury for fun cause it has the high aoe %weapon damage and it worked. Was lots of fun.
Other sources of life steal are from gear, most worth it would be Solael pants, restless remains and haunted steel and it’s ability. Lifegiver signet is overkill, better focus on other strategies like the ones mentioned in the first paragraph
If life steal is ineffectual to those relying on weapons what to say about casters then. I’m already pursuing all your tips but…
As with Titan Quest I’m challenging myself veteran hardcore potion free and
Instead of NightBlade, Wendigo Totem on Shaman combined with Occultist. So far this seemed to perform better than other combinations I tried.
Investing on Wendigo, Mogdrogen’s Pact, Oak Skin and Blood of Dregg in this order has been so effective I was motivated to keep this defensive path with Life Leech. Maybe not anymore thanks to your confirmations but one question remain still:
Take for instance the Bat constellation; we know the culminating celestial power Twin Fangs starts with 25% damage converted to health which includes everything (vitality, piercing and main hand damage). The star right before Twin Fangs has a “3% damage to health” stat. Does that compound with “%damage to health” in weapons, skills or both?
If a skill specifically lists part of its damage is converted, then that skill benefits entirely from that %. That usually only applies to Vitality Damage spells. Any OTHER source, that isn’t specifically in the skill description, ONLY applies to weapon damage dealt.
Ah, I didn’t realize you were challenging yourself. My bad
I was on auto-pilot giving usual caster advice. If you want to see more about Damage to health skills in general you can check out my conjurer. Has sick survivability for a caster