Vampiric Half Moon Question

I just bought a new bow:

Vampiric Half Moon of Warding
Dmg: 15-28
Damage +11% (vs hexed foes)
Life Stealing: 2
Health regen: -1
Armor +4 ( vs ele attacks)

Now I really dont like the -1 drop in health but I seem to make it up with the +2 life stealing in battle. Im chaning my 2nd prof to Monk and using Mending to cancel the-1 regen out.

I am looking to buy a Vampiric Bow String. Now will this be a more + or - in terms of loosing life to gaining life. What I mean is will I end up loosing more health than gaining per shot? Thanks

Bow already has a Vampiric string, so it depends on what you buy. I think the range for life-stealing is 1-5 and all are -1 regen, so you should be able to find better than your current.

You don't have to take the -1 health drop at all times. Just open up your second weapon slot, equip a weapon to it, and keep it out when you're not in combat.

yes. use the Weapon Sets option and press F1 and F2 to switch back and forth. For my ranger, I simply have a longbow in F1 and my shortbow in F2. Personally, I would suggest buying a new string for your bow. the vampiric string doesn't help a lot. the poison string is the most useful in my opinion, although it still isn't a great benefit.

You will never lose HP while wielding a vamp wep. You simply will not regen as fast.

yes you will

get a vamp wep. equip it out of combat.. you cannot kill youself with it.

what do you mean you won't lose hp? if you equip a vampiric weapon, you can sit there and watch your hp bar drain. i'm not sure if it will ultimately kill you, but you will for sure lose hp.

I sure lose HP, its a pain in the azz when i forget to unequip it when im not using it.

I lose hp while holding a vamp weapon.

The other annoying thing about the vamp weapons is while you are wielding them out of combat your hp recover rate never seems to go up.

Personally even my 5 to 1 vamp sits out fights to my fire bow. My fire bow does a good +10 on most monters compared to my vamp bow. I figure a sword or axe it probably make sense to take the hit in dmg since they swing faster, but I find it hard to justify on a ranger. Maybe if I had no other way to heal myself, I might use it more.