Enhancement Request: Vampiric Weapons are very much not worth anyones time...

I'm trying to keep an open mind here, and I've just put a vampiric string on my bow (+2:-1 regen) and I just don't get it.

Issues I have:

a. If I stand still and go get a cup of coffee I die. I believe -1 regen should only occur when I go into "battle mode" just as normal health recover works (only opposite of coures).

b. If I fire my bow at its standard rate (short bow, long bow, doesn't seem to matter) by the time the hit has occured I've lost 2-5 life, to regain 2. Then my next firing I lose another 2-5 to regain 2. I do not understand the value of an item that heals you, but does more damage then healing. I can only imagine a +1/-1 string.

c. Is there something I'm missing? Do I need some other type of item to offset this dangerous slope. I have 5 bows, all with different strings, and that's the only one I have to change out when I get another string because I cannot afford to die and gain no type of advantage.

It seems that "upgrade" items typically make items _better_ for the user, but I'm not so sure about vampiric ones. Esp. bows since its rate of fire is so low compared to mad swinging of a sword.

Am I doing something wrong here? Or do they really server zero purpose? I'd love to know any tricks or tips if I'm in the wrong here..

CodeMonkey
PS: I bought the item assuming that a +2 drain was really a ratio where you hit for 10 then you gain 20. You hit for 1 then you gain 2, etc. Like a true "vampiric weapon" may work in other games like D&D.

If your going to use a vampire bow, it should be a short bow. And if you have a vampire sting would help to be +4 or +5. And if your going to use it, use it only when you need it, as a back up weapon. Bring in tigers fury and barrage and then you'll reap better benifts with it.

Outside of this, vampire strings on bows are sort of flawed.

Short bows have faster draw, but realistically it still serves no advantage to the user. As far as I can tell the best I can say is "I've got a vampiric bow", but other then that it still serves as a simple novelty.

If it is not useful on other bows, then perhaps it should be a "shortbow string"?

As for a +4/+5... I can't afford it (nor have I ever seen anyone advertise one). The best I saw was +3 and the guy wanted 8,000gp. That's a little excessive for something that may or may not serve me better then a simple fire string, ya know?

As for a backup weapon, I have 5 other bows and a better backup weapon is to stick with piercing dmg on a standard bow If I need backup then I'm probably in some trouble, in which case I'll use a bow of fortitude as a backup

CodeMonkey
PS: I _want_ to like it, I truely do. I just can't see why.

extra damage that isn't blocked by armor. And you may want to try a primary ranger with a secondary warrior. Let your party act as meat shields and frenzy your shortbow

I spent most of the night trying to get something to work with this item, but it just doesn't seem to pay off. I.e. I fought a guy with my short bow and he fought me with his short bow (tower guard in one of the later missions) and he won out due to the fact that I lost health faster.

I counted it, and it seems that at first its not too noticable, but then it starts to drain 1 or 2 hp at a time until I'm seeing a trend I've even attempted "dual shot" which gives me +2 +2, but by the time I cast it I've lost 5 to 10 health.

Alas, I have replace the string with a fire string. Seeing as I really tried to make it work out I don't feel I was misjudging the item. However I wonder if someone else would have given it that much effort or just shy away from them from now on, making it a weapon in circulation that you can barely find use for...

Oh well, hopefully A Net can make an assessment into its usefulness and perhaps make it more of a lovable item..

CodeMonkey

my 5/1 bow string works great.

Simple solution: switch weapons. If you switch out your vampiric weapon after combat, you don't lose health. And once again, the main attraction of vampiric weapons isn't healing yourself, it's adding flat damage on top of your weapons at a health cost that is likely to repay itself.

Well, the thing is... if you have around a +4 or +5, it's dealing "Extra!" dmg, meaning... it just added 4-5 (uneffected by armor) dmg... and if you have a fast attack speed + barrage, like people have stated, that adds up... not to mention, try adding it with predatory season (?), the nature one that adds 5 health per hit, now things are adding up... and think about having a necro on your team who has order of the vampire, then it could add up even more.

Anyhow, while not many necro's have order of vamp, you can put 11 wilderness survival, 10 expertise, 10 beast mastery... (Doesn't sound like your bow will deal much dmg eh?), well, let's remember your bow string, that's an extra 4-5 dmg, uneffected by armor, and with beast mastery, you now have tiger's fury + predatory season, which = Lots of health + survivability... now if you add this all together, with troll unguent, whirling defenses, and throw dirt, there's your extra survivability, now... if you add that with some poison from wilderness survival, you're already packing out some nice dmg. and that's only about 5 slots on your skill bar... hmm, and looks like your using only ranger attributes, so now you can add runes for your attributes, and you can change around the "11" slot, and raise up your favorite part with a superior rune, and leave the others with minor runes, or, however you prefer... but either way, you've just made a good vampiric build.

Exactly...

Furthermore, if the degen annoys you, tink about putting ungent into your build, and use that to negate the degen.

Or if you are a Ra/Mo, you can use Mending. Even with only 1 (maybe even 0) in healing prayers, you can negate the entire -1 health degen.

I do indeed have Troll Ungent, but what we end up here we have a fairly annoying build If you're constantly having to switch up weapons, does it really deem to be "that effective" of an item?

And if I need a 5/1 version of it, then perhaps I have to alter the subject to be "most vampiric items seem useless."

The argument I keep having with myself is that if I need to pay that much for the item (as buying a rare rare string like that must cost a bunch) then perhaps having the useless ones (4 and below) removed?

For example: a bow grip of fortitude +5 is good, a bow grip of fortitude +20 is better...but the +5 is not useless its just "not as good.

Second example: less-rare items typically are good for newer characters and the more powerful ones are better for the more powerful characters. I.e a +1/-1 should be nice for levels 1-5, a +2/-1 would be better for a level 6-10, etc. Usually items get better so that you have a better chance in higher diffucult areas yeah?

I guess I just don't grasp the concept, nor does anyone I've tried to sell them to, or talked to. Upgrade items should not be "hard" to use, just _different_ or more powerful. Case in point: energy +1/-1 is useful, a +2/-1 is more useful, a +3/-1 is elite There is no case where you can't use the first 4 versions of that item.

CodeMonkey