13 Jul 2005 at 09:44 - 7
Except that the damage from Vampiric Gaze is barely more than Flare/Stone Daggers, except at twice the energy, so even if you manage to keep up with the tremendous energy costs, your damage output will be inefficient compared to already very inefficient spells. Ofcourse the self-preserving aspect of Vampiric Gaze would mean lots of healing on you, but if your health is full this is wasted, and shouldn't be considered when you're aiming for maximum damage anyway.
Arcane Echo'ing (or just Echo'ing, we're not talking elites here anyway) Touch of Agony would make more sense, although it sacrifices a lot of health in the long run you can do similar armour-ignoring damage with this, but at a faster pace, at half the energy, and combining this with Dark Aura (preferably cast on you by a second necromancer nearby) will almost double the damage output. But you could also just take Dark Pact/Touch of Agony and skip the Echo'ing hassle altogether.