Vampiric weapons killing ME?!?!

Hi all, I'm a newbie here. Excuse me if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find it in the archives.

I am playing in pre-searing Ascalon and recently got a "Vampiric Foehammer of Shelter" from one of the Brennin (sp?) quests. I ID'd it and customized it. But the first time I used it (against a little wolf) I noticed that he took out about half my HP (and he normally wouldn't dent me). Then I noticed that my HP was continuing to drop! It kept dropped until I unequiped the hammer.

Needless to say, it was very disconcerting to have my own weapon trying to kill me.

Is this some sort of cursed weapon or something? Did I miss something or use it incorrectly? Does this have something to do with it's "regeneration -1, lifestealing 2" attributes?

Thanks in advance for any info.

-Trucker

When you use a vampiric anything, there is a life degeneration while you're holding it but a life gain when you are attacking/hitting. The best thing to do would be to have 2 equipment slots activated and switch back and forth. When you're running around, have the non-vampiric equipment on your character then, when you are attacking, switch to the vampiric to offset any damage you're taking from the bad guys.

The health degeneration (as it said) will decrease your health over time. The benefit of this kind of weapons is the life stealing property. Every time you will hit a foe with this weapon, you will steal 2 HP from him.

What I would suggest is set a 2nd weapon slot without your weapon with degeneration and when entering in a fight, switch back to that weapon (if you want to use it).

Whoa, Boubou! Great minds sure do think alike. Thanks for adding your thoughts too! I guess he'll get the point, huh?

Wow, that was fast! Thanks for all the great info, guys. This is a very helpful forum!

-Trucker

Mainly vampiric weapons are used for the guarunteed damage. Max vampiric sword/axe will always add 3 damage. Max vampiric hammers will always add 5 damage. It may not seem like a lot, but when you add it up, you'll see vampiric mods are sometimes worth it, even if they aren't keeping your health up.

Sell that weapon to the merchant and move on. No matter how you slice it, a hammer with a 2:1 vampiric mod on it is bad news for your health. Hammers don't attack with nearly enough frequency to make up for the health degen at a 2:1 level. In pre-searing, when your HP are low to begin with, a 2:1 vamp mod can be a dangerous thing . . . .

Yeah, I notice lately you can find crazy hammers in presear... Found an 10-15 hammer in a hidden stash in presearing my first 5 mins in, allmost convinced me to make my necro N/W and play with that a bit.
Went N/Me in the end, though... the massive degen add-up just rules.

So, vampiric weapons do add your dmg. I was wondering about that for a while.

Just keep in mind that 1 degen equals out to 2 hp per second, so if you hit one time per second you're just breaking even. Once you can find a -1 +3 or above, it starts to become more useful.

-sam

To add to what sam said... There is a 1.75 refire rate on hammers Which means everytime you swing it will be almost 2 seconds before you swing again. That means you will lose 4 life and gain 2. Unless you really need the extra damage or run the mend I would leave all vampiric weapons alone unless they are 4:-1 or 5:-1

In addion- Swords and Axes have a 1.33 refire rate. There max Vampiric is 3:-1. Which can be very nice when paired with several of there skills.

Sound advice worth heeding!

A 3:-1 Vamp Axe is a great thing though when you cyclone axe a large group. Good for soloing with my warrior/monk using mending.

unless it's a Vamp String. 3:1 vamp strings can be super efficient if you are coupling it with Dual Shot or Barrage.

vamp string can go up to 5:1 also, so with dual shot or barrage or using frenzy with r/w or w/r class can make a difference.

Just a quick question since there seem to be alot of knowledgeable people around here:

I was told that the extra vampiric damage isn't effected by armour. That would make it relatively good versus those heavely armoured fighters late game. Is this true?

Yes, it's true. Vamp damage is added to the damage that occurs from the weapon's standard attack. For example, if you make an attack with a 3:1 vampiric axe and the base attack of the axe would have resulted in 12 damage to your enemy, the ultimate damage is going to be 15 (12+3). Hope this helps.

Thanks for posting the exact refire rates; I didn't know them, but thanks for completing my argument

If you REALLY want vampire damage, get yourself a necromancer. Have him spam Order of the Vampire and keep him well-healed.

Vampiric stuff: -1 hp regen, 5 hp steal per hit
OotV: -0 hp regen, ~13 hp steal per hit

And since vampirism ignores armor, this skill picks high-defense stuff like Golems to shreds. Just make sure the majority of your up-close fighters are running weapons that do physical type damage.

-sam

Yeah, those pretty Fiery Dragon Swords don't trigger OotV - they aren't physical damage anymore. Reasons like that are why Warrior armor is over-rated. In most situations, Ranger Armor, with it's bonus versus elements, is better.

hell yes. and add to that +15% while enchanted and you've really got yourself something.