Is life stealing same as minus energy?

Just got a purple vampiric flatbow of warding drop outside Yak's Bend, and except for the health regen -1, it looks like a decent bow (if I were a ranger that is), but what is life stealing? Does that mean it takes 2 off their energy bar?

Oh, and yes I searched vampiric and life stealing, but got pages of WTS and PC posts.

Bragg

As far as I know, life stealing means that you steal 2 health (hp) to yourself from the enemy you hit with that bow. So enemy lose 2 health and you gain 2 health. I wouldn't use that weak vampiric because it has also -1 health regeneration which means you lose 2 health per second. There is better vampirics which steal up to 5 hp per hit.

for as far as i know max life steal for bows is 3 (correct me if i'm wrong)

max life steal swords and axes also 3 ?

max life steal hammers 5 ?

According to gwonline.net, 5 hp per hit is the max for bows also

5 is the max on a bow and hammer, 3 on sword and axe