Questions about Drain Life

[Lodenk]

Hello all,
As I have been leveling I have noticed that Drain life has the capability to greatly increase my DPS, that being said I am unaware of the mechanics involved in the spell.

My questions boils down to this,
Do I have to be missing live for this spell to work, and if so is the amount of life I am missing correlate to the amount of life I drain? So if I am at 1% Health and I pop this off am I more likely to see the higher end of the spell vs casting it at 99% health and only seeing 1% of my life applicable to the spell (and being that I am an enchantress that 1% is not a lot.

The damage coefficient is actually similar to Frostbite but rather than having the freeze I get life refunded (which helps any time) but due to the fact that its three times the mana and has such a big cool down I want to know if I am at 100% life will I still drain the requisite life from my target and over healed that amount or will the spell drain 0% of my life and take 36 mana.

If the spell will drain the HP from the target as laid out in spell description do other enchantresses find keeping this on CD is useful?

[Varking]

To answer some parts of your question:

1) No, you do not need to be missing life for this spell to work. Sometimes I use this to pull mobs one by one.

2) No, it is not percentage based.

I love this spell overall but I am a Paladin Build dual speccing to be able to help clear better at 50 when in groups.

Just tested it again for you. I had full health all three times, and I did 149, 161, and 168 damage each time. It does indeed do damage even when you have no health. Gaabob also tested this after we discussed it in the chat box and confirmed it.

[Arterra]

I don't necessarily use this to recover health because of the time lagg between casting and healing, but I use it when I know I'm about to take massive damage, to give me time to spam all skills needed, wether Pvp or in the middle of mobs.

[Ellyidol]

Its range is pretty good too. I usually cast it for those ranged mobs that just need a bit to kill but too far for any other spells.

[Duke]

Yeah, I primarily use it offensively. Getting health back is simply bonus, and a maxed Drain Life actually seems to restore more health than a maxed Heal. Of course, the latter is AoE for allies.

[Lodenk]

Yeah I just wondering if it was worth having in the rotation and it appears that it is.

[Arterra]

fav spell... just wanted to point out that it is the first spell used after self crit buff activated... getting it crit is like Hell in Heaven.

[Pharcyde]

I do believe that it does greater damage if you are missing hp though.

Yeah, I primarily use it offensively. Getting health back is simply bonus, and a maxed Drain Life actually seems to restore more health than a maxed Heal. Of course, the latter is AoE for allies.

Plus you get 4 heals before drain life even cools down.

Heal - 6 second cool down
Drain Life - 24 second cool down

[Lesrider]

Just want to add, drain life is my favorite skill when hunting vyxnaar. Since I often end up playing with low lvl leeches, I'm the only one doing damage and taking damage -- so nice to both heal and hurt with the same skill.

[Pharcyde]

I'm actually not a fan of it at all. I have 2 drain life and 1 frost bite. (The extra 3 stat points)

[Varking]

Do you play as a Pally or Pure, Pharcyde?

[Pharcyde]

dual build. pally and nuke mage(pure)

Dual is so great because basicly I am still a pure. The 128 points put into str surprisingly doesnt really effect my pure effectiveness that much. Majority of the effectiveness comes from the gear.

[Lesrider]

Shhh don't say that too loud. Don't want another nerf...

[Pharcyde]

Shhh don't say that too loud. Don't want another nerf...

ewww don't remind me about the nerf

[bearlyme86]

Not based on empirical evidence, but drain life seems to be the single most potent weapon in a mage's skill set in terms of damage dealt. HUGE fan.

[Facehumper]

I love drain life for when I have a little more aggro than I probably should after dropping a major AoE bomb... heal may have a fast cool-down, but sometimes it's not fast enough.

Not based on empirical evidence, but drain life seems to be the single most potent weapon in a mage's skill set in terms of damage dealt. HUGE fan.

I dunno about that... even if you crit on a debuffed mob with drain life, that fatty cooldown isn't exactly making a case for drain life being a major DPS contributor. Every other damage dealing skill does more DPS because you're talking about getting off 2-3 casts of every other damage spell per each drain life. You can bust off 4 lightnings for every one drain life, and drain life does maybe 33% more damage (to only one mob, no less) with quadruple the cool-down. So, 4 lightnings will easily average you 400 damage to each mob near you while drain life will get you about 175 damage on one mob.

The most potent skill that mages have for DPS output is the self-buff component of blessing of might. +25 dmg and 50 crit for 2/3rds of the time (20 sec duration, 30 sec CD)? Yes please! I hardly think I need to explain that any further...

That being said, I have 5 points in drain life and I love it for what it is.

Also, drain life has same 12m range as frostbite.

[jonboy]

Drain life, does damage and gives health it's bi love goodness.

[omnipresence]

Great spell. It has a long range making it good to pull with, can give you health while doing damage, and still does good damage even if you're full health.

[Arterra]

Not based on empirical evidence, but drain life seems to be the single most potent weapon in a mage's skill set in terms of damage dealt. HUGE fan.

lol i see birds hit n run, i combo, they survive, drain DONE!

[mrpredalien]

I just personally like this skill for attacking purposes. It does give you some hp, but that's honestly not going to be enough to kill mob or other 50.