I am going to go ahead and speak for me and the rest of the voices in my head when I say. "Whhhhaaaaat?"
is a relatively difficult thing to raise, and the skills that boost it are highly specific and in the case of demonology, meatsmithing, and master of arms it takes the form of temporary buffs. Why should it simply do nothing, given how difficult it is to find? Why should there be no trade off to sacrificing it, and no penalty to negative values? Given that stat scaling is a thing now, it is possible to still disable health regeneration without making the associated stat useless, so why not?
Somewhere there is some confusion. Kaidelong, please read post 5557. It has lots of good info: http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/buff-vampirism.5557/ Including the vampirism bug and actual and suggested scaling values as well as fixes included in the ESCRII
The problem is, post 5557 is not in that thread. At least not from my point of view. Peeking through it, I see that Drinker of the Dead scales against 1.3*. Alright then Was aware of the bug where vampirism was healing the monster instead of the player, do not know if it has been addressed.
I meant thread 5557 And drinker of the dead is what allows the vampirisim to survive the first floors at all if it isn't a heavy tank.
Does it? I find if you're taking enough damage (often meaning taking any damage at all past level 3) to need it you're screwed anyway, generally. Unless you are in fact a tank. Avoiding fights altogether until you have the means to sick a pet or stun or confuse or cloak on them is generally a good thing. Tank being defined here roughly as someone who can take about 6 hits from a diggle without dying, usually a vegan or a master of arms.
I have reached floor 10 before with a caster vampire. It was very slow going but fun because it was so difficult (i wiped TONS on the first 2 floors). And it wasn't a vegan.
So what you're saying is that the skill is perfectly fine as long as you're not being stupid with your skill and equipment choices?
No, it was completely tangential to vampirism, and this thread I was more commenting on the fact that Drinker of the Dead is generally not something that can justify taking damage because I find that taking damage is almost always a bad idea compared to just running away frightened trying not to die. The RNG winds up determining the skill and equipment choices too so it's more about Drinker of the Dead almost never showing up as something I really need. Of course, sparkles are a whole different story altogether. Those are awesomely handy. I guess I was not sure that it is true that drinker of the dead is what lets you survive the first few floors at all unless you are a heavy tank, which is what I was responding to. In fact that it was more the opposite, that drinker of the dead is most useful if you are a heavy tank. This entire thread is entirely useless and now in the wrong section and should probably be moved to general discussion or something. Enjoyable, though.
I've found it difficult to kill enemies while doing that though. Which skills you pick has nothing to do with the RNG. And while your equipment is, that's nothing a little Smithing or Tinkering can't fix. If you're a heavy tank, you don't need DotD because the damage you heal in melee should negate the damage you take.
It's true that nothing forces it to. And on one occassion, it was Mining who picked them and not the RNG, and then some other guy I forgot the name of. You could be the next, I suppose! Mmmm, what about the massive nerf heavy armor imposes though?
I agree with Nacho to an extent. While I know that picking the correct set of abilities and equipment will always make a game run smoother I am all for more varied builds. Of course for me that is part of the fun, taking interesting builds and making them work. With other viable ways to defend yourself against damage such as and I don't really feel like needs to be any better. Maybe just try different things and see what works. Maybe stack counter and go all pirate vampire on them. I am always hesitant to buff things in a game where the fun is the journey of trial and error not so much the expectation of winning.
This is what Mining was telling you in the second post in this long, completely bizarre, and utterly useless thread.