Life Drain's optimal circumstances?

glortor

Tossup between:

EGO-Con-Rec, Life Drain, Fear Applier, Spirit Reverb, Concentration, Shadowform, Ranged Damage build.
PRE-Con-Ego, Life Drain, Fear Applier, Spirit Reverb, Compassion, Seraphim, Support build.
EGO-Con-Pre, Life Drain, Fear Applier, Spirit Reverb, Concentration, Seraphim, Hybrid build.

Any other combo?

glortor

Mainly what I'm asking is whether drain benefits better from heal, damage, or both equally?

riverocean

Have you considered crit and crit severity stats?

Something like Dex/Ego...

Critcal chance and crit severity effect both heals and damage. So you'd get the best of both worlds.

glortor

There is that, yes. Energy issues though so dex would have to be secondary and the diminishing returns on that is not impressive.

flowcyto

Which is more important to you: the heal or the dmg?

If dps, then Ranged dps role + Shadow_Ego Form_NW + Conc + Dex PSS + Ego_Int gearing, Guardicator, crit + severity modding.
If hps, then Support role + AoPM_Seraphim + Compassion + Ego_Pres PSS + Pres gearing; specs will depend on personal vs. group support.

I wouldn't worry too much about energy issues- if the build is built efficiently then any PSS could be supported.

squirrelloid

My lifedrainer is running Con-pre-ego as a tank (with Con and Pre pretty close to equally invested).

glortor

What I decided for was:

Hybrid Role - Best of both worlds. The character is a priestess of both light and darkness, specialises in rifts and portals.
Compassion - Main source of healing.
PRE pss - Main source of healing. (repurpose 3, grandeur 2, and then crit + def)
con (Spirit Reverb, fear)
rec - Main source of energy, additive to con bonus on Spirit Reverb
Night Warrior: Faster Charge time, sneak past mobs, stab, universal damage, defense penetration. Main source of damage.
Guardicator: Lots of AOE and crit.

The overall composition of the build is a combination of sustained damage, dots, bionic shield, psionic healing and just burst crits out the sockets.

My last question: Compassion vs Concentration (rec vs int/ego as third stat, too) does a brooch of healing 7 make up for the lack of +heal from compassion?

flowcyto

I'm not huge into using offensive passives in Hybrid role (at least then ur talking another opportunity cost- not using AoPM or defensive passives, namely), but regardless most of ur energy gen will be coming from the toggle and Con + Spirit Reverb, and not Rec.

As I said in-game, DEX PSS + Mastery is good for non-AoPM setups here, since ya can forgo severity gearing and then not lose out on much extra crit or severity if ur getting bonus heal in offensive gear. A more dps-oriented Hybrid w/ still decent heals from LD would be DEX PSS + NW + Hybrid role + Conc, DEX/Int/Con setup, Int + Con gear focus, taking ES/NM + Guardicator (w/ Focused Strikes for LD), DEX Mastery, and taking crit + bonus heal mods in gear.

Ur trading about 20-25% Ranged dps for Hybrid's heal bonus, though. Again, really just depends on priorities.

notyuu

There's two ways to use lifedrain really

1: self heal, [damage or hrybrid role, whatever passive] best rollign ego/con/pre

2: Heal other, [support role, adv on life drain] pre/dex/whatever.

worth noting, lifedrain's strong point isn't the damage it does, it's the sheer sustainability that ti affords the user/team [depending on adv]