How important is Life Steal (for gwf)?

hughjanus4 · May 2014

I've done everything I can to max my power which I can get to just over 9000 (with only 14.9k gs). But lately, I've become so greedy for power that I've started trading it for Life Steal and I don't know how wise this is. It certainly doesn't feel good to do it. It feels like I'm selling my soul to the devil trading power for life.

I used to have about 10% life steal and now I'm down to 5%. I can still make one more deal which would net me +133 power, but would bring my life steal down to 3.4%. The benefit of +133 power can't possibly compare to 1.6% of Life Steal. The question is, how much Life Steal should I have?

I've clearly become addicted to power and it has affected my judgement... I don't know how such a thing could happen to someone.

...but I can give some of the power back if this was a dumb idea. I swear I'll never do it again.

So how worthwhile is Life Steal to a GWF? I've seen some DC with no Life Steal at all.

fakatik · May 2014

Its worthwhile for a GWF. Keep it around 10% and you will not even need any DC heals.

ryugasirius · May 2014

It's very useful for high DPS classes, a GWF has a naturally high defense too so 10% lifesteal is often enough to keep him alive very well against many hostiles, even without a DC around.

It's quite useless on some classes, but a GWF certainly isn't one.

demidogz · May 2014

Extra power is just a bonus to speed up DPS or just to achieve pointless Paingiver, but I'd say anywhere close to 1000 LS should be fine.

You might want to take Endless Consumption and you can see huge lifesteal figures.

tickdoff · May 2014

Life Steal is excellent for GWFs, HRs and CWs. It can have some marginal use for GFs (I am not a fan of it for GFs, but have seen a few GFs that did quite well, PvE wise, with it). Not really useful for DCs at all. I am not sure about TRs, but I suspect that their single target nature makes LS less than optimal, but I am sure someone else here can give a better answer on that.

morsitans · May 2014

Lifesteal is actually surprisingly useful for DCs in general solo stuff, and since they stick it on every **** armour set, this is just as well.

It turns things like daunting light (AoE 5-target encounter with 20k crits even without too many debuffs flying around) into great spike heals (Obviously it would nicer if DL procced repurpose soul anyway, but hey). And it saves you sticking seals on everything.

But yes, definitely get ca. 10% lifesteal on a GWF, since it makes managing health even more facerollingly easy.

aulduron · May 2014

It's very, very important for GWFs. You're constantly taking and dishing out damage.

pitshade · May 2014

LS on a cleric isn't bad, mostly for soloing as morsitans said. My play style is to do a big burst and then kite. LS heals big during the first and regen during the second. It makes solo boss fights a lot easier.

For TR, LS is vital. They don't have the defenses that a GWF does and need all the healing they can get. My TR has 15k LS (and Endless Consumption) and one DF can heal nearly to full. If you dodge the big stuff and you don't have aggro on other things (which hopefully you shouldn't have much) then it will keep your health topped off completely. For soloing, I can facetank most mobs and heal faster than they can hurt me -dodging the big stuff of course.

abaddon523 · May 2014

I think that this is completely a preference call. It just depends how you want to play. Adding 133 power is going to be less than a 1% increase in damage, so it's pretty inconsequential. Do you want lifesteal? It can certainly help you stay alive in a tight spot. My own personal experience on a GWF (which isn't a lot) is that between Unstoppable and Restoring Strike and a little bit of lifesteal I have no difficulty keeping my health near the max in most circumstances. If that's your experience then you may want to scale back the lifesteal. However if you find that at times you're getting a little closer to death than you would care for maybe bump lifesteal back up a bit more, after all, you do no damage when you're dead.

This isn't like weighing the difference between criticality and power--where the numbers can be crunched and there's a straight answer on how much of each you want. I's a preference and it's really up to you.

fgreyspear · May 2014

Go for the extra power and max it out. Then see if you like it. You will not know until you have tried it and only then can tell if it was worth it for you. Maybe you like dipping deep into health just for that bit of extra DPS, or maybe you rather like it more save. You will not know before you have tested it.

Just being the devil's voice, and buying souls in bulk!

aulduron · May 2014

You have 9K in power and only 6K in everything else? I'm no min/maxer, but that doesn't sound good.

pitshade · May 2014

GS doesn't include bonuses from augment pets so you can't just subtract power from GS and know what the other stats total to.

rollingonit · May 2014

Depends on the meta pvp.

PVE dungeons if you have a healer, and you're not constantly getting hit/standing in red. Its completely unnecessary.

PVE solo, it's nice to have but again unnecessary.

If you've capped the rest of your stats though, Id invest in it.

Unknown · May 2014

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demidogz · May 2014

hughjanus4 wrote: »

I'm using an augment that is boosting my stats another ~3000 (mostly power) that isn't in my GS. I now have only 8.15K power (8.8K with potions, coin, and blessing), 3.1K defense (43% dam res), 1.7K crit (33% chance), 1.8K ArP (19.2%), 1.1K life steal (8.5%), and about 2000 more spread out. Of course, these stats are all augmented. My GS is now down to 14.9K.

I never expect a DC to be there for me so I feel better with more life steal now.

What would you, or anyone else interested, do with my stats if you could play around? (I'm GWF for PvE)

Defense is way too high, crit could be a lil higher and armor pen could be a lil lower.

Unknown · May 2014

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demidogz · May 2014

I know that, mind if I ask where's all that defense coming from?

Unknown · May 2014

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jerewel88 · May 2014

Sorry for the thread is not really suitable, but since I can't create new threads, I wanted to know which is better for a gwf, p terror or g plague fire and why.

With which of the two, it does more damage?

Thanks in advance and sorry again for the OT.

Unknown · May 2014

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jerewel88 · May 2014

hughjanus4 wrote: »

Too lazy to wait the 10 minutes needed before you can post a thread. What an inconsiderate tool.

Find somewhere else to talk about your problems--hijack someone else's thread.

if you have to answer only to make the professor, you can avoid.

I have said many times SORRY.

Wait 10 minutes?

Maybe they are not "just 10 minutes"

"Please note that, for a short period of time after account creation, posting new threads is disabled. After this probationary period, you'll be able to create threads as normal. "

I've been waiting since yesterday and I still can not create threads

Relax and calm down.

demidogz · May 2014

hughjanus4 wrote: »

Sure. Below is the defense from my gear and stuff which only seems to add up to 2912. I'm not sure where the remaining ~120 is coming from.

Helm: 390
Armor: 592
Bracer: 518
Weapon: 126
Feet: 390
Neck: 133
Waist: 133
Pants&Shirt: 128
Artifact: 207
Augment: 133
Active Companions: 110
Enchantments: 185

Hmm I see, the excess defense is mainly coming from armor set, so I think it should be fine once replaced with Avatar of War's set.

By any chance if your GWF's human, that could be the reason for that ~120.

Unknown · May 2014

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morsitans · May 2014

Well eventually you'll want to get AoW full set because it's the best set for PvE GWFs, but until that point I wouldn't worry too much about minor stat distribution issues. Just don't slot any azures in def slots.

bucklittle · May 2014

I've tried between 0-14% lifesteal on GWF around 14.5k gs and 7k~ power. If your SM/destroyer spec and very generous with major health potions, then your going to want around 9-10% lifesteal. If your IV/destroyer I would probably go with 9%.

If your sentinel I probably wouldn't use any lifesteal on gear unless it's the best you have, just take lifesteal from defense slots.

squirtlejiggly · May 2014

In relation to life steal for a PVP gwf,

Is LS better or Regeneration better?

I'm trying to stack Regen as much as I can but it only goes up to a mere 600.

My PVP stats currently are:

3.8k power, 2k crit and 2k Arm Pen with all the other stats like life steal and regen at the low hundreds (200s - 600s)

Is it wise to sacrifice power and some crit for Life Steal and Regen?

inthefade462 · May 2014

for PVE, if you have 5% or less LS, then take endless consumption.

Otherwise, get around 10% or so and you're fine without consumption.

LS on GWF is about consistent small heals with the occasional spike heal, because it matches your dmg intake (occassional spike dmg = unstoppable meaning consistent small amounts of dmg). so ideally you want around 10-15% which is what 5% with consumption gives you. This is contrary to and unlike on CW where it's complete heals every single encounter/daily and nothing in between (cus their at wills are garbage mostly single target). Which is why Endless Consumption is absolutely useless on a CW.

TR has always had 10%+ LS since open beta really cus of itemization, yet they gain very little benefit from it due to their lack of massive dmg, which is why it took so long for people to really get on board with LS healing. Even in their hey day of massive single target dmg TR's often avoided most dmg (TR was always #5 spot on immovable object) so it was hard to really determine how good LS was back then.

How important is Life Steal (for gwf)?

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