EotS and NW actually trigger quite often together. I mostly use it when I'm full on AP and drop the Ice Knife, it is a guarantee crit and huge damage. But I'm not sure you really need the Life Steal that much, with the simple HoT from the companion and the damage reduction you can stay alive as much as you have the stamina…
Yes it does patch the game fully. You'll no longer download any stuff while playing since the launcher will check if there's something new to patch before starting the game.
If the game is not fully updated (meaning, game-date is being downloaded during play), you might experience lag/framedrops when you turn the camera around since it requires the texture to be loaded. Going to a new place as well can cause this, since the game needs to loads materials for the first time. To fix it, run…