Sampires and balance
My main is a somewhat off-meta sampire variant, and if there's one thing I'm tired of it's that "you fail to leech life" message. To me it just reads as "we don't know how to balance this build so go away!"
The issue seems pretty obvious, taking a build with the highest possible melee damage and allowing it to scale health recovery off of that damage results in something that's difficult to keep in check without resorting to kludges like the aforementioned "you fail to leech" routine. The solution would seem to be to decouple damage and healing in this context.
The build I play uses necromancy and bushido, but eschews chivalry in favor of spirit speak. Personally I just do this because I like being able to use my spells, and because I'm enough of a fan of verisimilitude to not want to play a glorious lord undead paladin.
This build deals meaningfully less damage than a standard sampire thanks to the lack of chivalry, but retains the high survivability thanks to the much greater life leech imparted by the curse weapon spell. With a proper weapon it leeches enough mana to make consistent use of specials, but can't just chain armor ignore on every hit forever. It can solo bosses but it takes somewhat more work, and gains some moderately nice side benefits like spirit speak healing and the ability to go to wraith form and spam wither.
Make it such that being in a necromancer form actively drains karma, or some other change structured to decouple leech-based healing from the highest possible damage output, and builds should fragment into necro/bushido life leechers versus chiv/bushido builds with higher damage. If it seems like there's less reason to play a chiv/bushido melee build as opposed to an archer, maybe give Chivalry a buff that excludes archery in some way.
I don't know if there's sufficient will to make such large changes to balance at this point, but I thought I would throw this out there.
The issue seems pretty obvious, taking a build with the highest possible melee damage and allowing it to scale health recovery off of that damage results in something that's difficult to keep in check without resorting to kludges like the aforementioned "you fail to leech" routine. The solution would seem to be to decouple damage and healing in this context.
The build I play uses necromancy and bushido, but eschews chivalry in favor of spirit speak. Personally I just do this because I like being able to use my spells, and because I'm enough of a fan of verisimilitude to not want to play a glorious lord undead paladin.
This build deals meaningfully less damage than a standard sampire thanks to the lack of chivalry, but retains the high survivability thanks to the much greater life leech imparted by the curse weapon spell. With a proper weapon it leeches enough mana to make consistent use of specials, but can't just chain armor ignore on every hit forever. It can solo bosses but it takes somewhat more work, and gains some moderately nice side benefits like spirit speak healing and the ability to go to wraith form and spam wither.
Make it such that being in a necromancer form actively drains karma, or some other change structured to decouple leech-based healing from the highest possible damage output, and builds should fragment into necro/bushido life leechers versus chiv/bushido builds with higher damage. If it seems like there's less reason to play a chiv/bushido melee build as opposed to an archer, maybe give Chivalry a buff that excludes archery in some way.
I don't know if there's sufficient will to make such large changes to balance at this point, but I thought I would throw this out there.
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Comments
I need the chiv spells and I don’t want this cocked up because of another build
I kill things fine. I leech fine. I enjoy the build
i am not interested in your build and so not want it to negatively affect me because your build does not work somehow
you want SS use a necro mage
In deceit I rarely use my Chivalry for anything but EoO against the Rams or Swords. My only Sampire also has Necro. I like to heal. I think they are done balancing builds, they compensate by adjusting the Mobs.
Sacred journey everyday, remove curse if BO by skeletal mages or too much debuff, cure poison from poison ele, heal when fighting paragons, consecrate weapon for extra damage, Eoo vs Ram.
I use life leech from weapon and Vampiric form. They work fine in most cases.
ESRB warning: Some Blood. LOTS of Alcohol. Some Violence. LOTS of Bugs
My Sampires have both Chiv and SS, just no Anatomy. 120 Swords/GM Tact/GM Necro/GM SS/GM Bush/GM Chiv/GM Resist or Parry (i soulstone between these). My Sampires still dish out enough damage to chain specials non-stop, and dish out a ton of damage when stacking Corpse Skin+Onslaught and DS spam. Between Vamp Form+Curse Weapon, i have 70% Hit Life Drain, which gives me 3.5x the amount of self healing of a regular Sampire, meaning i'm incredibly difficult to kill. I can take a 120 damage hit from Chief Paroxysmus, and laugh it off as i proceed to regain my entire 150 Health bar in a single 300+ damage Double Strike on him. If i need to, i can step away from a boss and use the combination of Confidence+Spirit Speak for a big heal.
Yep, prior to the Treasures events with the "Null Life" Paragons, bandy healing (particularly bandy cross healing) was basically an ancient lost art. To learn it people had to traverse up the 7,000 Steps of the Throat of the World mountain to meditate and study under ancient Greybeards at High Hrothgar. Fortunately, a few of us Greybeards are still around to teach it.
Why Longsword and Whip, if I may ask, rather then a Double Axe and Bladed Staff or Radiant Scimitar as I see that most Warriors with swordsmanship use ?
Some have 80 to 120 parry chivalry.
Some have resist.
Some have 60 to 120 parry.
Some have spirit speak same as u.
Some swap necro for healing depending on the fight.
It isn't really a fixed template and I have changed mine more than 13 times over the years and tried different combinations. Currently I convert it to ABC archer, or healing warrior depending on who or what I fight. I don't use the same template for Osiredon, Shadowguard, Treasures or EM event.
There are alot of old posts where I learnt about sampire from many players at stratics, but I am not sure if they are still available.
Sampire can only leech so little without Slayer or double or triple damages in a crowded situation. EOO and honor are good when alone with one or one type, which is not always easy to find.
ESRB warning: Some Blood. LOTS of Alcohol. Some Violence. LOTS of Bugs
My only Sampire has SS. No reason to change a skill for a we that does not exist.
ESRB warning: Some Blood. LOTS of Alcohol. Some Violence. LOTS of Bugs
ESRB warning: Some Blood. LOTS of Alcohol. Some Violence. LOTS of Bugs
All other templates can "cheat" by simply carry a leech weapon but it's effectiveness is random. 100% Hit Life leech is only 0.3 x damage and the actual leech is random from 0 to max. In the worst case u can leech say 10% of the max for 5 straight hits and die because it is not enough to heal.
Furthermore, all leeches rely on actual damage, which in turn relies on specials like AI and Double strike, which needs mana.
Just spam mana drain and the sampire would leech peanuts even with a slayer.
Mana drain, blood oath, disarm, nausea, dismount, or simply heavy spell attacks. Don't need anything new to kill a sampire.
As I said before again and again, it's so easy to beat the sampire without blocking leech or changing the underlying mechanism.
ESRB warning: Some Blood. LOTS of Alcohol. Some Violence. LOTS of Bugs
I have 3 full bards
3 tamers
4 crafters including imbuing
for 3 accounts.
But I only have 2 sampires, because they are the hardest and most expensive to equip and maintain, and the fight front line hand-to-hand combat unlike the other back benchers.
We know what are Tanks/Melee or Ranged Attacks or Support. My tamers are the laziest lot. All kill oh oh oh why sampires can kill more than my pet while I eat poppppp corns at the back and watch Netflix.
ESRB warning: Some Blood. LOTS of Alcohol. Some Violence. LOTS of Bugs