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Vampiric drain - tips

    • 153 posts
    April 4, 2013 7:07 AM EDT

    This was too long for a status so here it goes.:

    After a bit of testing I have found out something that is rather cool. Vampiric drain, if used with certain perks and bonuses, is cheaper when dual casted than when individually casted (at least for level 4 version).

    The calculation I used to figure this out goes as follows: 

    Cost = the base cost x dual cast magika multiplier / (perk magika reduction) - dmg (dmg by spell)

    Damage = dmg of lvl x dual cast dmg multiplier x difficulty output

    Lvl 4 version magika = 17 x 2.8 / 2 - 11 = 12.8/s

    Lvl 4 version damage = 5 x 2.2 x 1(adept) = 11/s

    Requirements: Novice destruction perk for 50% off, destruction dual cast perk for dual casting and the blood of the ancients (dawnguard) for the drain magika and stamina effect too.

    This means that in 10 seconds the spell will do 110 damage and cost 128 magika, in 30 seconds it will do 330 damage and cost 384!

    Hope you guys found this interesting and maybe this will make vampiric drain better for later levels!

    • 1483 posts
    April 4, 2013 7:18 AM EDT

    Interesting... so to do the same 110 damage with single handed cast you'll have to spend 22 seconds with 187 magicka

    with double cast you can do the same 110 damage in 11 seconds which means that dual cast gives only 1 second difference. You'll have to spend 187 magicka however

    Side note: on legendary it'll have 1/4 of damage = 27.5 damage in 10 seconds with 128 magicka = 82.5 damage in 30 seconds with 384 magicka

    • 739 posts
    April 4, 2013 7:40 AM EDT

    This post confirms just how poor the spell is. 10 seconds to do 110 damage, lets put that into perspective...

    Aprox the same dps as an iron sword without perks in one handed.

    Cave Bear @ 450 health would take over 40 seconds to drop. (constant beam)

    Bandit Thug @ 235 health would take over 20 seconds to drop. (constant beam)

    Draugr Deathlord @ 1400 health would take over 2 minutes to drop. (constant beam)

    You can DOUBLE all these times if you play on master.

    Over 4 minutes and over 3000 magicka to drop a deathlord.

    • 1483 posts
    April 4, 2013 7:43 AM EDT

    Yeah it's only good on Novice. They should've made it more damaging. 

    • 153 posts
    April 4, 2013 7:55 AM EDT

    yep i thought it was cool fact

    • 168 posts
    April 4, 2013 8:02 AM EDT
    It's a shame how weak this spell is. I thought a drain health spell was cool when I heard what abilities vamps have.

    I suppose we can try to make it stronger with fortify destruction potions, and reduce the cost to an incredibly low amount, but this spell is just weak.
    • 739 posts
    April 4, 2013 8:18 AM EDT

    You would have to really go out of your way to make it work perfectly...

    You would need max armor rating, some destruction spellcost and a strong health regen set-up like the obsidian sentinel to offset melee damage...

    I'd like to see a character that can just wade through a dungeon with the absorb hose on...

    Someone was talking about doing a 'Staff of Magnus' build recently that could tie in with all this...

    • 253 posts
    April 4, 2013 8:26 AM EDT

    I am not sure how well that could work. What you describe is basically what I did on my Sternguard (except with absorb health on a bow) but I don't see it working for a vamp at a high level. The gains that it would bring with Vampiric Drain are much less than even just putting absorb health on a dagger. 

    • 153 posts
    April 4, 2013 7:21 PM EDT

    at least there are mods that make it more powerful 

    • 168 posts
    April 4, 2013 7:33 PM EDT
    But, I guess if you can get it to absorb stamina I see it could be a way for spellsword characters to have potentially infinite power attacks, fueling your attacks with the enemy's stamina.
    Novice Healing + Respite perk still would outclass this, but if the vamp spellsword doesn't use restoration it could be a good substitute.
    • 253 posts
    April 4, 2013 9:50 PM EDT

    I guess, but if with 0 enchanting skill you can put a drain 1 stamina enchant on any weapon for the same effect. 

    • 168 posts
    April 4, 2013 9:57 PM EDT

    If you use a pre-enchanted weapon like Dawnbreaker or Chillrend it can be useful then. 

    Even so, our builds here already have self-implemented limitations, so a build could use it if someone really wanted it to. 

    • 253 posts
    April 4, 2013 9:59 PM EDT

    Fair enough, it could work pretty well that way. 

  • April 6, 2013 11:10 AM EDT

    I really like the vamparic drain spell and it looks really good. But it's really annoying because i roleplayed a vampire who uses one handed weapons in one hand and a spell in the other ans since im a vampire i do what the vampires in the game do i use raise zombie or what ever some frost magic and mostly vamparic drain but it's really annoying because really im doing all my damage with my weapon not the vamparic drain which still takes ages to do any significant damage therefore i believe that they should have made the spell more damaging even if it is a novice spell.

    • 153 posts
    April 6, 2013 12:28 PM EDT

    what I realised a good way to use vampiric drain, use it on weak npc (goats, wolves, etc.) to heal quickly for a quick magic boost while RP-ing