Life leech in Diablo 3: Unmanageable?

**Coolhwip** · 05-04-2012, 08:30

Originally Posted by snowcatcher

xx health per hit, i see that only viable on monk's way of the hundred fists, and maybe barbs frenzy anti-boss skill. x health after monster kill will be totally useless in inferno, unless its some really big number...

Beta items already spawn with up to 4 health per hit/after kill, there is no need for a special skill to make either of them viable. Level 60 gear will have a lot of it, at least 25+ per slot.

**Chaosmage** · 05-04-2012, 09:28

Balancing life leech would be easy if it weren't for the pseudo requirement to have damage/monster hp scale to ridiculously high numbers.

The game would work all the same, even better since the pvp damage could stay where it is instead of being nerferd.

**davew2040** · 05-04-2012, 12:34

Originally Posted by Coolhwip

Beta items already spawn with up to 4 health per hit/after kill, there is no need for a special skill to make either of them viable. Level 60 gear will have a lot of it, at least 25+ per slot.

Yeah, the health-on-hit one is a good stat and I think they could make that work. It could scale well with health pools, whereas I don't think that tying damage to health and then tying all of that to an increasing percentage stat can work as well.

**Hideo** · 05-04-2012, 13:26

You ****ing annoy me with bashing D2 all the time. Most of you are people who never designed a video game and never programmed one. Yet, I constantly hear: "D2 was sooo broken!". D2 sells plenty of copies even in 2012 and many people still play it. Don't be so quick saying that it is "broken" or "flawed", when its very existence and continuous popularity is the reason for Diablo 3 project. Jay Wilson has not proved himself yet as a Diablo designer and many of his ideas are vastly inferior to what D2 had to offer.

Life leach was a FUN mechanic. In Hell, it was instrumental to survival. Its conceptually simple and interesting. I see nothing wrong in it, in a fast paced ARPG.

**MustBHacks** · 05-04-2012, 13:33

Originally Posted by Coolhwip

Beta items already spawn with up to 4 health per hit/after kill, there is no need for a special skill to make either of them viable. Level 60 gear will have a lot of it, at least 25+ per slot.

Well if you look at the top Amethyst as a reference, it gives +600hp/hit
So it wouldn't be to far off to assume that gear could see into the hundreds of it.

**AlexanderBarin** · 05-04-2012, 14:36

I fail to see the issue, or the need to balance around LL.

LL isn't going to help you vs a Jailer Nightmarish Waller boss much, will it?

The reason LL was broken in D2 was because every monster and boss was a dumb tank and spank. I think LL in D3 is going to be optional to other survival stats, and while nice to have, not really a required stat to win.

**Apocalypse** · 05-04-2012, 14:36

Originally Posted by Hideo

Life leach was a FUN mechanic. In Hell, it was instrumental to survival. Its conceptually simple and interesting. I see nothing wrong in it, in a fast paced ARPG.

being forced to use something never has been and never will be considered fun

**ShadoutMapes** · 05-04-2012, 14:56

The problem isnt just that you were forced to use it (you are probably also forced to use armor and other dmg reductions, as well as your primary class attribute).

Lifeleech in Diablo 2 had the same problem as potion spamming. Your health regen is so fast (pretty much instantaneous) that the only way to bring you down in HP is by dealing as much dmg.
Thus the game ends up being an arms-race between monsters dmg dealt and healing received (potions and LL) => Oneshot gameplay.

Putting cooldowns on potions, and adding health orbs was one of the best things Diablo 3 has done. If we end up with Diablo 2 lifeleech it would all have been for nothing though.

**konfeta** · 05-04-2012, 15:12

You ****ing annoy me with bashing D2 all the time..

Watch the blood pressure man, watch the blood pressure.

**davew2040** · 05-04-2012, 16:23

Originally Posted by ShadoutMapes

Lifeleech in Diablo 2 had the same problem as potion spamming. Your health regen is so fast (pretty much instantaneous) that the only way to bring you down in HP is by dealing as much dmg.
Thus the game ends up being an arms-race between monsters dmg dealt and healing received (potions and LL) => Oneshot gameplay.

Putting cooldowns on potions, and adding health orbs was one of the best things Diablo 3 has done. If we end up with Diablo 2 lifeleech it would all have been for nothing though.

I agree with you, obviously.

However, I should add that I'm not opposed to a fixed level of life leech. If every class had, say, 5-10% leech, they could probably work with that. The real problem is when you've got a ton of damage increasing stuff, coupled with life leech that can triple or quadruple going from mediocre gear to high end gear. They just need good ways to avoid the scaling issue where you instantly gain back all your life the moment you start doing damage.

To the guy who just about had a stroke at his computer chair: get a ****ing grip. Like I said, Diablo 2 was fun, but for people who aren't serious devotees, it's hard to play anymore. The game's practically unplayable for casters at early levels, where you spend more time porting back to town for mana potions than you do playing the actual game, unless you stick with broke *** melee mechanics. The multiplayer mechanics are primitive as hell. Loot explosions for the fastest clicker? Waiting in a game for long enough to throw all your **** on the ground to xfer it? Give me a break.

Diablo 2 is far from perfect. Sit back and let the adults figure out how to improve it.