Max. Chance To Block confusion

[Gripphon]

Well, good luck with that build
Question is how useful this build is comparied to other necro build options. There is only one option I would really consider full Trang's build, and that is PvP poisonmancer with Death's Web. However, this is more like "fun" build than "useful" build. I have Enigma poisonmancer, and even with than I have problems catching the enemy, not to mention the fact you are walking around with full trangs. Perhaps in some ffa can be fun, but in 1v1 matches you are in major disadvantage against anything with range and teleport. Against melee build you would be in far superior position with teleport than in this walking form.
So, I see this build only as some creative fun option to play with, but nothing else than that.

[aoirira]

Well, good luck with that build
Question is how useful this build is comparied to other necro build options. There is only one option I would really consider full Trang's build, and that is PvP poisonmancer with Death's Web. However, this is more like "fun" build than "useful" build. I have Enigma poisonmancer, and even with than I have problems catching the enemy, not to mention the fact you are walking around with full trangs. Perhaps in some ffa can be fun, but in 1v1 matches you are in major disadvantage against anything with range and teleport. Against melee build you would be in far superior position with teleport than in this walking form.
So, I see this build only as some creative fun option to play with, but nothing else than that.

Well, I think this build could work a little bit, mainly because you should have high survivability against melee fighter with your "insane" lifesteal - and basically all you need is time if you are waiting for someone poisoned to die. I can imagine there are better builds in terms of raw power, but nonetheless I think this build should even practically work to some extent. And other than that, it certainly is an interesting combination. You don't see a melee life-stealing necro supplemented by poisons, curses and occasional fireballs when it comes to range. ) And what is also cool that he looks like a vampire, which corresponds with his melee life stealing kind of fighting.

[Gripphon]

Only melee builds you would be able to attack actually are barb, zealot, fury werewolf, some bear. Dunno about ghost matchup, she should stun you really badly.
All those builds deal so much damage per hit that your "lifesteal" is useless. If you land a hit actually. Don't bother with attacking at all, necro is caster, not a knight.

Against BvC: He hits very hard, he will put you in block and hit recovery so much it's almost impossible for you to attack him. Even if you do, that 50 life stolen vs 700 damage per hit he deals.
Against Zealot: Your AR is so low that you wont be able to hit him at all. If you focus on AR more, you are gonna lose way too much damage output.
Against Wolf: Ton's of Hp to deal with, and his fury is not a joke. Like BvC, he will put you in recovery very much, and they can pack over 20k defense. Good luck hitting that.
Against Ghost: Mind blast, trap, mind blast, 3 traps, more mindblast, WW. If you land a hit on her, congratz!
Against Sorc: Yeah, she will wait for you to come to her and hit her to realize you did 0 damage.
Against Windy: Perhaps his minions are good targets, however you will kill them all with poison nova. Why hitting him anyway, he must come almost in melee, then just nova him with lower resist. That will hurt him. Then run so he can't target you with tornados, they WILL hurt, and he will do that if you try to lifesteal him.
Against any Paladin: Tons of defense, don't bother hitting him.
Against Trapper: Same as Ghost.
Against Zon: You are dead before match begin. You won't catch her. Ever.
Against Bonecro: Same as above. He will spam you with spirits. All you can do is run for your life. Don't even duel him.

I hope this answers on question about usefulness of lifesteal with necro. But you can try and see for yourself, don't take my words for it

[aoirira]

Only melee builds you would be able to attack actually are barb, zealot, fury werewolf, some bear. Dunno about ghost matchup, she should stun you really badly.
All those builds deal so much damage per hit that your "lifesteal" is useless. If you land a hit actually. Don't bother with attacking at all, necro is caster, not a knight.

Against BvC: He hits very hard, he will put you in block and hit recovery so much it's almost impossible for you to attack him. Even if you do, that 50 life stolen vs 700 damage per hit he deals.
Against Zealot: Your AR is so low that you wont be able to hit him at all. If you focus on AR more, you are gonna lose way too much damage output.
Against Wolf: Ton's of Hp to deal with, and his fury is not a joke. Like BvC, he will put you in recovery very much, and they can pack over 20k defense. Good luck hitting that.
Against Ghost: Mind blast, trap, mind blast, 3 traps, more mindblast, WW. If you land a hit on her, congratz!
Against Sorc: Yeah, she will wait for you to come to her and hit her to realize you did 0 damage.
Against Windy: Perhaps his minions are good targets, however you will kill them all with poison nova. Why hitting him anyway, he must come almost in melee, then just nova him with lower resist. That will hurt him. Then run so he can't target you with tornados, they WILL hurt, and he will do that if you try to lifesteal him.
Against any Paladin: Tons of defense, don't bother hitting him.
Against Trapper: Same as Ghost.
Against Zon: You are dead before match begin. You won't catch her. Ever.
Against Bonecro: Same as above. He will spam you with spirits. All you can do is run for your life. Don't even duel him.

I hope this answers on question about usefulness of lifesteal with necro. But you can try and see for yourself, don't take my words for it

Alright, you got me. I won't even try to pretend that I understood at least around half of abbreviations you used. :-D Actually, I have very poor knowledge of the game - I never finished it even on Normal (not like it was too hard, just my perfectionism, laziness to work with information and inability to concentrate on one character). .. So it's not like I really believe I'm right here. Basically I was just trying to find some sense in that Life Steal and Fire Skills, because I know at least Warcraft and Starcraft are very balanced "everything has it's use" type of games - so I was just guessing where did the Blizzard put the "hidden sense" of these equip bonuses for Necromancer. Well, it is a Necromancer set so I would not expect anyone else than Necro bothering to use it. .. Well, maybe casual player who does not plan his equip and finds the set just by chance - does not care, like "it is The Set, it has The Big Bonuses, I'll wear it as Barbarian".

[Gripphon]

Actually, Diablo has very unbalanced parts and items. For example, Spirit is very cheap runeword, and grants godly stuff. Grief is very overpowered for its value. But, you will see some things yourself by playing the game.

[aoirira]

Actually, Diablo has very unbalanced parts and items. For example, Spirit is very cheap runeword, and grants godly stuff. Grief is very overpowered for its value. But, you will see some things yourself by playing the game.

Not happy to hear that. In my opinion, imbalance of this kind does not matter so much as long as the builds are still playable, in case you just want to "sandbox" in Singleplayer... But on Battle.Net, where you tend to compare yourself to other players (in better case) or where you are invited to duels which you cannot honorably declide and you cannot win them because of imbalance at the same time, or even when you are deliberately attacked by imbalanced-power-type of guy (in the worst case), it seems somehow more important. Of course, you can just check out what is imbalanced in the good way and use it, but I am a type of person who does not like where such a type of gaming is going (if you know what I mean). I value versatility - especially in a game like Diablo.. I would absolutely admire if people would have different equipment, and the competition between the players would be based on "skill" and creativity, rather than on exploiting the imbalances by going for the "obviously better choices". .. I hope I managed to be at least a little bit understandable. .. Its like playing Mortal Kombat with friends, trying to have some fun, and the other guy is always picking Shao Kahn, Goro and Kintaro.

[Gripphon]

Game is indeed playable. Grief and Spirit are imbalanced only in ratio invested/received. Item which is considered imbalanced in PvP is exile runeword cause of life tap curse, for example. Don't know what else other than some certain items from previous versions.

There are some variations in builds, but most builds, if not all, are straightforward. Not cool, I know. Well, there are some variations, such as with bowazon where you choose one of two possible paths to take, speed one or damage one.
But, this is for high level dueling, where level has no limits. But in low level dueling (considered up to level 30), you have more possible variations to make. At least I made my lld characters on my own way, reading 3 guides saying 3 different things. But lld is not so popular, some people consider that's not worth their time. Sorry to hear that, lld are very fun, in some elements even better than hld. That's my opinion, anyway.

Don't know how much creativity is present in builds these days, but skill is always very important. In some builds more than others, but whatever you choose to build, you need skill to play that proper way. There are some very skill dependent builds, like BvC for example. No matter how elite gear you have, you really need to know how to play with him.

[Pyrotechnician]

One more thing - it is off topic, but since we already have such a nice conversation here and since I am too lazy to create a new thread... I tried playing the Barbarian, and used the Stun skill. It seemed to me that the Stun skill did not always work even when I hit, or that the skill did not work on bossess, or something like that. But there is nothing about this neither in the in-game description of the skill, nor in the description which is on Arreat Summit. So, do you know if there is some rule like "the stun function of the Stun skill does not work on bossess", or "there is only a chance that the monster will be stunned, not certainty" etc.? Or was it just my imagination?

I'm not 100% certain, but War Cry also has a stun effect, the stun effect always works on normal monsters, but only has a 10% chance to stun against champions and uniques, and it doesn't work against bosses (like andy/meph/etc.) Its probably the same for the stun kill itself.

Ok, this will be the last off-topic question. :-D ... What possibly good use could a Necromancer have for Life Steal with Trang-Oul's set? I mean, I suppose it is best to go with a wand rather than with an actual weapon, and wand does not have high enough damage to make the Life Steal actually count, or...?

I think it has more to do with going along with the them of turning into a vampire with the whole set, but if you wanted to actually utilize the set and the 20% Life leach, you could make a poison dagger necromancer and use one of the daggers (fleshripper would give you decentish physical damage, or an upd spineripper) and you should be able to leach at least "some" health, although it wouldn't be significant. Blackbogs would give you more poison damage, but the physical damage would be sad at that point.

[helvete]

Life steal in pvp is reduced to 1/6th or something rediculous like that, and then there's the penalty for duelling in hell diff (1/3rd) and the pvp damage penalty in it self (1/6th) which gives an effective penalty of *drumroll* 1/108th lifeleech.... So if you have 10k physical damage, you still need 108% life stolen per hit to gain 100 life from hitting another player....

Life tap works differently, and is not subject to penalties other than the pvp damage penalty. Which is why it is concidered bad manners to use.

[zaphodbrx]

LL on trangs set is just the sort of thing which are added on to D2 items for no practical reason. For example, Tal helm which has dual leech, but no sorc needs that ( and those that do wouldn't use Tal's set ). That said, a trangs daggermancer sounds fun!