ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Hello.

A pair of boots give me resource leech chance 6% and resource leech +1.
The price is -43hp.

What exactly does the leech give me and what does +1 mean?
Is it worth it?

Tom

local leech = src.resource_leech_value
src:incMana(leech)
src:incVim(leech * 0.5)
src:incPositive(leech * 0.25)
src:incNegative(leech * 0.25)
src:incEquilibrium(-leech * 0.35)
src:incStamina(leech * 0.65)
src:incHate(leech * 0.05)
src:incPsi(leech * 0.2)

So... for Vim you get 0.5 Vim per point of leech, hate 0.05, etc. etc.

Yeah, resource leech isn't usually worth it with one item, but having two or three can make it worthwhile, as it scales very quickly. 6% chance of 1 leech = 0.06 leech on average, 18% chance of 3 leech = 0.54 leech on average.

Do AOE field effects trigger leech? Does burning / poison trigger it every turn?

Every time that damage ticks (possibly only for >0 damage), it triggers a resource leech check, so poison = 6 chances, elemental weapon hit = 5 chances, dual elemental daggers with Flurry = 30 chances etc... Stacked diseases and Cursed Life Leech give many chances as well, along with Inferno, burning wake etc...

So, to answer your question, yes, AoE and DoT effects trigger resource leech.

Now to build an archmage with Disruption Shield, stacked resource leech gear (max of ~100% chance of 20 leech) with damage when hit gear/sustains (maybe 5x per hit?), and gain mana whenever I am hit (100 mana, equivalent to 200 damage in this example), as well as casting "free" spells.

Tom wrote:What exactly does the leech give me and what does +1 mean?

Am I the only one who thinks leeching is a terribly designed ego? Tom isn't exactly a beginner, and yet he still needed to ask what this does (as have many people). Asking shouldn't be necessary. Wearing a leeching item and watching for the effect that you may not be able to see shouldn't be necessary. This seems to go against the design principles of ToME.

My main gripe is that "drain 1 resource" is utterly meaningless to me. Wtf is one resource?! Why doesn't 1 mean 1?!

Anyway, this ego would be better if it were more clear. For example, perhaps have the leech ego choose three random resources (such as stamina, magic, and vim), then display how much it can leech for those three egos. I haven't given much thought whether this change would actually be workable, 'cause I wouldn't mind seeing the leech egos scrapped altogether.

p.s. I don't want to step on anybody's toes or to offend. Nearly all of the egos are very well designed, and there are a lot of them--and I hope we'll get more . It's just that, well, the leech egos have really bothered me, and it's getting too late to write a sensible post

I thought leech meant I was stealing 1 hp. /facepalm

And here I was thinking Leech affected HP!

I think these changes would help leech:

1) Only leech some kinds of resources

2) Leech a percent of the target's (either current or max) resources, rather than a flat amount

3) Indicate what action triggers the leech (and have different leech sources trigger from different things)

So for example:

(On damage) Leech: +13% chance of +5% target's stamina
(On melee strike) Leech: +50% chance of +1% target's vim

Does leech work with minions? Equilibrium isn't a very fun mechanic to me, and anything that reduces the effect would be something I'd go for.

since those items usually give maluses to health it should be good if also hp would be leeched, or is too much?