#0 - Oct. 18, 2006, 3:53 p.m.
The talent is first and foremost intended as an additional DOT, it's a damage over time ability with some great potential for putting the hurt on someone when factoring in how much further its damage will be on an actual character with talents and gear. The mana regen is definitely going to be great while soloing by at least being able to regain some of the mana you're already spending to get your damage out, and in large groups a few shadow priests would definitely become a great asset for the mana they would be giving back by keeping Vampiric Touch active.
There seems to be some amount of misconception as to just how much damage the spell will be doing without factoring in anything that's going to be increasing the damage, on top of fundamentally shaving off the mana costs of the rest of your shadow spells.
As a side note we are lowering the mana cost of rank 3 a bit to keep a smooth curve of mana vs damage output. The change should be viewable in our next expansion talent and ability preview website update.
