Life Drain on undead

[Raynel]

I can't seem to find info on this online, so I'm asking for some help understanding this.
I want to use Life drain (well, it's upgrades anyway) from Spirit Mastery. I understand that it will do no damage to undead and constructs.
I know deathchill aura's upgrade would work to lower resistances, but you have to be quite close for this to occur.
Spirit Ward/Bane- This increases damage to undead, but does it help overcome their resistance to Life drain damage? I'd rather go this route, although I know it does nothing to fix the problem with constructs, it would make it easier to stay away from most enemies.
How do the resistances work? Would Spirit Bane just boost damage of life drain/cascade/soul drain but then it would be 100% resisted so I would do 0 damage in the end? Soul Drain says it does 200% damage to ghosts, which seems to suggest it is meant to overcome their resistances, but I don't know for sure.
Basically, does Spirit Bane directly oppose the resistances of undead, or would I do 0 damage with a vitality/Life Drain attack because the calculation has the resistances come after damage is calculated?

[sarcastic_godot]

Lo! Behold... ...the power of resistance reduction.

Originally posted by Raynel:

[...]
Basically, does Spirit Bane directly oppose the resistances of undead, [...]

It doens't lower resists. Spirit Bane is just another multiplier to whichever damage you do to the target. Apart from the flat damage per second, ofc, that's just done, outside of resistances IIRC (apart from global "damage resistance / absorption").

Some reading re. resistances can be found here[www.kirmiziperfect.com].

[Lobo de hielo]

Hi
Spirit Ward/ Bane gives you flat damage and less damage taken from undead. Undead also absorb 70% poison damage.
They are the most common enemy. You will find a lot of charms/ relics with 50% extra damage to undead or demons. Weapons even staves can come with affixes for flat or %damage to undead.

In a lot of places the undead seem to always come with bats or cerebus, so you can still life leech something while fighting them.
Also consider your second weapon slot and fit a weapon to deal with undead and constructs if your main weapon is not doing enough damage.

[Raynel]

So spirit bane will not allow me to use life/soul drain on the undead. That's a little sad but I understand. Thanks for the info.

[Golbeeze]

Undead have 1000% resist to life drain. If you can lower their resist by more than 900%, you can drain from them. I don't know how you could do that, though

[rakshir]

I just want to confirm for you that life drain does damage undead with enough points in necrosis. It's all about vitality resistance and that varies per undead type. If you have 8 points in necrosis you lower resists by about a flat 80%. Skeletons have 150%, so you do 30% damage in Normal. Zombies have 120% so you do 60% damage. Mummies only have 50% so you'll do damage even without necrosis and with the 80% reduction, you do an extra 30%. However, in Epic their resistance increases by 15% and in Legendary, 30%. So ultimately, ternion attack, which is quite powerful, is going to be your best friend against undead if you're using a staff.

[Lobo de hielo]

Hi.

After answering question on Spirit Ward and Spirit Bane. I see a little confusion might set in.
As stated above to use Life Drain and synergies (against undead) you need Necrosis and synergies (get them maxed),find other gear etc that reduces resistances. Dreams Tow reduces all resistances by 40% when maxed.
Life Drain is Vitality damage, Life leech is Life leech (undead and ghosts have 1000% resist to it), there are no skills which give life leech, can only find that on gear.
There is a list in this thread of the resistances undead/ ghosts/ bosses have : https://steamcommunity.com/app/475150/discussions/0/1649919326332552926/

Although it might have changed from last year since it states normal skeletons only having 50% vitality resistance.
Spirit Ward and Spirit Bane are extremely useful against undead.
Plus to use Necrosis you have to be quite close.

P.S. Life Drain plus synergies will only deal the vitality damage, you will not get any Attack damage converted to health from them.

[redgreen999]

Skeletons are very susceptible to fire. You can have a second weapon for them that does some fire and socket it with the relic embodiment/essence etc that adds damage to undead.

[Raynel]

Originally posted by slayor3000:

There is a list in this thread of the resistances undead/ ghosts/ bosses have : https://steamcommunity.com/app/475150/discussions/0/1649919326332552926/

Although it might have changed from last year since it states normal skeletons only having 50% vitality resistance.
Spirit Ward and Spirit Bane are extremely useful against undead.
Plus to use Necrosis you have to be quite close.

P.S. Life Drain plus synergies will only deal the vitality damage, you will not get any Attack damage converted to health from them.

This is exactly the information I was looking for! Thank you.
So it looks like the Life/Soul Drain SKILL (which is what I have been asking about this whole time) is not actually useless against undead, it just does about half damage because it is vitality damage. Therefore, Spirit Bane WOULD help to crank up the damage and have it be at least more useful. That is perfect. I just really love Soul Drain but had a hard time justifying it because I thought it would do 0 damage to undead and constructs. It seems it will be useless against traps but is otherwise at least somewhat effective. Great news. Thank you so much.

[rakshir]

Just a little more clarification lol. Slayor made some important points, notably that while life drain will do vitality damage to undead with necrosis as discussed, the attack damage converted to health will not work. No healing. That's because all attack damage converted to health is resisted by life leech resist. Speaking of life leech, the new spirit skill "soul vortex" does do actual life leech damage. And the resists I listed are generally accurate. The resists listed in the other thread are applied to every undead but each type has their own resists that are added to that. It's easy to test because, for example, no skeleton will be damaged by the "life drain" spell without necrosis. And finally, while fire works great on skeletons and undead, they aren't typically any more vulnerable to it than to the other elements, even though that might make sense.