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xxAIMxx 		November 6th, 2012 at 6:44am To start let me say that I usually play a barb with smash spec. 59% crit chance, and my crits fall between 600k and 1.2mil with HotA:Smash. Needless to say, Lifesteal is an important stat for me.

So prior to 1.05, the way health link worked was you would deal full damage to each of the monsters in the elite pack with the affix, and then the HP would be redistributed among the monsters within a certain range. It seemed to work well to me, but whatever.

Now, Post 1.05, Health link has been changed, and as far as I can tell, it was an undocumented change, since I didn't see anything in the patch notes. The way it works now is, the damage you deal is immediately divided by the number of monsters in the elite pack so your attack will only deal 1/3 to 1/4 damage (depending on how many monsters there are) and it affects the monsters anywhere on the map, even if they are far apart. The overall affect is the same as far as how much damage the monsters take (unless you relyed on a strategy to split them up in order to bypass the affix), BUT this winds up being a HUGE nerf to anyone who relys on Lifesteal to sustain themselves in these long fights with monsters that have 50million HP. Lifesteal only heals you for the damage numbers you do, and it only accounts for the primary hit you deal on the main target. Therefore, if you only hit 1 target in a Health-Link pack with an ability, you are only getting 1/3-1/4 of your normal lifesteal (on top of 80% lifesteal reduction in inferno).

What I want to know is, was this change meant to make Health-Link packs much more difficult for people who rely on lifesteal to keep themselves alive? Health-Link is for me, the worst affix a monster can have. Not because I try to focus 1 target down as quickly as possible, but when you are used to getting 20k+ hp back when you crit and that number is cut by 2/3, you REALLY feel it. Is lifesteal (along with reflect dmg) supposed to be the most challenging affix for people with high gear levels?

It seems to me that this is an unintended affect since they didn't try to nerf lifesteal any other way, but I would really like someone who knows to respond to this.

Edit: accidentally said reflect damage a couple times when I meant health-link. Brain is going too many directions at once.
Lylirra 		December 11th, 2012 at 4:49am We didn't make any changes to way Health Link works in 1.0.5. To clarify, this is how the affix should function:

1. You hit a monster with the Health Link affix.

2. If you successfully deal damage, that monster checks for any other monsters with the Health Link affix that are nearby (nearby = 50 yards).

3. If there are monsters nearby, the damage amount is immediately divided equally with them.

4. If there aren't any monsters nearby, that damage isn't shared and is taken fully by the monster you hit.

Now, there is bug that's currently active that makes it so that Life Steal isn't as effective against monsters with the Health Link affix (the amount of life stolen is diminished when attacking Health Linked monsters), which could account for what you've experienced.

(Sorry to chime in a bit late on this thread, but this was something I wanted to check on with both QA and our development teams. I hope you'll forgive my necro!)
Lylirra 		December 11th, 2012 at 4:53am
12/10/2012 08:52 PMPosted by DOWNFALL
GO FORTH AND READ BLUE


Stop spamming, duder. Also, why are we yelling? =/
Lylirra 		December 11th, 2012 at 5:34am
12/10/2012 09:22 PMPosted by figgins42
This doesn't appear to be mentioned? am I wrong? Please direct me elsewhere if so.


Nah, you're not wrong. I'll hit up our resident QA representative tomorrow and let him know that the list appears to be a little out of date (the bug was confirmed pretty recently, but I agree that having accurate and up-to-date info is very important).
Lylirra 		December 12th, 2012 at 12:47am
12/10/2012 10:43 PMPosted by TheTias
So the bug regarding life steal is basically that instead of its intended behaviour, which is to have all parts of the reallocated damage count as coming from the player, only the initial reduced damage to the primary target is being counted as "by the player", and the other distributed damage amounts to nearby mobs is being counted as "by the primary target", thus not counted as damage total for use in the life steal returns formula, yes?


More or less. With this particular bug, you're basically only receiving Life back for the damage done to a single enemy in a Health Link pack (i.e. the amount after it's been distributed) rather than the full damage you dealt with the attack to the pack as a whole.

Numbers wise, players are probably receiving about 1/3 less Life back on average when attacking Health Link monsters.
Lylirra 		December 12th, 2012 at 12:49am
12/11/2012 04:27 PMPosted by xxAIMxx
Any idea on when a fix for lifesteal with health link would be available? Is this a hotfixable thing or do we have to wait for a patch?


I'm honestly not sure. We're still looking into possible solutions, so I can't say if can be hotfixed just yet or when a fix will be available.

12/10/2012 09:58 PMPosted by figgins42
Thank you.


Just an FYI, this issue has been added to the Known Issues list. :)