[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Cheezeninja:
If anything makes lifedrain overpowered, its just the fact that it cannot be resisted.

Lifedrain doesn't accomplish very much, as far as the caster is concerned, when employed against lifeless targets: While damage is caused, the caster gets nothing back.

The fact that it still causes both regular and fatigue damage, even against lifeless targets, of course, makes it extremely attractive even there, even if the attacker gets nothing.

It was norfleet who suggested DE's were nigh indestuctable by assassins, and he wasn't making a cost optimization claim, so I'm not sure what your point is....

Mages in general can be very difficult to kill, particularly if their paths are offensively oriented: Death is particularly good at this, as it doesn't really have anything that's "useless" that the mage can cast, unlike other paths.

To further exacerbate the issue, of course, Dusk Elders are also physically powerful, being possessed of a high defense stat, good hitpoints, etherealness, and a lifedrain attack.

The spell "Drain Life" is actually D4, and out of the reach of a stock Dusk Elder unless its random is in Death. This is not a concern which makes DEs difficult to kill, although killing staffed Elders becomes that much more difficult because of this.

Nor is a Dusk Elder "nigh indestructible": C'tissian Empoisoners do a good job of assassinating undead commanders....but Dusk Elders are mean, period.

Rabe, who is familiar with Sauromancer Spam.

Sauromancers aren't easy to kill either, but they do lack the Dusk Elder's host of innate defenses and potent attacks.