Actually, having thought about it for a couple of more seconds, I think I like the idea of making Flying Boots and Boots of Quickness more difficult to obtain (via higher paths and higher cost) even more than I like the nerfing of the Life Draining weapons.
Flying and Quickness are very important (as demonstrated by the fact every SC has them, along with Luck) and should be difficult to obtain. A Life Draining weapon without Quickness isn't as bad. Non-flying commanders would have to slog through the map to reach you.
If it's pissing everyone off so much, maybe some damage could be given back to the LD weapons? I like the idea of having to increase your attack and damage via other items (or spells) in order to compensate for the weakened LD weapons, though.
On the flip side, I don't want to ruin the game for anyone. If someone really enjoys building flying, quickened, lucky, life draining Bane Lord types, then that's cool. Hey, I'll just keep providing a good target
So, hurry up and blast one another to hell so we can start another game and test all of this out