[Mardagg]

I have to repeat here,that u cant really compare partial life draining to reinvigoration/regeneration items.
Also,isnt the item spell full life drain?

-There are certain opponents where life drain doesnt work
-U have to hit first and then do damage for life drain to work

Coupled with the fact,that the stats of the Wraith Sword are pretty bad,this generally makes it far inferior as a choice for solving solely Reinvig/Regen issues vs the other items doing that.
Also,since its 2 handed you are missing out the 2nd hand slot for getting e.g. another misc slot(ring of regen).

Generally i want to make many 2h melee items and some 1h melee items a better choice by improving the stats and by slightly nerfing the fire/frost brand.
Its not my intention to just do a "simple" nerf here, even though they surely do offer too much for the price.

As it stands i would say,that nerfing the fire brand to say 6AP base damage and nerfing the frost brand to say 12 base damage, without improving the others,would still make them the top choice as an all around weapon, by far,and as such wouldnt change much except for some raider nations like you said,Eriu for example.
Thats a bad idea and therefore just 1 piece of the puzzle.
If you leave them as they are and just improve the other weapons u would have to make several 2h weapons actually very overpowered so that they are able to replace the brands in many situations.