Leech

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A blade forged in Hell by the sacrifice of countless tortured souls. It fills its wielder with the rage and suffering of those souls, and gorges itself further on drained life force every time it strikes, leaving behind a mess of blood and gore.

the +8 demon blade "Leech"

+8 demon blade

Vampiric brand, activated on every hit
Harm
Drains wielder on unequip
rN+
Creates sprays of blood when striking opponents that bleed

Desirability

Leech, as a +8 vampiric demon blade, is already a nice thing to have. The vampiric effect activates 100% of the time, which makes this artefact even better.

However, the Harm property is a mixed bag. It makes you deal more damage, which increases health steal, but it also makes you take more damage. When you aren't attacking (when approaching a ranged enemy, when retreating...), Harm is a net negative. Also, Harm is poor when fighting multiple monsters: you only hit one monster, but multiple monsters hit you.

Undead, demonic, and nonliving foes are unaffected by vampirism. In places where these monsters are common, like Zot and extended, you may want to use a different weapon. Even with the HP drain, swapping is worth it.

Leech has a few synergies:

• Demonspawn with the Ignite Blood mutation will appreciate how Leech constantly sprays burning blood everywhere.
• Your spells also benefit from the Harm property. For 'pure' casters, magical staves are likely better - staves can provide a similar damage increase without any downside.
• Manifold Assault lets you hit multiple enemies from a distance, increasing the value of lifesteal, and partially mitigating Harm's dwonsides.

History

• Prior to 0.28, Leech had both evocable and random rage instead of Harm and *Drain.
• Prior to 0.25, Leech had -3 AC and EV instead of its berserking properties.
• Prior to 0.19, Leech's AC and EV costs were only -2, and it had -2 Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity.
• Prior to 0.15, Leech's stat, AC and EV costs were only -1.
• Prior to 0.14, Leech's vampiric effect was only activated on 60% of all attacks, like all other vampiric weapons.