First priest poll! Knives are drawn as we enter an all-out battle between vampiric weapons. Which is the best? Will leave-me-alone-or-I-cut-myself Vampire Blade take home the trophy? No less than four legendaries this time, and I don't have any of them yet. Ah well. The nominees are: Brightblood Glaive (Legendary 18) Polearm Slash / Shredding Strike / 2x Consuming Touch / Inspiring Presence / Consecrate Ground Bynzer's Black Spear (Legendary 12) Mass Frenzy / Touch Of Death / 4x Spear Of Darkness Draining Dagger (Epic 10) 2x Invigorating Touch / Lunging Strike / Consuming Touch / 2x Mind Worm Inkdark Halberd (Epic 12) Polearm Slash / 2x Bludgeon / 2x Spear Of Darkness / Inspiring Presence Knife Of St. Blenko (Legendary 15) 2x Penetrating Lunge / 2x Spear Of Darkness / 2x Inspiring Presence Lifesuck Spear (Uncommon 16) Impaling Stab / Devastating Blow / 2x Enervating Touch / 2x Lunging Strike St. Forgue's Sword (Rare 13) Invigorating Touch / Reaching Swing / Lunging Strike / Consuming Touch / Demonic Power / Mind Worm St. Portia's Maul (Legendary 6) 3x Strong Bludgeon / 3x Consuming Touch Vampire's Blade (Rare 2) 2x Invigorating Touch / Consuming Touch / Draining Touch / 2x Loner Honorable Mentions that didn't make the cut: Cleansing Morningstar, Darkblood Glaive, Enervating Spear, Gloomthirst, Hefty Mace, Pearl-handled Glaive, Spear Of St. Qaith, St. Xarol's Mace, Virescent Spear, White Halberd
St. Portia's Maul. Only half its attacks are vampiric, but it requires no token and carries no Loner baggage. I have one, and would like to have 6.
St. Portia's Maul is okay in low-level singleplayer where Loner randomly kills you amongst swarms of kobolds or goblins, but in PvP Loner is almost all upside. Bynzer's Black Spear is tempting, but I outsource all my frenzy to a second priest, so drawing Mass Frenzy on my vampire is often just drawing a dead card. Brightblood, Bynzer's, Inkdark, and St. Forgue's all have cards you don't really want and none of them fit the vampire as well as Vampire's Blade does. St. Blenko's is sweet but your vampire is always going to be face-to-face with the enemy, drawing them cards... Lifesuck is the second-best, I think, for a striker, and I use it conjunction with the Vampire's Blade.
You nailed it, O Vampiric Guru. Like Trip, Loner isn't too bad unless it gets you killed, and both seem more dangerous in SP. I only play SP, and my priests are usually dwarf or human. (I still run elves once in a while, and the vampire is the most durable.) Aside from instances where blunt weapons don't work, St. Portia's Maul has served me well up to level 17, which is as far as I've gotten around to playing the campaign so far. I swap it out I need to, but it's the first position in my standard priest load-out for levels 1 and up. I've had good results with Lifesuck Spear at levels where the tokens are available.
