Can someone plz tell me, before i drop a lot of coin on one of these weapons, does the effect HP drain mean that I will drain the amount of HP that I hit for (same as drk 2hr?), or is it just random like the mp drain?
No, that's not how it works at all. You will occasionally have a HP drain effect, in ADDITION to your normal attacks. And no, the Drain effect does not drain as much as you hit for, but a smaller percent. Bloodsword seems to drain 30% or so of what you hit for when used on TWW.
The drain effect is based off your Skill level of the weapon you are using. There is a rumor that it is also based off your enhancing skill and your int... However, my rdm is not high enough for me to test it. I can say however, that *ALL* melee weapons are GREATLY nerfed. For the most part I have found that they are only good for farming and not for EXP pts. This is due to the fact that, especially at lower lvls, the weapon does not trigger for squat (anywhere from 1 out of 10 to 1 out of (seriously) 100 strikes). They also appear to have their drain capped rather low as well.
Now, the exception to the rule is the Bolts. These deal almost no dmg. However, as your marksmanship increases their drain amount increases. At level 40 thf I am draining 50-80 hp per hit on all mobs <IT++. IT++ I drain 30-60.
And, the HP that you drain is taken from their life and given to you as HP. As long as the mob has 1 HP after the physical dmg the weapon will proc, and you will recieve the full amount of HP*
* Full HP is the 50-80 up to your full HP.
Personally, I do not know why any warrior would not have these, even if they are not tanking. Just imagine, if you get hit by a mob for 40 points of dmg, you just shoot a crossbow bolt or 2 and you are back up to full hp. WHM no longer needs to cure you. They are like a free cure below lvl 40, and begin to approach cure 2 at level 40. On top of that, think of the amount of dmg you are dealing... With a good quick crossbow you deal 10-15 pnts dmg to an IT mob, and drain 50 hp for a total of about 60 dmg with a delay of only 300-400. Now they are only practical if you are getting hit, and generate full TP for the mob you are hitting (ranged attacks do not get the benefit of Subtle blow), and generated 2x hate (you get the hate from the dmg, and from the healing... I have tested this, and yes you DEFINATELY get more hate from draining then from just dealing that kind of dmg... My point of comparison was using a gun,which deals similiar dmg, and I would get hate much faster as a thf from the crossbow... and the fact that it shoots twice as fast... so if I would have shot as fast as I could it would have been much worse).
Now rangers I dont see much of a point to using these since everyone likes to see a bow in a rngs hands, and well, bows do deal more dmg then crossbows.
Anyways, that's my short lecture on the use of HP Drain:) I hope to see more ppl using these:)
War's marksmanship is.. how you say... "Gimp". It'll take about 6-7 shots to get back your hp XD. Most difficult to hit. But it's nice in ballista etc.