I looked at this and figured it was a ranged version of Siphon Life and I remember that sucking horribly. The end cost alone was enough to make me avoid it to be honest. Maybe it could be good with 3 heal, 2 recharge and 1 end reducer? But then you'd not be slotting accuracy. It looks to me like a power that would need way more slots than is possible to make it really useful.
I'd seriously consider it if it was a ranged AE heal that worked along the same lines as Dark Regeneration. As it is... nah.
The only powers I'm planning on taking from Necromancy are the pets and the pet buffs.
Works for me 
not sure which power or pool you are looking at. if its dark miasma, then you have one healing power twilight grasp which is probably the best heal in the game with its super amount of healing plus its accuracy reduction, downside being it needs an enemy and to hit before it goes off, or there is howling twilight which does extremely minimal damage( don't even think of bothering to slot a damage enhancement in it, thats a waste of a good slot) but causes a variety of extremely useful debuffs on your opponent and also rezzes any team mates within reach. Again, it is more powerful than the standard healer rez as it requires a to hit roll and an opponent but it is the only rez which will give full health and endurance back to multiple dead team mates in one go. try using recall friend to stack your dead mates in a corner and cast it whilst standing over their corpses. It is a little end heavy, but hey, you're a mastermind not a brute. What the heck are you doing in combat draining end? Thats what the minions are for 
the life drain comes with the zombie pool
oh i see. not noticed it before and not played it so can't comment.....
forget my previous post, i'm an idiot
To my awareness, life drain offers less healing, costs more endurance, has a longer recharge, doesn't offer the damage debuff and has an inferior accuracy debuff to Twilight Grasp from the Dark Miasma set. Twilight Grasp is also AoE. Of course if you don't have Dark Miasma as a secondary, this isn't much help to you, but all in all, it is just an inferior power, in every conceivable way, to another. Can you say 'balance'?
@Hakeswell
Union Ilservian, Evinlea
Defiant Expeditor, Hakeswell
Arc: 70119 Hellion Initiation
ok, so its decided,
LIFE DRAIN IS USELESS!!!
well it is if you are necro/dm like me
looks like im taking a trip to the respec
Dont bother with the attack pwers in the primarys they suck attacks are what your pets are there for.
I actually find having a couple of attack powers is really useful as a back up. Last night i entered a mission and the goons were right by the door as i entered. They started firing straight away and my health plummeted as i tried to summon my lvl 3 pet.
After making a hasty retreat i tried again, same result. Third time i ran in, all buffs up and running and just shot the 2 culprits near the door. THEN i summoned my pets and completed the mission as normal. I'm not saying that everyone should take some sort of attack power, but to balance your character there are times when you do need to be able to do damage on your own and if you don't have the option then faceplant is a distinct possibility.
General Deathbringer, level 31 merc/ dark miasma Mastermind
I'm not sure running comparisons of LIfe drain vs Twilight Grasp are relevant to be honest. It is what it is....a moderate damage slow recharge attack on Necromancy...it damages the enemy a bit and heals you a bit. If you haven't taken Dark Miasma for Twilight Grasp then the ability to heal yourself some is fairly usefull.
I took two of the attack powers on Ninja's - Aimed Shot and Fistfull of Arrows and have found them highly usefull, I use them quite a lot. As for this idea that as a MM were not an endurance AT...I don't get it. Try running Assault, Tactics, Manouvers, Shadowfall, combat jumping and holding a Darkest Night on an enemy then toss a coupla smokebombs and see what happens to your end.
My job as a mastermind (and I'm sure there are many ways to play) is to maintain my Ninja's effectiveness and lifespan with healing and buffs and then maximise the jounins damage with smokebombs and then join in with arrows and debuffs as appropriate.
If I had Necromancy and no DM, I would take the Life drain.
Oh I agree a mastermind should have one or two attacks in his arsenal for special occasions and whatnot - I find the 3rd power in the primary, available at lvl 2, to generally be a good choice.
But I certainly wouldn't agree that life drain is a good attack or a good heal. It only heals yourself, not your pets, its damage is comparable to dark blast, despite having a much longer recharge and a much higher endurance cost. If you slot it for damage, it'll be a terrible heal, if you slot it as a heal it will be a terrible attack and if you slot it for both then it'll just be very bad at both.
I did find a space for siphon life on my scrapper, as a fast recharging self-heal and accuracy debuff to slot in from time to time when other powers were recharging just to keep my health topped up, but I don't see Life Drain as being at all useful on a mastermind who already has to sacrifice some good powers to make room for better powers. It is quite simply a sub-par power.
EDIT: I suppose it might be vaguely useful in PvP, slotted for healing and accuracy debuffs, being as players tend not to be so easily fooled into fighting minions. But again, only if you don't have dark miasma as secondary.
@Hakeswell
Union Ilservian, Evinlea
Defiant Expeditor, Hakeswell
Arc: 70119 Hellion Initiation
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But I certainly wouldn't agree that life drain is a good attack or a good heal.
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I didn't say it was a good heal or a good attack I said it was a moderate damage slow recharge power that heals some.
It is what it is. In terms of the healing you have to juggle depending on what secondaries etc you have taken.
Ninja on the primary get no heal for pets or themselves.
Necros have pets that ultimately heal themselves and also get an average self heal with lifedrain.
Robots seem to have the best of it actually with a Medic Bot and also the repair skill.
Mercs, get a medic who heals everyone including the MM (correct me on that one).
In secondaries.
Dark Miasma....Fat PBAOE heal.
Poisons....Alkaloid single heal anyone
Traps...Triage beacon, wierd regen based plantable PBAOE healer.
Trick Arrow..none to my knowledge.
Other than Medicine with aid other and aid self there are no healing options. So I would personally say that Lifedrain offers a potential attack which offers 'some' healing if thats what you want to fill up a power. Its not a mainline heal by anymeans.
hey
ive taken life drain and i havent really slotted anything more than 1 DO health. tbh im not very impressed with it. doesnt seem to have too much effect on enemies, the heal aint all that great and it takes ages to recharge.
now before everyone jumps on me going, if you aint slotted it or course itll be [censored], i just want someone elses opinion on it.