Was thinking about how to make Vampiric Touch casting a bit less of a hassle, so this is not a fix, but rather just something to make things more interesting.
So my proposition is that make Vampiric Touch channel ability with the same cast time, nothing changed in that, but make it so that half of the duration gives the debuffs to the target with 1/4 of the original duration and the rest when the cast time is over, similar to the evokers Empowered ability. (the pain debuff would only be added when the spell ends)
TLDR : Spice up Vampiric Touch to : Same cast time, channel, give quarter of duration in half of cast time, give remaining at the end + Pain debuff.
This way you can get some better built-up, but not that much that would make you op, yet you don’t feel so bad about a bad cast and can still make some use of it.
I know it is a situational thing, and also situations are the ones that make things interesting.
In a way there are other spells ingame that could handle this treatment, but cannot think of one at the moment, what do you think?
ps. it’s ok to give negative comments, just interested in your opinions. (community)