Question About Lifesteal

How exactly does the attribute "Lifesteal" work? I have a small idea of how it does, but I think someone that's more experienced with that stat should tell me.

Example: 46/3 lifesteal. What does that do?

 

you get hp when you hit something

 

I think it's 46 hp over 3 seconds asuming you're hitting something.

I think.

 

What about Negative life steal ?

 

I know that lifesteal obviously steals hp from enemies, I just want to know exactly how it works. Like is it similar to poison? Or every 3 seconds I get a certain amount of health?

 

Lifesteal has a chance to activate whenever you hit any mob with a basic melee attack or exploding. It does not seem to given hp over time despite the /3s marker.
EDIT: with 46/3s lifesteal, every time you hit a mob with a basic attack, you have a chance to gain 46 hp. (Stacks with large groups)

 

Ok.

Let's say we have 100/4s lifesteal.

The "100" is the amount of health restored when lifesteal activates. The "/4s" is approximately how often lifesteal activates.

Every time you attack a mob, there is a random chance to trigger lifesteal and give x amount of health (100 in this example). If your attack speed is slower, you're more likely to trigger lifesteal with each hit than a faster weapon. In the end, lifesteal will activate, on average, once every ~4 seconds.

Lifesteal seems to take effect on a per-mob basis. If 10 mobs are cluttered in one space and you attack them all (unless you're playing archer and can only hit one mob at a time), your lifesteal has a chance to give health with every mob you hit. If you have a high enough lifesteal (and preferably some kind of defense), it's possible to survive incredible amounts of time if you're being swarmed.

Lifesteal will not trigger on spells (except for war scream, although that is likely a bug).

If your lifesteal is negative, you will lose health when lifesteal activates. Knucklebones is a great example for that scenario.