What does negative mana steal do?

Title, I'm honestly not sure if it's a bad thing like i've tested it and haven't seen anything bad but I want to know for certain that it isn't harming my build.

 

mana steal has a chance to trigger when you melee an enemy - the chance varies based on your attack speed such that if you melee constantly it should trigger roughly once every 3 seconds

if you have negative mana steal you will lose that much mana when it triggers - if you have a spellspam build this effectively just hinders your ability to use powder specials

 

ok thanks ill try finding a way to subside it with rings and stuff

 

You're playing a mage, so I would be very careful about negative stealing ids.

The reason is that mana steak triggers per mob hit, and mage hits a lot of mobs. Due to this you can easily find yourself draining your mana by a much larger amount than expected if going against multiple mobs. Remember, attacking even just one extra mob doubles your mana steal. Imagine what a boss with minions could do.