I used to like Vampire a lot in 1998 or so when I was first playing DK1 back as a kid, mainly cuz I thought Vampires were awesomely hawt creatures.
However, the Vampire DPS really sucks as compared to Dark Mistress, who with Haste + Drain alone does x2 damage, only she also has Lightning added to the Mix. She's obtainable earlier on, doesn't involve complications of dead bodies, and is much cheaper.
So, what are we paying for? Sure Immortality is awesome, but isn't it a relatively useless thing to have? Its not that its not good, its just that by the time you can afford to keep a few Vampires, special maps aside you probably won't be having them dying on you.
Was thinking, would it make sense to remove Immortality / reduce it to 1 extra Life at level 10, and add Lightning to Vampire? Or simply replace Drain with Lightning (so it does more damage but slightly less survivability in its main "Moving Tank" role). Its final DPS would not be higher than a Dark Mistress with Haste, but it'd be a lot more useful.
Edit : I can easily do this on my own installation, just wondering what other players think.