I’ve been playing Mage Spellblade.
I find the mana leech from mana strike often does not apply. I am also using star guide skill passive (automatic targetting). When I aim I don’t aim far away from enemies; I still aim on them.
It is not a matter of passives reducing the leech; I have tested on a dummy to see how fast mana returns and compared to enemies and it is significantly different. Even though I see damage being done to enemies, often my mana doesn’t rapidly increase like it does on a dummy (unless I aim in a special way, more on that below).
I have tested where I aim to see if it makes a difference and it definitely does. I have found that if I aim at the very front of an enemy so it hits at the front of where I imagine their hitbox is (or where they are moving ‘to’), I successfully regain mana. However when I aim directly atop of them the mana leech often misses despite still hitting (doing damage).
I also have 1 point into spirit blade which increases the aoe of mana strike. Perhaps this aoe effect is affecting the damage aoe hitbox but not the mana leech hitbox?
For now I do my best to adjust my aim, but it is annoying.