User blog comment:Scudmarx/CCC5 - Venor, the Bloodseeker/@comment-26055105-20140913073318/@comment-533780-20140913101641

Thanks for the feedback! You're right for sure, that was sort of my intention but maybe I went too far in that direction. (Actually if anything it's his kit that was an afterthought rather than the item!)

I didn't want his item to be just a sixth ability that takes up an item slot, I wanted it to feel like an actual item and be a 'nice extra' rather than a 'fundamental piece of his kit'. The moment his kit starts to reference the item, the item stops being an optional extra I think and becomes something essential (it may well be essential in terms of playing the character to its utmost, but it shouldn't be essential for actually being able to play them how they're designed to be played). Hence I leaned more towards being a good synergistic item rather than a binary, mechanical set of effects.

So that's why the blood vial and his kit don't reference eachother, but perhaps I went too far and made it seem entirely unrelated to him. I'll ponder alternatives, thanks!