Actually very outdated at this point, you need to maintain 99 necromancy for VE, chivalry is less effective at lower skill levels, and tactics is required for weapon specials, just off the top of my head. Oh, and evasion had a re-use timer added as well.
The basic concept that Baghdaddy eventually changed to, Vampiric Embrace on a warrior, is still incredibly useful on the majority of monsters in the game though, I'd definitely recommend checking out some more recent topics in the forum. You can even get similar results with a 100% life leech weapon via reforging now, and drop necromancy completely.