I think that having discussions like this as a player base is very healthy, so long as we stick to the discussion.
I don't think that breaking something that is working as designed is the right thing to do. I think doing that in order to harmonize. or balance the mud causes more problems than it helps. I too have played on and off for many years and this most recent return to Sloth has been 2019-present where I've leveled two 9x40 chars but not using remort tokens (some think I'm crazy for that, I call it just uninformed
). I have to admit when I came back and someone said "let's go drain" I was like, what is this witchery you speak of?
My characters are not the best drain classes either (Wa/Cl) and (Ba/Ne) but they can, given enough time to find eq and set up the right eqsets. It takes time to do that, and actually not die. I'll be the first to admit, I'm still not great at not dying at vens when I go, either.
I think the suggestion to balance the mobs so that they're not able to be taken advantage of so easily and let people drain during regular group cycles makes good sense. I like the proposal made by Driven. It still keeps the spirit of the spell, and it helps the lower characters without blocking the larger characters from using it.
I also like the idea of optional ways to obtain mana, I think game evolution like that makes good sense as well. Some smart mage worked with some powerful necromancer to turn infuse soul into a mana + hp potion (Improved Infuse Soul). This is a potion solution but unlike what exists it gives the players power to control when they get it - much like energy drain would. Or even a spin off the druid canopy that made it more portable, some type of druid aura that they could pump up the team's mana regen by +25 or something as they go for a few ticks, rather than parking for it.
When you make changes to take away power from something you have a tendency to swing it the other way completely. Now, I have no history that tells me that the person that implemented "Sanctuary for the soul" or "Sanctuary for the body" intended it to work differently than it does, but if they didn't - it makes no sense based on the help files. I could see if it worked as it was written with Bards being able to hold a song throughout battle it would be incredibly powerful especially with the right instrument. As it is now, it's completely unusable solo, and really only benefits big groups at the biggest mobs (ok, I use it on little-ish mobs in big groups too but that's cuz I hate being struck with lightning or burned in fire). Again, I have no history - but in the testing I've done, if this was intended behavior the song writer planned for a huge group of 9x40s to attack big mobs with a character singing this song on repeat to a point they can't do anything else. Seems silly, right? Maybe they meant that or didn't think it through. I think if we take the same stance with energy drain because the vens are not small drains like other mobs in the game we risk ruining the spells intended function.
I also don't like just pumping up non-caster classes and basically using them as defacto healers to just keep going constantly and I do a fair amount of leading larger groups. That's not to say if they come to the group with mana, I won't use it. I think using characters for their prime/second classes makes the most efficient use of their abilities. Now, there are plenty that disagree with me on that and I'm ok with that. We're allowed to have different opinions on things.
I find drain (meaning visiting AH vens) to be really pointless in the bigger groups. Some of the players already buying and having mana that regens super-fast or spent time designing their character intended for groups means we can flow for a long time without drain. In fact, leading several quest sized groups I almost never go there, it's counterproductive for big groups - as mentioned dead players and non-casters end up with less mana than they started with. That said, the mages that follow me often run empty after an area or two until we pass a mob they can drain, or they go off and drain themself, or they hold off casting and regen as we run, which they then miss out on possible xps/gold/honor/etc.
All of this to say I think there are likely good ways to fix the vens without breaking the ability to drain within the game. It may mean that the primary way to get mana shifts, which isn't necessarily bad as long as enough ability remains to make solo draining possible.
(P.S. If you do go to work for Blizzard, cnl- let me know if they need QE directors)