Can someone give me some tips on draining mana? Should I use drain
mana I or a higher level spell? Also which creatures is it effective
to use this against? It doesn't seem to work too well on Dires
drudges but what creatures are good targets for draining mana during
a fight?

-Alex

Anything with 300+ mana is a good drain mana target. This includes:

ALL forms of shadows.
Banderling Maulers
Banderling Enforcers

That's about it, that I've found is worth fighting.

Stick to Drain Mana I, it'll give you 70-80 mana back for the first
few drains off each of these monsters.

Ben

Works well against Virindi Servants too.
I get 80+ for the first one.

I also use Mana Drain I, but have been
wondering if a higher level might be
beneficial.

I was going to wait until my life hits 250,
then try higher levels. Currently, I think
the extra mana cost of the higher levels,
combined with the resists makes it cost
prohibitive.

What I've found very very effective against
dires drudges is the following:
1) target drudge
2) if drudge is uninjured, cast health to mana II or III
3) drain away
4) once mana is more than 100 pts from max,
cast Stam to Mana III, then drain mana I.

repeat steps 3&4, switch to Harm I and II appropriately.

You can get away with one health to mana on each drudge.
The first two stam to mana/drain stam combos will be very effective,
much less so after that.

I can attack 2 drudge lurkers with maybe 20 mana and come out
of it with 4400xp, full health and nearly full mana and stam.

My draining spellbar is:
1) Drain Health I
2) Health to Mana II
3) Drain Stam I
4) Stam to Mana III
5) Drain Mana I
6) Harm Other I
7) Harm Other II
8) Harm Other III
9) Lifestone recall

You kind of move up the keyboard as the attack continues.
I think it works very well.

Drain Ho Tip of the Day:
If you're somewhere waiting for a spawn, with one or more
other drain ho's then the key is to get the first drain.
Even better, the first two.
What you HAVE to do is anticipate the spawn. When you feel
its about time, start hammering your drain spell and the ';'
key. So, I'm sending 1;1;1;1;1;1;1;1;1;1;1;1;1;1;1;1;1

Your first drain will go off before the spawn appears on radar
and before the name appears as a selected target. All the
other serious drain ho's are doing this. I've seen this several
times:
Misc Drain Ho says ";1;1;1;1;1;"
Misc Drain Ho says "oops"