I use neither Soul Link nor Soul Leech whilst soloing with the VL and I too stay at full heath. It's not the talents that are keeping you healed up, it's the fact that the VL takes very little damage to begin with. Plus, even when he does, it's nothing a Health Funnel can't fix, which is exactly why I don't take Soul Link: losing access to HF sucks.
---------- Post added 2012-10-10 at 05:28 PM ----------
I don't understand the logic behind this. Why would you pop your CDs to only be 50% effective? Sure it places a dot, but you could just do normal damage on the lock, and THEN pop your CDs when DB fades. Now they have a dot, AND 100% of the damage from your CDs, with no shield.