Just wondering, if I'm playing Venom with Vampirism, and I'm attacking on his click with BCF and a natural 3 damage, I would generally not use the BCF and stick with my 3 damage. Would this also negate the use of Steal Energy, since I'm "turning off" the BCF, or would I still be able to use it, since the power is still present on the dial?

Thanks for the help.

No, you do not have to use BCF. Cancelling a power is not the same as countering; the power, though 'turned off' is still present on the dial. As such, it can still be used to meet the prerequistes of a feat.

it would not you would just need BCF on the dial, it does not require you to use BCF (at this time) otherwise it would say "when this charter uses BCF, The character can use Steal Energy if it can't already. "

Thanks for the help, guys.

Another step of clarification -- I'm forever being confused by when an attack and an action end up being important factors in a ruling. (Please bear with me.) I did a quick search but didn't find this answered:

B/C/F starts with giving the character a close combat action.

Steal Energy refers to damage taken from a close combat attack.

Since the initial close combat action would be used to make an attack, my expectation is that were I to use the B/C/F with Vampirism it would work (provided the piece attacked took damage), but I just wanted to make sure the language doesn't preclude this. This B/C/F & Steal Energy combination wasn't allowed as part of the original PAC, of course, so it's not a combination we had to consider prior to this Feat, and for all I know the designer of the Vampirism Feat may have specifically wanted to force us to choose between the relatively reckless swing of a Blades attack and a more focused one for Steal Energy.

I'd much prefer to ask this here rather than wait until I'm in a game and decide to roll the dice on B/C/F, roll a high enough damage to have the opposing piece take it, and someone lawerly to declare that the "action" vs. "attack" elements would keep it from working, so no healing for Venom (or Wolverine, or whoever.)

Thanks in advance.

All close combat actions result in close combat attacks.

Soooo.... the answer is yes, that Vampirism will work regardless of whether I use B/C/F or just make a straight close combat attack, so long as damage is taken by the opposing figure?

Right. See my original post.

Good! Thanks.

It was implied there (in bold):
...but not explicitly stated, and the focus of the initial question was the flip side of what I was asking, so I wanted to be sure. (Granted, had it been otherwise someone would have probably pounced on you a few moments later... but I like to pin these things down.)

Thanks again -- both of you!

Well, that's where Harpua's post comes in to play. Since close combat actions always lead to a close combat attack, if you did give your character close combat action (which then activated BCF) your character would then make a close combat attack (which, if damage was taken by the target) would activate Steal Energy.