Heart of Life is, without a question, one of the most generally useful artifacts in the game.  It is effectively a portable crystal.  For 4250 gold, is will almost completely refill the HP and Mana of most characters in a few seconds out of combat.  There's continued debate one whether it is unbalanced, and I strongly suspect it will be nerfed in a future patch.

Nice as it is, though, it's not a universal necessity.  For some play-styles and demigod builds, it's not the most efficient use of gold.  4250g can buy a lot of useful stuff.  The aim of this thread is to list some of the situations where you're better off without.

• Any character capable of self-healing might be better off with mana regen items.  The Vlemish Faceguard and Scaled Helm give a total of +20 mp/s, for 2300g, which can make a tower Rook self-sufficient with Structural Transfer (in my experience, Rook can get along fine with just the 550g helm - big time savings over the HoL).  I don't have much experience with Sedna, but I suspect that she can become self-sufficient as well, for substantially less than the cost of a HoL.
   
  
• HoL only heals if you're out of combat.  This means you must be able to escape or win.  If you're playing a slow demigod (Rook again springs to mind) or against demigods who are speed oriented, escape may not be an option without the use of portal scrolls.  In this case, you might be better off boosting your combat capabilities with armor/health or damage/attack speed.
   
  
• HoL is interrupted by damage.  A good Regulus can mark you with a tracking device, and Snipe you midheal.  An Unclean Beast can plague you and lock down your HoL for 30 seconds, or spit at you for 10.  I've also seen someone get hit by Rook's trebuchet from well out of sight range, mid-heal.  If you're fighting against a Sniper Regulus or Beast that uses Plague, you might be better off upping health and health regen.
   
  
• The main value of HoL lies in saving you trips home.  If you're using the Amulet of Teleportation favor item, you can go home for free.  Although you still lose some time, generally at least part of that time is productive - shopping and purchasing citadel upgrades.  If you're using the Amulet of Teleportation, than you don't need the HoL nearly as much.
   
• If you're playing on a map with multiple crystals (Exile and Mandala), the need for an HoL is somewhat alleviated.  Very frequently, on those maps, you can port/run to the nearest crystal and run back to the front with little lost time.  Exile, in particular, has a surplus of conveniently located crystals.
   
  
• Finally, if you look down at your status bar, and notice that you've made 15k gold since you last went back to base, you probably can live without the HoL.  Buy an artifact instead, and continue to humiliate your oponents with style.

Any additional suggestions/comments/cautions/disagreements?