Guild Wars 2

Necro life siphon sucks, we can all agree on that right?
So i have been pondering a bit when jumping around between my tanky control staff & Dagger/WH build and Glassy rampager setup and in most cases what would work for one build wouldnt work for the other, so here is something that came up that could work for both.

Vampiric/Siphon in general – True damage (not increased % boosts and ignores armor), cannot proc more than 25 times pre second, gives life for 2/3 of the damage delt, its damage doesnt trigger retaliation (normal hit still does), doesnt trigger on crits
(0.071 * Power) and (0.045 * Healing Power) ratios that play off eachother, increasing the siphon you will gain directly with each stat (as in you get 7% of the healing power as a free damage additionand increasing power gives 5% of it as healing)

Traits
Bloodlust (turns 2/3 of siphon to 1/3 ratio and increases healing power scailing to 0.11) – benefits healing power based builds, removes “op” potential by clerics gear triple dipping into it having potential to outheal conditions and retaliation
Vampiric Precision (critical hits siphon for (0.063 * Precision) 1:1 health gain to damage delt) – allows for siphon for crit users (rabid, knight, rampager and zerker) without having to go more than 10 points into the blood magic tree on a good ratio.
Vampiric Rituals (Wells siphon for 200 damage pre tick healing for half the value, increasing the amount siphoned by 4% enemy in well; 208 damage 104 heal on 1,. 240 damage 120 heal if 5 people in well, nearby allies in wells also benefit from siphon healing) – support like aoe healing, rewards good well placement with better damage, isnt limited to build.
Second grandmaster blood trait (and fuse kitten fetrid consumption with Necromantic corrption, swap rituals of protection with vampiric minion master) – Nearby allies (900 range) get healed (40 + 0.01 * Healing power) each time the necromancer siphons health (doesnt affect necromancer, but does minions)

Non trait line related:
Life siphon (Same as current, but damage/siphon ignores armor) – it does have lower net damage than all other 9 tick attacks

Signet of the Locust, no time, stun break, Active: Surround yourself in a protective cloud of locusts that siphon 10% of enemy damage for 10 seconds (gain 10% of enemy damage delt as healing before armor and % reduction effects, 10% damage reduction).

Active wasnt that useful either way (despite 1:1 healing power ratio, being locked/not a ground targeted aoe and doing virtually no damage even with max power), so making it a defensive skill that forces a choice between small mobility and defensive play, also allowing enemy players to use the time to kite/giving counter play with the movement speed downtime.

Yes, I agree life siphoning sucks (pun intended; there’s a bit of necro humor for you ).

Would I like to see this suggestion implemented? Most definitely YES!

Should it be implemented (as written)? No.

Why not?

Let’s examine the first suggested change:

Vampiric/Siphon in general – True damage (not increased % boosts and ignores armor), cannot proc more than 25 times pre second, gives life for 2/3 of the damage delt, its damage doesnt trigger retaliation (normal hit still does), doesnt trigger on crits
(0.071 * Power) and (0.045 * Healing Power) ratios that play off eachother, increasing the siphon you will gain directly with each stat (as in you get 7% of the healing power as a free damage additionand increasing power gives 5% of it as healing)

Now, let’s assume I strike an opponent with a full dagger chain using this revamped Vampiric trait (we’ll assume I don’t make any critical hits, we’ll use the damage listed in the Wiki with no additional modifiers, we won’t take attack/power into account, and we’ll use my current power and healing power stats of 2008 and 330, respectively, for the additional healing coefficients you listed):

Necrotic Slash (strikes twice): 302 damage (x2)

302 × 2/3 = 199 life siphoned
2008 × 0.071 = 143 life siphoned
330 × 0.045 = 15 life siphoned
Sub-total = 357 life siphoned

As Necrotic Slash strikes twice, this equals 714 life siphoned.

Necrotic Stab: 235 damage

235 × 2/3 = 155 life siphoned
2008 × 0.071 = 143 life siphoned
330 × 0.045 = 15 life siphoned
Sub-total = 313 life siphoned

Necrotic Bite: 403 damage

403 × 2/3 = 266 life siphoned
2008 × 0.071 = 143 life siphoned
330 × 0.045 = 15 life siphoned
Sub-total = 424 life siphoned

Total = 1,451 life siphoned in a single dagger auto-attack chain (in actual practice, it would probably be closer to 2,000).

This is just the dagger #1 skill. It doesn’t include life siphoning from food, sigils, nor any other source; just my auto-attack alone. I’ve never timed it myself, but I recall reading somewhere that the dagger auto-attack chain takes ~ 1.4 seconds to complete. If I could heal for ~1,500+ health every 1.4 seconds (while dealing an extra ~1,500+ damage to an opponent), I’d be in god mode.

This would be way over the top OP.

I would very much like to see life siphoning scale somehow; power, healing power, damage dealt, etc – something…anything! As written though, these modifiers are too powerful. Perhaps if they were scaled back, they could be made workable/balanced.

I think you didnt get what i ment, actually its 197 damage pre hit with 131 heal pre hit if scaled up to 2.4k power 400 hp (full best in slot with 20 into spite) 524 hp pre auto attach chain.
Its 0.071 * Power – scales damage delt, 66%/2/3 of it goes over into healing (not from damage delt by your abilites themself)and 0.045 * Healing Power – adds to siphon and 150% of it adds to damage.
Both values are small enough with current max stats to be lower than same statted thief/ele heal passives, but still significan enough to be a good trait tanky/power necros would want.

per* hit…

Still seems way to op imo. Siphoning should just have a base value which scales with either power or healing or both very slightly.

Siphon could be a % based on the damage we do instead of adding extra true damage and the healing for power builds or be a base amount per condition tick for condition builds.The ideas are endless and even the worst is still better that what it is now.

spoj.9672:

per* hit…

Still seems way to op imo. Siphoning should just have a base value which scales with either power or healing or both very slightly.

It has the strenth of a master trait in net healing over 60 seconds if you got best in slot stats and weaker than heal passives of other classes for pvp…

How about this…
All siphon life will have its amount healed increased more from +healing than it is currently. I have heard it takes 25 healing to gain an extra life siphoned. Therefore I would need 2500 healing to add 100 life siphoned. Now with the trait it turns to 200 life siphoned. This is ludicrous! I would say buff the healing effectiveness of siphoning life.