Guild Wars 2

Hello, I am considering building a siphoning build. I’m wondering how effective siphoning is and which stat affects it (ie. healing, power)

I find it not very effective. Damage is affected by power. Healing (=Lifesteal) is affected by healing power.

Vampiric traits are not affected by healing power , however if you are a MM and have one hand dagger , you will have a very awesome life siphoning that saves your life all the time.
I’m a MM 80 necro and it’s rare to drop my HP under 90% thanks to my minions.

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

very awesome life siphoning that saves your life all the time

That is a huge exaggeration.
There are threads showing the actual numbers our life siphoning skills can achieve, and it’s very mediocre.

Edit: I’m talking all forms of PvP here. Anything works for PvE, hence I don’t care.

Compared to some of the passive and heal over time skills that guardians/rangers/elementalists/thieves get it is quite lackluster. Also those classes can trait for it without going “all in”.

As some others pointed out, it isn’t effected by healing power, and there is some thought that may be intended because the siphon has a damage component, and to increase the siphon would also increase the damage, thus creating a double dip scenario for healing power.

Its fun to play with, but I personally had a very hard time noticing the healing component “saving” me in any pvp scenarios.

I ran a very siphon-heavy build for a long time. It’s pretty good at what it does. I always put 20 points into Blood Magic, taking Bloodthirst and Vampiric Precision, then went full Knight’s gear (tough/pow/pre) as that seemed the best way to gain crit for Vampiric Precision and have good defense for melee range at the same time. The advantage is that you can outlast anything in WvW – dagger 2 heals for over 3k, and with 50% crit chance (ez to get with full Knight’s) you gain an average of 63 hp per hit.

I switched away from it a while back, though, for a few reasons. (1) I wanted to experiment with other trait setups, 20 points is a fair bit to invest in defense. (2) Omnomberry Pie is a food that will siphon about 350 hp to you, 66% of your crits. With 50% crit that is an average of 115hp per hit, almost double what 20 points in Blood Magic will get you. (3) Sigils of Blood also give comparable healing to your siphon traits.

It is still definitely a super fun build, and the extra 2k health from Blood Magic is nice. I have simply moved on in favor of other stuff. I am considering going back to it though since picking up some Berserker’s gear to replace some of the Knight’s.

lettucemode.3789:

I ran a very siphon-heavy build for a long time. It’s pretty good at what it does. I always put 20 points into Blood Magic, taking Bloodthirst and Vampiric Precision, then went full Knight’s gear (tough/pow/pre) as that seemed the best way to gain crit for Vampiric Precision and have good defense for melee range at the same time. The advantage is that you can outlast anything in WvW – dagger 2 heals for over 3k, and with 50% crit chance (ez to get with full Knight’s) you gain an average of 63 hp per hit.

I switched away from it a while back, though, for a few reasons. (1) I wanted to experiment with other trait setups, 20 points is a fair bit to invest in defense. (2) Omnomberry Pie is a food that will siphon about 350 hp to you, 66% of your crits. With 50% crit that is an average of 115hp per hit, almost double what 20 points in Blood Magic will get you. (3) Sigils of Blood also give comparable healing to your siphon traits.

It is still definitely a super fun build, and the extra 2k health from Blood Magic is nice. I have simply moved on in favor of other stuff. I am considering going back to it though since picking up some Berserker’s gear to replace some of the Knight’s.

Just out of curiousity, have you tried to stack all three of those at the same time? I would be curious what kind of overall healing that would output. Reduced damage output aside, it would be interesting to watch in a video. I have long held the life steal food, much like the condition duration food, trumps most other foods hands down.

Rennoko.5731:

Just out of curiousity, have you tried to stack all three of those at the same time? I would be curious what kind of overall healing that would output. Reduced damage output aside, it would be interesting to watch in a video. I have long held the life steal food, much like the condition duration food, trumps most other foods hands down.

I have – along with 6/6 Runes of Vampirism (the 2nd and 4th bonuses heal for 1k). There are a LOT of little green numbers flying around, let me tell you. It’s enough that you can basically ignore any conditions on you since you can just heal through them.

By % it is even weaker than Vampiric Gaze in GW1, both for healing and for offense. And Vampiric Gaze was considered a very bad skill in GW1.

lettucemode.3789:

I have – along with 6/6 Runes of Vampirism (the 2nd and 4th bonuses heal for 1k)

How is the 6th bonus working with DS, isn’t it bugged?
(Necros are considered to have very low health % in DS)

Aesa.4819:

lettucemode.3789:

I have – along with 6/6 Runes of Vampirism (the 2nd and 4th bonuses heal for 1k)

How is the 6th bonus working with DS, isn’t it bugged?
(Necros are considered to have very low health % in DS)

Nope, it was fixed. It will only trigger when your real health bar is below 10% now. Though if you take a hit in DS while your real HP is below 10%, it will trigger. And you can still cast the DS abilities while in the mist form

I see, thanks