Guild Wars 2

Good day AirWick and others! For what little it may be worth, I agree. While this doesn’t mean I’m particularly happy about where Siphoning is, I do fear that allowing it to scale could potentially wreck havoc on balancing.

I’m not necessarily saying that if we received any form of “scaled Siphoning” that the forums will be flooded with “Omq Necro Vampyre Bunkers Oober OP Narf Now” but rather that “scaled Siphoning” would be another aspect that the devs would need to consider when making any balances to the class. Subsequently, other aspects for Necro may not receive a much needed buff because such a change, when combined with “scaled Siphoning”, could be OP. Thus the Necro could potentially reach a state of being impossible to buff or balance without breaking something.

Of course these are all “what ifs” and suppositions, but at this time these are my thoughts. Thinking about it a little more, perhaps the culprit that’s holding back Life Siphoning is, ironically, the trait that allows it: Vampirism. As long as this trait exists, “scaled Siphoning” is a very difficult balancing topic since Vampirism will Siphon with every hit, regardless of build. It’s too universal and all-encompassing to allow for too many buffs, which in turn forces the siphoning aspect to be held back. Removal of this trait would allow for buffs to the remaining Siphon traits (including the allowance of “scaled Siphoning”).

I absolutely love siphoning and it was probably my favorite thing about the Necro in GW1, so I would love to see it become more viable in GW2. Unfortunatley, I feel that Vampirism is holding it back and that scaled Siphoning isn’t particularly the answer.

Thank you for your time, and of course, take care everybody. Have a nice weekend!

I agree with you.

What we need is healing power affecting more stuff such as a traited life transfer and maybe some specific siphoning such as on crit siphon (Wich is useless atm) and more importantly the amount the health minion heals with each hit. (So you can actually get healing power and use it as your… HEALING SKILL!)

The reason we want scaling with siphoning to work is so Necromancers can effectively use siphon without relying on minions and/or wells. The problem right now is essentially that outside of very specific builds using WoB/staff/DS based heals, we don’t have much reason to use healing power based gear.

Now, I don’t think we need more ways to do AoE team healing (our team healing is actually amazing), but a small healing coefficient, even something incredibly small like an extra 10 HP per hit at 1000 healing power, would make siphoning Necros more viable. I think it should be very incremental, because I totally agree it has the potential to be OP, but even if they start off at just a 0.01 scaling coefficient they can see how things go.

@ Bhawb, agreed, our ability to heal melee in PVE and groups in WvW is immense, easily higher than elementalists in an overall way.

I’d rather they got rid of vampirism traits and gave us scaling vampirism abilities. Dagger2 should steal a significant amount of health with + healing, I’d like a dedicated vampiric well rather than wells siphoning health, a siphon ability on an offhand, drop poison cloud [honestly does anyone, anywhere, ever use this?] and give us a siphoning corruption ability.

Keep it flat and buff it by 30-50%? I’d be open to testing that.

I agree 100%, I’d love to see Necro get some better life siphoning and it would suit them so well. but as mentioned above, if you keep it flat, non scaling but buff it a bit, then all builds will have some use for it and we don’t have all have to get shamans amulet.

Good post.

The problem with having Siphon with a flat base value is not balance but rather the mechanic because it contradicts every other attribute mechanic in the game where each has armor dependencies., I’d rather see it streamlined with the rest even if this had to lower the base value.

I see a way of having Life siphon scaling in two way much like Precision vis-a-vis Critical dmg or Condition dmg vis-a-vis Condition duration. In the case of Life siphon it should be -Dmg/per/Siphon- vis-a-vis -Healing/per/Siphon- where focusing on one would reduce the other while the scale of having them in the same value would be the number to balance vis-a-vis just as it’s don’t with every other attribute in the game.

By all mean as you may be reading in the last paragraph I give consideration on not seeing Life siphons get out of hand & become OP by suggesting Counter-limiting dual factors as there exist with practically all other values again, I feel streamlining is a the core of the issue here, in fact I really see no way to balance Life siphon with base value because really with all professions ever-changing in balancing with which or watch is one scaling!? This question is not a matter of debate I want to get into but more a pause of reflection.

Leeching Venoms scale. They can be traited to apply to nearby allies. This does not break balance in the slightest.

A non-scaling, buffed siphon would either not be strong enough to make a difference, or be entirely out of hand. A Knights ammy Dagger 1 spam, for instance, or something similar would heal for tons of health and be able to function more like a bunker with all the self-sustain they would have. If you make siphon scale specifically with healing power, then you can get your stronger siphon, but there is an opportunity cost to it. Specifically, your crit rate would suck, because to get a good siphon you would have to go either Cleric or Shaman which do not provide precision. IMO that is why scaling is a better solution than buffed, non-scaling.

I think I agree with Eudoros.

At base, the current siphon doesn’t bother me. But there’s no way to invest in that idea, and given the frequency of siphon build threads that pop up anyways, the demand is there. But also given how those build threads tend to get shot down, the capability for that style is not. I think that you could create that defensive viability by requiring significant investment in a defensive stat that otherwise sees little play: healing power.

Now I could be mistaken: A siphon (not minion, just siphon) based bunker build could currently be viable in PvP right now. But I think to make such a thing viable, there needs to be the opportunity to invest, and allowing investment allows the numbers to become significant without becoming overpowered due to the stat cost of something like healing power.

If they had to reduce the current siphon such that you need, say, 400 healing power to break even I’d be a fan.

As a siphon build player, saying that siphon is OK right now is difficult… But It’s tricky. Currently to make a siphon build work you need to use multiples skill at the same time. I mean, you don’t need to hit hard but you need a lot of little hit (that crit). The fact is that’s something that we can achieve but for brief moment.

A siphon scalling on any stat could be, like said earlier, something very dangerous for class balance but, right now, I don’t think, it’s a treat. As for me, I prefere to see it in this state (even if it hurt me to see such pathetic numbers) than seeing it nerfed and nerfed and nerfed again because of overpowered potential. There is a very rare set of stat on a CM armor set Vit/prec/healing that eventualy could be of some use in a tank spec based on siphon squaling on healing power. I don’t think the damage could be awesome but the sustain may be unbalanced.

PS.: It would really kitten me to farm CM, I really hate this donjon.

Hmm. What if it were a Grandmaster Blood Magic trait? So if you spec heavily into that line, you get to be a vampire, but other builds won’t be adversely effected.

Vampiric, Vampiric Precision, Vampiric Rituals & Vampiric Master needs to scale with Healing Power and i find it unbelievable that they don’t. Right now HP serves no use at all beyond all-class abilities (Utility 6 & Regeneration). Death to Life serves no purpose beyond all-classes too.

They need to scaling up-to x1.0 of there current untraited versions with 1,500 HP being a “max” example.

Vampiric = 25 + (HP * 0.0175)
Vampiric Precision =31 + (HP * 0.02)
Vampiric Rituals = 10 + (HP * 0.0075)
Vampiric Master = 79 + (HP * 0.02)

And obviously final amounts x1.5 if traited for Bloodthirst.

Death to Life and Blood Magic HP and HP in general need to have some use beyond all-class abilities for Necromancers.

Any Vampiric build right now is so static that the amount you heal can be predicted and outplayed by enemies.

Softspoken.2410:

I think I agree with Eudoros.

…Now I could be mistaken: A siphon (not minion, just siphon) based bunker build could currently be viable in PvP right now. But I think to make such a thing viable, there needs to be the opportunity to invest, and allowing investment allows the numbers to become significant without becoming overpowered due to the stat cost of something like healing power.

If they had to reduce the current siphon such that you need, say, 400 healing power to break even I’d be a fan.

Naw, necro needs more than better sustain to be viable as a bunker. A cleric or shaman ammy Necro can get decent sustain with smart utility selection until a CC chain gets thrown at them. To bunker there needs to be an alpha stun break like “Stand Your Ground” that is on a short re-pop, some other source of stability besides ridiculous investment in the crit damage line that you will never proc, and some form of knock back (fear really doesn’t cut it). A good necro built to bunker can stay alive 1v2 against inferior talent right now, but the point still gets neuted on them (unless the opposition is horrendous) because they lack these things. Fixing the sustain issue would be one step toward a viable necro bunker, but it doesn’t complete the puzzle.

Lifesteal as a % of damage was always my personal favourite. Then I don’t even need to focus on high attack rates, and can either go with loads of damage for a lot of healing, or loads of mitigation to make my HP worth more.

What they should do is make siphons scale w/ healing power, buff the base heal, then balance the new siphon with an ICD (so it is equally useful for all builds/weapon sets). Also allow yourself to be healed in DS so siphons work while in DS. That would be the cleanest way to buff siphons.

I do agree with the arguments that caution must be exercised when scaling life siphoning. Since it deals additional damage, ignores armor, and heals all at the same time, it’s a mechanic that can easily become OP if even slightly out-of-balance.

All the same, I’m still a pro-scaling proponent. The current amount of life siphoning is mediocre at best and comes at the cost of significant investment into the Blood Magic line as well as the accessories, armor, and weapons needed to support a precision build. All of this to achieve a static amount of life siphoning which hardly qualifies as a viable form of sustain. The cost is appropriate; I take no issue with life siphoning coming at a considerable expense. However, the reward is not commensurate to the cost.

Where OmegaProject states Vampiric is what is holding life siphoning back:

OmegaProject.9831:

Thinking about it a little more, perhaps the culprit that’s holding back Life Siphoning is, ironically, the trait that allows it: Vampirism. As long as this trait exists, “scaled Siphoning” is a very difficult balancing topic since Vampirism will Siphon with every hit, regardless of build. It’s too universal and all-encompassing to allow for too many buffs, which in turn forces the siphoning aspect to be held back. Removal of this trait would allow for buffs to the remaining Siphon traits (including the allowance of “scaled Siphoning”).

I have to respectfully disagree. Vampiric balances life siphoning by forcing an opportunity cost onto the necro using it. To life siphon effectively, a necro has to hit something and they have to hit it lots and lots of times; no sitting in the backline kiting away with a hit here and a hit there. This puts the necro in harms way, forcing them to engage in combat if they wish to benefit from life siphoning. Though at first this may appear counter-intuitive (risking damage just so a necro can heal up that damage), it actually isn’t when dealing with a necro.

As I see it, a blood necro’s power comes from the interplay of violence between two or more opponents. If there is no conflict, the situation is static; there’s no energy transfer. Once the battle is joined, however, now there’s a conduit established between the two parties. That exchange of energy is what the blood necro is tapping into in order to life siphon. The Vampiric trait is what makes this possible while maintaining a balance. A necro wants to life siphon? Then that necro needs to put themself into a situation (read: combat) which will open the door to that energy exchange.

Furthermore, because of this limitation imposed by Vampiric coupled with the low amount of life siphoning per hit, blood necros do not currently walk around automatically draining health from everything they meet. As Dadnir clearly states:

Dadnir.5038:

Currently to make a siphon build work you need to use multiples skill at the same time. I mean, you don’t need to hit hard but you need a lot of little hit (that crit). The fact is that’s something that we can achieve but for brief moment.

There are small windows of opportunity within the course of a fight where a blood necro is life siphoning just enough to keep up with the damage they’re receiving. This is usually in the form of dropping multiple wells, using the warhorn’s Locust Swarm, and dagger #2. Once those sources of multiple hits have reached the end of their durations, a blood necro’s life siphoning drops to almost nothing as they fall back to auto-attack. This can be mitigated with sigils and consumables, but blood necros are not anywhere near being OP at the moment.

Necros – and blood necros in particular – should be hard to kill. I would go so far as to state they should be the hardest to kill. It’s what we do; we cheat death. I can accept competing with guardians for the title of “Hardest to Kill”, but when engineers and elementalists (elementalists? seriously?!?!) can out-bunker a blood necro, something is wrong.

Couple Vampiric’s limitation that necros must engage in frenzied combat to effectively access life siphoning with our poor CC mitigation, and this forces a necro – once joined in battle – to see it through to the bitter end. This is wholly appropriate and balanced. What is imbalanced is the mechanic that is ostensibly meant to give us the sustain for that fight; life siphoning. It falls short.

(continued)

If life siphoning remains flat but is simply buffed a bit, this doesn’t help the situation. In a flat system, the amount of extra armor-ignoring damage life siphoning does will hit a point beyond which it would be considered OP before the extra amount of healing would reach the balance point to give us the sustain we need. This is because in a flat system that doesn’t scale with any stat, a life siphon build can continue to maximize power, precision, and crit damage in conjunction with the increased damage from the life siphons. This would quickly reach a cut-off point beyond which the devs would say, “No more!” because it would make a necro’s damage output OP (within the context of what the devs consider to be reasonable DPS for a necro); while still leaving us with lackluster life siphoning.

Conversely, by making life siphoning scale with a stat (preferably healing power), then a necro is forced to make cost : benefit choices. Do I maximize power, precision, and/or crit damage for raw DPS or do I maximize healing power to gain greater sustain through life siphoning?

The scaling system is even self-balancing. A necro maximizing healing power still retains some DPS because of life siphoning’s armor-ignoring damage. A healing power necro won’t have the DPS of a power necro, but they won’t sacrifice all of their DPS, either. A power necro will have better raw damage output compared to a healing power necro, but won’t have the sustain. They won’t be able to stay in the fight as long as a healing necro, which then balances their total damage output over the entire course of a fight.

By scaling life siphoning, it allows players the freedom to choose from a greater variety of play styles and builds; it balances DPS against healing through mutually exclusive accessory, armor, and weapon stat combinations; it fits thematically with the necro (“How much am I willing to sacrifice to get what I want?”); and it gives necros a more viable bunker/sustain build (especially in light of how few escape options we have, we need to tip the scales a bit in favor of even greater sustain as compared to other professions).

If we’re meant to stay in a fight and not run away, then give us the tools to stay in the fight.

I agree fully with Kraag, great post on how the mechanic can self balance and why scaling is really needed here.

I totally agree that life siphoning should scale. A flat boost in siphoning will benefit more dps builds than tankier builds. Siphoning is a survival thing and speccing for survivability should increase the effect of your survival abilities, flat boost just benefits all other builds more than high defense builds. What’s the point in getting more vitality and healing power if you can’t use the healing power to heal your health pool more effectively? Tanky builds are all about effective health, not 25+k health pool that just gets drained.

I don’t play a necromancer, so correct me if I’m wrong. The problem I see with siphon not scaling with anything is that slower attacking weapons can’t benefit from it as much as quicker attacking weapons. Or is my inexperience with the profession and ignorance on the mechanic clouding my view?

darkace.8925:

I don’t play a necromancer, so correct me if I’m wrong. The problem I see with siphon not scaling with anything is that slower attacking weapons can’t benefit from it as much as quicker attacking weapons. Or is my inexperience with the profession and ignorance on the mechanic clouding my view?

Correct, the more times you cause damage the more you can siphon. Dagger/Warhorn with minions gives the most siphoning HP/s against single target, and wells giving the best against multiple opponents. Axe also gives fairly decent siphon potential with the Axe 2 channel siphoning on each strike.

However, that isn’t really much of an issue. As siphoning and trait trees stand right now, there is almost no reason to go into Blood Magic as a condi necro unless you are an MM/condi hybrid (in which case minions are siphoning a lot for you). So realistically if you wanted to siphon anyway, you are going to be a power build, in which case dagger/axe are your choices.

The problem with it not scaling is that the values are fairly small. Scaling would allow someone to have Healing Power and turn siphoning into a viable healing mechanic, while keeping it balanced because they would lose out on damage overall. Scaling itself is a huge benefit to balance in general, because it supports the core ideas of balance; sacrifice of one area at the benefit of another.

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

Softspoken.2410:

I think I agree with Eudoros.

…Now I could be mistaken: A siphon (not minion, just siphon) based bunker build could currently be viable in PvP right now. But I think to make such a thing viable, there needs to be the opportunity to invest, and allowing investment allows the numbers to become significant without becoming overpowered due to the stat cost of something like healing power.

If they had to reduce the current siphon such that you need, say, 400 healing power to break even I’d be a fan.

Naw, necro needs more than better sustain to be viable as a bunker. A cleric or shaman ammy Necro can get decent sustain with smart utility selection until a CC chain gets thrown at them. To bunker there needs to be an alpha stun break like “Stand Your Ground” that is on a short re-pop, some other source of stability besides ridiculous investment in the crit damage line that you will never proc, and some form of knock back (fear really doesn’t cut it). A good necro built to bunker can stay alive 1v2 against inferior talent right now, but the point still gets neuted on them (unless the opposition is horrendous) because they lack these things. Fixing the sustain issue would be one step toward a viable necro bunker, but it doesn’t complete the puzzle.

Ah, thank you so much for telling me why I was wrong about scaling not being the fix to make a viable bunker. The whole thing solidifies to me that scaling should be added. As it is, a necromancer is quite vulnerable to control effects, and siphoning really only works as long as the necromancer is free to attack: controlling them (daze, stun and the like) is not only a correct response to the strategy, but a fairly easy / doable one at the current game state. (Heck it’s probably the default response.)

If they ever ‘fix’ the Necromancers vulnerability to controls, I’d hesitate on offering stronger siphoning options, but seeing a clear and evident counter play already existing in game makes me confident adding scaling would be beneficial.

Would rather just a flat buff to the base siphoning rather than scaling. But if they do implement scaling I will be seriously kittened off if they reduce the base healing from what it is now.

spoj.9672:

Would rather just a flat buff to the base siphoning rather than scaling. But if they do implement scaling I will be seriously kittened off if they reduce the base healing from what it is now.

Base increase to siphoning doesn’t fix anything, it just hides the problem with numbers.

@Kraag Deadsoul

Absolutely beautifully written posts. It really was a great pleasure reading them. I really don’t have anything to say other than “well done” I attempted to write my post “through the eyes of a Developer” hesitant to change the Life Siphoning mechanic, and you provided an awesome rebuttal, so thank you for that. Do take care and enjoy what remains of the weekend!

It needs to be fixed one way or the other.
Ele’s 6 sig is 202+ heal power.

Our 15point trait is 25, 38 if major bloodthirsty.
20 Traits +Crit, is a 31 or 51 if major bloodthirsty.

Meaning, if we spend 20 traits, AND crit. We can almost vamp half of a ele excluding heal power…

If we went full 30 points to get that+ siphon heals group, Ele’s Healing Ripple is 1.3k + healing power.
Guard’s is only 84, but affected by heal power.

Of course siphoning should be scaled with healing power. This should be for life transfer and all siphons. Ofcourse balanced and sorted but no scaling? Come on…

Ignoring the scaling and/of just buffing the skill isn’t the answer. It limits build diversity because the skill is either A. Too strong and everyone feels obligated to take it, or B. Too weak, and only some people take it for flavor. If you can build gear around it, and make it amazing, it would be worth using, and people would enjoy that. It would make the all-stat gear much more desireable, even for conditions players, if they ran a siphon build.

I think sometimes when I read these posts that people are not familiar with how powerful other classes healing is, and it doesn’t even require them to hit anything. Think about the thief grandmaster healing trait, that 9/10 WvW thieves have, which is AMAZING with base healing power. The same could be said for the guardian passive heal, ele passive healing options, etc.

If they want to move siphon to grand-master, and make it scale and be stronger, I am okay with that too. As it stands right now, I feel inclined in any siphon based build to sink in at least 20 points for the minors, 50% better siphon, and siphon on crit. In the current state of the game, with people bursting in WvW for 7-8K againkittenll toughness classes, who the heck cares about the meaningless net effect of siphon?

As it stands right now, in a condition build, I get way more mileage out of blood mark on dodge (for the heal and 2 bleeds on demand). Its a 10 point investment, compared to a 20 point investment.

Further evidence that they need to look at skills like this in WvW and PVE apart from Tpvp.

We need a more bursty siphon skill, that is what pays off in fights, not 30 or even 50 ticks per hit. Especially if you aren’t using MH dagger, its just really weak.

Reducing signet of the locust cooldown might be a good start. And it should actually do the same damage, afaik it just heals despite saying lifesteal.

Pendragon.8735:

We need a more bursty siphon skill, that is what pays off in fights, not 30 or even 50 ticks per hit. Especially if you aren’t using MH dagger, its just really weak.

Reducing signet of the locust cooldown might be a good start.

If you want bursty siphons, go for the sigils/runes for it. We aren’t going to get much bursty anything, especially not siphons which are for attrition.

Pendragon.8735:

We need a more bursty siphon skill, that is what pays off in fights, not 30 or even 50 ticks per hit. Especially if you aren’t using MH dagger, its just really weak.

Reducing signet of the locust cooldown might be a good start.

Or give it a nice damage component to match its nice healing. Make it like mug where it cannot crit, but up its damage.

Bhawb.7408:

Pendragon.8735:

We need a more bursty siphon skill, that is what pays off in fights, not 30 or even 50 ticks per hit. Especially if you aren’t using MH dagger, its just really weak.

Reducing signet of the locust cooldown might be a good start.

If you want bursty siphons, go for the sigils/runes for it. We aren’t going to get much bursty anything, especially not siphons which are for attrition.

I’ve been using 4 Vampire runes which are not bad at all, but would work a lot better as a build, if the core class siphons were stronger to supplement.

I agree they need to be able to be stronger, but being bursty isn’t the way to go. You can “burst” siphon with dagger 2 (procs siphoning each hit).

Bhawb.7408:

I agree they need to be able to be stronger, but being bursty isn’t the way to go.

It is if you want real attrition though. Because that is how you get dealt damage in this game in bursts. That is how guardians and ele’s heal up so fast with bursty skills, not just dripping 30 regen through a whole fight.

The Blood Magic siphon skills are actually I think a bit under appreciated for PVE and zerg situations, people think they are only good for melee power builds. But the secret is that they tick on every single hit of AOE. So each staff mark, with both traits in Blood Magic, you are looking at adding maybe 300 damage and healing with high crit rate. It adds up to some nice boosts if you are just farming or blasting from a tower top. Trouble is soon as you get into a direct head to head with someone, or multiple people, your HP starts dropping way too fast for those 38 health ticks to mean anything. And you are hitting way less due to our slow cast skills, and ease to be interrupted and kicked around with cc.

So adding some kind of bursty cooldown siphon would kind of eliminate any fear of these traits becoming too good in aoe situations. If you make every normal hit heal 60 and every crit 80 (50% improvement), which would probably be fine for 1v1 suddenly you are way too sustainable in AoE farming builds or large fights.

I’ll point out another situation where per tick is highly inferior to burst healing or siphoning.

Say you are fighting another attrition class, DD ele, Thief, even Mesmer who is good at dancing in and out of a fight. They come in do burst damage to you, then they back out as their skills go on cooldown. Trouble with you as a Necro needing to siphon per hit, you aren’t hitting as soon as they disengage. The DD ele is off healing to full 50 yards away after RTL, and you can’t heal in turn because you can’t hit him to siphon. Same with thief stealth or mesmer blink.

But if you had a bursty siphon, beside only Dagger 3, you could attempt to match their mobility healing with your in fight healing, it would be a fair counter play, as well as match Anet’s supposed Necro strength of making enemies fear the Necro’s immediate area control. Then when they come in for those quick attacks, you are able to heal a lot of it back up and sort of negate their ability to kite you around and slowly sap you to death, which is how a Necro usually loses these matchups.

Making siphoning deal more damage would increase the damage output of a lot of stuff to borderline OP levels (depending on the increase of course)

What we need is to make the healing part of it scale with healing power and the damage part of it scale with power but not that much.

I still have to try siphoning with runes of the mad king tho… It hits 16 times per enemy in a big AoE, stealth and all… On every golem charge. And the hits count akittens for pretty much everything…

Of course then I look at the same stuff with signet of malice and I want to cry.

Even if we can, say, siphon 300HP/s constantly with Cleric/Shaman gear, its not a big deal DPS wise. You’ll be giving up quite a bit more damage than you’ll be getting back, so you can’t make a glass cannon build that will heal for any decent amount.

Cristobal.8640:

Of course then I look at the same stuff with signet of malice and I want to cry.

Comparing a couple of traits to a dedicated healing skill will only lead to tears. My tears. Which I am crying right now.

:’(

Wait, are we complaining about dedicated heals? We have, arguably, two of the best healing skills in the game; one that can heal you for more HP than many players even have (and more than their own healing skill) and another that wipes conditions and heals a huge amount as well. Signet of Malice’s per hit heal is approximately 5 more per second than traited Flesh Golem (I haven’t tested Flesh Golems attack speed in a while so I can’t remember exactly what it is), and is out-performed by Consume Conditions (assuming you remove at least one condition).

Pendragon.8735:

Bhawb.7408:

I agree they need to be able to be stronger, but being bursty isn’t the way to go.

It is if you want real attrition though. Because that is how you get dealt damage in this game in bursts.

Not to mention Necros are horrible vs burst as it is.

ManCaptain.3154:

Not to mention Necros are horrible vs burst as it is.

I just want to point out that necromancers are ment to go for sustained combat, all other builds except well bombing goes in the favor of outsurviving or outdamaging your opponent over a moderate period of time.

The key to necromancy is to avoid bursts. Same goes to all high regen/ high sustain builds out there. Even with my guardian I rely on my dodge and blocks/invulnerabilities to avoid bursts on a point.

Edit:

My point is, bursts are not the problem, the lack of stabilities And stun breakers is the thing which make bursts so hard to avoid.