Siphoning Strikes Worth It?

LilChihuahua · February 2015

So now that all the other toggle abilities have gotten buffed, particularly inferno and inner light. These abilities have no downsides to them and are quite powerful. I was never a fan of Siphoning Strikes before and it now seems even less appealing. Is gaining 2% magicka and stamina with a small chance to restore 15% per light attack worth -25% weapon and spell power? Just wanted some other opinions...

Lynx7386 · February 2015

definitely should be buffed.

IMO, they should change it into a true siphon/leech attack, something that actually reduces your target's magicka and stamina and gives the value to you. Would make disabling opponents in pvp, especially blockers, an option.

Blackmoon777 · February 2015

It is good skill for some builds just need little buff in my opinion (also it has hiden cooldown of 1sek).

It reduces wep dmg by 22% and taking 2 skill slots.
Weapon dmg reduction should be lower, something like 12%.
Morph that has 2% Hp on light / heavy attack is pathetic, it should be at last 4%, or proc also on skill use

umagon · February 2015

The 2% adds up when one starts stacking the +% healing stats, and stacking damage reduction. The 22% damage reduction isn't that bad when one starts using the dot damage and soul harvest.

With gear that reduces harvest to 45 and triggering transfer soul harvest can be used about every 12 secs. If the cripple morph is also used it seems the % healing also effects the return of the magicka. Basically open with debilliate and swallow soul then you can just beat them to death with white attacks if you wanted to and keep more than 90% of your health.

I know it sounds crazy but it works in 1.6.

Kaghei · February 2015

Its 100% worth it for aoe, the sustainability is unreal. Its also very good for crushing shock dps, you just have to substitute the spelldamage/weapondamage loss for unlimited resources

Soulac · February 2015

Well it's worth in AoE cause it's totally not a 10% chance if you hit like 6 enemy's.
You notice a huge difference in animation cancel single target and spamming sap Essence as AoE..

LilChihuahua · February 2015

Kaghei wrote: »

Its 100% worth it for aoe, the sustainability is unreal. Its also very good for crushing shock dps, you just have to substitute the spelldamage/weapondamage loss for unlimited resources

I wouldn't say it's unreal... You have to use the morph for all attacks rather than heals with light attacks. I tried the all attacks morph in live with as a counter zerg build. Was using Clouding Swarm + Steel Tornado + Lotus Fans, all hits a ton of people but the returns couldn't sustain me for more than a few seconds. I think it may be the hidden cool down.

nukeemstudiosub17_ESO · February 2015

Lynx7386 wrote: »

definitely should be buffed.

IMO, they should change it into a true siphon/leech attack, something that actually reduces your target's magicka and stamina and gives the value to you. Would make disabling opponents in pvp, especially blockers, an option.

I love it ! I make same style post in other forum and people try to shut me down. glad to see im not the only one who sees a gross imbalance compared to other classes skills. This one in particular. 2% is not worth it and the damage reduction is just foolish.

IxSTALKERxI · February 2015

This ability hasn't left my bar in 8 months, except for dueling (which I rarely do). It is the only reason I still play a nightblade.

Cody · February 2015

Siphoning attacks is the only good morph of the skill; which is why the skill lags behind for some people. Leeching strikes is pathetic, and needs a higher value. 4% would be just fine in my opinion.

Aeratus · February 2015

IxSTALKERxI wrote: »

This ability hasn't left my bar in 8 months, except for dueling (which I rarely do). It is the only reason I still play a nightblade.

I agree. Siphoning attacks is one of the best skills for NB.

However, this skill is getting nerfed in 1.6 indirectly, due to the removal of softcaps. With softcaps on spell/weapon damage, siphoning attacks lowered your spell/weapon damage by as little as 11% (corresponding to approximately 5.5% dps), since it acts on pre-softcap values.

Rescorla_ESO · February 2015

IxSTALKERxI wrote: »

This ability hasn't left my bar in 8 months, except for dueling (which I rarely do). It is the only reason I still play a nightblade.

I play a DW/Bow stamina build in full medium armor and it hasn't been on my bar in 8 months. What build are you using that makes it so indispensable?

LilChihuahua · February 2015

Rescorla_ESO wrote: »

IxSTALKERxI wrote: »

This ability hasn't left my bar in 8 months, except for dueling (which I rarely do). It is the only reason I still play a nightblade.

I play a DW/Bow stamina build in full medium armor and it hasn't been on my bar in 8 months. What build are you using that makes it so indispensable?

I would like to know as well... I really thought my AoE solution would best utilize this ability but the added sustainability was practically unnoticeable.

My PvP counter zerg setup on live used to be clouding swarm, lotus fans, while block casting with steel tornado.

Anyways, my point of this thread was just to point out how all other toggle abilities got buffed but siphoning strikes got left out.

xaraan · February 2015

No, I've left this as feedback before, but now that soft caps are gone it's no where near worth running. You lose so much damage that it's better to just put some cost reduction/regen enchants on and use that slot for something else.

They need to greatly reduce the amount it takes away, like maybe only 10%, or come up with some other penalty.

As it stands I will only use it on my tank since it doesn't matter how much damage he does anyway and it will get pulled out of use completely on my dps nb builds.

xaraan · February 2015

IxSTALKERxI wrote: »

This ability hasn't left my bar in 8 months, except for dueling (which I rarely do). It is the only reason I still play a nightblade.

That's because of your build, which is the only decent build for siphoning strikes in 1.6 and pretty similar to my tank's build. For a normal dps build, it used to be kind of worth the trade off, I say kind of b/c yea, it hit your dps a little, but you made up for it by keeping your resources up. Now, in 1.6 that doesn't happen, you take such a huge hit to your dps that even if your resources are up, you can't equal the dps of other classes in a long fight where you'd expect that to start to even the playing field.

Shuichi · February 2015

I'm a full stamina bw/dow nb and I use SS about 75% of the time. The other 25% I'm complaining about resources but can sometimes survive a lot longer. If leeching strikes wasn't such garbage I'd be a very happy player but I'm sure i'll find another way to stay alive.

Lionxoft · February 2015

Syphoning doesn't trigger off of shielded opponents though which is a huge drawback with the shield stacking meta. Great skill though.

Aeratus · February 2015

Rescorla_ESO wrote: »

IxSTALKERxI wrote: »

This ability hasn't left my bar in 8 months, except for dueling (which I rarely do). It is the only reason I still play a nightblade.

I play a DW/Bow stamina build in full medium armor and it hasn't been on my bar in 8 months. What build are you using that makes it so indispensable?

Can't speak for Mojar, but I play shield/resto NB in full light armor and Siphoning hasn't left my bar ever. Siphoning is necessary to sustain resources while spamming sap essence. It is especially important for sustaining stamina when block-casting, because you'll be under attack the whole time while spamming sap essence.

Haven't played much on 1.6, but it looks like this skill will leave my bar in 1.6.

LilChihuahua · February 2015

Aeratus wrote: »

Rescorla_ESO wrote: »

IxSTALKERxI wrote: »

This ability hasn't left my bar in 8 months, except for dueling (which I rarely do). It is the only reason I still play a nightblade.

I play a DW/Bow stamina build in full medium armor and it hasn't been on my bar in 8 months. What build are you using that makes it so indispensable?

Can't speak for Mojar, but I play shield/resto NB in full light armor and Siphoning hasn't left my bar ever. Siphoning is necessary to sustain resources while spamming sap essence. It is especially important for sustaining stamina when block-casting, because you'll be under attack the whole time while spamming sap essence.

Haven't played much on 1.6, but it looks like this skill will leave my bar in 1.6.

So you're saying that with siphoning strikes you can sustain sap essence spamming? A high cost, low damage, minor healing, mainly a large buff ability? Other than the fact that sap essence is a very inefficient way to do AoE damage, I'm very skeptical of your sustainability, even when hitting multiple targets.

Cody · February 2015

Lionxoft wrote: »

Syphoning doesn't trigger off of shielded opponents though which is a huge drawback with the shield stacking meta. Great skill though.

How many things do damage shields stop exactly????? good grief

Lionxoft · February 2015

Cody wrote: »

Lionxoft wrote: »

Syphoning doesn't trigger off of shielded opponents though which is a huge drawback with the shield stacking meta. Great skill though.

How many things do damage shields stop exactly????? good grief

I feel it is how the shields are designed being the main problem.

bowmanz607 · February 2015

siphoning attacks is awesome. I use it in pve u lose burst damage but ultimately get more DPS in pve b/c it keeps your mag/stam resources up much longer. I combined it with martial knowledge set, plus jewlery with spell damage and restore magika on staff and my spell damage was at soft cap (with it turned on) and i never really had to worry about running out of magika. the other morph is best used for tanks.
But this was for pre 1.6. I have not tried in 1.6.
The skill sucks w/o morphing though.