The Force Siphon ability has needed reevaluation since 1.6

Joy_Division

The Force Siphon skill is probably the least efficient skill in the entire game. It's reputation as being a key end-game healing skill is and has been undeserved ever since the 1.6 patched changed the mechanics of this ability.

This goes beyond having to use a restorations staff, a weapon costs you hundreds and hundreds of spellpower without deriving any offensive or defensive benefits. It was OK before the 1.6 patch because soft caps reigned in damage that made it possible for small heal-over-time effects to actually sustain you. But 1.6 mechanically changed this ability so that you no longer proc it every time you damaged a tagged target. You now only eligible to get that small healing once per global cooldown; your DoTs won't proc it, skills like crushing shock proc it only once, weaving attacks will still only net you one heal, etc.

What this means:

• Your Force Siphons are only granting heals of 550ish a tick - and that only happens if your ally actually hits the target - when dungeon trash mobs are doing in excessive of 7000 damage per attack.
• As an alternative, you could cast Rapid Regenration and always grant a heal of 1600+ a tick - more than three times that of Force Siphon. Note: Rapid Regeneration is very modest spell.
• In the most optimal setting, a raid of 12 player against a Boss, you will only get a moderate amount more total healing from a single cast Force Siphon than a single cast of Regeneration. But the aggregate, already quite modest, is spread out and diluted into tiny amounts over those 12 players whereas Regeneration is not. Moreover, there is no way to further increase the healing Force Siphon does; that's all you are ever going to get. You can always cast Regeneration again. In a 4 man raid, a single cast of Regeneration will more than double the healing output of a single cast of Force Siphon.
• The much touted magicka return from this ability is not part of the base ability (it only comes from one morph), is not that large (1%), does not help half your raid at all, can be replicated by a better skill (elemental drain), and does nothing to actually heal.
• This skill actually has a cast time [!], which by inference means its effects are superior to that of a normal skill and is worth the loss of a global cooldown and the risk of interruption. This is clearly not the case.
• The skill's mechanics would seem to favor the caster as she will derive a 150% benefit to the healing effects. Indeed, your 550 heals on your allies will be 1500 on you. However, this mechanic is completely undermined by the one per global cooldown restriction and the (still) small amount of healing. I could cast this spell, which is supposed to favor me, and will only ever get a single 1500 heal per tick if I attack a target. Or, I could cast Rapid Regeneration and always get a 1600 tick on me no matter what I do. Regeneration is always going to be the superior healing skill despite the build in selfish mechanic for Force Siphon. And, to repeat, Regeneration isn't even that good of an ability.

It's one thing to say that you are a healer and you use this skill to good effect when you run your Fungal Grotto and Banished Cells daily pledges. That doesn't make the spell efficient or quite frankly any good. I tank those pledges in with my templar and sorcerer in their DPS gear, neither of who even has the sword and board line leveled up. That they can do these pledges does not mean they are good tanks who are ready to actually contribute to a raid's success in that new trial that is supposed to be coming out.

Before 1.6 with a creative build, you could at least try to use this skill in a solo encounter or in PvP as a legitimate attempt to keep yourself healed. Then everyone started using damage shield which negated the proc and now the game's mechanics have made that a complete non starter. In Cyrodiil, siphon will only ever heal you for 750 per tick whereas your Nightblade opponent is hitting you with a non-crit 4,000 surprise attack plus a 2,000 light attack per global cooldown.

Ability needs an overhaul. I am not joking when I say I'd rather my healer use Blood Funnel since it actually performs a viable healing function in that I can activate its synergy and instantly restore more than half of my health.

Imdrefan

I used to have a +%healing build centered around this skill and restoring focus with ritual mundus and puncturing sweep. I tried it again recently and it was a joke. The healing from force siphon is laughable.

I would love to see this skill reworked.

Waffennacht

Well i think its on par with wall of elements...

(That was a joke.. a very sad one lol)

I agree, some abilities were balanced before changes. These abilities definitely deserve a re work. Force siphon is one.

Just wanna add... wtf daedric prey... its dps added by sorc pets and its own dps is still lower than curse, unless you have atro, twilight and clannofear out and they don't miss a single attack...