Prior to 3.0, Siphoning Strikes/Attacks was incredibly strong, and in the context of the sustain changes coming in U14, would have been completely overtuned and overpowered. As a magblade main, I admit that it needed a nerf. As far as I know, the nightblade community is in general agreement about this.

On the other hand, the nightblade community has been unanimously puzzled about how the new version of Siphoning Strikes (and morphs) is supposed to work. In both its 3.0 version and its 3.0.2 version, this skill is now a very poor sustain tool even within the new sustain meta of U14 for three reasons:

- Prior to 3.0, every class had some way to get stamina back without first spending stamina. Siphoning Strikes was the nightblade's version of this functionality. After 3.0, every class except nightblade can get stamina back without first spending stamina. In PVP, this functionality is extremely important for every class and build. (If the devs intended for nightblades to be the only class without this functionality, the community would really appreciate direct communication about this particular change.)

- The ability is very hard to use for newer players, because it is only efficient in cases of perfect play. It grants the equivalent of 385 single-resource regen (depending on morph) assuming perfect light attack weaving, and its (smallish) resource return when the ability expires also requires that you not refresh the ability too early, requiring close attention to your buffs (something new players struggle with). This means that a player who is not doing everything right will be lucky to break even on the skill's cost, let alone get anything out of it. Compare this to every other class's main sustain tools, which do not require perfect timing, perfect weaving, or close attention to buff timers. (I'm envisioning having to tell new nightblades in my guild who want to use this ability to go watch an Alcast video on weaving just so they can make the ability work well for them. I won't have to tell new sorcs to go to youtube to learn how to use Dark Deal efficiently, or new Templars to go look up Alcast so they can know how to use Repentance efficiently.)

- Oddly, the ability actually discourages nightblades from taking advantage of the game's dominant resource-return tool: heavy attacks. This is related to the previous point: the ability is only efficient in cases of perfect light-attack weaving, which means that during its duration, you cannot efficiently take the time to charge up a heavy attack. It's puzzling that a class sustain tool would actually discourage the game's main sustain mechanic. If the resource-return were higher, or if the ability retained its old chance to proc an increased return on all direct damage, then it would no longer discourage heavy attacking.

(An aside: I understand that the ability now has a small heal attached to it. For new players, especially new stamina nightblade players, this seems like a nice change, as it will make survivability in low-pressure situations (i.e. outside of PVP and endgame PVE, where the heal is too small to make a difference) easier for stamblades. From this perspective, the ability change is very friendly to new and casual players, who have been complaining about stamblade's low survivability for some time. However, there are plenty of other, virtually unused abilities in the nightblade class trees to which this small heal could have been attached. Did this change really need to come at the expense of Siphoning Strikes' usefulness as a sustain tool?)

3.0 and 3.0.2 have turned Siphoning Strikes and morphs into an ability that is not user-friendly, is not resource-efficient, and is not competitive with other classes' sustain tools. @ZOS_GinaBruno or @ZOS_RichLambert can you let us know whether the team plans to look at the ability any further before U14 goes live? If not, could we get a dev post or a segment of the next ESO Live in which these changes are explained? 3.0.2's dev comments seem to suggest the ability has been successfully buffed into viability, but this does not seem to be the case.

I'm encouraged by the fact that, in the past, the dev team continued making changes to abilities that didn't test well on the PTS up until the final iteration of the PTS -- e.g. the multiple changes to DKs' Coagulating Blood in the U13 PTS, which went from something very bad in the first PTS build to something very good in the last). The nightblade community is currently in a position similar to where the magDK community was midway through the U13 test cycle. Hopefully we can get similar treatment. Fellow nightblades, if you have had a chance to test the new Siphoning Strikes on the PTS, please continue to post your test results (or submit feedback on it in-game) so that the dev team can see that the ability continues to need work.

(Edit: Formatting)