Power Siphon

So I tried out a wander for the first time, in preparation for the one week race and decided to go for power siphon + barrage.

Power siphon is straight-up inferior to barrage in every way and costs almost three times as much mana. The only thing it has going for it is the power charge gain, but if you're using it as an attack the power charge is largely inconsequential.

I wouldn't even attempt to use this skill into the lategame. There's no reason for an ATTACK skill usable at level 10 to cost 13 base mana - you could cast actual spells for cheaper (arctic breath costs 13 mana with a level 33 requirement).

You could fully third the cost of this skill and it would still be balanced.

"

Hemmingfish wrote:

So I tried out a wander for the first time, in preparation for the one week race and decided to go for power siphon + barrage.

Power siphon is straight-up inferior to barrage in every way and costs almost three times as much mana. The only thing it has going for it is the power charge gain, but if you're using it as an attack the power charge is largely inconsequential.

I wouldn't even attempt to use this skill into the lategame. There's no reason for an ATTACK skill usable at level 10 to cost 13 base mana - you could cast actual spells for cheaper (arctic breath costs 13 mana with a level 33 requirement).

You could fully third the cost of this skill and it would still be balanced.

I played a wandaer myself (dual-wield block wander build).

Actually, Power Siphon has several advantages (compared to barrage).
1. Stable power charge gain. Yes, you can get those via Assassin's Mark, but it isnt even close as reliable. And crit chance is really useful for wands.
2. Large per-hit damage. It allows you to use devastating burns from Herald of Ash.
3. Precision. When you shoot for a large distance, Barrage's "small spread" makes it impossible to hit an average enemy with all projectiles from barrage. So, Power Siphon is better for sharpshooting.
4. Power Siphon can be effectively turned into AoE skill with LMP/GMP and Pierce. Also, with LMP + Herald of Ash. For barrage, the only real option is Chain, and it applies 50% damage penalty while hitting only THREE targets (not really an AoE). Since AoE rules PoE, this advantage is critical.

And what about advantages of Barrage?
1. Higher base damage (160% vs 125%), assuming all projectiles hit.
2. Low mana cost (power siphon is quite expensive).
3. Good for per-hit procs (Cast on crit, etc).

"

MortalKombat3 wrote:

"

Hemmingfish wrote:

So I tried out a wander for the first time, in preparation for the one week race and decided to go for power siphon + barrage.

Power siphon is straight-up inferior to barrage in every way and costs almost three times as much mana. The only thing it has going for it is the power charge gain, but if you're using it as an attack the power charge is largely inconsequential.

I wouldn't even attempt to use this skill into the lategame. There's no reason for an ATTACK skill usable at level 10 to cost 13 base mana - you could cast actual spells for cheaper (arctic breath costs 13 mana with a level 33 requirement).

You could fully third the cost of this skill and it would still be balanced.

I played a wandaer myself (dual-wield block wander build).

Actually, Power Siphon has several advantages (compared to barrage).
1. Stable power charge gain. Yes, you can get those via Assassin's Mark, but it isnt even close as reliable. And crit chance is really useful for wands.
2. Large per-hit damage. It allows you to use devastating burns from Herald of Ash.
3. Precision. When you shoot for a large distance, Barrage's "small spread" makes it impossible to hit an average enemy with all projectiles from barrage. So, Power Siphon is better for sharpshooting.
4. Power Siphon can be effectively turned into AoE skill with LMP/GMP and Pierce. Also, with LMP + Herald of Ash. For barrage, the only real option is Chain, and it applies 50% damage penalty while hitting only THREE targets (not really an AoE). Since AoE rules PoE, this advantage is critical.

And what about advantages of Barrage?
1. Higher base damage (160% vs 125%), assuming all projectiles hit.
2. Low mana cost (power siphon is quite expensive).
3. Good for per-hit procs (Cast on crit, etc).

You forgot ;

5. Power Siphon looks way cooler than any other wand skill.

Hey GGG.

I've been playing your game since forever. Power Siphon was my favorit skill in the game up untill Kinetic blast came and ruined the show. I dropped using my favorit weapon in the game. I havn't once gone back to wands yet, and i won't do it untill you buff "Power siphon" or nerf "Kinetic blast".

I don't know what you guys were thinking when you came up with Kinetic blast. It's like Lightning Arrow on steroids. It's better single target dps than Power Siphon which was made as a single target skill.

You removed shotgunning from the game, but yet you didn't really remove it. Because why not add more shotgunning abilities after removing the shotgun mechanic?.

All you need to do is place a Ice Wall or get knockback on your projectiles. Which is easy. Knock the boss to a wall and you got like 5 times the damage output of Power Siphon. If you aint shotgunning no problem! You don't really lose any dps at all because it almost deals the same amount of dmg as Power Siphon does in the first place. Plus you need to use Greater Multiple Projectiles and Chain in order to make Power Siphon Aoe.

I freaking loved my Aoe Power Siphon and my single target Power Siphon, but they aren't needed any more. Kinetic Blast is probaly the most broken skill in the game atm.


Please fix this. Either nerf kinetic blast or buff the way power siphon works.

A good idear would to give power siphon some aoe damage around the target you actually kill with the skill. It has a super cool effect which could easily be made a aoe damage effect. That would be one way, The other would just to buff the damage. It simply deals to low dps compared to kinetic blast.

Many Regards a happy Poe Player.

Ps - please make my wish come true. It's my favorit skil in the game. " Power Siphon "

Sorry for my bad Englisch, but i am trying Power Siphon in Essence League right now,
with a "physical" wander (IGN is WhoNeedsKineticBlast).
even tho you cant realdy make a phys wander. beacuse you are most of the time going to be a hybrid wander due to nodes such as "Tempest blast" or the "Eldich Power" cluster.
so, lets get to the skill gem now. Power siphon is just laking in all kind of things. first of all you need 2 support gems like lmp + chain to make it an AoE skill, and even then it can only hit 9 targest at once. well if you use GMP you can hit 15 targets. but your damage is going to be low as hell. so its not realy an option.
to conpare it to Kinetic Blast.

Kinetic Blast has:
+Build in AoE
+Only needs one support gem to be a good AoE skill
+High Single Target damage.
+Higher tool tip DPS

-higher mana cost
-lower base damage

Power Siphon has
+lower mana cost
+Build in Culling strike and Power charge on Kill

-Needs 2 support gems to be a half decent AoE skill
-lower single target damage is its used as an AoE skill
-lower tool tip DPS


In my Opinion, Power Siphon REALY needs a buff, and/or Wanders in general. because you dont see anyone playing a wander.
if you play a wander, or rather Power Siphon wander in a party, the other party members nearly every time ask what skill your using becasue they dont know power Siphon exists. even your random Elreon daily rotation party notices it.
and when you post a power siphon skill gem in a random global chat channel. half of the people there ask if it is a new gem.

My Suggestion is to give Power Siphon an Extra funktion. maybe remove the culling strike and give it "Fires 1 addidional projektile per 2 aktive power charges" or something like that. that goes well with the Theme of Power Siphon and you dont have to use GMP/LMP anymore. you still can if you want to but is is no longer nessesary. and you could use something like Faster attacks or ppad if your a phys wander. and it would bring your clearspeed level up a level where it is compareble to Kinetic blast.

GGG, please consider buffing it, because it it the most beautiful skill in the game in my opinion. and it realy needs a buff.
(also an MTX like a blue Flower coming out of the Enemy when it dies would't hurt either ;-) )

if it is buffed, you only need to watch out so you dont die to a Corpse exploding boss that corpse exploded the corpse of the boss ;-)

Hi,

First i'm sorry, i know this post is old and forgotten but i don't know where are the newest ones.

If we're talking about posible changes for power siphon i'm posting here some ideas i found on reddit:
- gives a buff per power charge ( like the one we get for frenzy)
- a helmet enchant (chain or like the one for frenzy/flicker strike)
- a chain ( like lightning arrow )
- a pair of unique gloves or a jewel with additional proj or chain support ( I mean there's even a heavy strike jewel, so where's power siphon jewel ?)
-

Next i'll write my ideas of build and the reasons why i struggle with this skill.

Power siphon isn't a single target skill.
It doesn't shotgun unlike Kinetic Blast explosions.
It has less damage than barrage that can shotgun.
It has a big mana cost unlike frenzy which has in the end a higher tooltip on top of that.
The power charge on kill is meaningless as a single target skill.

It isn't an AoE skill
- I tried GMP + Chain and 2* less 30% dmg is too hard to deal with.
- LMP + chain is OK. But not that good.
- pierce is a bad idea imo since the area covered by wand projectiles is lame.

I wonder how it works with Powerful Precision tho. Maybe a possible single target with an icewall ?


- I will try Elementalist and , well it works but not because of this skill exactly. I use Beacon of Ruin with herald of ash and get some high dmg ignite because of the high base dmg from Power Siphon BUT the clearspeed and leveling are really slow.
- I'm trying Deadeye to get +1 chain +1 proj. And i am afraid i'll die to reflect. Which an Elementalist could prevent somehow with Parangon of Calamity.
- My best bet is the raider. High dmg, high movespeed, frenzy charge on hit which is stupidly strong. But i'll need chain+GMP thus i'm afraid of what i'll get out of it. And same issue here with reflect.

I'm playing piscator's sigil atm. Working on a way to get things done with it.

I hope 3.0 will not forget Power Siphon or that new uniques will make the most beautiful skill in the game viable again.

I also hope in 3.0 that you guys haven't abandoned Power Siphon again. It is truly a beautiful skill. It just needs to be buffed.

Ok while you killed power siphon with last (beta) patch i got an idea how to fix it with your new changes.

Let power siphon be wand + spell damage perhaps adjust its values a bit so it doesnt get to op but build the whole skill around being a wand attack / spell damage hybrid.

Voila you got a new exicting skill to be really used with other spells.
You actually could manage to do it with treshold jewels too.
1 Jewel: 50% of spell damage is applied to power siphon
2 Jewels: 100% of spell damage is applied to power siphon.

This way you dont have problems with most gems (faster casting etc.). To adjust power you could allow more gems until power siphon is viable.

Just stop making stuff and then turning it into crap.

Ways to bring power siphon back.
ever since the new wand skills like barrage and kinetic blast, power siphon have seen less and less uses. mainly because the 2 mentioned skills are vastly superior(aoe) or can be supported with threshold jewels(barrage), increasing their capabilities without much of a sacrifice in terms of gem slots.
Power siphon on the other hand, have no AOE, or threshold jewel support, its most unique aspect is probably gaining charges, so lets start there.
It is the only skill by far let you generate power charges reliably, but this feature is severely limited to the core since you can only gain one power charge per attack of the skill, on top of that, power siphon applies a short debuff, so in order to gain a power charge, the hit has to either be the killing blow or having the monster die soon after it was hit.

So here are some suggestions for an upgrade.
the key is in the debuff, i think it should have an effect similar to essence drain, it causes the target to lose 3-5%(you guys can tweak around to find the ideal value) of its current life and mana per second and transfer to the player(the term siphon), which will not be OP since it goes down as monster loses life, and it on its own will never kill the monster unless its life is at 10%. if a monster dies while debuff is active, it will grant a power charge, since this will grant possibly 1 power charge per monster, the chance of gaining a power charge should be about 30-50%(level 1-20). in addition, the debuff stacks up to 3 times, but power charge chance are unchanged.
Possible jewel power-ups, with 40 int in radius, the debuff is spread to nearby enemies if a monster is killed while debuff is active.
debuff stacking, debuff can be stacked infinitely, 50% less debuff effect, 50% less debuff duration.

This will still keep the power siphon skill unique and yet overpowered, creating some potentially interesting builds.