Can we improve the Siphon Life talent to be more like Resto Druid’s Germination Talent? i.e. you can apply Rejuvenation twice to the same target, except it works for Corruption. For example, casting Corruption once applies Corruption, but casting it a second time applies Siphon Life.
This accomplishes a few things. It minimizes button bloat. The two abilities are relatively similar DPS with extremely similar durations (14s vs 15s). Why not just use the same keybind twice instead of having two keybinds that do nearly identical things?
Casting Seed of Corruption would feel more impactful as you can cast it twice at the start of a pull to get some DoTs out for AoE and then spam some Agony by tab target.
It allows more competition between Vile Taint and Sow the Seeds. Do you want to spend one shard for two DoT’s and cast two Malefic Raptures for a bursty start to the pull OR do you cast Seed followed by Vile Taint (which has a stronger DoT component) with only one Malefic Rapture? It would depend on the tuning of the abilities which isn’t set yet. They could also remove the shard cost of Vile Taint to even it out better if they don’t keep Vile Taint the stronger DoT compared to Siphon Life. Especially considering Phantom Singularity currently does not require a shard. The ease of use for Sow the Seeds with this set up also loses out on the snare of Vile Taint, which is added utility for a slightly more complex start. There’s easy ways to keep them balanced for this idea which is a huge bonus.
I just really feel like Affliction needs a better way to apply DoTs without needing to single cast and tab target X number of mobs every single pull. Agony would still need to do this but doing it for one DoT isn’t as bad as 2-3 (depending on pull size and talents).
EDIT: Also taking Siphon Life + Vile Taint would require 3 soul shards (with current shard costs) to get all three DoTs up. That would mean no Malefic Rapture on the start of a pull for a more rot playstyle with less burst. Gives more flavor in how you do damage.
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Well there’s a lot of reasons why you would not want to do this. For example you can reduce the button bloat by simply creating a modifier such as alt or crtl. Having the extra amount of control over your abilities also creates the skill gap between good and bad players. lets say I’m in a pvp match and maybe i want to prioritize siphon life since i could use that little extra bit of healing, i would first now need to apply corruption. Also corruption now has initial damage which can impact a fear you may have just set off, while if you cast siphon life you may buy yourself some extra time.
I do believe that sow the seeds could use something like this to be improved though. Kalamazi brought it up in one of his videos recently saying that sow the seeds would be more effective if it applied a second dot which would create a more impactful talent for malefic rapture to work off of. He suggested agony but that would be too impactful, but something like siphon life would be better, however that would mean siphon life would have to be baseline and would call for some more rework.
aff could definitely use some sort of talent like spriest where they are able to apply pain and vamperic touch at the same time, it would help speed up the setup as well as create a faster burst without being completely over powered. replacing sow the seeds with maybe a spell that applies agony and corruption on a single target with 1 GCD would be more impactful in M+ than its current form. As of right now there is no reason to take sow the seeds over vile taint imo.
I do wish siphon life would be reworked somehow. It’s such an iconic affliction spell, but in BFA/SL it really only exists as an extra amp for malefic rapture/dark glare/death bolt.
The damage is incredibly low, the healing is a joke, and the duration is too short to be practical outside of single target, when you consider it is (since BFA) mutually exclusive with AC, and there is no way to spread it.
Siphon Life is a relic at this point. It’s too slow for the current pace of the game as soon as you’re looking at more than 2 targets. Would love to see some way of spreading it around more efficiently.
Or turn it back into a passive that adds on to our other dots
Well it seems like every responder feels like there needs to be something done with the talent. Anyone have any other ideas that we could all rally behind? I put forth my own idea based on what I know about class changes in SL. Can we get something that we all can start pushing towards to make it better?
I mean people are doing that now and comparatively speaking it still feels bloated. With that being said i think the overarching problem is how much things you will be managing at that point. I do get that aff is about DoT management but i mean you will be maintaining 6 things while trying to also fit in GCDs for rapture, drains, and Vile Taint. Even past affliction didnt have to maintain this much and their DoTs lasted longer as well. It kinda feels perfect without siphon life.
For one, it should be on a different talent row than absolute corruption, like back in legion. AC made adding another 15s dot far more practical.
Second, if the damage was slanted back towards dots, and away from MR/DS, it would feel more impactful. The healing % could also definitely improved. In BFA/SL it ends up generating less healing than a single leech forge, it’s pathetic.
The instant damage corruption is getting in SL, could also have been given to siphon life instead. I mean it has pretty heavy anti-synergy with SoC and AC anyway.
just give us back harvest life pls 
Arnt you guys good enough? Jeez.