Leeching Venoms

Venom utility skills siphon life from struck foes. Gain stacks of Spider Venom when you enter or exit stealth. Siphoning can only occur once per strike. — In-game description

Leeching Venoms

Specialization

Shadow Arts (trait list)

Tier

Master

Type

Major

Training cost

5 Hero points

Game link

API

API

“

Leeching Venoms

Venom utility skills siphon life from struck foes. Gain stacks of Spider Venom when you enter or exit stealth.
Siphoning can only occur once per strike.

 Life Siphon Damage: 320 (0.033)^?

 Life Siphon Damage: 160 (0.0165)^?

 Life Siphon Healing: 325 (0.2)^?

₃ Spider Venom (30s): Your attacks poison foes.

 Spider Venom (30s): Your attacks poison foes.

 Venom Stacks: 3

 Venom Stacks: 1

— In-game description

Related skills

Weapon skills that are improved by this trait

•   Cloak and Dagger — Dagger
•   Shattering Assault — Spear
•   Tow Line — Spear
•   Smoke Trail — Harpoon gun
•   Death's Advance — Rifle

Healing skills that are improved by this trait

•   Hide in Shadows — Deception
•   Skelk Venom — Venom

Utility skills that are improved by this trait

•   Blinding Powder — Deception
•   Shadow Refuge — Deception
•   Shadow Portal
•   Devourer Venom — Venom
•   Ice Drake Venom — Venom
•   Skale Venom — Venom
•   Spider Venom — Venom
•   Shadow Gust — Cantrip

Elite skills that are improved by this trait

•   Basilisk Venom — Venom
•   Shadow Meld — Cantrip

Profession mechanic skills that are improved by this trait

•   Blinding Tuft — Stolen skill
•   Soul Stone Venom — Venom, Stolen skill
•   Throw Feathers — Stolen skill
•   Steal Defenses — Stolen skill
•   Steal Durability — Stolen skill
•   Steal Health — Stolen skill
•   Steal Mobility — Stolen skill
•   Steal Precision — Stolen skill
•   Steal Resistance — Stolen skill
•   Steal Strength — Stolen skill
•   Steal Time — Stolen skill
•   Steal Warmth — Stolen skill

Downed skills that are improved by this trait

•   Smoke Bomb

Drowning skills that are improved by this trait

•   Vanish in the Deep

Notes

Bug:

Affects Rot Wallow Venom, but leeching only occurs when the last stack of the effect is consumed.

• Only applies on entering or exiting Stealth; does not apply if you increase Stealth duration while already in Stealth.
• For more information about Life Siphoning, refer to Life Steal.
• Actual damage equation is: 320 + (0.033 * Power). The damage portion is not affected by target armor.
• When venoms are applied on allies, healing is based on the allied player's healing power.
• Contrary to what the description suggests, every hit in an attack that targets multiple foes can leech life provided the player has enough venom stacks.
  • On this note, the number of targets is related to how many targets can be affected by this skill per strike, provided you have enough stacks to affect them all, as one is consumed per enemy.
• When multiple different venoms are used in one hit, only one leech occurs.
• Spider Venom granted by this trait is the same as granted by the Spider Venom utility skill, sharing the cap of 25 stacks.

Version history

For a detailed trait history, see here.

Patch	Changes
June 28, 2022	This trait now grants stacks of Spider Venom when entering or exiting stealth instead of every interval while in stealth.
October 26, 2021	(Undocumented) Added a missing word to the description.
July 08, 2020	Fixed a bug that caused the life-stealing damage to be higher than expected in PvP and WvW.
July 07, 2020	Reduced life-stealing base damage from 320 to 160 in PvP and WvW. Reduced life-stealing power coefficient from 0.0333 to 0.0165 in PvP and WvW.
February 25, 2020	Competitive content update: (Competitive split) Reduced maximum stacks of spider venom provided by this trait from 6 to 2.
October 01, 2019	This trait now immediately grants a stack of spider venom when the thief first enters stealth and every 3 seconds after.
July 16, 2019	This trait has been moved to new slot in the same tier. It no longer reduces recharge of venoms. Instead it causes the thief to stack spider venom automatically while in stealth.
July 26, 2016	This trait no longer grants might to allies it is applied to. This trait now reduces the recharge of venom abilities.
June 23, 2015	Specialization update: Updated this trait to reflect the introduction of the specialization mechanic. Added: Gain 2 stacks of might for 20 seconds when activating a venom.
April 30, 2013	Increased the damage scale from power by 33%. Increased range from 325-400 to 325-425.
January 28, 2013	This trait no longer affects gadgets.
November 15, 2012	This trait now scales based on the thief's power.
August 28, 2012	Game release: Leeching Venoms has been added to the game.