Serpent Siphon

Punishment. Unleash a ghostly serpent toward a targeted area. Upon arriving, the serpent will burst into sand, granting barrier and boons to nearby allies and poisoning enemies. Convert a boon from struck enemies into torment. — In-game description

Serpent Siphon

   

Profession

Necromancer (skill list)

Specialization

Scourge

Slot

Utility

Type

Punishment

Training cost

15 Hero points

Game link

API

41615

“

0.5½  

20

40

20

 

Serpent Siphon

Punishment. Unleash a ghostly serpent toward a targeted area. Upon arriving, the serpent will burst into sand, granting barrier and boons to nearby allies and poisoning enemies. Convert a boon from struck enemies into torment.

 Damage: 226 (0.85)^?

 Barrier: 1,295 (1.0)^?

 Poison (10s): 335 Damage, -33% Heal Effectiveness

₃ Boon Conversion (8s): 528 Damage, 763 Damage if Foe Is Stationary

 Aegis (5s): Block the next incoming attack.

 Regen (9s): 1,170 Heal

 Regen (6s): 780 Heal

 Boons Converted to Conditions: 1

 Number of Targets: 5

 Radius: 240

 Range: 900

— In-game description

Related traits

Curses

• Parasitic Contagion — A percentage of your condition damage heals you. Healing will not occur while life force replaces health.
• Target the Weak — Increases critical-hit chance for each condition on the foe. Gain condition damage based on your precision.

Death Magic

• Putrid Defense — Poison damage is increased. Applying poison grants carapace.
• Corrupter's Fervor — Inflicting a condition on a foe grants carapace. Gain pulsing protection while at or above the carapace threshold.

Scourge

• Abrasive Grit — Granting an ally a barrier removes conditions afflicting them and grants might. This effect only occurs with barrier from scourge skills and traits.
• Nourishing Ashes — Gain life force when you inflict burning, and remove or corrupt a boon.
• Feed from Corruption — When you remove or corrupt a boon from an enemy, gain barrier.
• Demonic Lore — Torment you inflict deals increased damage and causes your foes to burn. This trait can only inflict burning on a particular target once every three seconds.
• Desert Empowerment — Manifest Sand Shade grants a barrier to allies near it. When you apply barrier, grant boons to the affected target. This effect only occurs with barrier from scourge skills and traits.

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
February 11, 2025	Increased the cooldown from 30 seconds to 40 seconds in WvW only.
March 19, 2024	Increased the cooldown from 20 seconds to 30 seconds in WvW only.
June 27, 2023	This skill has been reworked. It will now send a serpent to a target area that will detonate upon arrival. Allies in the area will gain barrier, regeneration, and aegis. Enemies will be poisoned and one of their boons will be converted into torment. Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.
October 04, 2022	Punishment skills no longer inflict crippled when removing a boon. Increased number of torment stacks applied when removing a boon from 1 to 3.
March 05, 2019	Fixed a bug that caused this skill to list an incorrect amount of barrier. Reduced its recharge time from 30 seconds to 25 seconds. Increased its damage by 21%.
February 06, 2018	Punishment Skills: The torment durations of this skill category have been reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. The cripple duration has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.
December 12, 2017	All skills that grant barrier now give 15% more barrier. Poison has been adjusted from 2 stacks for 5 seconds to 1 stack for 10 seconds. Adjusted torment from 2 stacks for 5 seconds to 1 stack for 10 seconds.
September 22, 2017	Path of Fire release: Serpent Siphon has been added to the game.