I have been cataing as healer-tank-sammy with 6%ms. The syphon helps a bit, but it has been no more than maybe about 500mana per lvl.

but as i have it on my hm/gear, it is a nice add.

I have this build when using 14MS glyph gives sitting middle on a Robe Caster 51% Mana Syphon:

Angelic elvan padded robe
Level Req: 25
Physical Defense: 0 to 20
Magical Defense: 22 to 56

+37 Intelligence
+1 to 3 Life per Kill
+1 to 4 Mana per Kill
+14% Mana Syphon

Rare ebonwood staff
Level Req: 30
Damage: 41 to 111

+41 Intelligence
+11% Mana Syphon

Angelic fire VII
Level Req: 20
Spell Damage: 21 to 56
Mana Cost: 53

+20 Intelligence
+3 Magic Luck
+1% Armor Pierce
+12% Mana Syphon

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Mirror Maze Guardian Healer with 14MS glyph gives: 46% Mana Syphon

Rare stonewood club
Level Req: 25
Damage: 29 to 133

+12% Mana Syphon
+32% Heal Mastery


Mystical tintitanium plate mail
Level Req: 50
Physical Defense: 79 to 238
Magical Defense: 0 to 42

+135% Enhanced Effect
+5% Mind Numb
+54% Heal Mastery

Mythical wild heal XIII
Level Req: 50
Heals: 44 to 442
Mana Cost: 101

+221% Enhanced Effect
+9 Dexterity
+1% Armor Pierce
+2% Magical Damage Reduction
+22% Mana Syphon

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Heavy Caster Sitting up Front with 14MS Glyph gives: 61% Mana Syphon

Rare tempered diamond dagger
Level Req: 45
Damage: 69 to 121

+59 Intelligence
+20% Mana Syphon

Arcane tempered diamond chain mail
Level Req: 45
Physical Defense: 60 to 150
Magical Defense: 0 to 64

+93% Enhanced Effect
+55 Intelligence
+567 Max Mana
+2% Physical Damage Reduction
+3% Glancing Blow
+1 Jubilance

Angelic earth XIV
Level Req: 55
Spell Damage: 78 to 137
Mana Cost: 109

+30 Dexterity
+1157 Max Life
+2% Damage Return
+27% Mana Syphon

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A couple other MS items I play around with:


Mystical steelwood staff
Level Req: 45
Damage: 66 to 178

+1% Physical Damage Reduction
+22% Mana Syphon
+30% Heal Mastery

Mystical embossed leather armor
Level Req: 25
Physical Defense: 12 to 37
Magical Defense: 8 to 32

+28 Intelligence
+485 Max Mana
+10% Mana Syphon

Godly sapphire plate mail
Level Req: 30
Physical Defense: 74 to 224
Magical Defense: 0 to 33

+172% Enhanced Effect
+30 Strength
+3 Critical Strike
+3% Life Steal
+5% Block
+9% Mana Syphon
+19% Heal Mastery
+2% Power Shot

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Alright, where to start. First off, I too have envisioned the possibilities of Mana Syphon. I have an inner goal to some day be the first to do a lvl 55+ full chain by simply casting. The only way I see this possible is with the assistance of MS. Basically, you're going to cast until you hit a caster mob and then you can hang back and let it fill up your mana bar before killing. Well that's my idea at least. I still need a few pieces of gear that don't exist yet to give it a legitimate shot, but I'm patiently waiting. The gear you see above is an effort I've been working on for a couple seasons. The 45 dagger/chain aren't mine--the rest is (but I have access to them so I use them in my builds). I'm not simply listing out all my gear to show off. If you want to have an educated conversation regarding my builds, you have to know what I'm talking about. This makes it easier.

MS for Solo Casting
This doesn't work as well as I expected. I was really hoping to double+ my chains and it didn't come to that. Yea, you notice a difference. However, unless you have the godliest of gears you're better off just ISO higher int or +mana gear.

MS for Arena Melee
The 30plate listed below has 9MS on it. I do full chain 30-45 with it before I put on a different armor. I enjoy throwing a couple heal casts out to half mana to watch the MS work throughout the lvl. As I don't need to heal myself, I can testify that it does bring back quite a bit of mana and is useful on 41 chains. Syphon in the Well is sexy too

MS for Guardian Mirror
Yea, this is a bit of a spoiler of sorts, but the cat is already out of the bag. This combo is godly. It is a challenge to ever go below 75% mana.

MS for Cata Robe Caster
You will want to sit mid and possibly jump up front if you do manage to go low. The syphon is quite noticable mid. However, this is where it gets tricky as to it's usefulness. I believe it to be godly if you're in a primarily melee group. I believe it not as useful in a high end full casting group. See below.

MS for Cata Plate Caster
This is godly and what you want to do. However, it does fall to a shortcoming as well as the robe caster that Tony noted above. I find myself in the highest of quality cata games with the total casting prof in game over 120 and 9waves dieing in 1 hit. This may seem great, but I ran it w/o the 45chain listed above and only used a syphon plate that didn't have +mana. If the mobs instant die, guess what--YOU DON'T SYPHON! When we do speed climbs with all robe wearers, we sometimes cast our first heal in the game at lvl 45 since the mobs die so fast and we don't get hit. If you find yourself in this group, forget MS as that stat may as well be jubilence.

Now if you find yourself in a game with some melee guys and you have to whack at the mobs a few times, you will love this build. The MS works beautifully and you can cast forever. I plan to someday cast Mirror Maze and will use the gear listed. The charm is key since it gives +dex to negate crits, +life to help tank, and +27MS is quite useful. We'll see.




Hopefully this helps you a bit. MS has it's places and with the proper gear setup can be godly for your specific purposes. Know when / how to use it and MS can be your best friend!
~Nick

This post was edited by Stok3d on Jul 14 2010 08:50pm

pmed you ofc

i have been doing some cata-solo-testing with 37 Mana syphon and a tankchain.

being able to take multiple hits, i recognised that i started to stop leeching mana at a time, but took only physical damage (seen by the increasing number of "0"'s)

That means, that Monsters also have Mana, right? If this was true, soloing in arena can be even harder, as syphon stops being effective at a time... Anyway, i will try out switching to syphon gear in catas as soon as my mana is out. As i usually stand in front with my caster sammy, the mana pool should be full again in no time. Then switching back to hm-gear and heal again...

Mystical godwood club
Level Req: 55
Damage: 166 to 747

+176% Enhanced Effect
+3 Extra Equipment Slots
+5% Quick Draw

Rare fine honed leather armor
Level Req: 55
Physical Defense: 51 to 153
Magical Defense: 60 to 242

+181% Enhanced Effect
+1% Mana Syphon

Mythical earth XIV
Level Req: 55
Spell Damage: 162 to 283
Mana Cost: 109

+88% Enhanced Effect
+44 Strength
+9 Intelligence
+1 to 30 Mana per Kill
+14% Mana Syphon

Rare heal XIII
Level Req: 50
Heals: 179 to 478
Mana Cost: 101

+199% Enhanced Effect
+1% Experience Gained

I use a 50 int build with my rogue, and did the same thing last season with monk/ninja (did ~60 climbs).
Tried with a 55 robe: 49str/749 max mana robe
Tried with a 50 robe: 177ee/13 int.

With my rogue, I end up healing ~50-60 heals pr level and I still have ~1000-2000 mana left. So you can say MS works quite well
With my 15 MS I gain everything from 2000-4000 mana pr full MCC.

Don't remember exactly on monk/ninja, but the MS worked QUITE well with them aswell.
Even though you get quicker killing speed with str/dex armors, I prefeer EE because you don't have to heal as often and you end up doing short min/lvl.

Even though I don't have as good gear as a few other players, I have done my share of testing.
I have some nice low level MS/str items and ms/ee armors aswell.
What I have concluded is that MS works better at higher levels, and has nothing to do with the dmg you recieve (MS seems to work mostly when I get hit by 0's for some reason). Not sure if this is common knowledge or not, so I thought I'd share

This post was edited by jaywalker on Jul 16 2010 03:40am

Ty, i was not aware of this. If I hit creeps for 0 dam, then that hit does not count towards my prof or life/mana per hit. I thought it would be the other way round for monsters and mana syphon as well.

Especially in catas, i prefer EE as well on a caster. There tend to be more damagedealers than tanks or healers around atm, and i like the tank/healer combo. It is especially useful for those of us with low fg (like me :p).
And here, the mana syphon really comes in handy

Nice observation, but I believe your conclusion is invalid. I believe you are experiencing higher syphon at these levels because your gear in your groups may be further from EE cap at that tier. This would result in more time being spent in front of the mobs to kill them and more benefits yielded from Syphon. I am sure this is the case actually

This is based off "per attack recieved" during solo. At level 1-40 I have never gained +100 mana in one go, but at 55+ I can gain more than 100 mana per attack recieved. So there is a connection.

Ahhh, I follow what you're saying now. Yea, since the mobs hit you harder as you advance through the lvls the amount that you received goes up accordingly. I was referring to the frequency of each occurrence. My apologies for the misunderstanding

This post was edited by Stok3d on Jul 30 2010 11:39am

Most of the time I gain back mana I get hit for 0 (most of the time, not all. I would guess roughly 2/3).
MS only works when the monster cast, so the bolded part would imply that you gain LESS mana if you tank with a robe. Wich is not the case. Therefor I'm quite sure it is based on the mana they use, not how hard they hit you.