The follow changes are live in Prime and Plat, please note we consider these changes experimental and may withdraw them if they do not have the effect we are looking for.

1) Blood Burst now costs 2 slots, up from 1.
2) Vitality cost for using Blood Burst has been increased.
3) Bleeders now modestly reduce the vitality cost instead of eliminating it. In addition, you can use PERFORM CUT to get a single use (per cut) of this function.
4) Blood Burst no longer does a secondary hit.
5) Hitting with Blood Burst now staggers the opponent, resulting in an additional balance reduction above and beyond what they take from the hit. This is resolved after the hit. Note this only happens if you successfully hit your target.
6) If the opponent's balance is sufficiently low, a Blood Burst hit will automatically make them prone. This is checked after the hit and additional balance reduction are resolved. As above, it does not apply if the target avoids your spell.
7) New ASK messaging.

There is a a brief cooldown on how quickly that the balance reduction can happen, so you can't chaingun someone into a stupor, but its a very short cooldown.

So, while that's the nuts and bolts, let's talk intentions for a moment.

Blood Burst has been a problematic spell for awhile, due to the changing needs of Magic Core and the Necromancer Guild in general. Initially it was conceived of as a penalty spell; Necromancers were not meant to have reliable access to a 4th tier TM spell, since they have their zombies instead. When we eliminated TM tiering, Blood Burst remained penalized but no longer meaningful within the Necromancer spell books.

Our intentions, across multiple attempts, has been trying to keep the spell's flavor of a dangerous, not spammable spell that nonetheless has a sufficient boon to be used at all. This is not the first time we've tried this, and it may not be the last.

Please note that while the vitality drain can be intense, there's two things to keep in mind with it:
A) You are not meant to be "naked" casting this spell often, except perhaps under duress. Especially now that PERFORM CUT works with it, it is balanced assuming you will cast it with the discount.

B) It's still, even with the discount, not meant to be spammed very long. We imagine weaving in Siphon Vitality during long combats as meaningful for keeping your vitality up.

Please let me know how it feels and give me any critiques you feel like.

-Armifer
"Perinthia's astronomers are faced with a difficult choice. Either they must admit that all their calculations were wrong ... or else they must reveal that the order of the gods is reflected exactly in the city of monsters." - Italo Calvino