The artifact reduces the Damage DoT effect do not the time. At Least thats how i see it. Plus in the current meta Viking funeral was a perk that awarded panic and blind grenade tossing to well compared to how they are now where if you place them well you are rewarded the same. There is no reason to try and bring back such an overpowering perk that elongated the DoT and also brought you within the 1 shot to 90% of all primaries and gave you no chance at countering unless you have something like shade step and performed it at the right time. Plus if you think about it there are a few artifacts that will be worth using over the DoT one since things like double fire bolts and melee or double wombo combos will be more usefull than trying to counter a burn from thorn when all it takes is 2 headshots and 1 body shot to kill. In other words what you should worry about being buffed is useless when its easy to deal with now and it will be then.