So... About staff

Staff looked like it was on its way to being cool.

Why in this last patch did you both fix the bugs... AND nerf it?

After playing the bugged version... It was fun. And it would have been nice to see an alternative version of the meta condi build.

Really... I'm just looking for an excuse to run staff in at least one weapon set. But doing so knocks you down from 31k to 26k.

I understand that ranged weapons tend to be weaker... But some classes break this mold. (Weaver comes to mind)

What are the odds of bringing those condi durations back up on the staff auto?

Seriously, the casts and projectiles are so slow, and the bounces are so unreliable, I've no idea why they would reduce the duration of the conditions staff manages to apply.

Yeah I always liked using staff on mesmer and the vuln>torment change made me start making one.... until the other changes were made.

@Sarge shot Grif.6450 said:Yeah I always liked using staff on mesmer and the vuln>torment change made me start making one.... until the other changes were made.

I love staff and even after changes I’ll still run it but I play more of a power bruiser and staff lets me get up in the middle of everything. Plus it’s fun when you down someone and they start pm’ing you complaining your running a cheese condi build ?

Yeah... It's just frustrating to have exactly 1 raid viable weapon.

I guess I can use staff staff on demios? Maybe? Probably not.

I was so excited about staff being good and then......

It is even more sad when you realise staff has been arguably mesmers worst weapon, or rather most forgotten weapon by anet. 3 days of being actually good and now its meh again.

@"Lahmia.2193" said:It is even more sad when you realise staff has been arguably mesmers worst weapon, or rather most forgotten weapon by anet. 3 days of being actually good and now its meh again.

3 days of being "good" due to a bug... And during that time I could barely hit 14k with it on Mathias.

I get that it's our "AoE" weapon... But... The way mirage uses weapon swap to produce energy for ambush... (whole spec hinges on a weapon sigil.) that means that, unlike other classes we can't just slot one weapon for ranged. We must take two of the same, or only swap off hands.

This was my first time trying out staff. I ended up really enjoying it.

I'm sad to see it removed as a good option. I can understand the bug fix, but the condition nerf on it wasn't necessary.

@"BrokenGlass.9356" said:.

3 days of being "good"...

That's what really gets me. What in those 3 days alarmed Anet so much as to reduce the durations of the (randomly applied, mind you,) conditions? I know it's not like this but it honestly feels like as soon as Mesmers were starting to say "hey I might enjoy using staff regularly!" Anet was like "oh no! We can't let this happen!". Like (aside from the bug) I can't see what was so offensive with the build other than people started using a staff instead of laughing at the thought of even owning one outside of niche/casual builds.

Had a staff mirage in my deimos group today. He only did 5.5k boss dps while our weaver did 16.5k boss dps.

He probably is not familiar with the build yet. But still the dps gap is HUGE.

I pull about 9-10kdps with staff on small golem with self buffs.

Tried to play with staff on my mirage...but as was said, the projectile is PAINFULLY slow and very unreliable. Is it suppose to track...it doesn't so, I guess not. The other options are nearly worthless. The retreat option should leave a clone and an area of pulsing damage. That'd be way cool and useful. Condition damage is so slow and thus mostly negated before it really does anything. It's very similar to staff ele, without the damage. Sad.

@"Roda.7468" said:Seriously, the casts and projectiles are so slow, and the bounces are so unreliable, I've no idea why they would reduce the duration of the conditions staff manages to apply.

Probably becasue...the warlock is not dependent on them any longer. Which I personally miss but! If you know the true power of the warlock with 10% damage per unique condition. I double (pre feb 6) spawned those and most don't live through "burst". 1. you can't see it coming and 2. Just one alone can 100-0 some builds. If the first one missed the second one is likely to land...it's all a game of odds. BUT 4 of those guys would be devastating. no build would survive becasue you'd have to doge the warlocks bolt and not the clones. 2 warlocks using mage strike followed by another two and if you're feeling froggy another two. The staff in my minor opinion has always been a power weapon...so the vuln stack is pretty nice. It's hard to work with the old warlock becasue you could never be exactly sure when....they were going to fire so if you stack a ton of harmless condis too early and he misfires welp...rip.

Although for PVE such an ability would be pretty nice...and funny. Run staff with the domination line try it. Double down on that and might stack too. Staff should be pretty spicy.