Thoughts on Staff DD after 7/10/18 patch?

Any thoughts on Staff Daredevil after the latest patch, thief bruddas?

Obviously we got the buff to Staff 2, but the more interesting change is this:"Exposed Weakness: The damage this trait causes has been changed from 10% damage if the target has a condition to 2% damage per unique condition on a target."

I mostly use my thief in fractals (not raids), so this change is making me want to run Trickery over Deadly Arts, for the fairly constant 15% bonus from Lead Attacks + the ability to boon strip. The new EW is technically a buff if the boss has more than 5 conditions, but I'm just not sure how reliably that will occur. What does everyone think?

In fractals, it's probably going to net the same DPS as before. But in raids, where you have a bazillion unique condition applications, it will definitely net you a slight DPS boost.

Defiantly a buff in raids. Depending on the boss you can have anywhere from 8-12 conditions on them during the duration of the fight.

Seeing how much stealth deadeye can produce now, regardless of weapon, I think maybe we can ask for the ability to stealth with staff weapon skills. The obvious candidate would be dust strike, staff 4. It could produce a little smoke field, no pulsing blind, lasts 2-4 seconds, and the thief has the leap skill needed to stealth on Vault.

Hook Strike, staff stealth skill, sees very little play I reckon because it can only be accessed in gimmicky ways right now.

The change to Exposed Weakness is a good buff if you use the staff DD in group/against champ/lege, but for me that I use it as roamer, I don't like this change at all. I'm quite pissed.I don't like that as a thief I depend on other ppl so much now. As staff DD I can't possibly apply many conditions on my rotation, without losing dmg. This trait could have been "get a +2% dmg increase for each player around you, up to 6 players" with the same result. This is not how a "rewarding" gameplay should be.And I don't like that p/p or rifle DE now deal so much dmg with less risks. Take for example just the last minimeta in Kourna: why should I go melee with a staff, if I can just sit at 1500 with a rifle and watch 5-digits numbers on the boss with zero risk?

A good trait imo is something like Predator's Onslaught: you get +15% dmg only if you apply a movement-impairing condition. This way, even if you have several ppl around you, you're not sure that they will chill it/slow it. And the difference between +15% and 0 bonus is too high to pass. So you are forced to change your rotation to throw some chill/trap, both when you play in group and in solo.Exposed Weakness on the other hand, totally relies on ppl around you. You will receive a +2% bonus in solo and skyrocket to +22% in group. That's out of our control (though I know that also Engi have a very similar trait).

EDIT: sorry if I derailed from your specific question about staff DD in fractal... I just had to rant.

@"Urud.4925" said:The change to Exposed Weakness is a good buff if you use the staff DD in group/against champ/lege, but for me that I use it as roamer, I don't like this change at all. I'm quite pissed.I don't like that as a thief I depend on other ppl so much now. As staff DD I can't possibly apply many conditions on my rotation, without losing dmg. This trait could have been "get a +2% dmg increase for each player around you, up to 6 players" with the same result. This is not how a "rewarding" gameplay should be.And I don't like that p/p or rifle DE now deal so much dmg with less risks. Take for example just the last minimeta in Kourna: why should I go melee with a staff, if I can just sit at 1500 with a rifle and watch 5-digits numbers on the boss with zero risk?

A good trait imo is something like Predator's Onslaught: you get +15% dmg only if you apply a movement-impairing condition. This way, even if you have several ppl around you, you're not sure that they will chill it/slow it. And the difference between +15% and 0 bonus is too high to pass. So you are forced to change your rotation to throw some chill/trap, both when you play in group and in solo.Exposed Weakness on the other hand, totally relies on ppl around you. You will receive a +2% bonus in solo and skyrocket to +22% in group. That's out of our control (though I know that also Engi have a very similar trait).

EDIT: sorry if I derailed from your specific question about staff DD in fractal... I just had to rant.

But this is exactly what the change was meant to do. Reduce Thief potency in low-condition environment like PvP and solo-roaming in WvW but increase it in a group environment like raids or WvW zergs(unlikely I know). It's not meant to discourage you from doing it, just reduce your potential to 1-shot people with gimmicky setups. There might be more adjustments for Staff on the way as have been looking at it atleast. Just be patient.

I do like the idea of a group making the thief stronger rather than the other way around. Criminals do usually work in gangs of various sorts.

I currently run Trickery simply because it makes more sense for target swapping in OW and Fractals, and you can even buff Lead Attacks with staff 5. Undoubtedly the change is good for raids where boss fights last a lot longer, but for OW / Fractals, the buff to staff #2 has more of an impact imo. Now I dont feel guilty for deviating from Staff #1 spam lol.