Usage of Staff 3 and 4?

When are you using these? They are niche utilities, but even for that purpose I barely ever use them compared to the utility skills of other weapons thief can carry. On what occasions is it good to use them? Personally I would like to merge both skills and give staff a block skill, but maybe both are good already and I just don't use them correctly. You got any advice for me?

Debilitating Arc is a quick evade (1/2s) and Immobilize removal. So you can use it to avoid an attack while pinned without having to use Unhindered Combatant to break immobilize. Dust Strike inflicts blind and 5 stacks of vuln per hit. You can use it to keep up vuln on your target for added damage.

Both of those weapon skills are pretty self explanatory, what else do you think an on-demand blind is used for than blinding crucial skills or an evade + immob remove other than avoiding crucial skills or removing immob?

Though comment above me is not wrong I strongly recommend not to use Staff4 for keeping up Vulnerability stacks as there is hardly any scenario when the Ini on that weapon skill would be worth just the Vuln stacks alone. Better keep it for the on-demand blind only. (maybe except when fighting a spec with high sustained dmg that does not come from burst, or the opposite when all its skills do high dmg in which case you dead anyway)

@Alatar.7364 said:Both of those weapon skills are pretty self explanatory, what else do you think an on-demand blind is used for than blinding crucial skills or an evade + immob remove other than avoiding crucial skills or removing immob?

Though comment above me is not wrong I strongly recommend not to use Staff4 for keeping up Vulnerability stacks as there is hardly any scenario when the Ini on that weapon skill would be worth just the Vuln stacks alone. Better keep it for the on-demand blind only. (maybe except when fighting a spec with high sustained dmg that does not come from burst, or the opposite when all its skills do high dmg in which case you dead anyway)

Didn't imply spamming it, just that its good for vuln.

Dust Strike is good against stealthed enemies or protecting your teammate who is being attacked.

Strictly PvE, 3 is seeing more use because anet decided the squishy espec that survives by having lots of dodges has to maximize DPS by having zero endurance. Before I always had a handy dodge now I have to swipe, which can put me in a worst position, use my signet to gain endurance then lose passive stats, or staff 3. Really wish they would cut down ini cost on staff 3 to 3 instead of 4. Staff 4 I cant think of a use. Maybe slowly walking towards something and having a range option?

If you're fighting a competent opponent 1v1 as an Acro staff daredevil, then Debilitating Arc is your most used staff skill other than autos.

Skill #3 is self-explanatory. However, I use #4 as a set-up for #5. The Vuln stack is a big boost for the AoE Vault damage. Dust Strike is also a good skill to use against Full Counter.

As Turk mentioned staff 3 is your most used skill in a 1v1 by a wide margin. So much so that it defines the weapon IMO - you want to use staff 3 the way you would normally use a dodge, and dodge correspondingly turns into an offensive ability.

Staff 4 is an important skill for harassing other melee specs. You can't stand toe to toe with them, but poking with a blind before you engage is often enough to make advantageous trades. You'll also have extra initiative outside of vault spam situations and blind is a good way to spend it.

The skill you don't use much in pvp is staff 2. It has some use with steal now that steal-vault was nerfed, but otherwise it is a waste of initiative.

Dust Strike is one of the best 1v1 staff skills against any number of builds. I often use it between every attack from an enemy until they are on cooldown.

@Crystal Black.8190 said:When are you using these?

I use staff #3 sometimes right after dismount, when the initial idea was to burst with pistols #3 but I had the wrong weapon set actrive. Otherwise it feels like a waste compared to Vault. Oh, and I guess I use something similar to staff #3 often when I use steal. It's a bug that makes the same movement but while stealing.