Small Staff rework suggestion

Hmm, this new thumbs up/down thing could be really useful for aggregating feedback on suggested changes and seeing whether the community agrees with it or not. Anyway, copied from a thread just yesterday, here's my suggested rework for our staff skills.

• Winds of Chaos - Reduce after-cast delay by 1/3 of a second (bringing total cast time, including the delay, to 1 second), increase projectile speed by 75%. Each hit on an enemy now applies vuln and either bleeding or burning, while each hit on an ally/you now applies 2s regen and either fury or might.
• Chaos Armor - reduce CD to 25 seconds
• Chaos Storm - Increase duration of the storm to 7 seconds. On the final tick, all conditions are applied to enemies in the storm, and all boons are applied to allies in the storm.

While not very comprehensive, these changes buff the auto attack significantly, while also making Chaos storm a better area of denial skill, with longer pulsing dazes, and a more dangerous/helpful final tick. I do believe phase retreat to currently be in a good spot, and have no thoughts on phantasmal warlock.

Staff auto does need a look, someone said it in the old forums but it was designed around old burning (which with 0 stats used to tick for 400ish). Over due for a little buff and I would support a faster attack rate (would rather it was baseline improved and not bound to trait).

Oh yea, forgot to add, these would be baseline changes, not via a trait or anything. And I can get behind buffing the burning application of winds of chaos for sure, either a second stack or a longer duration.

I am all for staff AA improvement.

But I don't think chaos storm needs buff. It is already quite strong skill.

I believe that they should remove Weakness from the Conditions pool for Chaos storm and add Blind instead, as they removed Blind from Chaos Armor and added Weakness to it.

Staff currently has no access to Blind, which with Ineptitude is a great source of Confusion on top of being a good defensive Condition. It fits the bill in the "preventive" theme of Chaos Storm Conditions (Poison prevents healing, Chill prevents movement, Daze prevents Skill usage).

It'd make Staff a bit more interesting and useful as an AoE Condi weapon, as opposed to Scepter which is a single-target Condi weapon.

I'm in for these changes, but would also like to see AA scale a bit better with power :)Staff have always been the defensive sorta hybrid weapon, and would like to see it remain that.

I like these changes. Especially the speed of the auto attack is something that annoyed me since the first time I tried mesmer short after beta. It is just to slow to feel even somehow impactful.

I would give anything to have staff buffed to a usable condition. :o

I love staff, and it's a solid weapon, but it just always seems like it can't be your primary weapon and it'd be nice if that changed.

Probably the two changes I'd like to see the most is a lower CD on chaos armor, and our auto attacks getting thrown out faster. I'd love chaos storm on a lower CD cause you can never have too many chaos storms imo, but idk of that's a buff staff actually needs.

Thanks OriOri for posting this here again....that they change the forums now....well i dont know if i find it good or bad...but now we need to post some threads again...

So yes, we need some changes and like i said in the old forums, where i posted: Staff increased auto attack request...

Well basic said: i wish that they add to the trait Chaotic Dampening where the CD is reduced also an increased auto attack buff....

I mean we have 2 Weapons with a 1200 range, 1 is the Greatsword wich has a good auto attack.....the second is the staff...it has higher CD´s then the GS...and since the auto attack is so slow we can not stack conditions in a good way with it...... Well it is the condition range weapon...the GS is the power weapon....but the auto attack from staff bounces between enemies AND other players (ok, i like the bounce)...so in a big group you make compared to the other classes with the auto attack not really good dmg...i mean buffs for other players is great...just you cant stack buffs / conditions good when the auto attack is so slow...

We have an increased attack speed with scepter (wich is good) on the CD trait...but scpeter is just a 900 range weapon...Ranger has increased attack speed on his CD trait with longbow (wich is 1200 Range)...

Also i agree with OriOri´s Post what he wrote about the delay, the chaos storm and the chaos armor.

So Anet: Can we please have an increased attack speed with the CD Reduction trait from staff (the staff really needs some love).Most Mesmers i see have an GS as ranged weapon....

Also i find a casttime from 3/4 should never be on any auto attack.... no matter wich class.

Oh, one change that would be super cool imo, would be if winds of chaos didn't bounce to allies, but instead gave boons to allies it passes through.

@Hibiskus.8294 said:Also i find a casttime from 3/4 should never be on any auto attack.... no matter wich class.

Hrm, personally I think the combat in GW2 could use some "slowing down". It's too spammy with individually too weak attacks. I'd rather have stronger, slower, "meatier" attacks.

@TheSwede.9512 said:I believe that they should remove Weakness from the Conditions pool for Chaos storm and add Blind instead, as they removed Blind from Chaos Armor and added Weakness to it.

Staff currently has no access to Blind, which with Ineptitude is a great source of Confusion on top of being a good defensive Condition. It fits the bill in the "preventive" theme of Chaos Storm Conditions (Poison prevents healing, Chill prevents movement, Daze prevents Skill usage).

It'd make Staff a bit more interesting and useful as an AoE Condi weapon, as opposed to Scepter which is a single-target Condi weapon.

Oh that's a very good point. I had forgotten that they had removed blind from chaos storm in a previous balance patch. Adding it back in, and removing weakness, would definitely improve the synergy that staff has with our traits. I like that change a lot! I just wish I could edit my original post to put it in......

@Exciton.8942 Chaos Storm is already quite strong, I agree. But I don't think its strong enough to justify its 35sec base CD. However, instead of just reducing the CD and increasing overall skill spam in the game, I'd rather buff chaos storm. 8 seconds may be too long of a duration, maybe 7, or even just 6, would be better. But I am especially fond of changing the last tick to apply every boon/condition on allies/enemies.

Warlock is our Feast of Corruption equivalent and it would be nice to be made to resemble that skill more. Primarily, remove the projectile component from the phantasm's attack skill.

It may be interesting to alter the initial mesmer attack on Warlock cast similarly. Have the Winds of Chaos from the initial Warlock cast originate at the target, applying the first hit from each Winds of Chaos to that target immediately.

@OriOri.8724 said:

@TheSwede.9512 said:I believe that they should remove Weakness from the Conditions pool for Chaos storm and add Blind instead, as they removed Blind from Chaos Armor and added Weakness to it.

Staff currently has no access to Blind, which with Ineptitude is a great source of Confusion on top of being a good defensive Condition. It fits the bill in the "preventive" theme of Chaos Storm Conditions (Poison prevents healing, Chill prevents movement, Daze prevents Skill usage).

It'd make Staff a bit more interesting and useful as an AoE Condi weapon, as opposed to Scepter which is a single-target Condi weapon.

I will be honest, I would almost prefer losing 5-7 seconds on the cooldown time and having more chaos storms than stronger chaos storms. I think Chaos Storm is such a beautiful effect, being able to share it more would make me happier!

Staff 4 should share chaos armor with nearby allies.

Can we get a better animation on winds of chaos while we're at it? Something other than just casually waving our hand?

The chaos storm change makes it feel abit more like an elite utility. I like it but it could be abit too strong

Yeah I support all of these suggestions.

I mean, either chaos storm could last 7s on 35s cooldown or 5s and reduce the cooldown to 30s.

Auto attack speed increase, guaranteed vuln/regen plus random burn/bleed and fury/might sounds great.

Staff 4 Chaos Armour really could do with something extra - I like the small condi pulse but it's still so weak on a high cooldown. It would be cool if staff 4 gave 3/4s blur in addition to its current effect, which would enable it to be a useful defensive skill in a pinch.

And to top this off, iWarlock... yeah this really needs a rework. I'd like to see Mistrust style aoe condi blast centred on your target followed up with the phantasm's orb speed increased.

@Daishi.6027 said:Can we get a better animation on winds of chaos while we're at it? Something other than just casually waving our hand?Bookah problems.

Asura throw out those balls with intent, pointing at their target. ;)

I 100% agree with your changes to Winds of Chaos and Chaos Storm... I also agree with the suggestion to replace Weakness with Blind on Chaos Storm... however I think Chaos Armor needs more than just a CD reduction...

yes reduce it's CD to 25s... however, perhaps it should apply Chaos Armor (aura) to nearby allies as well.

Also, Phantasmal Warlock... NEEDS ITS OWN UNIQUE INITIAL ATTACK! Seriously... I can't say enough how disappointing it is to just repeat your Auto attack... and not even just your auto attack, but a WEAKER VERSION OF IT!!!! as your initial attack for summoning a phantasm...

I was actually super excited for the I Warlock skill throwing out 3 autos, then I noticed it was 3 weaker autos...

I actually think that Staff 3 would be in a decent spot if the changes to the auto go through AND it is updated to cast 3 actual auto attacks, not stripped down versions.

Hi, what I would do, is a complete rework. The staff in general, for all classes, is the two-handed weapon that has little dps, compared to the greatsword. You could even say that they are more support that dps.

My suggest for weapon staff of mesmer is:

First, two important things:

Now the projectiles of winds of chaos, move more faster. Increase a speed of 33%.Now the projectile of Phantasmal Warlock bounces between on the foes.

Winds of Chaos

Phase Retreat

Phantasmal Warlock

Chaos Armor

Chaos Storm

@Angel de Lyssa.4716 said:Hi, what I would do, is a complete rework.

Phase RetreatTeleport away from your target, summoning a clone that casts Winds of Chaos. If you have the maximum number of illusions, apply a random condition to nearby foes and interchange the place between you and a clone random that you have.

Confusion (5s)

Weakness (3s)Crippled (3s)Radius: 240Combo Finisher: LeapRange: 1,200

I would hate to swap place with a random clone! In general any movement skill that moves you randomly is bad design... The clone i swap to could be in a aoe field or be a sword clone running up to the warrior i try to kite! If Im moving, I wanna be the one choosing where to go and not RNGesus