Staff skills are just bad in every single way in any game mode.

[Draco.9480]

Change it to this:

Staff #1: Toxic Laser, pulses dark green laser 3 times, puts poison stack on each pulse for 5s. Range 900.Staff #2: Spin the staff like revenant block or mirage ambush staff and shoot a poison jab, when it hits,it explodes to 5 targets and apply 2 stacks of poison on each target for 15s and leaves a corrosive poison cloud on that area for 5s. corrosive poison cloud from staff applies poison for 2s on each pulse. pulses every second. Doesn't block projectiles. Range 900.Staff #3: Create a black scythe blade on the top end of the staff and spins up to 4 times, applies 1 stack of bleeding for 10s on each hit, hit up to 5 targets. 300 radious around.Staff #4: Create a black scythe blade on the top end of the staff and throw the black scythe blade on the target to transfer conditions from you to the target up to 5 conditions and apply chill for 4s. Range 900. 100% projectile finisher.Staff #5: Knock the staff on the ground and apply fear up to 5 targets around you up to 600 radius.

[JusticeRetroHunter.7684]

I think staff should stick to the traditional sense of what a caster should be; a wielded of powerful magic. They aren’t really melle weapons more than they are beacons that funnel magic and channel it through the caster

So your staff 5 idea I really like. A powerful Aoe fear that that you cast by slamming down your stave into the ground casting some dark incantation or whatever

As for the rest...ya I’d lay off the melle orientation. I’d rather see things like staff 4 siphon life force and health in an area around you...or staff 2 procuring a plague (like Multi target locust swarm) that infect enemies with soft CC’s

[EremiteAngel.9765]

@Draco.9480 said:Change it to this:

Staff #1: Toxic Laser, pulses dark green laser 3 times, puts poison stack on each pulse for 5s. Range 900.Staff #2: Spin the staff like revenant block or mirage ambush staff and shoot a poison jab, when it hits,it explodes to 5 targets and apply 2 stacks of poison on each target for 15s and leaves a corrosive poison cloud on that area for 5s. corrosive poison cloud from staff applies poison for 2s on each pulse. pulses every second. Doesn't block projectiles. Range 900.Staff #3: Create a black scythe blade on the top end of the staff and spins up to 4 times, applies 1 stack of bleeding for 10s on each hit, hit up to 5 targets. 300 radious around.Staff #4: Create a black scythe blade on the top end of the staff and throw the black scythe blade on the target to transfer conditions from you to the target up to 5 conditions and apply chill for 4s. Range 900. 100% projectile finisher.Staff #5: Knock the staff on the ground and apply fear up to 5 targets around you up to 600 radius.

I like your suggestions, they are pretty cool. But staff is currently our only 1200 range weapon...I would rather that the range be kept at 1200 on all your new skills.

[LucianDK.8615]

Been glancing at staff, seems to be a quite situational weapon. But it seem to be useful in openworld groups for tagging things, as you are otherwise -painfully hampered by the otherwise significant lack of ranged ability as a reaper. One reason why I dig hammer on power rev. Having a ranged ability is just too good.

[Anchoku.8142]

@Draco.9480 said:Change it to this:

Staff #1: Toxic Laser, pulses dark green laser 3 times, puts poison stack on each pulse for 5s. Range 900.Staff #2: Spin the staff like revenant block or mirage ambush staff and shoot a poison jab, when it hits,it explodes to 5 targets and apply 2 stacks of poison on each target for 15s and leaves a corrosive poison cloud on that area for 5s. corrosive poison cloud from staff applies poison for 2s on each pulse. pulses every second. Doesn't block projectiles. Range 900.Staff #3: Create a black scythe blade on the top end of the staff and spins up to 4 times, applies 1 stack of bleeding for 10s on each hit, hit up to 5 targets. 300 radious around.Staff #4: Create a black scythe blade on the top end of the staff and throw the black scythe blade on the target to transfer conditions from you to the target up to 5 conditions and apply chill for 4s. Range 900. 100% projectile finisher.Staff #5: Knock the staff on the ground and apply fear up to 5 targets around you up to 600 radius.

You realize this is an entirely different weapon, right? It resembles the melee land-spear concepts from 2013 as something to swap from scepter to.

[Blocki.4931]

AoE area denial and damage is pretty good.

[XECOR.2814]

I am for this but i know lot of people wont be because they cant even think about having changes this big. Imo staff is sleeping toxic weapon in wvw as it is one of the major reason for visual clutter in blob fights. The spammability of this weapon is off the charts. But again people dont want to lose their tagging weapon so they wont agree. Another thing to consider is the necromancers in gw2 are publicised by wells, marks, minions and corruptions by Anet, so these things are most likely to never going to get completely removed or changed from its arsenal.

[Gamble.4580]

Wattt staff is bae!

[omgnoob.7860]

Staffs are great to get peaky thief's out of their stealth bubble.more than once I've been able to track something stealthed with marks. But. Situational and lucky.

[alain.1659]

Necro staff is one of my favourite weapons in the game. Its sneaky, its cool, its useful and it can be used with both power and condi.

[ZDragon.3046]

Bad no..outdated yesuseful to some yesbut still outdated most definitely

I dont agree that staff is perfect or that good anymore and think it should change a bit

1: Its outdated

• It could be seen as good or great 3-4 years ago but in the current meta i dont even use a staff its pointless for the builds i play
• cd's are too high effectiveness of those skills is a bit too low from where they really could / should be
• While its not particularly 100% BAD its very far from where it should be. Its a core necomancer weapon and it really shows if you catch my drift.

2: Marks only exists on this weapon and and no others

• Unlike other professions who have their unique mechanics spread across multiple weapons
• For example guardians have symbols across different weapons and mesmers have clones and phants across different weapons.
• Yes i know necro has boon corruption spread across different weapons but this aint exactly a favorable thing in all game modes.

3: Auto attack is pretty bad

• This slow hand that moves in a line like the new shroud 2 skill is just bad skills like this should not exists in this game in 2019 makes them terribly inconsistent when you need them to be consistent in terms of use.

[MithranArkanere.8957]

I want these changes to Staff, Marks and Blood magic, so Staff can be used to spam some heals to allies around bleeding enemies, giving Blood an extra way to support with healing:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/1028625/#Comment_1028625

[James.1065]

I recon it would be fun if Anet makes a split between staff skills for necro/scourge to be ranged and reaper to be melee.

[Antycypator.9874]

There is no reason to use staff for necro with current skills. Even stupid axe/x has more uses than staff. Axe can:

• do burst damage + vulnerability;
• generate life force;
• remove boons + do some additional damage to targets below 25% health.Warhorn has CCDagger has blind + transfer condiFocus can remove boons (+ damage) and generate life force.

[Lily.1935]

Personally, I'd like to see the staff get some love. But I'd want it to become a support weapon and the marks themselves have a trigger. I'd like to be able to trigger them without a foe there to offer some party utility along with their normal effect. Mark of blood grants regen for example. I'd like to see putrid mark at least transfer conditions from allies to foes. I'd like to see more than just that, but to me Staff should be a support weapon. Or support control. Which it kinda is, but doesn't function as either particularly well.

[Justine.6351]

Staff skills are garbage,

Boring to play,All the skills are literally the same just pack different effects.Annoying to play against,You just get hit, no counter play as they are cast on top of your head and if they don't land on you the noob next to you will step in them and then they hit you.

[Anchoku.8142]

@Justine.6351 said:Staff skills are garbage,

Boring to play,All the skills are literally the same just pack different effects.Annoying to play against,You just get hit, no counter play as they are cast on top of your head and if they don't land on you the noob next to you will step in them and then they hit you.

Staff is outdated and anemic, yet it is still relevant. How is that? Good design: The marks are traps and the AA pierces and is power-based.Personally, I think that staff can be buffed simply by tweaking outputs and go right back to being one of the most solid weapons in the game.

[DeadlySynz.3471]

Better yet, keep staff skills the way they are now except make each mark corrupt 3 boon each on 5 targets. That way instead of the boon application proportion being so out of whack by like 20:1, it will instead be 10:1

[Justine.6351]

@DeadlySynz.3471 said:Better yet, keep staff skills the way they are now except make each mark corrupt 3 boon each on 5 targets. That way instead of the boon application proportion being so out of whack by like 20:1, it will instead be 10:1

Yes and make them pulse.Add a trait that increases their radius to 600.

[XECOR.2814]

Boring to play.> @Anchoku.8142 said:

@Justine.6351 said:Staff skills are garbage,

Boring to play,All the skills are literally the same just pack different effects.Annoying to play against,You just get hit, no counter play as they are cast on top of your head and if they don't land on you the noob next to you will step in them and then they hit you.

Staff is outdated and anemic, yet it is still relevant. How is that? Good design: The marks are traps and the AA pierces and is power-based.Personally, I think that staff can be buffed simply by tweaking outputs and go right back to being one of the most solid weapons in the game.

Its relevant because it has diverse effects on marks and the way marks work is very reliable in hitting enemies but on the other end they are not at all flexible to use(You only get regen or blast fields if enemy steps on them). Also all the graphic for marks are indistinguishable, its impossible for enemy to distinguish which mark has what effect. And the gameplay of marks is the most boring and spammy among all weapons in all of the classes. My suggestion is to keep condi transfer/fear/chill/regen effects on staff but completely change auto attacks and the marks mechanic to something else.