Annual 'please buff staff' thread

[SlitheSlivier.1908]

TBF, staff weaver does the highest damage output in wvw zergs. Dense groups of enemies is where it thrives. I have fun with it in open world too (esp if you utilize rock wall or whatever the name is). It's projectiles do need to travel twice as fast, especially the weaver dual attacks. Lightning storm on Glyph of Storms need its CD to be 30s like the other attunements. I'd love to see lava font deal damage upon casting instead of a second later. And Fiery Greatsword should have a 90s CD, not 180.

 

But buffing toooo much will cause it to be a target of heavy nerfs after if they farrrr outperform other specs in that content. 

 

Really I think if they buff combos, which are heavily outdated, it would go a long way for helping staff be a bit closer to expectations. 

 

I don't do fractals or raids so can't comment there. 

[Sahne.6950]

14 hours ago, SlitheSlivier.1908 said:

staff weaver does the highest damage output in wvw zergs

not sure about this one... you can 100% be ontop of the dps chart that is possible... but it dont think that is because staffweaver does the most dmg. its rather because you played good.  i could be wrong tho! i dont do much zerging.

[The Boz.2038]

Doing the most damage to a zerg is 
a) not hard
b) not impactful
Dishing out five thousand damage to a dozen players over five seconds is nice numbers, but it kills nobody. Dishing out thirty thousand to one person in 1.25 seconds downs them, and that's where it's at.

[Einlanzer.1627]

It's completely ludicrious to have your auto-attack do almost negligible damage on any weapon, regardless of what utility it might have, and it's the main reason staff feels awful to play. In most situations, it forces you to camp fire or MAYBE air (though even air is somewhat undertuned), sacrificing the utility that elementalist should always have access to and underming the whole purpose of attunements replacing weapon swap. 

There were a number of weapons that had a similar problem years ago, including Ranger Longbow and Thief Pistol, and were underutilized and complained about ad nauseam on the forums. Eventually, both were significantly buffed and now play a lot better.  

Ele staff is one of the few that has not - it's way outdated and it needs to be addressed. Arguably, this is also true of Mesmer Staff and Necro staff.

As such:
Chain Lightning needs a small buff - about 10-20% more damage
Stoning needs a significant buff - probably about 40-50% more damage
Water Blast needs a massive buff - probably about 100% what it does now

Any other balancing that might be needed is just minor tweaks.

Edited February 17, 2022 by Einlanzer.1627

[Mik.3401]

I agree staff should be the staple weapon for the elementalist. Like these changes are a must imho:

- make auto-attacks quicker

- revert the MS nerfs

- increase the healing in water

- rework skill 2 on every attunements, they are just so ancient looking and slow. 
 

And most importantly increase the range of buff application/heals in PvE so this stupid stacking meta is not the thing anymore.

[Jski.6180]

I like to see more condi added to the staff as well 1 real burning skills feels like a waist of time and 1 real bleed skill feels pointless.

[Sifu.9745]

I only play full Celestial staff Tempest in open world and that's it. That way i can do some not bad power dmg in Fire Attunement, some nice condi dmg in Fire (#3 and #4) and Earth (#2 and #5)  + Fire and Earth overload also adds some condi dmg. It works for me in open world only. A lot of fun and much safer than going full power stats such as Zerker or Marauder. In WvW it works somehow for duels: you can't die, if you take Fire, Earth and Water traits, but it takes ages before you kill someone ...

 

I would like to see some Burning dmg added on Fire auto attack and Meteor Shower or Lava Font + Bleeding on Earth auto attack + more power dmg on air auto attack or more CC on Air Staff in general. We would all like to see the Staff as a hybrid only weapon (Celestial or Viper's gear). We don't want to play it as Power or Healing only option, because that way you are forced to stay in one attunement 90% of the time. No one like that. Hybrid Staff would let us switch Attunements more often.

Edited February 17, 2022 by Sifu.9745

[Newholiday.8103]

With Anet likely beginning to gather data for the summer balance patch, just wanted to throw out another reminder for Anet to look at ele staff.  Doubly so with so many eles upset with not having a viable ranged weapon, and with catalyst adding yet another melee spec to ele.

[TrollingDemigod.3041]

17 minutes ago, thepolishman.2348 said:

With Anet likely beginning to gather data for the summer balance patch, just wanted to throw out another reminder for Anet to look at ele staff.  Doubly so with so many eles upset with not having a viable ranged weapon, and with catalyst adding yet another melee spec to ele.

"So we looked at Elementalists Staff skills and decided to nerf Lava Font interval from 1s to 2s, increased cast time on Meteor Shower by 2s and reduced it's damage by 20%..."
:')

[Flori.2194]

3 hours ago, TrollingDemigod.3041 said:

"So we looked at Elementalists Staff skills and decided to nerf Lava Font interval from 1s to 2s, increased cast time on Meteor Shower by 2s and reduced it's damage by 20%..."
:')

"20% for each additional hit on the same target, a target can be hit a maximum of 3 times" kek

[Shiyo.3578]

Hammer is a better ranged weapon than staff, lol.

Please stop calling hammer a melee weapon,  it has a lot of ranged damage.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Shiyo.3578

[Ace.1784]

10 hours ago, Shiyo.3578 said:

Hammer is a better ranged weapon than staff, lol.

Please stop calling hammer a melee weapon,  it has a lot of ranged damage.

People are confused reacting your post, but this happened to me last night. My friend mentioned it on Day 1 of the beta, saying "whoa, that's a lot of AOE damage" but I tweaked my build and hammer absolutely pushes out tons of aoe from range. Relatively quickly as well.

The hammer actually reminds me a lot of staff.

Also for those of you who made it to New Kaineng, find the Catalyst and talk with them for a bit. It gives some of the design philosophy for Catalyst.

[Lalaboompoo.1289]

On 3/1/2022 at 11:23 PM, Shiyo.3578 said:

Hammer is a better ranged weapon than staff, lol.

Please stop calling hammer a melee weapon,  it has a lot of ranged damage.

doesnt it only have 4 ranged abilities though? Also its range is half that of a staff, ranged weapons have a range of 1200 and hammer reaches around 600 range, thats mid range at best, im sure its damage is fine, I just want to play as an actual caster for once.

[Flori.2194]

6 hours ago, Lalaboompoo.1289 said:

doesnt it only have 4 ranged abilities though? Also its range is half that of a staff, ranged weapons have a range of 1200 and hammer reaches around 600 range, thats mid range at best, im sure its damage is fine, I just want to play as an actual caster for once.

Heck, even 900 range isn't really "range". Some commanders demand that necros don't do anything with their 900 range skills when they call for a range spike (1200 range) so they don't leave the blob. I can't see how 600 range is considered ranged, especially for WvW.

[Axl.8924]

On 2/17/2022 at 3:18 PM, Einlanzer.1627 said:

It's completely ludicrious to have your auto-attack do almost negligible damage on any weapon, regardless of what utility it might have, and it's the main reason staff feels awful to play. In most situations, it forces you to camp fire or MAYBE air (though even air is somewhat undertuned), sacrificing the utility that elementalist should always have access to and underming the whole purpose of attunements replacing weapon swap. 

There were a number of weapons that had a similar problem years ago, including Ranger Longbow and Thief Pistol, and were underutilized and complained about ad nauseam on the forums. Eventually, both were significantly buffed and now play a lot better.  

Ele staff is one of the few that has not - it's way outdated and it needs to be addressed. Arguably, this is also true of Mesmer Staff and Necro staff.

As such:
Chain Lightning needs a small buff - about 10-20% more damage
Stoning needs a significant buff - probably about 40-50% more damage
Water Blast needs a massive buff - probably about 100% what it does now

Any other balancing that might be needed is just minor tweaks.

One of the things that bothers me is that for how more limited in mobility and all i feel like it should deal good AOE dmg at least if its on CD since  scepter and dagger are more mobile melee range single target so eles have something for both Aoes and for single.
 

[Ace.1784]

3 hours ago, Axl.8924 said:

One of the things that bothers me is that for how more limited in mobility and all i feel like it should deal good AOE dmg at least if its on CD since  scepter and dagger are more mobile melee range single target so eles have something for both Aoes and for single.
 

I recommended people to talk to the Catalyst in New Kaineng for the design philosophy, but I'll drop a nugget here.

 

People dislike the jade sphere mechanic because if you're being mobile, it's not movable.

But then people are asking for more mobility on the hammer.

Think on it a bit and visit that NPC if you get chance!

[Newholiday.8103]

25 minutes ago, Vinteros Asteano.1209 said:

I recommended people to talk to the Catalyst in New Kaineng for the design philosophy, but I'll drop a nugget here.

 

People dislike the jade sphere mechanic because if you're being mobile, it's not movable.

But then people are asking for more mobility on the hammer.

Think on it a bit and visit that NPC if you get chance!

 

Thinking on it, it seems like catalyst is designed for staff rather than hammer.  Which is weird, cause then what the kitten is the point of giving hammer to catalyst.