What if Staff 4 had a Smoke Field?

[david r.3947]

 

You've seen the title. If you've ever played a Daredevil, you've probably used the Staff at some point. Can you recount how many times you used Dust Strike?

Probably not that often. Not a lot of things can compare to Weakening Charge. So how about we make it a little bit more useful?

It would be a lot of effort to make a new skill out of this, so let's make things easier for the developers and just add things onto the existing skill. Namely, a Smoke field.

 

Suggested tooltip:

Dust Strike

Casting Time: 3/4 Seconds. Initiative cost: 4.

"Sweep the ground, blinding enemies in front of you."

Damage: Remains the same.

Impact Blind(5s)

Number of Impacts: 3

Impact Vulnerability(5 stacks[8 stacks in PvP and WvW], 8 seconds)

Number of Targets: 3.

Combo field: Smoke.

Field Duration: 2 Seconds.

Range: 600.

 

Note that there is no pulsing Blind that comes with the typical Smoke Field. This is mostly due to fear of the skill's Initiative cost being increased, but maybe we'll get lucky.

 

Why is this change needed/wanted?

To be perfectly honest... I don't have a real reason besides seeing that this skill was seldom used and thinking up a way to give it more usage. Maybe you can come up with a reason.

 

Down below are a list of things this change will impact, whether positively or negatively. 

 

The Buffs:

The Stealth Attack(Hook Strike) can now be more easily accessed without Pistol 5(Black Powder Shot), Blinding Powder, or Smoke Screen.

The third skill in the Autoattack(Punishing Strikes) has one Whirl finisher, which will inflict Blind.

Staff 2(Weakening Charge) has one Whirl finisher, which will Blind.

Staff 5(Vault) has a Leap Finisher, which will grant Stealth when used in the Smoke field. This is nowhere near the level of Dagger 2(Heartseeker) spam, however, due to the longer animation and higher Initative cost.

The Elite Trick Dagger Storm has a lot of Whirl Finishers, which will all Blind when used in this Smoke field. The field doesn't last the entire cast time of the skill, however. 

Bound(a traited Dodge) has a Leap Finisher, which grants Stealth.

Staff Master(Daredevil middle column, top) can grant endurance. Because using Bound through a Smoke field grants stealth, this trait(which grants dodges faster) is indirectly buffed.

Cloaked In Shadow(Shadow Arts middle column, bottom) has a few more chances to lifesteal due to the increased Blind application.

Having another Smoke field means that effects relating to Stealth and Stealth Attacks have more use.

 

The Nerfs:

Unless Dust Strike's Initiative cost is increased to compensate(which wouldn't be likely due to the short duration of the Smoke field), nothing.

 

What will people like about this?

Staff Daredevil gets buffed. It will also be able to supply more Breakbar damage due to easier access to Blind and Hook Strike.

What will people not like about this?

Shadow Arts Daredevil gets buffed. This is also one reason why the Smoke field's duration is so short, the other being that I don't want the Initiative cost to change.

 

If we keep mentioning things like this, there is a chance, however small it might seem to be, that they will be acknowledged and acted upon.

Also, someone else mentioned putting an Ice Field onto the Revenant's Hammer 2 for Chill uptime. I personally approve. If you're also interested in such things, you can check it out.

[Chips.7968]

I use dust strike all the time, more than debilitating arc, and see zero usage of weakening charge - auto attacks are nearly always better (and don't waste my init for actually useful things, like breaking out of immob or blinding the enemy prior to them walloping me). 

Dust strike is incredibly useful. Ranged dmg and mitigates inc dmg (or best yet vs thieves, steal/backstabs etc).

Edited July 9, 2022 by Chips.7968

[Vidit.7108]

As long as current functionality and initiative cost stays the same I have no problem with it.

Though it doesn't really work on creatures with a break bar, dust strike is like a reverse aegis on trash mobs. I don't want to share all the mobs I found out it can blind but give it a try sometime. It also has some weird tech behind it that I don't want to bring up here incase they nerf it. I'll give you that it has a very niche use but it's not useless.

[DeceiverX.8361]

Vault would need some tuning down.  It does more damage than backstab and would make 4-5-1-5 way too strong and reliable of a combo.

To which I don't think that fits into the theme of what Staff is intended to do as a weapon set.  It's meant to be more or less a thick-of-the-fight acrobatic/the raw damage version of S/D.