[PvE] Can we improve staff?

[Xoidie.8965]

I will preface this post by saying that I've always hated staff marks as they don't look particularly exciting, the whole "step on a trap" design is kinda weird. But I very much doubt there'd ever be a full rework for this weapon (especially since a lot of people seem to enjoy marks), so let's work with what we have.

I feel like staff could use some help, especially in its condition damage department. And the main offender is the autoattack, but some other things that could use a bit of a boost.

1. Necrotic Grasp - The only part of this autoattack that i like is the black scythe fx that it creates on the staff lol. I would love it to be reworked completely into a non-projectile spell, maybe even an AA chain or some flipover skill? I hate the ugly hand projectile 🤮 No matter what though, this skill should inflict some sort of a damaging condition on hit, to improve the weapon for condi builds and to better compliment the hybrid nature of staff.

2. Mark of Blood - 2 stacks of bleeding for 8 seconds feels kinda low tbh. At the very least I'd prefer if it was 4 stacks of bleeding for 4 seconds instead. Also maybe this skill could heal nearby allies when it's triggered 😛

3. Chilblains - this mark leaves a brief poison combo field after exploding, would be cool if that combo field pulsed some additional poison while it lasts. Maybe reduce the cd to 10 secs too? 😏

4. Putrid Mark - this one used to have the highest power coefficient out of all staff marks before the buffs, now it has the lowest one for some reason. It has a blast finisher so it would be nice if it had a little higher damage to go with it.

5. Reaper's Mark - I think it's fine as is.

What do you think? If you have any other ideas, feel free to drop them. Cheers.

 

[Lahmia.2193]

Honestly, it seems like the perfect time to revamp it as our healer/support weapon. 

[Liewec.2896]

i think the 1 skill should be changed to a dark version of Guardian staff 1, firing big dark shadowy orbs.

guardian 1 is a nice AA chain that feels good to use.

maybe add some lifesteal to it for some necro flavour!

other than the auto i'm pretty happy with the rest of the kit. 🙂

[MercurialKuroSludge.8974]

1 hour ago, Liewec.2896 said:

i think the 1 skill should be changed to a dark version of Guardian staff 1, firing big dark shadowy orbs.

guardian 1 is a nice AA chain that feels good to use.

maybe add some lifesteal to it for some necro flavour!

other than the auto i'm pretty happy with the rest of the kit. 🙂

You want skills that NEVER connect with targets that don't even move?
Why would you ever subject yourself to that kind of torture?

[Liewec.2896]

10 minutes ago, MercurialKuroSludge.8974 said:

You want skills that NEVER connect with targets that don't even move?
Why would you ever subject yourself to that kind of torture?

i've never had issues with guardian staff 1 missing 🧐

are you thinking of guardian scepter 1? 🙂

[MercurialKuroSludge.8974]

13 minutes ago, Liewec.2896 said:

i've never had issues with guardian staff 1 missing 🧐

are you thinking of guardian scepter 1? 🙂

They both miss, Scepter especially so.

But both suffer from elevation and other factors as well.
Becuz tbh in most situations, theres not enuf time to be keeping an eye on Staff autos, you aren't supposed to be doing that anyway when playing Instanced Healer, you wanna channel your staff 4, do your Staff 2 Blast finishers, drop some Staff 3 Swiftness, and swap out to the other set/Tomes.
The only time I get to track Staff Autos for HealGuard is in sPvP/WvW/OW, ALL of which have janky stuff that makes staff 1 miss, in some ways kinda like Necro Grasp, but the projectile doesn't cause a pull.

[Liewec.2896]

11 hours ago, MercurialKuroSludge.8974 said:

They both miss, Scepter especially so.

But both suffer from elevation and other factors as well.
Becuz tbh in most situations, theres not enuf time to be keeping an eye on Staff autos, you aren't supposed to be doing that anyway when playing Instanced Healer, you wanna channel your staff 4, do your Staff 2 Blast finishers, drop some Staff 3 Swiftness, and swap out to the other set/Tomes.
The only time I get to track Staff Autos for HealGuard is in sPvP/WvW/OW, ALL of which have janky stuff that makes staff 1 miss, in some ways kinda like Necro Grasp, but the projectile doesn't cause a pull.

ah, well to be fair i don't pvp or wvw any more so my experience with it is exclusivly pve,

BUT we could always fix those clunks so it misses less often, the guardian staff AA chain as a whole feels really nice to use,

the animations are fluid the projectiles look cool and you see lots of AoE and damage ticks,

it feels way better than necrotic grasp (which misses a fair bit even in pve),

so i still think we should get a dark version of the guardian AA chain with a little life steal thrown in there!

[ZephyrusSpring.5728]

On 9/8/2024 at 8:57 AM, Lahmia.2193 said:

Honestly, it seems like the perfect time to revamp it as our healer/support weapon. 

The very first thing it needs to help with healing is for the skills to stop behaving like traps and simply go off when you cast the skills.  That Soul Marks trait should turn them back into traps along with being unblockable if you want to retain that gameplay style.

[Asum.4960]

A couple years ago I came up with a Death Shroud/Core Necro rework, changing Core Necromancer's Class mechanic into being based around temporary minion Summons instead, via F1-5 Minion Summon/support skills.

The idea being that eventually we'd have a more diverse spectrum (both thematically and in terms of gameplay) with Core Necromancer representing Death and Blood Magic+ and providing that missing classic MinionMancer experience, Reaper being Spite/Soul Reaping+ focused and providing the Strike Damage and tanky Shroud experience, Scourge becoming Curses/Blood Magic+ focusing in on the debilitating and supportive Dark Caster experience, and then the at the time not yet existing next/last Elite Specialisation, which became Harbinger, being the Curses/SR+ Condition Damage and squishy but mobile spec.

Part of that was then repurposing the Death Shroud skills (be it their mechanical design or the VFX) usefully as reworks/replacements for underperforming Weapon Skills. Such as Tainted Shackles making for a good Dagger 5 rework, with old Dagger 5 moving into Dagger 4 with a much sped up cast time/animation and inheriting Dagger 4's transfer.

Unchanneled Life Transfer would make for a pretty good Locust Swarm update. 

Doom is already fairly represented in Reaper's Mark, especially if it got a duration increase.

Dark Path/Pursuit I never really liked enough to want to see on anything else, but ironically ofc that was the one skill that  was since copied onto a Weapon with Necro Spear. 

But lastly, and hence the posting here, I thought Life Blast would make for a good Necrotic Grasp update, especially coupled with an Update/addition to Dhuumfire akin to Lingering Curse and it's Feast of Corruption transformation into Devouring Darkness, where as Dhuumfire also transforms Staff 1 in addition to Shroud 1, adding Burning to it. 

Just that more satisfying and impactful AA would already improve Staff massively for me, esp. for Condi Builds ofc. The Marks are a complicated/divisive subject - they have their place in competitive modes, but personally I'd like to see the 2-5 completely reimagined; but at the same time I also do not trust Anet's designers, esp., those in charge of Necromancer, at all to do it even remotely right.