Possible idea on Staff and I'm interested in feedback.

[RUNICBLACK.7630]

There has been alot of back and forth since they Nerfed our staff. I'm putting out there a suggestion for a revamp that wouldn't require to much of a rework but would still improve it's overall usefulness as a support weapon and while I'm not 100% on it's final status I do believe its overall theme works and hopefully with some constructive feedback we could look at a usefull weapon again.

1 Wave of Wrath: Change the first attack to a 3 strike chain attack with the same speed, range and damage as the original presently does for the first strike in the chain, the second strike does less damage but it will cleanse one condition off of any ally it passes thru (same range) , third and final gains a slight increase in damage and range if it cleansed any conditions. Note this doesn't clear conditions off of the Guardian it only helps allys in front and within the 300 range on the second attack.

2 Orb of Light: Make it ground targeted , increase it movement rate to the target a Great deal and make it a blast finisher.Lower the detonation recharge timer increase because it's still rather high when compared to other skills of similar caliber.

3 Symbol of Swiftness: Have maximum amount of Swiftness that the Guardian could get for stopping and standing in the symbol (approximately 16 to 20 seconds) automatically applied to the Guadian upon casting it so its not so counter intuitive for the player to use themselves but leave the benefit to allies for standing in it as is also possibly adding few seconds of Vigor would be helpful( just a thought).

4 Empower: One of two possible options on this would either unsplit the PvP from PvE version and have the version function with the heal from PvP or the Trait Altruistic Healing could give half of the value of the healing the Guardian is giving to themselves out to their allies.

5 Line of Warding : Leave it as it is except allow it to either cleanse allies that pass thru it or have it convert their conditions to boons (yes it's more powerful but it could part of a traitline).

Just interested in any opinions because as Anet stated when they changed it they view the staff as a support weapon and with the overwhelming amount of Conditions being thrown around in the game this seems like it fills a niche that needs filling

[starlinvf.1358]

On the subject of swiftness, you can't really cap a specific amount over multiple stacks, due to how boon stacks are handled and/or discarded. Swiftness only tracks 9 stacks, and discards the lowest durations if it goes over that limit. I would change that idea to adopt the behavior of temporal curtain, which was altered specifically to address restacking exploits and replace their previous solution. It works by applying one strong stack on the first application, and then weak stacks if they try to get additional ones from the same source. This should address the problems suffered by Symbol of Swiftness due to usage similarities. The second concern of the symbol (using it on one self) is actually a non-issue with the above fix in place. It also keeps it in line with Temporal Curtain's usage, making it a distinct choice to use it offensively or supportive.

For wave of Wrath, a Condi clear on auto attack is incredibly over-powered for base line, and would be better rolled up as a secondary or conditional effect of one of the other staff skills. Since this would be on top of the already strong condi clear options available to guardian, and piling even more nullification power to Firebrands, it runs too a high risk of adding even more power creep to the already lopsided WvW meta. Thats an area where a lot of scaling back needs to be considered, rather then countering it with even more of whats causing the problem in the first place.

I posted in another thread the suggestion to make the Staff's auto attack a direct attack, with consideration for the possibility of a cleave effect. This addresses a number of problems with Staff auto across all game modes, from tagging in mobile fights (wvw/pvp), the awkward utility situation created by Scepter being the only ranged option in core, and Staff's general problem with targets at a height difference. Right now Orb of Light has to be used to hit things at elevation, because wave of wrath's hit detection isn't volumetric, but fixed at ground level like most melee attacks. This would also directly address the problem that lead to the range nerf in the first place, because Wave of Wrath (like other cleaves) ignore line of sight rules, where as direct attacks check for this.

For Empower, I also suggested in the other thread making it function like "Wash the Pain away", to increase its total range, but have its total potency diminish over distance. You can also invert this to have the last pulse remain strong at max distance, but distribute the rest of the total healing potential across the shorter ranged ones to control balance.

And for 5..... don't go overboard with the cleansing. Line of Warding is a tricky thing to play with, because its purpose is to cut a retreat. If you give it too much ally oriented utility, it ends up with a huge usage conflict that could overtake its intended purpose.

[Karras.2945]

@RUNICBLACK.7630 said:Just interested in any opinions because as Anet stated when they changed it they view the staff as a support weapon and with the overwhelming amount of Conditions being thrown around in the game this seems like it fills a niche that needs filling

Here are my suggestions on how to rework the guardians' staff:

• Wave of Wrath

Increase the range of this skill from 300 to 1200, increase the damage by 20% and make it heal allies when it hits enemies, similar to the elementalists' staff auto attack while attuned to water.

• Orb of Light

Increase the healing when you detonate the orb from 788 to 1000 and make it a blast finisher.

• Symbol of Swiftness

Increase the radius of the field from 180 to 300 and increase the swiftness duration from 4 seconds to 8 seconds.

• Empower

Increase the pulse heal from 248 to 500.

• Line of Warding

Change it so that it creates a 300 radius light field that foes cannot cross instead of a line and make the field heal your allies.

[RUNICBLACK.7630]

I agree with your arguement on the Condition clearing in the Auto Attack being seen as over powered but to be honest the amount of conditions being thrown around in both PvP and particularly WvW is staggering. You can only keep ahead of it with cleanses that clear 3 or more conditions at a time it seems, presently with alot of the classes(and not all of them being elites) are able inflict 3 or more conditions within a Very short period of time . I am not saying that this is perfect solution I'm suggesting it as possible one but please check out the other examples of other staff auto attacks and you will see there many if not most that can be more powerful than what I gave as an example for an Auto Attack(examples higher damage, much greater range, applies boons and conditions along with many of them being finishers themselves) and with regard to the Line of Warding being a means of cutting retreat well I've seen to many players dodge roll right through it , I've done so many times myself.Again I am not arguing saying that my answer is the only right one but I saying that with their arguments that the staff is a support weapon can possibly see some constructive ideas for making it a true support weapon.Again thank you for you ideas and opinions.