Guild Wars 2

This isn’t a huge deal or anything, but I’ve been curious about this nonetheless. With revenants and (very likely) thieves getting a melee staff as a weapon, is it possible that we’ll get new combat stances for at least this particular weapon? As it is now, the staff stance is currently very mage-like (as it should since previously that’s all staves were used for). With the melee staff coming into the scene, I think it’d be cool if it offered a more martial fighting stance. I’m not suggesting to remove the mage stance, I’m simply suggesting a new stance for the melee staff variant.

Examples below. I personally like the first image the best—holding the staff behind the back (hmm, now that I think about it, the charr staff stance is pretty close to that), but the others would work too. Just something to think about!

I forgot about this one. I think I actually like this one the best, with the behind-the-back stance as a close second.

This one could work quite well though, given that the animation data for this is already in the game through the Monkey King tonic.

You’ll notice in all the picture you linked that they are wielding a bo staff, or some sort of specialized melee combat polearm.
That’s because a staff in the sense of a polearm is in effect an entirely different weapon than an ornate magic staff, and using a magic staff for melee combat is entirely stupid.
There shouldn’t be a melee combat staff stance for the same reason GW2 shouldn’t feature its clearly magic oriented staves as melee combat weapons: because it’s ridiculous.

The direction they took with the revenant weapons is all around bad, with regards to hammer and staff. They made them that way for the sake of uniqueness and nothing else. The hammer is wielded like a staff, and the staff is wielded like a hammer, it’s just silly.
Don’t make something unique for the sake of being unique. Make it unique because the idea is a good one in the first place.

My rant aside, since they are doing melee staves, they should at least do it somewhat right. Classes such as revenant that will be wielding a staff as a melee weapon should absolutely have a different stance. My preference would be for a stance like the ones in the second two pictures you linked.

I personally love the idea of a melee staff, but you make good point, Arewn, in that most of the staff skins are very… I dunno, top heavy? As in they have a lot going on at one end. That said, the second two pics on my first post would probably work better for most of the staff skins.

The idea I’m basically suggesting is this: since these professions are going to use staves as a physical combat weapon, then wouldn’t it be more appropriate to wield it as such?

Also, I’m willing to bet that we’re going to see a lot more staff skins that’ll look more like a traditional bo staff.

Seabreeze.8437:

I personally love the idea of a melee staff, but you make good point, Arewn, in that most of the staff skins are very… I dunno, top heavy? As in they have a lot going on at one end. That said, the second two pics on my first post would probably work better for most of the staff skins.

The idea I’m basically suggesting is this: since these professions are going to use staves as a physical combat weapon, then wouldn’t it be more appropriate to wield it as such?

Also, I’m willing to bet that we’re going to see a lot more staff skins that’ll look more like a traditional bo staff.

Yea, I’m also excited at the prospect of melee staff, and I definitely agree that they should get proper animations/stance.
It’s just the state of the in-game staves that bug me. They’re clearly for magical purposes, too ornate and often oddly shaped top heavy.

Well, there are a couple of datamined staff skins that look more like a bo staff, so that’s why I’m thinking we’re going to see more of that in the near future. Of course, that’s not going to stop anyone from using, say, the mad scientist staff as a melee weapon, but that’s up to the player. As long as we get more bo staff skins for those who actually do want a more traditional look, it’s all good to me.

Like I said earlier, it’s not really a big deal, but I do think it’d seem a little… err… out of place… if players hold their melee staff as if they’re gonna cast a spell or something. That’s why I’d like to see more of a combat stance.

As far as animations in general, Arewn, well, we already know all of the revenants animations, but I hope that thieves (seeing as how staff is all but confirmed) get much more combat-oriented attack animations that really show off their martial prowess. I’ve probably said it enough as it is, but they need to have an AoE ground target vault skill.

Ah, but I digress. A more appropriate battle stance would simply be more aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. To address your point about the staff skins again, given that most of them are more geared toward mages, the stance should be able accommodate those skins as well as a traditional bo staff.

Now that you’ve mentioned it, I do think that the stance is a more important issue then the staff skins.
At least with the skins you’ll find some that are suitable, but if they don’t fix the stance it’s going to look awkward no matter which staff you’re wielding.

Also, a vault skill like that would be absolutely amazing.

Arewn.2368:

There shouldn’t be a melee combat staff stance for the same reason GW2 shouldn’t feature its clearly magic oriented staves as melee combat weapons: because it’s ridiculous.

Sorry, could you repeat that? I couldn’t quite hear you over the sound of my Mesmer’s sword lasers.

Snark aside, I do see your point, but as long as some good melee staff skins are added in, that shouldn’t be too bad. We already have similar issues on some weapon/class combos, like engineer shields. The shield throwing animation is extraordinarily awkward with all but a handful of shield skins because there are way more bulky tower shields than small rounded shields and bucklers.

If someone wants to bash people with an awkward looking magic staff, that’s pretty much their choice, just like the engineers that somehow transmute their guild tower shields or dredge barricades into electrified throwing discuses. As long as there’s a solid selection of fitting skins, it’s a problem that can be worked around.

That said, a martial staff pose sounds like a good idea to me. I don’t think the current one would be too terrible on Revenant, since the staff is a Ventari-inspired support thing the mage pose is kinda passable, but if staff thief turns out to be true (Or melee staff warior) then a Bo-Staff pose will be sorely needed. In which case, it’d look better on the revenant as well.

They should make a more suitable stance for melee staff, but they won’t.

Revenants do hold the Staff in a different way. Well its the actual 2handed stance of Greatsword/Hammer. Which is a good stance for Staff fighting as it allows to make a strike. holding the Staff/Polearm out like a Spear isn’t proper for Staff/Polearm fighting.
Also Revenants aren’t Martial Artist, so holding it in a Asian Martial Arts way isn’t fitting, maybe for the thief.

Enrif.7359:

Revenants do hold the Staff in a different way. Well its the actual 2handed stance of Greatsword/Hammer. Which is a good stance for Staff fighting as it allows to make a strike. holding the Staff/Polearm out like a Spear isn’t proper for Staff/Polearm fighting.
Also Revenants aren’t Martial Artist, so holding it in a Asian Martial Arts way isn’t fitting, maybe for the thief.

Ah… I didn’t notice that. I guess it works, although I can see why Arewn ranted a little bit about that. It does looks sorta awkward, since it’s clearly just the hammer stance, but it’s probably better than holding it like a magic staff. Now I’m wondering how thieves would look wielding it like that, because that’s likely how Anet’s going to do it.

I hope they actually give them a unique stance, though, rather than simply rehashing the hammer stance.