Guild Wars 2

As the titel says i feel like staff got left behind in a lot of rearguards and needs an update. So here are some of my ideas to improve staff and turn it into the condi based support weapon it always wanted to be.

Skill 1 – Necrotic Grasp
This Attack just feels very slow also it doesn’t fit the condition theme, that the rest of the Staff skills have, and only does very little power based damage. While it is a piercing projectile, that generates life force, this does not compensate for the very slow attack speed.

My suggestion: Make it be a guarantied Projectile finisher instand of just 20%. “Hammer Bolt” on Revenant Hammer already functions this way and has about the same attack speed and range. This would increase DPS as well as group support by reliably triggering combo fields.

“Skill 2 – Mark of Blood
A while back, when several staff traits became baseline, this Skill has been nerfed from 3 to 2 Stacks of bleed (in PvE) but it remains the main damage skill on staff. 2ndly the regeneration on this skill is just boring and ineffective as group support.

My suggestion: Revert the nerf for PvE and replace the regeneration with either a direct heal or, now that that’s a think ,… with barrier. If this turns out to be to powerfull for “Mark of Evasion”, just change the trait to “Minor Mark of Evasion” and have it cast the old version of the skill.

Skill 3 – Chilblains
Overall descent. Great synergy with Bitter Chill and Deathly Chill but the combo field Poisson is lackluster and It’s CD is a bit to high for the payoff.

My suggestion: Change the combo field to “Ice”. This not only fits better thematically, hints the name “CHILblain”, but also gives the skill even better damage potential for combos with Bitter Chill, Deathly Chill and the “new” Necrotic Grasp (see above) and it lets you use the blast finisher, on skill 4, to blast a frost aura, which is better group support on bossed that are not effected by weakness, plus weakness is not that hard to come by anyway. Also changing this skills poison, the combo field of which would be gone anyway, to torment, would improve synergy with the upcoming new elite spec and compensate for the fact that scourge wan’t have access to the Deathly Chill synergy.

Skill 4 – Putrid Mark
Great skill and probably the only think that keeps staff still in use by most people. The only problem i see is that this skill is to selfish for a support weapon.

My suggestion: Change it to transfer conditions from yourself and allies in the target area to enemy’s in the target. The numbers might requiter a bit of tweaking to work well in large groups (WvW).

Skill 5 – Reaper’s Mark
This skill will always fear it’s targets away from the caster, leading it to push apart enemy groups in PvE.

My suggestion: Have this skills fear effect originate from the center of the mark, just like it is the case with the sand shades when using the F4 ability on scourge. This way it would be possible to steer enemy’s into a certain direction, like into an AOE, back towards you or down a cliff, all without having to reposition yourself before.

That endet up being a way bigger wall of text then i anticipated.

Anyway. tl;dr: buff staff plox.

At last! A staff rework idea that doesn’t completely gut its current purpose or make it crazy overpowered. Very nice ideas.

Lahmia.2193:

At last! A staff rework idea that doesn’t completely gut its current purpose or make it crazy overpowered. Very nice ideas.

Same here. All of this sounds reasonable. Maybe a bit too reaper oriented (a little torment somewhere could make the staff viable for both spec’), but pretty good otherwise.

Mhh ich like most of those changes but you changes to putrid mark sound alot like it was in the past so i doubt Anet would revert that nerf.

Same here. All of this sounds reasonable. Maybe a bit too reaper oriented (a little torment somewhere could make the staff viable for both spec’), but pretty good otherwise.

[/quote]
I mentioned changing the position of skill 3 to torment. The two conditions fit to each other better anyway. “you move slower and it hurts when try”.

Muchacho.2390:

Mhh ich like most of those changes but you changes to putrid mark sound alot like it was in the past so i doubt Anet would revert that nerf.

i can’t remember the skill ever functioning this way but i heard it from several people now so i guess it’s true. I would just like to know what the reasoning behind this change was. When i don’t remember it happening it must have been before the condition limit got raised, so maybe it had tactical reasons, which might be resolved by now, and then they simply forgot about it.

This has been chued so many times I have no desire anymore to talk about…

…Anet, you win…!

Glott.7239:

i can’t remember the skill ever functioning this way but i heard it from several people now so i guess it’s true. I would just like to know what the reasoning behind this change was. When i don’t remember it happening it must have been before the condition limit got raised, so maybe it had tactical reasons, which might be resolved by now, and then they simply forgot about it.

Originally, Putrid Mark transferred all conditions off of you and allies to enemies struck. This was not only honestly too powerful of a skill, but it also had some really weird distribution aspects for the transfer. Just adding cleansing to allies (instead of transfer) will probably be fine.

Staff so bad that wayyyy too many Necromancers use it.

100% projectile finisher, fine
Remove regen for 1.5k barrier, fine

Rest just no.

1200 range on-point aoe attacks don’t need to be improved/buffed.

Justine.6351:

Staff so bad that wayyyy too many Necromancers use it.

In PvE, nobody with a clue uses it much at all.

Justine.6351:

Staff so bad that wayyyy too many Necromancers use it.

100% projectile finisher, fine
Remove regen for 1.5k barrier, fine

Rest just no.

1200 range on-point aoe attacks don’t need to be improved/buffed.

1.5k is a lot more then i had on mind. I was thinking more along the lines of 500 to maybe 1k, with a ton of healing power. It’s “only” a 4.75sec. CD after all. Which is weird anyway and just leftover from when the CD reduction trait got rolled into baseline. It should really just be a full 5sec.

There was a suggestion a while back that marks should be spread across all the other weapons, and I agree. It would put necromancer in a really good place, where every weapon has a nice preparatory area denial component.

Nothing you have described is a rework, just a buff. It’s already the most unique, interesting, and powerful pvp weapon in the game so I doubt that will happen. It already works great with power/condi hybrid gear, what is what viper gear is, and that’s the current meta though nobody uses staff in pve because the only thing that matters in pve is dps output.

Tobias.8632:

Nothing you have described is a rework, just a buff. It’s already the most unique, interesting, and powerful pvp weapon in the game so I doubt that will happen. It already works great with power/condi hybrid gear, what is what viper gear is, and that’s the current meta though nobody uses staff in pve because the only thing that matters in pve is dps output.

Depends how you look at it. Removal of regen from #2 could be seen as a nerf for reaper that run blighters boon. Removal of poison on #3 could also be seen as a nerf, given that poison does more damage than torment (whilst moving).

I think AA needs damaging condition on it. Otherwise – yes please. We are going to need this, soon.

Yes please. Make staff viable in PVE.

If this requires a skill split, so be it.

Tobias.8632:

Nothing you have described is a rework, just a buff. It’s already the most unique, interesting, and powerful pvp weapon in the game so I doubt that will happen. It already works great with power/condi hybrid gear, what is what viper gear is, and that’s the current meta though nobody uses staff in pve because the only thing that matters in pve is dps output.

To me a rework doesn’t mean completely gutting the original purpose of something but rather making it more suitable for the current state of the “meta”. Most of my suggestions don’t have to be a flat out buff and can be done damage neutral. My main goal was to make staff a viable support weapon, whiteout completely tanking your personal DPS by using it. My understanding of pvp/wvw is that the only reasons people still run staff the very powerful personal condi cleanse on skill 4 and maybe a bit of long range AOE chill on skill 3. But what makes you think of staff as a hybrid weapon? The power scaling is just awful.

What you suggest:

Skill 1 – Necrotic Grasp
This Attack just feels very slow also it doesn’t fit the condition theme, that the rest of the Staff skills have, and only does very little power based damage. While it is a piercing projectile, that generates life force, this does not compensate for the very slow attack speed.

My suggestion: Make it be a guarantied Projectile finisher instand of just 20%. “Hammer Bolt” on Revenant Hammer already functions this way and has about the same attack speed and range. This would increase DPS as well as group support by reliably triggering combo fields.

What we will probably get:

Skill 1 – Necrotic Grasp
Reduced the range from 1200 to 300.

Turtle Dragon.9241:

What you suggest:

Skill 1 – Necrotic Grasp
This Attack just feels very slow also it doesn’t fit the condition theme, that the rest of the Staff skills have, and only does very little power based damage. While it is a piercing projectile, that generates life force, this does not compensate for the very slow attack speed.

My suggestion: Make it be a guarantied Projectile finisher instand of just 20%. “Hammer Bolt” on Revenant Hammer already functions this way and has about the same attack speed and range. This would increase DPS as well as group support by reliably triggering combo fields.

What we will probably get:

Skill 1 – Necrotic Grasp
Reduced the range from 1200 to 300.

My deepest sympathies my guardian friend. I’m sorry for your loss.