Guild Wars 2

I do not know if I am the only one who thinks this way, but I do think that the necromancer’s staff skills are… well… boring and all similar. I would suggest reworking it to give it a new start. There are already abilities inside the game that could be applied to the staff to replace all those similar marks.

The screenshot linked to this post shows an ability attached to Seneschal’s Keystaff, the environmental weapon that can be found in the personal story quest “Close the eye” after killing the risen Seneschal Elam.

The animation attached to that particular ability is great and looks like it had a lot of work put into it : with a bit of tweaking, it could easely replace the auto-attack of the staff or one of the marks of the staff. (The other two abilities are Gravedigger, which is the first one to the left, and Grasping Darkness, which is the one to the right : both are exactly the same as the Reaper’s greatswords skills, except for the animation of gravedigger).

I would like to know what you guys think. Would you like the staff to be reworked, and do you have any ideas for skills to replace the marks?

May be it’s just me, but I really love staff and don’t want it changed in any major way.

U can always improve
Some swifness pliz …

Well i see why you think staff is boring but i wouldnt expect any major changes to staff anytime soon.

Well…I like using it to mark bomb a boss before swapping to dagger/warhorn and then to shroud but I’m a PvE player so maybe it’s too boring for PvP/WvW? I like having a quick regen if needed, a poison/chill, a mark for removing a few conditions and then a simple one for helping to break bars. Is it boring? Sure but it’s useful…the AA could use some help though, that’s the single most boring skill in the game and soooo kitten slow!

After making some research, I realised that Seneschal’s keystaff’s skills aren’t suposed to be the ones that appear in this screenshot. I am somewhat confused as to why the abilities just happened to be different right there when I played the mission.

Anyone knows why that hapened?? I am kinda confused.

I WAS JUST SAYING THIS!!

I decided to try druid in pvp for the first time and omg that staff auto is sick. 1200 range, instant hit, tracking, super fast AA.

I think that staff is good, marks are a lot of fun and good area deny, what i wish is a AA change. Reduce the dmg by 15%, increase the projectile speed 75% and the attack speed by 10%

its sad when i can strafe the hands coming from a necro staff AA but he can’t do that with a druids.

I find the staff to be very useful, I would agree however that the staff AA is lame and I find I only use it on downed players to generate LF after a fight. So a rework would be nice, or something that made the AA hit targets more consistently. Also the regen on staff 2 is negligible, should be replaced with another condi. A burn or blind would be nice.

I love the Staff but hate the cooldowns. 5 – 12 – 15 – 20 sec CDs would be perfect. It was something like that in beta but then they ruined it. I’m still crying.

Staff needs its identity crisis solved.

It’s either a condition weapon with the marks, or a power weapon with the autoattack.

Developers need to decide which and adjust either the damage of marks with power scaling or change the autoattack to apply bleed+poison stacks.

The issue is, it SHOULD be a power ranged aoe weapon. Scepter already outclasses staff in the ranged condition department and alongside epidemic and scepter 2 it puts out more ranged aoe condi pressure than the staff.

So they could just shift the staff to be a power aoe/soft weapon, with hard hitting mark triggers and debuffing.

Fix the projectile speed of the autoattack to match the base speed of fireball/longbow arrows.

Zenith.7301:

Staff needs its identity crisis solved.

It’s either a condition weapon with the marks, or a power weapon with the autoattack.

Developers need to decide which and adjust either the damage of marks with power scaling or change the autoattack to apply bleed+poison stacks.

The issue is, it SHOULD be a power ranged aoe weapon. Scepter already outclasses staff in the ranged condition department and alongside epidemic and scepter 2 it puts out more ranged aoe condi pressure than the staff.

So they could just shift the staff to be a power aoe/soft weapon, with hard hitting mark triggers and debuffing.

Fix the projectile speed of the autoattack to match the base speed of fireball/longbow arrows.

This is true, though. I would sell my soul and a kidney for a proper ranged power weapon because Axe sucks.

I like staff as a hybrid / utility weapon that goes along with any primary weapon combo.
I would like some improvements on the auto attack, especially some indirect damage increase via a mechanic and more speed on it. And staff 2 might need some more bleed to it.

I dislike how marks are all loaded onto the staff and none on other weapons. It makes the traits for them very one dimensional and the staff weapon very limited in function.

Staff’s design seems to be directed at competitive play rather than PvE. As a PvPer i enjoy the abilities of the staff, its a “Defensive” weapon that is used to kite + gain shroud. It really has no function for bursting opponents down but it is clutch when you need to sustain. With the added condies in 2/3 it benefits a condition build rather than a pwr build but necro already has GS/D/A for power mains. TBH you wont see any changes to staff, just wait until the next expansion when necro gets Death Bow (longbow).

Staff is good as it is in PvE. It fills the role of AoE.

Necromancer needs another weapon to fill in some gaps. Axe range increased so it is now able to do better than staff vs single targets on a power build. Scepter covers ranged condition damage. Necromancer could use a long range power weapon for single targets.

don’t u dare touch my staff. it’s a utility weapon and kitten near the best one

if you want condi ranged, you have sceptre/dagger, for power you have axe/focus (laughable tho lol just go melee)

staff has its role and is very much loved by pvp players, don’t touch it

killfil.3472:

I would like to know what you guys think. Would you like the staff to be reworked, and do you have any ideas for skills to replace the marks?

As a WvW player I would like to see:

1. A range increase on auto attack to match the Rangers 1500 and increase in projectile speed and rate of fire.
2. Staff #4 – if you have no conditions it will corrupt 1 boon per player (max 5 players)
3. Staff #5 – reduce cool down OR increase fear duration to 1.5s
4. Marks trigger on unmanned enemy siege weaponry
5. Mark radius increased to 360 so Necros can hit arrow carts like Meteor Storm.
6. Power necro DPS increase on #2

(side note: would also like a range increase on Life Transfer

When i first started playing the game i wanted to make a dark magic user wielding massive power through my staff to destroy my enemies . Pretty soon i realized it was just utility weapon which it does well enough but geez wouldn’t it be cool if we had a staff that just oozed power and allowed us to do some crazy ranged damage?

With elite specs i cant see any reason why they couldn’t make one which just changed our staff skills rather than giving us an entirely new weapon. Would much rather this than some crappy offhand .

I wouldn’t mind seeing buffs to necro staff, but necro staff is pretty amazing as it is, especially if ur hybrid/condi build…short cd bleed stacks, two cc’s with fear and chill/poison, a MASSIVE aoe condi clear skill/blast finish, and when traited, they r all unblockable and necro staff gives u lots of life force…maybe if they reduced the cast time and cd’s on marks a little bit would be pretty great..mybe if mark 4 was a blast finisher when cast instead of triggered…that’s all i can think of…but ya…like i said, necro staff is pretty awsm as is and like others have said b4, i dont really think theyre gonna mess with it netime soon (at least i hope)

Anchoku.8142:

Staff is good as it is in PvE. It fills the role of AoE.

Necromancer needs another weapon to fill in some gaps. Axe range increased so it is now able to do better than staff vs single targets on a power build. Scepter covers ranged condition damage. Necromancer could use a long range power weapon for single targets.

lololololololololol

Staff is terrible in PvE, if you use it in any remotely serious group you deserve to be kicked.

There is nothing that a scepter epidemic build doesn’t eclipse staff on.

mtpelion.4562:

I dislike how marks are all loaded onto the staff and none on other weapons. It makes the traits for them very one dimensional and the staff weapon very limited in function.

I wonder why they didnt made it like the symbols of guard. Like one AoE mark distributed over all weapons. It would make more sense definetly.

They should just make marks pulse the same effects they do now every second for like 2-3 seconds to a total of 3-4 hits.. Maybe nerf some of the effects a little bit.. but just make em hit more than once..
Right now marks feels very lame to use really.

Staff need auto attack to be faster and is good

My main complain about staff is auto attack – it sucks hairy meaty dumplings
If it is changed to a green laser beam so it immediately /or at least very fast/ hits whole range… and its damage is buffed a bit – I would be happy.

necro staff 1 replace by necro downstate 1

two things. When you use your marks you are left with nothing else but auto attack, which leads to the second problem. To slow auto attack with virtually no impact. only thing is that generates some LF.

Brokensunday.4098:

necro staff 1 replace by necro downstate 1

Lol. Holy overpowered batman. That thing does absolutely absurd damage.

Change AA to be more reliable (somehow, as they’ve already bumped projectile speed double of what it used to be) since the damage per hit is already decent enough, better power scaling on MoB, reduced cooldown on CB to 12s, and reduced CD on RM to 25 and I think the staff would be in much better shape. Right now it suffers from a problem of “place marks and swap to a real weapon” since it has long cooldowns on its somewhat impactful abilities and only has fair damage on Putrid Mark or from having tons of setup on stacking MoB, which is beaten out by only a few seconds of scepter AA’s.

After playing a necro for last 2 weeks I have used staff a lot – seems to be best weapon for group events tagging…

To make it viable outside of this I would suggest following changes to autoattack to make it more viable:

1) change the animation of the 1 to something which is actually visible to allow full usage of column attack – as for now it is next to invisible in the cluster of mobs&players. I would like some kind of greenish-blackish laser thingie

2) Make the damage instant when cast in the whole column

3) change the damage following way
1 target hit – 150dmg
2 target hits – 300dmg each
3 or more targets hit – 450dmg each
For each target hit recast time of all marks is lowered for 0.1sec
For each dark field hit recast time of all marks is lowered for 1sec

Make default recast time on all marks longer.

The whole idea is to make staff really good AoE weapon without being OP as single target weapon. Also it will change the playstyle from fire marks&switch to more active maneuvering style to hit as many mobs possible to get high dps!

The set is 4 identical skills and a floaty autoattack. If you want a necro staff (or just any weapon set in general) that is more than 3 seconds of Spirograph Adventures, you need low cooldowns balanced by risk/reward factors. Unfortunately, making necro staff into a legitimately well-designed weapon worth camping as a primary source of damage/field presence would mean removing or completely changing the lamebrain stuff like the Soul Marks trait. However, at the same time, there’s no reason why the weapon couldn’t retain its purpose as a LF battery while being independent from boring traits. I took a shot at it a while ago:

… something that can still be good for tagging, but now has more staying power as a versatile utility/damage weapon.

Erasmus.1624:

The set is 4 identical skills and a floaty autoattack. If you want a necro staff (or just any weapon set in general) that is more than 3 seconds of Spirograph Adventures, you need low cooldowns balanced by risk/reward factors. Unfortunately, making necro staff into a legitimately well-designed weapon worth camping as a primary source of damage/field presence would mean removing or completely changing the lamebrain stuff like the Soul Marks trait. However, at the same time, there’s no reason why the weapon couldn’t retain its purpose as a LF battery while being independent from boring traits. I took a shot at it a while ago:

Necrotic Grasp

hide spoiler

[Necrotic Grasp] (1)
Activation: 1s

• Send out a necrotic hand which bursts upon impact and strikes multiple foes. Gain life force if this attack hits.
• Number of targets: 3
• Damage: (0.75)
• Life force: 3%
• Blast radius: 150
• Range: 1200
  • Elementalist [Fireball] projectile behavior
  • This skill will only grant Life Force once regardless of the number of unique targets struck.

Mark of Blood

hide spoiler

[Mark of Blood] (2)
Activation: 0 / Recharge: 4s

• Inscribe a pulsing mark that damages and bleeds foes at the target location; heals allies with each pulse.
• Number of targets: 5
• Number of allies: 5
• Pulses|4|: every 1s
• Damage per pulse: (0.55)
• Bleeding|2| (6s) per pulse: [dmg]
• Allied healing per pulse: (0.2)
• Duration: 4s
• Combo Field: Dark
• Radius: 150
• Range: 1200
  • Elementalist [Lava Font] “activation time”
  • Mark features are now a neon-red color; emits bright, red-colored “well mist”
  • Pulses occur at the end of each second.

Chilblains

hide spoiler

[Chilblains] (3)
Activation: ¾s

• Consume life force and unleash a line of blasts that poison and chill foes across the target area.
• Life force cost: 8%
• Number of targets: 5
• Number of impacts: 5
• Impact damage: (0.75)
• Impact chill: 1s
• Impact poison|2| (4s): [dmg]
• Blast radius: 120
• Blast line range: 600
  • Koda’s Hammer [Ice Shock Wave]
  • This skill is now a ground-targeted AoE with a target reticle that matches its rectangle hit-box (600 range length; 120 range width).
  • This skill’s AoE line attack is preceeded by an icy-blue or poison-green version of the [Enfeebling Blood] animation cue complete with that skill’s brief, post-cast delay period.
  • This skill will not activate if the player lacks adequate Life Force to cast it.

Foul Feast

hide spoiler

[Foul Feast] (4a)
Activation: 1¾s / Recharge: 15s

• Channel to first cure damaging conditions on yourself and allies in your area; you bleed but also gain Life Force and temporary vitality for each condition that you cure in this way. This skill’s final pulse inflicts damages and transfers bleeding on you to foes in the area.
• Pulses|3|: every ½s
• Number of allies: 5
• Initial 2 pulses conditions cured per ally: 1
• Self bleeding (6s) per condition cured: [dmg]
• Life force per condition cured: 1%
• Foul Feast (3s) per condition cured: 30 Vitality
• Final pulse damage: (1.75)
• Final pulse conditions transferred: Bleeding
• Range: 600
• Combo Finisher: Blast
  • Condition removal priority: Burning – > Bleeding – > Poison – > Confusion – > Torment

Reaper's Mark

hide spoiler

[Reaper’s Mark] (5)
Cast-time: 1 s; Recharge: 25 s

• Inscribe a pulsing mark in front of you, damaging foes; gain life force for each foe struck. If your Life Force is above the threshold when you activate this skill, the mark’s initial damage fears foes.
• Number of targets: 5
• Pulses|4|: every 2s
• Pulse damage: (0.9)
• Life Force: 4%
• Life Force threshold: 50%
• Threshold fear: 1s
• Duration: 6 seconds
• Combo Field: Dark
• Width: 300
• Range: 600
  • Revenant [Searing Fissure] style attack.
  • First pulse occurs immediately on successful cast and then once every 2 seconds afterward.
  • Each pulse will only grant the state Life Force amount once regardless of the number of unique targets struck.

… something that can still be good for tagging, but now has more staying power as a versatile utility/damage weapon.

I LOVE THIS.

As popular as staff is, I do not see it being buffed substantially.

Faster projectile velocity would be nice and Reaper’s Mark could stand a shorter cool down now that Elite traits boons, conditions, and dps dwarf Terror’s condition damage.

Anchoku.8142:

As popular as staff is, I do not see it being buffed substantially.

Faster projectile velocity would be nice and Reaper’s Mark could stand a shorter cool down now that Elite traits boons, conditions, and dps dwarf Terror’s condition damage.

staff is popular because there is no other 1200 range option. give necromancer a longbow, see its popularity diminish.

Lightsbane.9012:

Anchoku.8142:

As popular as staff is, I do not see it being buffed substantially.

Faster projectile velocity would be nice and Reaper’s Mark could stand a shorter cool down now that Elite traits boons, conditions, and dps dwarf Terror’s condition damage.

staff is popular because there is no other 1200 range option. give necromancer a longbow, see its popularity diminish.

Things are popular due to fluff.

I just had a stupid necromancer camping axe in fractal scale 95.

Because he liked the idea of being a necro tank and using an axe.

Similarly plenty of necros who crafted Nevermore and just want to use a subpar weapon on the class because of looks.

This game is full of idiots that somehow make it to upper endgame content.

Zenith.7301:

Lightsbane.9012:

Anchoku.8142:

As popular as staff is, I do not see it being buffed substantially.

Faster projectile velocity would be nice and Reaper’s Mark could stand a shorter cool down now that Elite traits boons, conditions, and dps dwarf Terror’s condition damage.

staff is popular because there is no other 1200 range option. give necromancer a longbow, see its popularity diminish.

Things are popular due to fluff.

I just had a stupid necromancer camping axe in fractal scale 95.

Because he liked the idea of being a necro tank and using an axe.

Similarly plenty of necros who crafted Nevermore and just want to use a subpar weapon on the class because of looks.

This game is full of idiots that somehow make it to upper endgame content.

You’re talking about PvE. Anchoku and Lightsbane are talking about PvP.

In regards to PvE, the staff isn’t always a bad choice, but you’re certainly better off with other weapons when you need high sustained single target dps.

In PvP, however, the staff is the single greatest weapon we have.
Not just for its range, which btw is 1200 + 240 mark radius + 60 trigger radius and even slightly more if you cast a mark while moving away from your target. But also, the utility of marks, the fact that you don’t need to face the casting direction, the way marks wrap around surfaces and allow you to hit targets even if they are out of your line of sight, the ability to precast them for area denial and to artificially reduce their cooldowns, the option to trait all of them to be unblockable and other trait synergies, every single staff skill is a 5 target aoe, the by far highest life force regeneration potential of all our skills on Nectrotic Grasp, and last but not least: marks are non-projectile ranged skills without any travel time, placing marks at max range takes the exact same amount of time as they do in melee range. And from an opponent’s perspective there’s no true tell or visible enough distinction of which skill is being cast and where it is going to land, making the staff a relatively unpredictable weapon to play against.

In short: even if there suddenly was another ranged weapon like a longbow, the staff would never be less popular than it is now. Not for fluffs or appearances, but because of its unique gameplay.

flow.6043:

In short: even if there suddenly was another ranged weapon like a longbow, the staff would never be less popular than it is now. Not for fluffs or appearances, but because of it’s unique gameplay.

“Tracking, ranged autoattack and 4 identical circles” = “unique gameplay.”

The staff isn’t unique, it’s a braindead skill dump """utility""" bar. While it does charge Life Force and contributes a condi transfer along with a fear, ultimately the weapon set is quite in fact the most uninspired design in GW2 apart from Herald with very little staying power considering how effortless it is to blow any skill on the bar. Paired with offensively long cooldowns, Necromancer staff is quick to slip into autoattack spam until weapon swap is off cooldown. If Necro staff were to compete with another max-ranged weapon option, it would need staying power outside of 1 spam and a Mark of Blood every 4.75 seconds. If another weapon could provide something more than that (which isn’t hard), it would very likely become an outright upgrade to staff (given that there would be no way that the other ranged option wouldn’t also provide some sort of means to charge LF).

Erasmus.1624:

flow.6043:

In short: even if there suddenly was another ranged weapon like a longbow, the staff would never be less popular than it is now. Not for fluffs or appearances, but because of it’s unique gameplay.

“Tracking, ranged autoattack and 4 identical circles” = “unique gameplay.”

First of all, Necrotic Grasp isn’t homing, if that’s what you mean.
Secondly, the only thing identical about those 4 circles is that they are circles.
And your sarcastic reference to how you feel all marks are similar has nothing to do with mark mechanics in general, which when compared with other weapons is indeed unique.

Erasmus.1624:

it’s a braindead skill dump """utility""" bar.
most uninspired design in GW2
offensively long cooldowns
quick to slip into autoattack spam until weapon swap is off cooldown.

L2staff bruh.

Erasmus.1624:

If Necro staff were to compete with another max-ranged weapon option, it would need staying power outside of 1 spam and a Mark of Blood every 4.75 seconds. If another weapon could provide something more than that (which isn’t hard), it would very likely become an outright upgrade to staff (given that there would be no way that the other ranged option wouldn’t also provide some sort of means to charge LF).

Dude, seriously, you have an l2p issue here.
Your opinion of the staff seems to be that it’s good for nothing except getting life force. And if that’s really the case you’re not only wrong but you’re probably losing a lot of fights because you can’t use the staff properly.

Staff is very good utility weapon. It is not a dps weapon. If you try to use it expecting good dps, you will be disappointed.

Staff has…
Traps – 4 of them and the only ones for the profession!
One of only two regenerations for Necro
The most powerful condition transfer on a weapon
The only fear on a weapon, anywhere
The only projectile and blast finishers that are not on a minion and the auto attack pierces

It is very useful in PvP and WvW, and while not a good ranged dps weapon, staff has uses in PvE, too. Rather than expecting it to kill Teqatl with its auto attack, use it for tagging, laying a trap to alert you when mobs spawn, healing allies and clearing their conditions, and to hit break bars. Staff also helps generate life force, which is critical in PvP and not unwelcome anywhere else.

I think staff can be buffed a little, especially in ways that do not impact PvP, but see low odds of it receiving a dps increase or change from being a utility weapon. It is just too good at backing up main weapons.

Anchoku.8142:

One of only two regenerations for Necro

Mark of Blood, Reaper’s Touch, Mark of Evasion, Well of Power.
Also, you can blast or leap through Spectral Wall for Chaos Armor.

Anchoku.8142:

healing allies and clearing their conditions

There hasn’t been an ally cleanse on Putrid Mark since 2013.

i would like to see marks pulse.

id like to see staff AA:

-1200 range pbaoe
-10 targets
-each target hit explodes bleed/poison/cripple to 5 nearby foes
-foes that are already suffering bleed/poison/cripple also suffer fear/chill/torment/burning/vulnerability/weakness/theotheronesicantremember.

and if its not too op, maybe reaper ice all targets hit every 5th attack for 3sec?

I don’t know just a thought to improve staff since its totally weak and unused by necro. Probably wouldn’t hurt to make a Wells Revamp thread.

flow.6043:

First of all, Necrotic Grasp isn’t homing, if that’s what you mean.
Secondly, the only thing identical about those 4 circles is that they are circles.
And your sarcastic reference to how you feel all marks are similar has nothing to do with mark mechanics in general, which when compared with other weapons is indeed unique.

I guess I was saying how selecting a target will initially aim the attack for you. You’re right, though, it’s not a perfect track that bends around corners and whatnot. That said, you can’t argue that 2-5 on Necro staff are all functionally identical. Yeah, the skill might do something different, but there is factually no difference between, say, the activation of Reaper’s Mark and Mark of Blood. They are the same skill in application.

flow.6043:

L2staff bruh.

Dude, seriously, you have an l2p issue here.
Your opinion of the staff seems to be that it’s good for nothing except getting life force. And if that’s really the case you’re not only wrong but you’re probably losing a lot of fights because you can’t use the staff properly.

I named more than Life Force to merit staff’s contributions. And believe me, staff can swing fights very easily, but it’s ultimately a bland weapon that can very quickly trap the player into a long period of autoattacking. Thank goodness the weapon is saved by the F1 being another weapon set that has something to sort of do.

And how can I l2p Necromancer staff when 4 of the skills work in an identical manner? There’s nothing to learn.

Zenith.7301:

Lightsbane.9012:

Anchoku.8142:

As popular as staff is, I do not see it being buffed substantially.

Faster projectile velocity would be nice and Reaper’s Mark could stand a shorter cool down now that Elite traits boons, conditions, and dps dwarf Terror’s condition damage.

staff is popular because there is no other 1200 range option. give necromancer a longbow, see its popularity diminish.

Things are popular due to fluff.

I just had a stupid necromancer camping axe in fractal scale 95.

Because he liked the idea of being a necro tank and using an axe.

Similarly plenty of necros who crafted Nevermore and just want to use a subpar weapon on the class because of looks.

This game is full of idiots that somehow make it to upper endgame content.

please assume all my posts are directed towards pvp/wvw. i have no interest in this game’s pve.

Staff is a wvw zerg/tagging weapon. Leave it alone.

Just skimmed through, probably missed it if someone mentioned it or not, I just want marks to hit downed people -_-

Lightsbane.9012:

Zenith.7301:

Lightsbane.9012:

Anchoku.8142:

As popular as staff is, I do not see it being buffed substantially.

Faster projectile velocity would be nice and Reaper’s Mark could stand a shorter cool down now that Elite traits boons, conditions, and dps dwarf Terror’s condition damage.

staff is popular because there is no other 1200 range option. give necromancer a longbow, see its popularity diminish.

Things are popular due to fluff.

I just had a stupid necromancer camping axe in fractal scale 95.

Because he liked the idea of being a necro tank and using an axe.

Similarly plenty of necros who crafted Nevermore and just want to use a subpar weapon on the class because of looks.

This game is full of idiots that somehow make it to upper endgame content.

please assume all my posts are directed towards pvp/wvw. i have no interest in this game’s pve.

You think stupid people using suboptimal weapons for looks is tied to PvE?

How many rangers running bear and spamming staff autoattack do you see in WvW? I see countless.

How many rangers with longbow do you see autoattacking or camping longbow when stuck in melee range.

I’ve seen true horrors in WvW as well.