Guild Wars 2

Two simple changes to Marks can make the staff a lot more usable and wanted weapon in various situations.

- As many already suggested. Make Marks trigger of downed players, but also all other non Player/NPC based targets (All destructible environmental items).
- After trigger all marks leave short time AoE with the same radius for 2 to 3 seconds. Think of it as weaker Lava Font that pulse 2 or 3 times. The multiplier can either be the same for all 4 marks or every mark can have its own post trigger multiplier.

This will make the staff a better weapon in both PvP and especially in PvE.

Staff is, and has been for a very long time, a utility-based weapon. It deals moderate damage, it applies Regeneration on a short CD, it gains very large amounts of Life Force over time, it controls our opponents through CC, damage mitigation, healing reduction, movement speed reduction, and CD increases while at range, and it offers a condition transfer. All while at the second longest in-game range and with the potential of being entirely unblockable.

Staff marks really don’t need to trigger on downed corpses, because Necromancer as a class is already rather great at cleaving. Pulsing Mark fields would skew balance between optimal and regular circumstances: How do you balance the power aspect against the repeatedly-applied condition aspect? How do you balance the condition application to be worthwhile when the mark only hits a couple of times as opposed to hitting the target every single time?

Is staff a phenomenal weapon? Not really, but it has a pretty clear-cut usage currently, and I don’t necessarily think that it needs major functionality overhauls.

^ And with all this, Staff is the second least used weapon after focus. With some picks in PvP, but only because there is no alternative.
Everybody who defend the current staff says the same “utility-based” bla bla, but in the end your in are left with half a weapon which does almost nothing after you use its “utility”.

There is no persistent utility!!!

It need to be buffed one way or another.

mazut.4296:

And with all this, Staff is the second least used weapon after focus.

I would love to know where you got this statistic, considering Staff has been included in just about every single Necromancer build for the last 3 years, with the exception of the Viper Horrors PvE build, which uses Sc/WH & Sc/D

Zero Solstice.9754:

mazut.4296:

And with all this, Staff is the second least used weapon after focus.

I would love to know where you got this statistic, considering Staff has been included in just about every single Necromancer build for the last 3 years, with the exception of the Viper Horrors PvE build, which uses Sc/WH & Sc/D

Don’t you know that 90% of all statistics are made up?

Lahmia.2193:

Zero Solstice.9754:

mazut.4296:

And with all this, Staff is the second least used weapon after focus.

I would love to know where you got this statistic, considering Staff has been included in just about every single Necromancer build for the last 3 years, with the exception of the Viper Horrors PvE build, which uses Sc/WH & Sc/D

Don’t you know that 90% of all statistics are made up?

lol what?! o.O Im basing this on necros I meet. I myself use staff a lot less, then before.

mazut.4296:

Lahmia.2193:

Zero Solstice.9754:

mazut.4296:

And with all this, Staff is the second least used weapon after focus.

I would love to know where you got this statistic, considering Staff has been included in just about every single Necromancer build for the last 3 years, with the exception of the Viper Horrors PvE build, which uses Sc/WH & Sc/D

Don’t you know that 90% of all statistics are made up?

lol what?! o.O Im basing this on necros I meet. I myself use staff a lot less, then before.

Fair enough then. It’s just it had a meta slot in WvW, alongside wells for zerg fights. It is a common second weapon in pve, and has always been used in pvp as a source of Life force. I’d say it was Necros #1 most used weapon.

It is Necro’s #1 used weapon but not because it’s good. It’s because the better weapons, greatsword, dagger and scepter are incompatible. The only weapon staff outperforms is axe. Honestly this weapon needs a fix but I don’t think pulsing marks is a great idea. It needs a concept first. Utility is all nice and well but it is so vague since almost any weapon gives utility.

I am pretty sure that staff is a stable weapon in spvp. Honestly i havent seen a meta in which necros didnt use staff. The reasoning for this is actually simply. It has decent cc and is our only weapon that generates reliable lifeforce at any distance.

Honestly the biggest problem with staff is probably the auto attack. It is still bad. Most of the time i only use the marks and when they are on cd i go into shroud or weapon swap. Just compare it with revs hammer auto, same range but the hammer auto is faster with a 1.25 sec as (staff is 1.4) does more damage (0.95 modifer staff is 0.666) and it is a real projectile finisher (staff is only 20%) and i think the projectile velosity is faster.

That said i think offhand dagger, focus, axe and even greatsword need changes/buffs more then staff does.

Lahmia.2193:

Don’t you know that 90% of all statistics are made up?[/quote]
That statement is 33.6% true.

Zero Solstice.9754:

mazut.4296:

And with all this, Staff is the second least used weapon after focus.

I would love to know where you got this statistic, considering Staff has been included in just about every single Necromancer build for the last 3 years, with the exception of the Viper Horrors PvE build, which uses Sc/WH & Sc/D

Staff has never been included in any PvE Necro build, at least not any meta one.
Staff is used in WvW and PvP because it’s the best way for us to get life force (despite locking us into Soul Reaping) and well, because there really aren’t any other good options. It’s a weapon you use because it’s the lesser evil, so to say. I mean to be fair, the staff utility isn’t too bad and does help out, but it’s still not great and the damage on it is pretty much kitten imo. I mean, what else would you take over staff, even if you had the option?
Staff marks should have innate LF-regen, we should be able to manually detonate them and the auto should be slightly improved imo.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Zero Solstice.9754:

mazut.4296:

And with all this, Staff is the second least used weapon after focus.

I would love to know where you got this statistic, considering Staff has been included in just about every single Necromancer build for the last 3 years, with the exception of the Viper Horrors PvE build, which uses Sc/WH & Sc/D

Staff has never been included in any PvE Necro build, at least not any meta one.
Staff is used in WvW and PvP because it’s the best way for us to get life force (despite locking us into Soul Reaping) and well, because there really aren’t any other good options. It’s a weapon you use because it’s the lesser evil, so to say. I mean to be fair, the staff utility isn’t too bad and does help out, but it’s still not great and the damage on it is pretty much kitten imo. I mean, what else would you take over staff, even if you had the option?
Staff marks should have innate LF-regen, we should be able to manually detonate them and the auto should be slightly improved imo.

Well said, especially the part where LF generation should be implemented in the weapon, not as trait. If there is similar trait in Soul Reaping it should even must affect all weapons!!!
We take Staff in PvP because of LF generation and 3 of its marks are decent, but thats not enough. We take it only because we have no alternative in both LF generation and long range. It need better and more persistent utility or damage buff.
And of course changing/buffing our other weapons is needed too and if it happens(I almost gave up hopes) staff will be even less usable.

mazut.4296:

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Zero Solstice.9754:

mazut.4296:

And with all this, Staff is the second least used weapon after focus.

I would love to know where you got this statistic, considering Staff has been included in just about every single Necromancer build for the last 3 years, with the exception of the Viper Horrors PvE build, which uses Sc/WH & Sc/D

Staff has never been included in any PvE Necro build, at least not any meta one.
Staff is used in WvW and PvP because it’s the best way for us to get life force (despite locking us into Soul Reaping) and well, because there really aren’t any other good options. It’s a weapon you use because it’s the lesser evil, so to say. I mean to be fair, the staff utility isn’t too bad and does help out, but it’s still not great and the damage on it is pretty much kitten imo. I mean, what else would you take over staff, even if you had the option?
Staff marks should have innate LF-regen, we should be able to manually detonate them and the auto should be slightly improved imo.

Well said, especially the part where LF generation should be implemented in the weapon, not as trait. If there is similar trait in Soul Reaping it should even must affect all weapons!!!
We take Staff in PvP because of LF generation and 3 of its marks are decent, but thats not enough. We take it only because we have no alternative in both LF generation and long range. It need better and more persistent utility or damage buff.
And of course changing/buffing our other weapons is needed too and if it happens(I almost gave up hopes) staff will be even less usable.

I feel this is slowly turning into less of a “Staff could use help” thread, and more of a “Necromancer needs buffz boiz” thread. Staff marks having the capacity to be “detonated” is pretty worthless in my opinion. There are only three major times a mark goes off: An enemy activates it by touching it and gets hit by it, an enemy dodges through it and evades it, or an enemy triggers it while you’re blinded and it misses. In every single one of these cases, detonating the mark yourself does literally nothing extra. A mark not activating on something considered an “enemy”, such as Tequatl, is either a fringe occurrence, or is generally a waste of your time and cooldowns anyway; Tequatl isn’t exactly difficult, so why bother wasting your marks on it or Staff-autoing it when you could just use Axe, Scepter, or Dagger for greater DPS?

I never hear any of the other high-level players I play with complain about Staff, not because it’s “bad” or “good”, but because it has a pretty clearly defined role/playstyle of being a ranged area-denial weapon used for pressure and resource acquisition. The downsides of Staff are pretty easily offset by the rest of the class. If the argument here is becoming about how mandatory Soul Reaping is, or how bad other weapons might be, then I think we need to make another thread.

Also, “Staff has never been included in any PvE Necro build, at least not any meta one” because until at least the Specialization update a year ago, or more aptly until the release of HoT, Necromancer in PvE was never meta to begin with

Zero Solstice.9754:

mazut.4296:

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Zero Solstice.9754:

mazut.4296:

And with all this, Staff is the second least used weapon after focus.

I would love to know where you got this statistic, considering Staff has been included in just about every single Necromancer build for the last 3 years, with the exception of the Viper Horrors PvE build, which uses Sc/WH & Sc/D

Staff has never been included in any PvE Necro build, at least not any meta one.
Staff is used in WvW and PvP because it’s the best way for us to get life force (despite locking us into Soul Reaping) and well, because there really aren’t any other good options. It’s a weapon you use because it’s the lesser evil, so to say. I mean to be fair, the staff utility isn’t too bad and does help out, but it’s still not great and the damage on it is pretty much kitten imo. I mean, what else would you take over staff, even if you had the option?
Staff marks should have innate LF-regen, we should be able to manually detonate them and the auto should be slightly improved imo.

Well said, especially the part where LF generation should be implemented in the weapon, not as trait. If there is similar trait in Soul Reaping it should even must affect all weapons!!!
We take Staff in PvP because of LF generation and 3 of its marks are decent, but thats not enough. We take it only because we have no alternative in both LF generation and long range. It need better and more persistent utility or damage buff.
And of course changing/buffing our other weapons is needed too and if it happens(I almost gave up hopes) staff will be even less usable.

I feel this is slowly turning into less of a “Staff could use help” thread, and more of a “Necromancer needs buffz boiz” thread. Staff marks having the capacity to be “detonated” is pretty worthless in my opinion. There are only three major times a mark goes off: An enemy activates it by touching it and gets hit by it, an enemy dodges through it and evades it, or an enemy triggers it while you’re blinded and it misses. In every single one of these cases, detonating the mark yourself does literally nothing extra. A mark not activating on something considered an “enemy”, such as Tequatl, is either a fringe occurrence, or is generally a waste of your time and cooldowns anyway; Tequatl isn’t exactly difficult, so why bother wasting your marks on it or Staff-autoing it when you could just use Axe, Scepter, or Dagger for greater DPS?

I never hear any of the other high-level players I play with complain about Staff, not because it’s “bad” or “good”, but because it has a pretty clearly defined role/playstyle of being a ranged area-denial weapon used for pressure and resource acquisition. The downsides of Staff are pretty easily offset by the rest of the class. If the argument here is becoming about how mandatory Soul Reaping is, or how bad other weapons might be, then I think we need to make another thread.

Also, “Staff has never been included in any PvE Necro build, at least not any meta one” because until at least the Specialization update a year ago, or more aptly until the release of HoT, Necromancer in PvE was never meta to begin with

Even though they weren’t exactly meta, they still had their meta-builds to play.

Also, being able to detonate marks would help against downed players, buildings and would allow for proper utilisation of the combo field and -finisher found on staff. Just because it wouldn’t have all that many uses doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a helpful change.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Even though they weren’t exactly meta, they still had their meta-builds to play.

Also, being able to detonate marks would help against downed players, buildings and would allow for proper utilisation of the combo field and -finisher found on staff. Just because it wouldn’t have all that many uses doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a helpful change.

Detonating marks on downed players doesn’t really matter, as it’s easy enough as a Necromancer to cleave out downs through other means, and if someone else comes to ress then they’ll pop the marks for you. The finisher argument is very valid, although blasting the staff’s own field is a poor example, as the field blasts weakness on opponents, meaning having it actually hit anything would involve having an enemy trigger it as normal for you. Having it affect structures is pretty wasteful too, since structure damage is generally abysmal, so it’s just kind of a waste of those cooldowns and there are better ways to damage structures anyway.

Zero Solstice.9754:

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Even though they weren’t exactly meta, they still had their meta-builds to play.

Also, being able to detonate marks would help against downed players, buildings and would allow for proper utilisation of the combo field and -finisher found on staff. Just because it wouldn’t have all that many uses doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a helpful change.

Detonating marks on downed players doesn’t really matter, as it’s easy enough as a Necromancer to cleave out downs through other means, and if someone else comes to ress then they’ll pop the marks for you. The finisher argument is very valid, although blasting the staff’s own field is a poor example, as the field blasts weakness on opponents, meaning having it actually hit anything would involve having an enemy trigger it as normal for you. Having it affect structures is pretty wasteful too, since structure damage is generally abysmal, so it’s just kind of a waste of those cooldowns and there are better ways to damage structures anyway.

I sometimes find myself winning an 1v1 on point in PvP, barely having any LF left. Now I have to cap the point, I either have to delay the cap in order to get some LF back or stomp him, keep low LF and get the point earlier. In this case I could just detonate my marks on him, get some LF back and then stomp him right after. Of course one could argue “yeah, so you have to decide what’s going to be more helpful over the course of the game”, but I personally think that’s… not exactly good.
I never talked about using those two fields in combination, just mentioned that they could both be used in a better way.
Sure, there’s definitely better ways to damage structures, but that’s even more reason to give staff this option; it’s definitely not going to be too strong; it would simply be a (worse) option.

Zero Solstice.9754, your troll is not appreciated. Do not post if you have nothing to add

mazut.4296:

Zero Solstice.9754, your troll is not appreciated. Do not post if you have nothing to add

Speak for yourself while you hop off of your Silverado high horse, and try hosting as strong of a discussion as I have so far. Up to this point your posts have either been “I agree with you” or “Erroneous buff to X should be made!!!”. Advocating against something is just as important as advocating for it, and so far my counter-arguments have been peaceful and respectable.

So to that I say: mazut.4296, your troll is not appreciated. Do not post if you have nothing to add.

One major thing I think needs to happen with staff is reduced cooldowns. That, or add an extra effect to staff 3-5. I also think that staff 1 needs to hit harder, or hit faster. It feels like it should pack a decent punch. But… it doesn’t really.

As for staff in PvE, it is actually pretty useful. Think about all the breakbars and how effective fear is on them. Hell, even the extra chill on staff 3 is useful on breakbars, albeit less so. I actually switched back from axe/focus to staff because in a big group of enemies, it does more. 20% life force per auto, or close to it, if you’re throwing it into a group. And then on a boss it’s just nice. Hell, in Bloodstone Fen, you can transfer some of the crystal’s conditions onto the constructs before cleansing them to boost dps a bit if you’re back regaining lf.

Summary: Don’t knock staff too hard. It is actually pretty kitten useful in multiple situations

Vydahr.4285, the faster auto attack is probably the most suggested change for staff.
And the extra effects you suggest is exactly what I mean with this threat and what Staff needs. My suggestion is just an easy option – more persistent damage buff. But will be happy with anything on top of what we have right now.

mazut.4296:

Vydahr.4285, the faster auto attack is probably the most suggested change for staff.
And the extra effects you suggest is exactly what I mean with this threat and what Staff needs. My suggestion is just an easy option – more persistent damage buff. But will be happy with anything on top of what we have right now.

Here’s a thought.

Staff 1 – actual 1 second cast time, and bump the damage up a bit (multiplier to, say, .8)

Staff 2 – Instead of regeneration, have it grant 3-ish seconds of resistance (not less) but with a slightly higher cooldown to compensate (actual group support, yay!)

Staff 3 – longer duration of poison and chill. This is utility against an enemy, preventing adequate healing and skill use. Cooldown is fine.

Staff 4 – 1-2 more conditions transferred, otherwise unchanged

Staff 5 – Slightly longer fear, plus damage somewhere between that of 3 and 4. A necro or reaper oughta scare the kittens right out of enemies. Enough to damage them

If staff is going to be a utility weapon, it ought to be useful. A bit more potent as both weapon and tool

Vydahr.4285:

mazut.4296:

Vydahr.4285, the faster auto attack is probably the most suggested change for staff.
And the extra effects you suggest is exactly what I mean with this threat and what Staff needs. My suggestion is just an easy option – more persistent damage buff. But will be happy with anything on top of what we have right now.

Here’s a thought.

Staff 1 – actual 1 second cast time, and bump the damage up a bit (multiplier to, say, .8)

Staff 2 – Instead of regeneration, have it grant 3-ish seconds of resistance (not less) but with a slightly higher cooldown to compensate (actual group support, yay!)

Staff 3 – longer duration of poison and chill. This is utility against an enemy, preventing adequate healing and skill use. Cooldown is fine.

Staff 4 – 1-2 more conditions transferred, otherwise unchanged

Staff 5 – Slightly longer fear, plus damage somewhere between that of 3 and 4. A necro or reaper oughta scare the kittens right out of enemies. Enough to damage them

If staff is going to be a utility weapon, it ought to be useful. A bit more potent as both weapon and tool

Staff 1 I agree with this

Staff 2 While i can agree that this skill need some love i dont think resistence is the way to go. Honestly the regneration is fine on this skill, i would rather see its direct damage going up.

Staff 3 longer posion is fine i guess but longer chill … just recently we had the chill duration on some skills/traits reduced, so not gonna happen anytime soon

Staff 4 You do know that this skill transfers 3 conditions per enemy hit meaning this skill can already be a full cleanse and it is hard to avoid, so asking for a buff for a skill this strong already… not gonna happen

Staff 5 I wouldnt be opposed to this though i think it would be better if it got the same cd as scrappers hammer 5.

I wish less necro used staff in wvw. Like the most skill less garbage ever.

Oh and I made a necro with dagger/focus for tearing down boons on bunkers that are over confident in their boon shields. Is glorious.

Justine.6351:

I wish less necro used staff in wvw. Like the most skill less garbage ever.

What do you expect? It is our only real aoe ranged weapon and it is reliable. Skill less or not we dont have much of a choice.

i highly doubt that feedback threads get read by devs
For a long time it has been like this so why do you people still bother?

Staff 1 is silly. This isn’t the Adams Family. Creepy Ghost hands are not amusing or intimidating. This skill is slow so it naturally sucks in PvP.
The rest of the staff skills could use a manual trigger to apply more utility. It would make Necro a lot more pleasant. What if staff 5’s manual was a teleport?

I think Staff #1 should have a bouncing attack rather than a piercing one. 2-3 targets. If it hits more than 1 target, it inscribes a Lesser Mark of Blood into the 1st enemy’s location.
-Lesser Mark of Blood hits with 1 stack of bleeding(6s) and 3s of regeneration, and it’s radius is only 120. (50% of normal mark size) No direct damage.

Staff #2 should do 4 bleed stacks instead of 2. Would make it more simple to trigger Blood Bond. Increase power damage by 33%. Increase cd to 6s.

Staff #3. Increase the poison field duration to 8s.

Staff #4. This attack is no longer a mark and will trigger immediately when cast. Change made mostly to blast fields when no enemies are close enough, but downside is it would no longer be unblockable.

Staff #5. Direct damage increased by 100%. Cooldown reduced to 25s.

These are my proposed changes.

Zero Solstice.9754:

I would love to know where you got this statistic, considering Staff has been included in just about every single Necromancer build for the last 3 years, with the exception of the Viper Horrors PvE build, which uses Sc/WH & Sc/D

What are you even talking about

PvE Power necromancer from launch until HoT used dagger/warhorn with offhand focus, maybe an axe

PvE Condition necromancer used nothing because it was trash and nobody played it past leveling until they changed bleeds to stack past 25, and even then it didn’t use staff because switching away from scepter is a colossal 10 second dps loss

PvE Nemesis’s kitten rampager hybrid build used who cares lol I feel so sorry for all the new players who got tricked into using this but also not staff which is odd because hybrid condition/power damage seems like what staff is supposed to be for but it’s so trash it couldn’t find a place even there

Necro staff does not offer even 1/4th of the utility or damage that even a single attunement of ele staff does.

Seems to me like all they need to do is make the autoattack actually worth using ever in any situation, and pick a godkitten single stat for it to scale with not have auto be power and everything else be condition, and we might have an actual weapon here. As It is, it is like many other things from the necromancer toolkit back when GW2 launched in 2012, an interesting idea (a weapon that is most area denial and condition ‘traps’) that they couldn’t be bothered to balance so they threw it in the trash and went to go work on making some other class blatantly OP.

Tobias.8632:

Zero Solstice.9754:

I would love to know where you got this statistic, considering Staff has been included in just about every single Necromancer build for the last 3 years, with the exception of the Viper Horrors PvE build, which uses Sc/WH & Sc/D

What are you even talking about

PvE Power necromancer from launch until HoT used dagger/warhorn with offhand focus, maybe an axe

PvE Condition necromancer used nothing because it was trash and nobody played it past leveling until they changed bleeds to stack past 25, and even then it didn’t use staff because switching away from scepter is a colossal 10 second dps loss

PvE Nemesis’s kitten rampager hybrid build used who cares lol I feel so sorry for all the new players who got tricked into using this but also not staff which is odd because hybrid condition/power damage seems like what staff is supposed to be for but it’s so trash it couldn’t find a place even there

Necro staff does not offer even 1/4th of the utility or damage that even a single attunement of ele staff does.

Seems to me like all they need to do is make the autoattack actually worth using ever in any situation, and pick a godkitten single stat for it to scale with not have auto be power and everything else be condition, and we might have an actual weapon here. As It is, it is like many other things from the necromancer toolkit back when GW2 launched in 2012, an interesting idea (a weapon that is most area denial and condition ‘traps’) that they couldn’t be bothered to balance so they threw it in the trash and went to go work on making some other class blatantly OP.

1) Every build you just listed was PvE. Necromancer was never optimal and barely viable for PvE due to its lackluster damage output in comparison to every other class. You can’t pull the “what are you smoking” card when Necro builds in PvE practically didn’t even exist in PvE prior to HoT.

2) You spent 4 paragraphs trying to prove me wrong, but 2/3 builds you listed were “This build that could have been used for Necro that didn’t use staff WAS TRASH LMAO XD” so I fail to grasp your point.

3) You kinda cherry-picked the best part of Staff Ele in PvE for comparison purposes, since the Ele build was almost literally LavaFontMeteorIceBow.exe

What would happen if they moved the blast finisher from staff 4 to warhorn (perhaps replacing the annoying damage on the horn #5)? It seems near useless in it’s current place.

Zero Solstice.9754:

1) Every build you just listed was PvE. Necromancer was never optimal and barely viable for PvE due to its lackluster damage output in comparison to every other class. You can’t pull the “what are you smoking” card when Necro builds in PvE practically didn’t even exist in PvE prior to HoT.

2) You spent 4 paragraphs trying to prove me wrong, but 2/3 builds you listed were “This build that could have been used for Necro that didn’t use staff WAS TRASH LMAO XD” so I fail to grasp your point.

3) You kinda cherry-picked the best part of Staff Ele in PvE for comparison purposes, since the Ele build was almost literally LavaFontMeteorIceBow.exe

PvE is the only mode that matters though, especially with the clown shoes bullkitten we’ve seen come out of the spvp balance department recently.

I don’t see how that 2) is in any way invalid, necro had one pve build and two poorly designed disgraces and none of them used staff.

Staff having a use in spvp is beside the point, especially since you only use it to dump marks on an objective/player and then switch away to other weapons to actually attack with, which reinforces what I was saying that the staff autoattack is complete trash and is the main part of the weapon that really needs a solid redesign since it conflicts with the rest of the weapon.

Svarty.8019:

What would happen if they moved the blast finisher from staff 4 to warhorn (perhaps replacing the annoying damage on the horn #5)? It seems near useless in it’s current place.

Isn’t the damage what gets you lifeforce? That’s a pretty big thing on warhorn.

Staff, triggerable marks (or at least the blast) would be great.

Comparing it to Staff Ele I don’t think is fair, because, staff for Ele is just a weird powerhouse. But, compare it to the other “utility” staff option, guardian.

Guardian’s staff provides weak damage but AE. So, that’s similar. Then look at the skills, 5 being line of warding on guardian and necros Reaper’s Mark with Fear, nice 2 solid CC’s, still holding up in comparisons.

Now, the 2 skill, guardian has a healing orb, necro has a couple stacks of bleeds and regen. Funny thing is they actually have the same base healing (780) and similar damage, though orb is potentially a tad higher or tad lower depending on if you get the orb to hit before detonating (unlikely, all skills like this are very wonky and lucky to even get the detonate to trigger sometimes). The difference is, necros have to wait for their damage and healing with counter play of stripping the effects, so I’d give the win to guardian.

The 3 skill, Chill/poison/damage vs swiftness/damage, actually pretty solid balance here just kind of in reverse. Slow down your enemy and prevent healing vs more damage and speeding yourself up.

4 skill is Condi transfer and a blast that I don’t even want to include because it’s near impossibility of being used tactically vs Empower with a solid (though very long cast time) heal and 10s of 12 might. Both solid utility, if we could actually use the blast it’d be great.

So realistically it’s a pretty consistent ‘utility’ weapon. Would I like more power on it? Of course. Do I think it needs more power, again yes, lets look at what we were comparing it to, guardian staff is used almost exclusively in WvW zergs, which is where Necro staff is seen most as well. Why? Well, loot, tagging is important, and then control and reset. It’s just a strange niche that works there and only there. Spending 2.5s standing still to empower isn’t acceptable anywhere else, likewise necro’s staff has ‘upfront potential’ again something that’s true strength can be seen strongest in WvW zerging where one push is the goal. The utility and niche uses of both of these put them in a situation where they could be better and it’d be fine.

I like the idea of triggered Putrid Mark, and a little increase on Mark of Blood to 4 stacks. The auto absolutely needs to speed up, with the amount of anti-projectile things in this game there’s no good reason for them being that slow. Put these changes in… and I still don’t use staff outside WvW, so… /shrug