Guild Wars 2

I view staff as primarily an AoE tagging weapon and secondarily a condition management tool.

Staff has Necromancer’s only land weapon finisher, too.

Scepter and dagger are our only good weapons. The rest are so freaking weak.

Gryph.8237:

Scepter and dagger are our only good weapons. The rest are so freaking weak.

I wouldn’t count scepter as a good weapom it’s just there to me the only good ones are traited WH and somewhat MH dagger because it could be better staff is just there.

Agreed. A lot of our utilities are weak, too. It is frustrating with all of the OP builds out there on other professions.

Most of our utilities are only weak because of numbers, whereas our skills are weak because of bad design.

spoj.9672:

Whenever ive PvP’d and taken a staff. Ive found that i pretty much never switch to staff. And whenever i do i almost always regret. Honestly no clue why i even still run it in PvP. WvW its fair because its ranged AoE spam. But sPvP…. Nope.

Maybe you just dont like the weapon, which is fine i guess.

I, on the other hand, really like the skills staff gives us. Because of that i think that staff is a good weapon despite its flaws (and apart from warhorn all our weapon have flaws).

So yes my opinion on staff is baised but i still would argue that staff, especially with the soul marks trait, gives us more then enough to make it a good weapon in spvp and wvw.

Maybe it is because i am biased but i fail to see how anyone could think that skills like chillbrains, putridmark (even in its nerfed version) and fear mark are not good skills for pvp especially with the trait for extra LF and an unblockeable effect. Ok the auto and mark of blood are not amazing and could need some buffs but i think they are decent enough not to drag staff down.

The problem is not that its useless. Its that once you swap to it you are stuck on staff for at least 10 seconds. The 3 high cool down marks are the only decent skills. Once those are gone its a moment of “oh kitten what do i do now, i want to be back on my dagger”. Which is why id rather run offhand dagger to replace putrid mark. Dont need the fear because i have warhorn daze and doom. The chill can be done by dark path i suppose. So yeah its difficult to justify the staff when its utility is pretty much just copied stuff we can get elsewhere. Theres no actual strong unique utility on it. Which is kind of sucky.

spoj.9672:

The problem is not that its useless. Its that once you swap to it you are stuck on staff for at least 10 seconds. The 3 high cool down marks are the only decent skills. Once those are gone its a moment of “oh kitten what do i do now, i want to be back on my dagger”. Which is why id rather run offhand dagger to replace putrid mark. Dont need the fear because i have warhorn daze and doom. The chill can be done by dark path i suppose. So yeah its difficult to justify the staff when its utility is pretty much just copied stuff we can get elsewhere. Theres no actual strong unique utility on it. Which is kind of sucky.

What spec do you normally run in PvP? I can’t imagine you staying in combat so long or wanting to be aggressive so much where you see staff as a hinderance. In PvP we have to avoid a lot of team fights until the right moment and jump in otherwise we’ll just be focused instantly. You should be starting on staff in most fights because we need to utilize its range as much as possible then go in for timely bursts/lich in a zerker build.

If you’re running a bunkery spec you’ll still need staff or you’ll be kited for days and just pewpewed to death.

It’s not really a type of weapon you swap to in middle of a point or fight unless you’re trying to disengage somewhat and add ranged pressure or doing a condi transfer imo.

I’m assuming not a condi spec cause d/wh so yeah.

Honestly though it’s not great and it would be replaced in most power builds if we had any other 1200 range weapon, but the range is just needed with how crappy our incombat mobility is.

spoj.9672:

The problem is not that its useless. Its that once you swap to it you are stuck on staff for at least 10 seconds. The 3 high cool down marks are the only decent skills. Once those are gone its a moment of “oh kitten what do i do now, i want to be back on my dagger”. Which is why id rather run offhand dagger to replace putrid mark. Dont need the fear because i have warhorn daze and doom. The chill can be done by dark path i suppose. So yeah its difficult to justify the staff when its utility is pretty much just copied stuff we can get elsewhere. Theres no actual strong unique utility on it. Which is kind of sucky.

Mhh i dont know about that. I never felt that i was stuck on staff for 10 seconds. Auto attacking may be boring and doesnt do much damage, it still gives us good amounts of LF.

Yes you are right if you say the 3 skills offer not much unique but the offer additional CC and chill to your warhorn daze, doom and dark path (more control is always good). And what offers an other weapon set? offhand dagger only offers some easy to dodge weakness, conditransfer (both you also can get from staff, though comboing the marks is not a smart idea) and the things from you mainhand. Mainhand dagger shares the cooldown to your other set (dagger/warhorn) and axe is just bad.

And at the end of the day we have to use what we have got and from all the things we can choose from, staff as a second weapon set helps us the most in pvp.

Honestly even when Hot hits and we can run something like dagger/warhorn (or any other offhand) and greatsword as our two weapon sets. Most pvpler will still use staff as one of their weapon sets, since apart from its bad damage, it offers only useful things for pvp and it has something no other weapon set of ours has, namely 1200 range. Generating LF from long range alone is probably enough reason to take staff over any other weapon set.

So unless we get an long range power weapon (900+) with good and reliable ways to generate LF and some other nice stuff, staff will always a viable choice in pvp no matter how bad nercos think the weapon is.

That said i would like to see a damage buff to staff 1 and 2…

I usually run power in sPvP. Dagger/wh and i used to run staff on second set. But now i just go for an offhand dagger. It works out better because i dont lose my access to the dagger auto and my extra heal (dagger 2).

Ive never had a problem with being kited in sPvP. If you position properly, LoS and stay on point this shouldnt be an issue. You also still have DS for ranged pressure. Thats more than enough to deal with most situations. The only real danger is longbow rangers. But those can be dealt with through positioning and LoS. A staff isnt going to do much to help you in those situations.

Whatever staff does it can be replaced. Its seriously overestimated in sPvP. This is all subjective. And its a matter of opinion. Im just saying what i feel about it and how i dont feel it adds anything of value. From my personal experience ive never actually gained much from swapping to a staff in sPvP. 9/10 i would have been better off staying d/w.

I play a power d/d/well build in sPvP. My wells feel more like weapon skills any my staff feels like my utility bar. I don’t lean on it, but it solves problems my other skills don’t.

Fear or poison on downed characters, an extra condi transfer, aoe chill to keep enemies on my wells, it’s a 1200 range option.

Don’t neglect the advantage of the marks being precasts that cool down while you wait for the enemy to approach. Troll for stealth, make a point difficult to approach, preset your condi transfer.

I can’t imaging making a PvP build around staff, but it rounds out my one-trick pony power build nicely.

I can’t believe the staff hate on this thread.

Gryph.8237:

Scepter and dagger are our only good weapons. The rest are so freaking weak.

The only reason scepter and dagger are considered good is because of their auto attacks. But skills #2-3 on both of those weapons are total garbage compared to axe and staff.
Now all you have to ask yourself is: how often can you really auto attack?
In PvE, sure, that’s why power dagger is meta.
But in PvP, not so much. People tend to delude themselves into thinking that in PvP a strong auto attack matters more than the other skills when it’s actually quite the opposite.

Well a strong auto attack is essential to some PvP builds. :P

Staff on necro is like shortbow on thief for pvp. Mandatory.
Good luck being 24/7 in melee as power necro.

robertul.3679:

Staff on necro is like shortbow on thief for pvp. Mandatory.
Good luck being 24/7 in melee as power necro.

Its really easy actually, I haven’t used staff since putrid mark was nerfed and it hasn’t been an issue.