Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I had this thematic idea for Staff for some time, so posting it now.

First part of the change is moving the daze part to Punishing Sweep rather than flip-over for obvious reasons. Currently, we can interrupt only really long casts with it (such as Tempest overloads) or use it preemptively and hope we interrupt anything by the time both casts are finished. With this change cost of interrupting something would go down from total of 15 to 10 and cast time from 1,25s to 1/2s – that would make it much more reliable at it’s role. Because of that, I could justify increasing cooldown from 5s to 7s.

Second part of the change is adding Peacemaker to flip-over skill. Peacemaker would essentialy be a debuff similar to Pulmonary Impact for example, but consumed by attacking an enemy, healing the target for a set amount (affected by healing-related values).
This makes Staff much more a supportive weapon (since it has been rather lacking at this role) and supports the fantasy of Ventari.
Additionaly, because of how Peacemaker works, it adds a layer of gameplay and decision-making for the enemy . It presents you with three options:

1) Wait 3s for debuff to expire,
2) Hit the focused target and let Peacemaker heal him,
3) Temporarily change target, hitting and healing a non-priority target to prevent Peacemaker heal on priority one.

Numbers are obviously subjects to change, I just wanted to present the idea. Tell me what you think.

Cheers,

Rym

This is a pretty cool idea. It would also open the staff as a bunker weapon. If you hit 5 targets with Tranquilizing Slam, they would heal you for 3500 when they attack (+ healing power contribution).

I agree with moving the daze to the first strike. I (and some others as well) have long advocated for a daze with the first strike since it’s impractical or impossible to use it as a targeted interrupt otherwise.

its nice but I would remove the flip over skill and make it daze on hit, any foe hit while using a skill takes 2x dmg.

If you don’t need the healing of flip-over skill, you could just not use it though. And I’m not a fan of low-cd CC skills with no build-up that also happen to do high damage.

Rym.1469:

If you don’t need the healing of flip-over skill, you could just not use it though. And I’m not a fan of low-cd CC skills with no build-up that also happen to do high damage.

Difference being the staff has no sustained damage whatsoever because its autoattack is terrible.

Unlike thief who has the highest autoattack DPS in the game while spamming head shot coupled with Pulmonary Impact.

But Staff is not supposed to be a great DPS weapon…

Don’t use this thread as a bucket for tears.

If the staff doesn’t offer DPS, it becomes a niche weapon that forces the revenant to choose between the ranged capabilities of the hammer or the mobility and DPS capabilities of the mainhand sword.

Rym.1469:

But Staff is not supposed to be a great DPS weapon…

Don’t use this thread as a bucket for tears.

Zenith.7301:

If the staff doesn’t offer DPS, it becomes a niche weapon that forces the revenant to choose between the ranged capabilities of the hammer or the mobility and DPS capabilities of the mainhand sword.

I think these points are both accurate.

We should, perhaps, differentiate between sustained dps and burst dps. IMO, burst dps should be reserved for very glassy, quick-kill oriented weapons. This is not the Revenant staff and I will generally not support ideas which turn the staff into a bursty weapon. One of the suggestions to staff #2 in this thread was to cause daze on the first hit and do double damage to targets using a skill when hit, while removing the flip-over skill. The daze on command would be nice, but the double damage portion of the skill would increase the burst damage and, in my opinion, be inappropriate for staff.

Conversely, a buff to auto-attack damage would improve sustained dps, and this would be very boring but appropriate. I would like to see the healing orbs on staff auto-attack removed (because they are generally ineffective), the auto-attack damage buffed slightly, and a defensive utility or light cc added to the 3rd auto-attack hit, such as weakness. I also do like the idea of removing the flip-over from #2 and adding daze on the first hit, but I do not agree with doing extra damage to targets which are using a skill.

Rym.1469:

But Staff is not supposed to be a great DPS weapon…

Don’t use this thread as a bucket for tears.

I must say i really like your suggestion about Staff 2, it would make it more intuitive and useful.

But Staff does need a DPS increase.
I would advise you to compare MH mace on guardian to Rev Staff;

Power: Mace AA steps are more powerful than staff AND have a higher power scaling.
Healing: Staff aa3 throws orbs that heal 1(!) target that needs to pick up the orb in less than 100 range, and barely heal, while mace aa3 heals more, in a 180 radius, and affects 5 targets including yourself. It also has higher healing scaling.
Time: Both have the same speed for AA chain, but mace aa3 might be harder to land due to windup making enemies dodge it.
staff aa3 have the whirl finisher, but it’s barely useful, especially since all revenant combo fields require 30 energy or upkeep while positioned under the tablet.

It’s not a DPS weapon, but switching to staff is rather punishing after you used the block and surge of the mist. So increasing AA damage and making staff aa3 a heal wave on each of the 2 hits would be more appropriate.

I don’t mind the standard chain of #2, except I’d prefer the flip-over to happen every time as with the #1 so that the interrupt comes out reliably without fail. The failure of the flip-over doesn’t really add anything interesting for me so I’d just ditch it.

Or just half the damage of Debilitating Slam and remove the chain so you got instant access to it, put the damage so low that its usefull for the CC only.

I would leave the damage portion in the flip over skill but move the aoe daze to the first. That will give u a somewhat reliable interrupt with bonus damage if you land it.

Aury.1367:

Or just half the damage of Debilitating Slam and remove the chain so you got instant access to it, put the damage so low that its usefull for the CC only.

Clearly what our lowest damage weapon needs is even less damage on it, so it’s just a weapon swap for one or two CC and then wait 10 seconds doing absolutely no pressure so the opponent can easily recover.

Having the Daze/Interrupt on the FIRST keypress would be a HUGE improvement. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a skill animation start, hammered the 2 key, and been let down by the daze not going off by the time the enemy’s skill completes.

The rest of the idea is really neat, but I would be really happy if Debilitating Slam and Punishing Sweep were flipped.