Guild Wars 2

I know the trait line is good, but is it worth using the staff?

I wouldnt play thief without staff :P

Why? What’s so amazing about the staff? Wouldn’t you lose the mobility of SB?

NaotsuguLH.8915:

Why? What’s so amazing about the staff? Wouldn’t you lose the mobility of SB?

It’s not AMAZING, but i like it far better than the other melee weapons. Dunno what you mean with the mobility of SB?

There is nothing good about the staff at this stage. Everything else better. Staff is underpowered.

BadMed.3846:

There is nothing good about the staff at this stage. Everything else better. Staff is underpowered.

So what weapon would you recommend?

NOTE: I am referring specifically to PvE (HoT stuff and Fractals and what not)

NaotsuguLH.8915:

BadMed.3846:

There is nothing good about the staff at this stage. Everything else better. Staff is underpowered.

So what weapon would you recommend?

NOTE: I am referring specifically to PvE (HoT stuff and Fractals and what not)

Why don’t you try out the staff yourself? For Pve i can say staff is more than decent. Weakness, blind, evade, leap, cleave. You got it all.

I don’t have daredevil yet. But I’m trying to prep for it, so I’m wondering if I should, or shouldn’t make an ascended staff.

NaotsuguLH.8915:

I don’t have daredevil yet. But I’m trying to prep for it, so I’m wondering if I should, or shouldn’t make an ascended staff.

So why don’t you head to heart of the mists? Everything is unlocked there.

I personally really like staff, I hate going without it actually. It actually has nice damage through #2 and #5, got good active defenses, and decent cleave. However it’s really what your preference is. You can definitely go without it if you want, but I would suggest using it.

Ignoring PvP, as asked, Staff Auto Attacks is better than Dagger AA.

If you add vulnerability to the count and AoE damage, any situation with multiple mobs or where you can’t move to the back of the target, staff is better.

Vault deals pretty much the same damage as BackStab as well. Just add the 10% damage staff trait and it technically deals more damage, in AoE, without the need to dance around the target.

That’s for targets above 50% health of course.
Below that Heartseeker + executioner beats everything as far as Thief goes.

Lastly, why not? You don’t really need SB for PvE either way. Staff AoE damage beats SB 2# by a long mile.

I might ask what use we have for swords now.

SoulSin.5682:

Ignoring PvP, as asked, Staff Auto Attacks is better than Dagger AA.

If you add vulnerability to the count and AoE damage, any situation with multiple mobs or where you can’t move to the back of the target, staff is better.

Vault deals pretty much the same damage as BackStab as well. Just add the 10% damage staff trait and it technically deals more damage, in AoE, without the need to dance around the target.

That’s for targets above 50% health of course.
Below that Heartseeker + executioner beats everything as far as Thief goes.

Lastly, why not? You don’t really need SB for PvE either way. Staff AoE damage beats SB 2# by a long mile.

I might ask what use we have for swords now.

Dunno about you, but in PvP, I am having fun with my Daredevil Sw/D thief. Much better than staff. As for pve, s/p still strong. but staff too and potenically better altough I would argue that in pve everything works.

Staff is fun but not very good. Its theoretical numbers are high, but maximizing your damage will require perfectly hitting your #2 every time (which is hard because it’s a very finicky skill). Sword/Pistol is better at the same general roles Staff fulfills.

I find staff a blast to use and it has some very good dmg rotations. Try engaging with a bounding dodge for +10% dmg, AA chain for vuln, then vault for massive damage. Use the 10% increase staff dmg when endurance is not full and dodge right before your endurance refills to get the bounding dodger buff. That plus the staff trait is +20% dmg, I also slot the +7% dmg when within 360 units. Add sigil of force, ~8 vuln stacks and +10% from exposed weakness for a total of +50% dmg going up to +70% when target is below half health from executioner.

For PvE I run crusaders gear + some zerker trinkets and rune of the scrapper to get ~1800 toughness while still hitting like a truck. The only thing you’re really gonna notice switching from zerker is a lower crit chance but I can still reach a respectable 65% with fury and signet of agility, and sigil of accuracy.

I almost never switch off staff now that I’ve gotten used to it.

Vault does more damage than backstab and is spamable. The staff auto-attack also does more damage than a dagger. The downside to the staff are the big wind ups that make fighting another player potentially difficult.

In WvW on a decent player, it can be a tough fight… unless you equip S/P which trumps it hard.

I got schooled in wvw today by a dagger thief using f1 stealth backstab + venom like 4×. I need to play better hahaha