I had this idea on my own, though someone made a similar suggestion about a year ago.
Steal is great, but it’s not a substitute for our actual weapon sets, and thieves just don’t have enough variety. Thieves really need more melee options, especially with AoE in mind. Adding a staff as a melee weapon for thieves would fit a picture of a thief who values acrobatics and mobility (perhaps values them over stealth?), kind of like a thief who trained in the circus on the highwire or something.
A couple of ideas for attacks:
1. A base chain of really fast attacks and has a buff at the end of a four or five hit chain, but as more targets are hit by the chain, the attacks become slightly slower (and the duration of the buff at the end is slightly increased). This allows thieves to be more mobile 1 on 1, but encourages them to play smart against groups to try to get in the full attack chain without getting beaten up by relying on teammates or other skills. (the speed change is just an idea, as is this whole post)
2. A straight up AoE whirl of some kind, add in either a positive effect like an evade, or a negative effect, like taking more damage to keep it in balance.
3. A leap — possibly have effects change based on distance to the mob, at long range it leaps directly in front of the mob, medium range it leaps over and behind a mob, and at close range it leap/evades back to medium range.
4. Some kind of defensive stance – perhaps a parry type stance that lasts for 2 seconds and can block attacks from 2 or 3 different opponents, and at the end of the 2 seconds some kind of retaliation type of attack is performed.
5- push back or knockback (trip?) of some kind.
Once again, just ideas and I’m not suggesting these 5 be ‘the’ five. That’s just the ideas that came to my mind. Other possibilities could be buffs etc.
The acrobat line of thief traits would also fit well with this weapon type. Perhaps a trait to increase staff damage, and maybe a trait to grant stability during the defensive stance I described above (#4 up above). The stability makes a lot of sense for a thief who has focused on perfect balance and acrobatics.
I just thought it was an idea worth mentioning. Right now I get bored playing my thief and a lot of it has to do with repetitive and limited weapon choices. I think this weapon fits the class really well (more like a martial artist type of staff than a wizard staff) and it would bring some much needed variety to the thief weapon skill-set.
Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms?
Either way, Thanks for reading!