Guild Wars 2

Hello.
Now that we have (probably) fixed the dodges, I hope we can focus on making the staff viable.

I know people don’t like the animations, because they are recycled and not what they’ve imagined. But let’s face it:

Bad animations, but a strong weapon > good animations, but a weak weapon.
(This will be mostly from a PvP PoV)

1. AA-Chain: Damage got already increased + Projectile Reflect (not a fan of this because it’s unreliable) Still good Stuff.
2. Weakening Charge: Upped the number of Targets, made it targetted, some animation/distance clean-up. Good stuff so far.
3. Debilitating Arc: On demand dodge, good damage, maybe a bit clunky. Clunkiness will probably be fixed, as for all the skills and dodges.
4. Dust Strike: Useless. Make it a ‘Ring of Fire’-like Smoke Field. Maybe bit smaller radius. That way you have actual access to stealth to use your Stealth attack and chain into a damage combo.
5. Vault: Good damage. Easy to dodge. Not a proper gap closer. Intitiative cost lowered to 5. Discussion about keeping initiative cost at 6 and adding dodge frames? Maybe not bad for weapon that shall keep you in a fight and make you a brawler.

That all being said – even a brawler needs a way to get onto his targets (apart from steal)
We really need a proper gap closer.

Two suggestions (maybe also helping with the animation style a bit):

1. Remove Weakening Charge’s (#2) travel distance. Increase the radius for target’kitten. Lower the damage. Add some more damage to the AA-Chain. Add a Shadow Step to Weakening Charge. (900 – 1200 Range)

2.1 Remove the 3rd AA-Skill (the whirl). Make Weakening Charge the 3rd AA-Skill. Twitch the numbers of the damage and the applied weakness a bit. (Maybe lower the initial AA-Skills’ damage a bit and keep Weakening Charge as it is/will be [Adds some play to handle the distance to your target for high pay-off]).

2.2 Add another #2 Skill. Take the Style of the Human Heartseeker Animation. Add a staff to it of course. Increase the Range to 900 – 1200. Make it an actual Jump (Like Warrior Sword #2). Low damage. Maybe cripple? Maybe nothing else.

Please leave your opinions and/or other suggestions.

To me dust strike will never get the field component, but it is pretty useless now, since it does few damage and it’s easy to avoid.
I think it should be changed into “Dust Charge”: thief become a bolt of dust (same animation of druid – the blue healing ball) that travels to a location blinding foes he passes by and dealing AoE damage and blind when he lands.

Basically it’s the same skill of the druid but instead of healing + healing splash it does blind+blind splash and dmg.

Daendur.2357:

To me dust strike will never get the field component, but it is pretty useless now, since it does few damage and it’s easy to avoid.
I think it should be changed into “Dust Charge”: thief become a bolt of dust (same animation of druid – the blue healing ball) that travels to a location blinding foes he passes by and dealing AoE damage and blind when he lands.

Basically it’s the same skill of the druid but instead of healing + healing splash it does blind+blind splash and dmg.

Which would also solve the gap closer problem, while not being too similar to s/x or d/p gap closers. Very good and reasonable Idea.

I don’t really see not having a gap closer as a problem, considering you have other weapons and skills for that.

I also don’t think staff should have a smoke field due to it being a non-stealth weapon/playstyle. Others have suggested having a dark field on it to make it more unique. Here are my suggestions for dust strike:

Make it a wall for 1.5 seconds that destroys projectiles, basically smoke screen but without the field. (Or make it a dark field)

Make it a PBAoE circular blind.

Increase the radius so that it’s a cone and make it destroy projectiles coming your way.

Or keep it this way, I’m fine with having a damaging blind that pierces.

alchemyst.2165:

I don’t really see not having a gap closer as a problem, considering you have other weapons and skills for that.

I also don’t think staff should have a smoke field due to it being a non-stealth weapon/playstyle.

I’m inclined to agree with you. Everyone plays d/p, so they think that a weapon without easy access to stealth is useless. The sheer mobility of the staff makes it much easier to avoid damage as long as you play well.
I think that the staff is in a decent place. The only thing is the #4, which will probably be used just as much as dagger #4 and pistol #2, i.e. almost never. Why spend time and initiative using it when there are so many better options?

kaikalii.4198:

alchemyst.2165:

I don’t really see not having a gap closer as a problem, considering you have other weapons and skills for that.

I also don’t think staff should have a smoke field due to it being a non-stealth weapon/playstyle.

I’m inclined to agree with you. Everyone plays d/p, so they think that a weapon without easy access to stealth is useless. The sheer mobility of the staff makes it much easier to avoid damage as long as you play well.
I think that the staff is in a decent place. The only thing is the #4, which will probably be used just as much as dagger #4 and pistol #2, i.e. almost never. Why spend time and initiative using it when there are so many better options?

Would you pick Staff over S/D, though? Weakening Charge and Vault lock you into animations without Evade Frames nor the ability to interrupt them by dodging.
Since we didn’t get a new class mechanic that synergizes well with our new weapon, we have to compare Staff to S/D – and we all now that S/D with proper traits is sick.

Edit: A big plus for Staff would be the combination of Staff Master and Escapist’s Absolution. The latter is just too good to not be taken, but Staff Master is amazing, too. imo

Bleak.5796:

kaikalii.4198:

I’m inclined to agree with you. Everyone plays d/p, so they think that a weapon without easy access to stealth is useless. The sheer mobility of the staff makes it much easier to avoid damage as long as you play well.
I think that the staff is in a decent place. The only thing is the #4, which will probably be used just as much as dagger #4 and pistol #2, i.e. almost never. Why spend time and initiative using it when there are so many better options?

Would you pick Staff over S/D, though? Weakening Charge and Vault lock you into animations without Evade Frames nor the ability to interrupt them by dodging.
Since we didn’t get a new class mechanic that synergizes well with our new weapon, we have to compare Staff to S/D – and we all now that S/D with proper traits is sick.

Edit: A big plus for Staff would be the combination of Staff Master and Escapist’s Absolution. The latter is just too good to not be taken, but Staff Master is amazing, too. imo

You raise a good point about staff #2. For it to feel good, short of having evade frames itself, which I don’t think is likely or necessary, but unlike heartseeker, I thinker it should be cancellable, perhaps similar to the way the pistol whip works, where simply tapping a movement key again cancels the skill.

As for how staff compares to s/d, I see staff as more of a burst weapon than s/d. If you do manage to land a stealth attack and knock down your foe for 2 seconds and then land a vault, or better yet, a fist flurry > palm strike, they should be almost dead by then.