Guild Wars 2

So I’ve played DD in BWE3 and just don’t know what staff is good for. Mobility is better on SB, D/D is better single target damage, S/P cleaves better and has better mitigation.

I just can’t imagine a situation where i’d really wanna use staff (at least PvE wise).
I was so hyped at being a kungkittenbrawler and now i kinda feel useless with it.

What do you guys use staff for? And do you have any rotations with it?

I think staff AA does more damage than S/P,D/D etc.

the reflect on staff has its uses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzoQbca_gZo once you get the timing right ofc^^

roleplaying

/15 chars

Staff as secondary weapon to big AoE dmg where is needed….

Several advantages currently.

#1: The auto attack does the most damage. Under peak conditions, I’m getting 9,493 DPS from the dagger auto, but 10,321 for the staff. Aside from brute force, the vulnerability is helpful and the reflects mean that ambient projectile damage is decreased.

#2: Weakening Charge does massive damage. It is more damage than sub 25% heartseeker, except it can be used at any amount of health. And it hits 5 targets. And it stacks endless weakness. It is difficult to get all 3 hits (you have to be in a sweet spot, or using haste, or standing against a wall), but once you’ve gotten the spacing down Weakening Charge obliterates anything in your way. For basic reference, this skill has a tooltip DPS of 822, whereas lava font and fireball has a tooltip DPS of 711 with persisting flames. Also it is a whirl finisher, so it does extra damage via burn, leeching bolts, poison bolts, etc.

#3: Debilitating Arc cures immobilize. That is a pretty big weakness for the thief, since immobilize renders natural dodging impossible (sans dash) and makes weapon dodging less effective due to being unable to leave a damage patch. This makes it the most reliable weapon dodge.

#4: Vault is a bit bugged at the moment, but I use its leap finisher to take advantage of various fields. Particularly the water field from healing seed. The difference is that when I do this with heartseeker I lose damage, but Vault maintains it.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Several advantages currently.

#1: The auto attack does the most damage. Under peak conditions, I’m getting 9,493 DPS from the dagger auto, but 10,321 for the staff. Aside from brute force, the vulnerability is helpful and the reflects mean that ambient projectile damage is decreased.

#2: Weakening Charge does massive damage. It is more damage than sub 25% heartseeker, except it can be used at any amount of health. And it hits 5 targets. And it stacks endless weakness. It is difficult to get all 3 hits (you have to be in a sweet spot, or using haste, or standing against a wall), but once you’ve gotten the spacing down Weakening Charge obliterates anything in your way. For basic reference, this skill has a tooltip DPS of 822, whereas lava font and fireball has a tooltip DPS of 711 with persisting flames. Also it is a whirl finisher, so it does extra damage via burn, leeching bolts, poison bolts, etc.

#3: Debilitating Arc cures immobilize. That is a pretty big weakness for the thief, since immobilize renders natural dodging impossible (sans dash) and makes weapon dodging less effective due to being unable to leave a damage patch. This makes it the most reliable weapon dodge.

#4: Vault is a bit bugged at the moment, but I use its leap finisher to take advantage of various fields. Particularly the water field from healing seed. The difference is that when I do this with heartseeker I lose damage, but Vault maintains it.

how are you dealing 10k+ damage with staff? and are you talking about pve or pvp? am mainly asking cuz i spent most of my time in verdant brink. and i couldn’t seem to go over 6-7k with auto attacks with ascended berserker gear. DA/CS/DD along side food and the utility thing for power. so just wondering if it was pve or pvp.

It was in PVE. And that is 10k DPS, not damage. This is calculated with peak team conditions (25 might, 25 vuln, empowering warrior banners, ferocity increasing rev, maximum skill modifiers, etc. No rangers, though) as per the current optimal group compositions. If you want a more basic reference, going by the tooltips the staff is 437 and the dagger is 382. With maximum might and decked out in full zerker, the poison doesn’t compensate for the difference. Although when I think about it, I forgot to factor vulnerability into poison’s damage, so technically the dagger does 9,600 or so.

If you’re by yourself you’ll get much tamer numbers. As do all classes.

assassin.7895:

I think staff AA does more damage than S/P,D/D etc.

Does that mean a venom build with staff could be highly molestive?

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

It was in PVE. And that is 10k DPS, not damage. This is calculated with peak team conditions (25 might, 25 vuln, empowering warrior banners, ferocity increasing rev, maximum skill modifiers, etc. No rangers, though) as per the current optimal group compositions. If you want a more basic reference, going by the tooltips the staff is 437 and the dagger is 382. With maximum might and decked out in full zerker, the poison doesn’t compensate for the difference. Although when I think about it, I forgot to factor vulnerability into poison’s damage, so technically the dagger does 9,600 or so.

If you’re by yourself you’ll get much tamer numbers. As do all classes.

oh i see. then yeah that makes sense. thought it was solo dps. was going nuts trying to figure out how. lol

Well.

Tough I can’t say that its better than other weapon sets, it’s worth mentioning that for balance sake thats a good sign (would mean bad design if every new weapon set we get is better than old ones by a mile).

That said:
- I found the auto attack to be great. The reflect has it’s on issues but I already did reflect a ranger attack once and it was cool to watch it.
Third hit is a finisher as well, meaning that you can take advantage of fields by simply AA

Staff#2: Hits really hard. If the enemy is against a wall.
I’ts also possible to “glitch” this skill by connecting it with steal. Making the DD spin in place close to the target.
Prolly the only skill from staff that works great with shadow step.

Staff3# – Cures immobilize, it doesn’t really need anything else.

Staff4# This one is really bad, sadly.

Staff5# Vault is pretty much a AoE backstab that doesn’t require you to hit it in the back, nor you need to be on stealth.
A bit harder to hit tough, but then again we also have access to stone, immob and knockdown.

The reflect is nice. Would be nice to have it kick in for one of those new Rifle shots that are bugged off the warrior. It is a short duration though so in general terms it more by accident one gets a reflect off.

babazhook.6805:

The reflect is nice. Would be nice to have it kick in for one of those new Rifle shots that are bugged off the warrior. It is a short duration though so in general terms it more by accident one gets a reflect off.

wait… what if… what if we moved the reflect to debilitating arc? :O

Damage. That’s about it, without a field attached to it however it’s utility is none existent and it won’t see much use.

One thing overlooked is staff mastery with endurance gain. the issue of course is most take the escapists absolution but if you trait mastery the endurance gain significant.

AoE! i made a build based around the aoe slam dodge and the staff 5 (it was last BWE so i’ve forgotten the names of both) but it was very cool, staff 5 is an AoE that crits for 8k, very very tasty.

Jump puzzles.

Basi venom + staff 2 steal (mug and daze) impairing daggers+ staff 5 is a really mean opener! :O

Arcaedus.7290:

Basi venom + staff 2 steal (mug and daze) impairing daggers+ staff 5 is a really mean opener! :O

Take out the basi venom in that combo because its a waste of a stun when you have daze on steal. I dont use impairing daggers either, but I agree this combo surprised me how quickly I could down someone, but this is also taking advantage of a bug in staff 2+steal that allows you to stay still. So we will have to wait and see if this combo sticks around.

Weakening Charge + Steal is insane burst. Stealing will guarantee that all 3 attacks of Weakening Charge hit. Debilitating Arc is beautiful to kill people that are chasing you. Vaulting downed bodies that are being ressed is fun.

Overall I’d say amazing dmg, kittenty utility.

Edwin Starr will tell you better than I can

But seriously, nice damage – no utility. I don’t see any high level pvp players using staff over anything new. Also the fact we have to bug staff 2 with steal just so it does damage is silly.

should have just gave us rifle

or a greatsword…at least i could role play as katana ninja that way T^T