How do the staff forms REALLY work?

[Hew]

So, most people I know (all?) just run Bio armor in offensive mode 24x7. Leveling up, maybe switching around. 

 

But staff doesnt seem like it does a lot of damage; is there some sort of hidden tweak you can do to get more umf out of the set? Like, armor pairings or the like? Do you generally single-stance like Bio?

[Bill Z Bubba]

Staff, going off memory, has a damage buff for each level it hits. So at 3 lvls of the +dam, you're at the max. If you use one of the powers that eats the buildup, you start back from scratch.

 

This has made me avoid using those powers because I get addicted to the +damage showing in the combat monitor.

[Eldyem]

Stalkers - usually considered the best users of Staff due to the act they pick up some great powers that round out the set - only have access to Form of the Body, so the best users of the set are typical single-stanced because they don't have access to the other forms.

Probably not helpful for what you asked, but worth considering. Staff's damage is kind of blah on Brutes/Tankers/Scrappers so you probably don't want to leave Body because you need that extra damage; Soul and Mind also just aren't super useful effects for most builds because you generally want to get End-neutral as soon as possible, and you can stack more reliable recharge from other sources (since the fluctuating nature of the stacks makes them not-reliable for builds that need recharge). Using the alt forms when leveling isn't terrible, but it's just not optimal because there's not a lot of reasons to do so unless you're really struggling with End in specific content.

[Zepp]

I use Soul & Mind sub-20 but by 20ish they become increasingly less useful.

[Hew]

That is unfortunate. It seems like bio, if the stance isn't purely putting out raw damage across the board, then the alternate forms are kind of beat. 

 

I wonder what the break even point is for 1 damage per X end per Y rech, and balance these forms against that. Even dual blades is a terrible example of this, where generally you ignore the combos entirely once you get enough recharge...

[Zepp]

Endurance becomes null once you have sufficient recovery. Once you get a sufficient level of recharge, you don't get much benefit from having negative gaps between powers recharging and being used. In other words, because endurance and recharge are self-limiting, they become less valuable in good builds.

With Dual Blades, the Empower/Attack Vitals combo allows damage maximization through combos. Meanwhile, the Weaken combo works well for team-oriented players and the Sweep build is a decent tanktroller alternative for damage mitigation for builds that could use extra mitigation.