'Splain Staff Mastery...

[Shenanigunner]

Okay, so I am enjoying the hell out of my Staff Brute. (First time with the powerset.)

 

But if someone could explain Staff Mastery to me, as a player asset...

 

Yes, I've read and understand the descriptions. And I've used Swap Ammo, so I get the practice of fine-tuning a power with these kind of choices. But I can't quite... make sense of Staff Mastery or figure why you'd really use anything but Body (added smashing damage).

 

So enlighten me, in actual, practical, experienced terms.

[Sakai]

Soul is great in conjuction with end heavy sets like Dark Armour till you sort out end issues. After that I switched over to Body. 

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

You can use Soul early in the game, like @Sakaisays.

I have never found a use for Mind. 

I like staff best on Stalkers because if, *if* you die, you don't have to remember to turn the Body toggle on.

 

So, no, you are not missing anything.

[Hyperstrike]

Sakai, Yomo,

Shens is asking about the internal logic and basic strategy in making the most of the set.

[Shenanigunner]

14 minutes ago, Hyperstrike said:

Shens is asking about the internal logic and basic strategy in making the most of the set.

 

Yes, a little bit, but those two answers put things in context. Nope, I'm not missing some big gestalt of the power set; it just does what it does. I guess smashing damage explains itself, psi damage plus the regen buffs ditto, and energy damage would be useful against some foes.

 

If there's a more elaborate working strategy, by all means, anyone, toss it in. But a good answer to a "duh, what"" question. 😛

 

Thanks, all!

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[Yomo Kimyata]

Apologies, I read the initial post as asking specifically about the different stances.

 

I really like staff and certainly have more 50s with it than any other melee set.  I like it best with Bio Armor, which helps with the damage.

 

I like to put a Lotg +recharge in Guarded Spin, a FF +recharge in Eye of the Storm, Serpent's Reach, and Sky Splitter, so it lends itself well to high recharge builds.

 

The only thing to get used to is that if you are playing something like Regen as a secondary, you need sometimes to preemptively heal because you may get locked into a long animation.  That said, my staff/regen brute is amazingly robust.

 

I truly never use any form except body.  That said, Body is pretty darn good.

 

 

[SwitchFade]

Spinny stick of doomsauce.

 

'splaind 😉

[Ironblade]

6 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

So, no, you are not missing anything.

Yeah, pretty much.  I took an invuln/staff tank to 50 back in the day and this wasn't something I kept adjusting.

[Shenanigunner]

55 minutes ago, SwitchFade said:

Spinny stick of doomsauce.

 

'splaind 😉

 

And that's about it. Man, it sticks ass. 😄

[SwitchFade]

Stone/staff tank... Named...

 

Sticks 'N Stones

 

Stick in the Mud

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, SwitchFade said:

Sticks 'N Stones

That's too on point -- you want a name like "Break Your Bones" or "Will Break Your Bones" and let them fill out the rest of the aphorism in their head.

[SwitchFade]

33 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

That's too on point -- you want a name like "Break Your Bones" or "Will Break Your Bones" and let them fill out the rest of the aphorism in their head.

Maxillary Fracture

[SuperPlyx]

I been meaning to try Staff but I can not decide between Brute, Scrapper or Stalker. Is there one that really stands out with this set ?

 

*not to derail ops thread

[nihilii]

32 minutes ago, SuperPlyx said:

I been meaning to try Staff but I can not decide between Brute, Scrapper or Stalker. Is there one that really stands out with this set ?

Stalkers are a pretty good fit for Staff.

 

They trade the forms as a power pick for Build Up, and retain Form of the Body as a passive. Which is the better form as you can read from this topic. So it's a clear win/win.

 

Assassin's Strike also does a great job patching the somewhat lacking single target damage of Staff.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Third time's the charm.  Having reread @Shenanigunners posts yet again, I now interpret this as a look at the power Staff Mastery and the forms therein on a more technical basis.

 

The way I see it, each form has three aspects:

1.  What happens as you build up (up to 3) levels of Perfections in each form.

2.  What happens when you execute Eye of the Storm with 3 levels.

3.  What happens when you execute Sky Splitter with 3 levels.

 

RE: 1, Body has the most overall useful effect, IMO.  I do not have the numbers in front of me, so this is not a mathematical analysis.  Extra damage, even if it is of a type resisted heavily, is good.  Extra recharge is also good, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, staff lends itself to high recharge builds and a little more marginal recharge isn't as useful as a little more marginal damage.  Endurance discount can be very useful, but I usually address this in other ways (although I have a nascent Dark Armor/Staff where this might be more useful).  Remember that the bonus/discount lasts until you discharge it -- you can get three levels of Perfection and use attacks other than EotS or SS to keep the bonus at its max.  I often do this when I'm fighting a single target like an AV.

 

RE: 2 and 3 (bonus damage), the amount of damage is not insignificant, but it is significantly less than the base, which is always smashing.  I've never found it to be worthwhile to choose a form because my opponent has a lower resistance to psychic or energy damage, since that's maybe a quarter of the smashing base.  Instead I look for ways to make the smashing damage count for more.

 

RE: 2 (effects on opponents), the -7.50% resistance debuff from Body makes all of your smashing damage count for more.  I try to layer this with other -res debuffs, like Achilles Heel or Annihilation or Fury of the Glad or Melt Armor or whatever.  It adds up in my experience.  I've not found a real use for slowing the target slightly (Mind), and I'm not a fan of defense debuff (Soul) since you have to be able to hit them in the first place in order to make them easier to hit, so I try to accomplish that in other places.

 

RE: 3 (effects on self), I can't claim I really notice this one way or another.  Then again, I really dislike Sky Splitter for the needlessly long animation and the strange split of the damage into two parts, so I may not use it as much as others.  When I'm playing a staff fighter, I'm all about AoE until there is only one target left.  This may be heresy, but I would consider skipping Sky Splitter on some builds.  But probably only consider it.

 

Based on this, it is clear to me that Body is far and away the best default form for my playstyle, but I'm certainly willing to learn some new tricks if there are any out there!