Question about Staff Fighting

[Diantane]

Just created a Staff/Rad Scrapper. Lots of fancy maneuvers, but doesn't seem to be doing much damage. It that the balance here? A fast staff and a slow war mace equal the same damage? Or is staff even less damaging?

[Yomo Kimyata]

I think the purpose of staff in concept was to provide some flexibility in utility.  In practice, I will sometimes play in form of soul at lower levels until I solve my endurance issues, then form of body consistently.  But yes, I believe the dps is a bit on the low side compared to other offense sets.

[Uun]

ST damage is lacking and there's no heavy hitter unless you wait to get 3 levels of Perfection before using Sky Splitter. AoE damage is actually pretty good, as Staff has 2 cones (both 90 degrees with a 9 foot radius) and a PBAoE with a 10 foot radius. One of the cones also buffs your melee/lethal defense.

[serxiom]

I currently have a Staff/Rad scrapper lvl 50+3. As @Uun said above Staff lacks of ST but it has great AoE. One thing that hurts the set is the lack of Build Up. If you got debuffed with -to hit that will affect deeply your dps. Piece of advice: get Tactics with Gaussian Proc. Is a life saver. Also ATO + crit will give you some AoE burst which is nice.

 

My Scrapper went through EBs fairly well while leveling. It took more time to beat them but got it done. Staff is a late bloomer so i would say give it some time until you can get ATOs at 50. 

 

 

[aethereal]

Unfortunately, Staff doesn't have great AoE.  It has three AoEs, which isn't the same thing.  Three mediocre AoEs add up to...  three mediocre AoEs.

 

Eye of the Storm does middling DPA for a PBAoE, albeit to a somewhat larger-than-usual area.

 

Guarded Spin and Innocuous Strike do middling DPA for cones, on mediocre angles, to slightly-better-than-usual ranges, with short enough recharges that you honestly don't need both.

 

It's nothing terrible, but it's not great.  Sets with better-than-Staff AoE are like Claws, Titan Weapons, War Mace, Ice Melee, Savage Melee, to some extent Dual Blades, and I think new Battle Axe.  Maybe Katana.  Maybe Spines or Rad Melee depending on how you feel about including damage auras in their AoE.  Electrical Melee depending on how impressed you are with specifically Lightning Rod.

Edited January 13, 2023 by aethereal