Interested in staff

[Jolin]

So I am curious how staff is and what might pair with it well. Also wondering if it's better as a scrapper or brute. I keep starting alts that common wisdom says should be the other AT, like a shield brute or a TW/bio scrapper. Those toons are fun, but I did want to check with those that know melee better than me before I started another haha. Thanks all!

[Bloodofcaine]

I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of someone who has gotten their staff character to 50 and kitted them out as well. I only managed to get my characters to level 30 (scrapper, brute and a stalker respectively) I find myself liking the overall look of staff fighting but it feels as i got the characters higher that I was only tickling enemies. I dunno exactly what staff is supposed to be, at least in the early 30s it doesn't seem like it's particularly great at either single target or aoe damage except in the stalker's case where their assassin's strike does very good single target damage as stalkers tend to do.

[honoraryorange]

I think that is part of the 'feel' of Staff, sadly. The tickles.

 

I've got a Staff Stalker with a build worth about 500m of IOs. He still feels like he's tickling mobs, even though he can destroy an Elite Boss in a few seconds pretty much.

 

While the Swings feel 'thunky' and visceral, the damage numbers feel like they don't - but I think that's because their attack chains are very fast. I feel like I work through my entire chain twice in the time my TW finishes one bout of momentum.

 

Staff is fun, but I am a bit underwhelmed with the feel of it.

[Hopeling]

I've heard that Staff is best on Stalkers, for what that's worth.

 

Also, who says that TW/Bio is better on a brute? A TW/Bio scrapper holds the record for pylon time right now.

[Papaschtroumpf]

What secondaries do you think have good synergiees?

I rolled a staff/Elec Brute (lvl13 or something like that ATM) but I'm thinking about rerolling as a stalker since I've never tried one even back in the day.

I need a secondary that has little effect in costume for this one, so either an option to do minimal effects or one is that naturally discrete.

[honoraryorange]

What secondaries do you think have good synergiees?

I rolled a staff/Elec Brute (lvl13 or something like that ATM) but I'm thinking about rerolling as a stalker since I've never tried one even back in the day.

I need a secondary that has little effect in costume for this one, so either an option to do minimal effects or one is that naturally discrete.

 

I'd go SR or Nin. I'm running Staff/Nin Stalker and really love it, easy to defense cap. Not as good DDR as SR, but I enjoy the flavor more, and the clicks.

[JusticeBowler]

Staff on my Dark Tank made the build. Being able to get that stacking DEF in there along with the END efficiency just made playing him a dream... as a tank.

 

But I've completely given up on the idea that he's going to do any damage to speak of. I tried going back through Ouroborus to pick up a few badges and some merits... even on -1 and a build completely focused on maximizing his offensive potential, I felt like I was being punished for taking Staff offensively.

 

Scrapper base numbers are much better, so maybe it wouldn't play out that way, but I'd have a hard time not playing Staff/Fire or something that could give staff a real kick in the DPS butt.

 

I like the animations. I like the style. But the DPS just isn't there.

[metaskie]

I left CoH fairly early on, right after ED nuked regen into the ground. So I know nothing about IOs or any of the sets, so asking as someone who is basically only looking at it from an SO viewpoint, how would Staff/Ice fair together?

[Bloodofcaine]

I left CoH fairly early on, right after ED nuked regen into the ground. So I know nothing about IOs or any of the sets, so asking as someone who is basically only looking at it from an SO viewpoint, how would Staff/Ice fair together?

 

Well it won't set the world on fire or anything. /Ice is a very safe and defensive set that offers good control options like slowing your enemies to a crawl while you pick them off. Due to it's defensive shields you will do noticeably better in the low levels since staff has an attack that raises your melee and lethal defense if memory serves. It will get you through the leveling process, I mean nearly any combo can on just regular enhancements, its just that when you get to 50 there isn't a lot of room to move upward. As others have pointed out, you can spend hundreds of millions on the staff powerset and it will still be rather underwhelming whereas most other powersets only get better and better. All that said, you will do fine on normal enhancements. It's all I used on the character's I mentioned and they did fine at least until I stopped playing them in their 30s, but that was just due to me losing interest rather than hitting any wall that stopped me or anything.

[Without_Pause]

What secondaries do you think have good synergiees?

I rolled a staff/Elec Brute (lvl13 or something like that ATM) but I'm thinking about rerolling as a stalker since I've never tried one even back in the day.

I need a secondary that has little effect in costume for this one, so either an option to do minimal effects or one is that naturally discrete.

 

Staff/wp should work. If I could focus on the character, I would get some levels on mine. Too many alts.

[Constantine]

I have a Staff/Rad at 50 with a fairly decent build and he feels, well, average. Just average. The single target dps is ok, I've soloed a couple AVs on him in what felt reasonable times, but certainly slower than my WM. Haven't done any pylon runs with either of them, so can't tell the exact numbers. AoE output is ok as well with 2 fairly large cones and a wide PBAoE. Better than that of StJ or BS but falls behind Spines, TW, WM and some others.

 

As far as secondaries for it goes, I'd say you want to avoid anything that has a lot of click powers. Staff doesn't have a no redraw option so click intensive sets aren't too great with it. I have 4 in Rad and it certainly can be frustrating at times.

Also, it's worth noting that Staff has access to a +melee def power, which means you can hit M/R/A softcaps with certain secondaries. I've tried to do it with Rad but ended up falling short by about 3% in each. I probably could've softcapped him at the cost some recharge/dps (or with Barrier Destiny, now that I think about it), but even at 42% the cost of the build was much higher than I was willing to spend on that character, so I opted for capped S/L instead. But if you have at least one Def power in your secondary, getting to 45% should be pretty trivial.

[Lazarus]

I made a staff/bio scrapper, only in late teens so not nearly enough experience to say much about how it preforms.,

 

but I will say the having +50% dam. is nice.

 

BIO'S offensive stance gives 32%, and STAFF gives another 18%.

 

I could see an IOed out toon with assault getting a good +75% damage even b4 incarnates.