[Balancing] Staves VS 1-handed+shield at the look of a spellcaster

Good point.

In comparison to other two handed weapons and their counter parts the staff is quite the estranged victim of loneliness and purposelessness. The sodden staff strikes a silhouette, even in the shade, as the darkest horse in the arsenal...

A Pointless Poem:

When two-hands become one.

Two-handed swords come with the easiest weight to bare,
but a sharper back-foot would incline a one-handed sword and a board to pair.

Two-handed axes reach farthest and command destruction,
but a creative mate in the off-hand would be a demand when met with end-game's dps seduction.

Two-handed maces are heavy and their dominance is supreme,
but a stronger dominion would have a shield as the one-handed mace's queen.

Bows are without a counter part one-handed or plank at arms,
rather a quiver on back,
which also somehow protects you from harm.

Daggers are the sharpest, reaching strengths none-else-can,
however a shield only fost..

Alright, I'm done with that....

Bows Daggers, Wands, and Staves are the loneliest weapons with-in Path of Exile.

Unfortunately, bows can have defensive quivers which make them not so lonely.

Daggers and wands have immense critical potential, you could dual wield a pair of either or couple them each with a shield...


Sadly... Staves are the only weapons in the game that are completely destined to be lonely.

There's nothing special about them.

They can give you +2 more gem levels than most other set-ups can, but that's about it. The block chance isn't extremely relevant in making staves special since Wings of Entropy pretty much blow it out of the water in terms of block chance and other things.

What is a staff anyways?
Is it a magical staff of wizardy or a cudgel?

The design is perplexing to me as it enables things like ground slam, heavy strike, and sweep.

If it is so inclined to be a pure physical cudgel, why then have magic in mind?

Staves are so misunderstood...
Buff please..

... or make Staves the 2handed magic weapon/wand, capable of power siphon and having at least 25% more potential spell damage/ spell crit chance than wand+shield can give to make it even...) O_ O

staves are trash since forever

main reason is their diluted affix list. to roll a staff that makes sense using one needs to not only hit the right mods (spell OR attack) but he has to hit rolls higher than on 1h

rolls on staves are BARELY better (in real life, not for et/ex gear than only few can afford) than 1h

second reason is the shield or rather lack of it - block is THE KING of defense and will remain so as long as one puny split buckler can stop 10k dmg hits FOR FREE (that 'block stun'.. never seen it). 75% reduced attack damage? ~45% reduced spell damage? and nice defensive/offensive stats from a shield one would substitute with staff? no way. staff, that you have to find first, mind you.

third reason is the passives. or rather lack of these. there are i think 3 staff-only clusters. placed in a way that makes their simultaneous use practical impossibility

ofc there are few 6L ~900dps staves out there. or rather one, mirrored. and it is a perfect weapon for melee (crit, dmg, all in one package) but for all mere mortals - forget about it. what you get from drops and gambling is insta-vendor. and that is pretty bad when you can get guaranteed good damage on Kaoms Primacy or one of the (otherwise meh) swords. and we all know how bad 2h sword uniques are

i havent found a single staff worth using since OB. not a single one. you get 140% IPD, attack speed and spell damage + cast speed or something similar (dont remember suffix/prefix tables, but you get the idea) and instead of being 'almost nice' it is 'vendor time'

by the look of it - people are in general not lucky with staves as poe.xyz has rather meh collection of dust collectors there..

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Mark_GGG a écrit :

You got this bit the wrong way around, at least

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Wiesl_1404 a écrit :

2-handed staff:
pro:
- additional 6 link possibility
- can support a 6 link with +2 to elemental and +1 to all gems

contra
- can't use a shield
- very poor defensive abilitys dispite low implicit block chance
- reduced runspeed modifier because of the huge 2-hander

There is no such movement penalty for 2-handed (or any) weapons.

"

Wiesl_1404 a écrit :

1-handed scepter/wand + shield
pro:

contra
- no extra 6 link which can be augmented by +2/+1 modifiers
- ... there is nothing more i can think of :(

There is a movement penalty for shields.

Thank you Mark for pointing that out, i wrongly mixed up this one and changed it now.

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MortalKombat3 a écrit :

But there are NO such caster staves at all. Why? Because they absolutely arent worth efforts.

You are wrong, there are perfect staves for caster for all 3 elements, available for mirror.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/556020

as of today game design, I think it would indeed be a mistake to use them ( unless using Kaom as chest ).

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Malone a écrit :

"

MortalKombat3 a écrit :

But there are NO such caster staves at all. Why? Because they absolutely arent worth efforts.

You are wrong, there are perfect staves for caster for all 3 elements, available for mirror.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/556020

Its pretty disgusting how eternals let the crafter quickly switch between elements for mirror service.

Eternals have absolutely ruined this game. Yes its a fix, but its even worse than no fix because all it did was give obscenely rich players a way to bypass RNG so currency keeps trickling up, further dividing player wealth. It put a bandaid on a gaping wound and everybody called it a day.

Maybe adding a cast speed bonus for staves could give them some love ?

I mean, a caster using a shield and a weapon is somewhat less movement free than someone using a staff ( at least for realistic shields ), he doesn't have to hold two items with his hands all the times, etc ...
This would make sense, and would not make staves overpowered if done correctly.

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Teridax a écrit :

Eternals have absolutely ruined this game. Yes its a fix, but its even worse than no fix because all it did was give obscenely rich players a way to bypass RNG so currency keeps trickling up, further dividing player wealth. It put a bandaid on a gaping wound and everybody called it a day.

Eternals? Nope, MIRRORS (and bad itemization) were those items that "ruined" game. Without mirrors, perfect-crafted gear piece would be "one of the kind", and require immence effords to make it. Rich players dont bypass RNG, even with etermals. RNG desides, how much currency should be spend on a perfect item.