Call To Arms... in a staff?

[Knarlfist]

Call To Arms... in a staff?

Just wanna gauge some opinion here, on how crazy/stupid you think it would be. If you have this incredible sorc, and it's your main char and about the only one of your chars that you would truly appreciate having CtA on for the BO. Would YOU consider making the rw in let's say an Archon Staff or it's brethren, something that has a sweet auto-mod like +3 Energy Shield, maybe another useful like +3 Warmth or +3 to an Armor?


My sorc is in this situation presently. I've been searching everywhere for a sweet 4os +3ES staff to make an Insight on switch, and needless to say this is a very rare item. I made a CtA recently in a flail, and have been keeping it in the stash to prebuff the most dangerous runs.

This really wouldn't be an issue for most people I realize, but this is my special project Tank Sorc, and she's an absolute dream to play. I find myself not wanting to even log onto a melee char.... why bother, when my sorc tanks right in the middle of Baal's minions waves in 8player online games and doesn't sweat, and chars like my Pally have all this specialized gear like Drac's on and STILL dies constantly.

It leaves me in a weird spot. Approaching lvl40 ES prebuff is just a part of my build, so I really need +ES on my swap. The Insight idea was just to ease gameplay, because I noticed when running WSK in full games if I take a couple gloam hits then my mana regen is just a little too low to infinite cast. I end up having to pause a second, and while that's no biggie... there are people waiting for the Throne tp - and you know how testy they can be =p Trying the BO from CtA seems to increase my mana just enough to alleviate the problem as well, which gave me the idear for making a new one in a prebuff staff so there is no swapping from cube.


So there it is... 2 options really, one is cheap: Insight in a +3ES staff, one is expensive: CtA in a +3ES staff. Either will really improve my sorcie, neither are super convenient since finding these staves take endless combing of Hell Cow games, and the CtA obviously grants more benefit since the BO effects all party members while my Insight would just be for my own greedy paws while soloing teleing thru WSK.

Would you contemplate it? I realize you would ensure ZERO resale value for the CtA, but then again... many people roll 1BO CtAs and don't get much resale from them either! Opinions are welcome

 

[sweetalmonds]

Re: Call To Arms... in a staff?

tl;dr

Just on first paragraph yeah it's not uncommon for es sorc to make them in 3es 1-3 chilling armor staves. If prebuff is not allowed it would give you es without having to put a point in it. If you do have a point in es however main weapon(hoto/chuta) plus spirit mon gives more than +4es a cta staff would.

 

[Spazman]

Re: Call To Arms... in a staff?

Read the whole thing. the obvious answer is Yes. make cta in a +energy shield staf, if you can afford it. it is "relatively" pricey but I'd say well worth it if it's an option

edit: if you roll a 4-6 bo 2-3 es archon staff you won't have any problem re-selling it afterwards for equal or higher the price than the runes atleast, depending on if it's a 3es or not you may or may not cover the staff aswell.

 

[krischan]

Re: Call To Arms... in a staff?

Energy shield has an incredibly long duration, but it ends when you run out of mana. If you ensure that you never run out of it, you can have an Memory staff in the stash (which adds up to +9 to energy shield instead of +3) and CtA+Spirit on the character, but if it happens too often, CtA in a +3 energy shield staff makes sense.

I'm no energy shield sorc expert, however, so I might have overlooked a few details.

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Call To Arms... in a staff?

I'm no energy shield sorc expert, however, so I might have overlooked a few details.

You've got the main gist.

The only addition is manaburn. Since manaburn is bugged to remove more mana than it should, it's very common for manaburn monsters to remove an Energy Shield with a single hit. So I've never felt extensive prebuffing ES made sense for PvM, since it might mean you get to go to town every 30 seconds to recast ES. That doesn't sound like it'd be any fun. Consequently, I think having a +3 ES-CtA staff on switch seems like a fine idea - as long as you can afford it - since you get the boost to ES as well as the benefits from the CtA.


One more note on manaburn and ES. If you get a high enough manapool and mana regeneration rate, sometimes (but not always) manaburn monsters won't remove your energy shield in a single hit.

I've seen it theorized that if you regenerate any mana in the same frame that your mana is completely removed, the removal comes first, the regeneration 2nd, and the check to see if ES is still active comes third... which should still leave you with ~1 mana and an active shield at the end of the frame. Of course, if you get hit a 2nd time in rapid succession, odds are you won't have enough mana left to fully absorb that blow, and the energy shield will collapse at that time.

Tying that back to the original point of this thread, if you plan to have a HUGE manapool, an Insight merc, and a very defensive playstyle, it might not be especially useful to make the CtA in an ES-staff afterall, since your ES might be reliable enough to only be prebuffed/cast in town.