what would it take for staves to compete with orb/shield set-up de

what would it take for staves to compete with orb/shield set-up

Imagine you're a blizzard employee and you have been tasked with balancing staves so a sorc actually has to make a decision about whether to use a staff or an orb/shield set up. what would you do to staves to make the choice a little harder than it is now?

For starters, I would gives staves a chance to block just like shields, but perhaps along the lines of assassin claw block in that staves could inherantly block elemental attacks. This way they compete with shields by effectively raising your def and your resistances

I would perhaps also give staves an inherant bonus in rolling staff mods, so that there is a slightly higher than normal chance for getting 2 or 3 skills as well as a better chance of getting +2 or +3 to those skills.

perhaps then, using a staff might be a viable end game weapon for a sorc

 

Block I don't mind, most of my sorc are base dex anyway. I'd put in at least +4 skills, same as a decent orb and lidless wall, and say 50% fcr (on par with occy and lidless), plus other assorted goodies like resist, mana, life etc.

 

I love the idea of block, but with an increased damage to durabilty. Hey, you block a battleaxe with a treelimb, you're gonna see some sap. you know what I mean?
- Noodle

 

It must at least have these properties:
70% fast cast
25% increase max mana
+75 all resists
+2 mana (based on character level)
+20 vitality
+20 energy
+5 mana after each kill
+3 all skills

and either:
40% chance to block
or
+3 defense (based on character level)

If a staff had all that, I might actually use one.


-GG

 

IMO staves are good the way they are.

Usually a staff provides more mana or skills than an orb would. Not to mention there are a couple of good staff runewords.

Sure some combinations completely topple a staff, but really they don't need anything better to be used in a viable build.

 

I'd be happy using either of the elite unique staves as it is...

 

Staff's are not that bad really.

The biggest drawback imho between a staff and a orb/shield set up is fast cast speed. A Hoto or etchuta and a lidless is 60% fcr which is a big slab of getting the 105% fcr break point. reaching this break point with the 30% from a chromatic for example is a much harder ask. Ondal's is the best fcr staff worth using, but the rest of it's abilities are pretty dismal compared to a lidless and orb combo.

maybe they should improve the naj's set and actually make it worth using?

 

I wasn't thinking along the comparing staves to the high end uniques like Occulus/Lidwall - just a basic white/blue/yellow/socketed staff vs. a basic white/blue/yellow/socketed orb + basic white/blue/yellow/socketed shield. as it is, orb/shield wins simply because you get +def, blocking, mana and even for just blues, 4 possible mods vs. 2

 

Staves are okay for me. Sure, everybody has their HotO which pwns all staves pretty hardcore but if you feel so inclined you can make a staff using sorc and she does just fine.

 

I don't doubt you would That staff would probably be the nr 1 choice for many, me included.

 

Make staves always spawn with +1 skills, and let them be able to get higher levels of +mana/life than orbs. So you could get something like a +3 sorceress skills/+3 Blizzard/+100mana/life staff...Would be especially useful for runewords like Memory. That's what I did in my mod, and staves are pretty useful, especially in the beginning of the game and a godly one would be able to trump just about anything.