Asheron's Call Homepage

[Angier]

I remember that two-handed staves were requested years ago. Staff is traditionally a two-handed weapon. We were told then that it was a problem of animation; we have the animation now.


I'm not suggesting that every staff be converted to two hands, just one particular class of loot staves. They could have UA-level damage at the expense of a shield. This gives staff a unique perq so it can compare to UA and dagger builds. They wouldn't necessarily have cleave, just higher damage.


While you're at it, a *quest* suite of two-handed weapons for non-racial melee would be sweet.


Finally, a "cleave" effect for non-racial melee could be added via a quest, applied the same way as undead slayer or mukkir slayer, with the same restrictions (no other special effect, no special 11th tink items, etc.). This should work even for spear, though perhaps just for naginatas and glaives (ie, tie it to slash animation).

[Maraude]

It would be nice to see a staff upgrade of some kind. It has been over-looked, or I should say, UA has been over-done

[Virindi_TD2]

Good idea!

[Chip Ali]

Do this, please.

[self_adhesive]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

Staff-chucks, yo!

Double-strike and/or 2Handed staffs would be nice love for the Gharu's. I don't think it'll work for them to get 2H - which is why that is its own completely different skill instead of there being higher end versions of non-racial melee weapons. This would not require a 2H skill, just another new weapon type for each skill type. Since they didn't go that way, there's probably rhyme and reason for it.

But they could still totally let us put hilts on staff and turn them into staff-chucks.

[An Adventurer]

two handed weapons should have been new additions to the current weapon skills (except dagger and UA), and not an entirely new weapon class. But they made 2H its own thing, and it'd really just be even more confusing if they started giving the other weapon skills 2H weapons.

[chazriker]

I agree with the fact staffers need a major upgrade in some way shape or
form. To reiterate why this is, lets look at this from an objective
standpoint:

The two big reasons Why staves need an upgrade

-Staves weigh 300+ bu more than dagger/ua, and only have 1 more point of
minimum (over dagger) damage to show for it. This means more stamina drain
for the same damage dealt. Staves are light, easy to carry weapons, why not
make them as such?

-Staves only have access to bludgeoning damage in the majority of cases...
this is the ONLY weapon skill that is restricted to 1 physical damage type
and the stats these weapons do not compensate for these weakness.

What can be done?

This is hard to say, and whatever changes made will not please everyone. I believe this should be a defensive based weapon, others just want more damage output.

One or a combination of the following will have to be done to make this skill viable:

-Increase the damage by an amount that compensates for lack of physical damage types. Bludgeoning/elemental makes being a staffer very un-diverse.

-Introduce bladed or piercing staves in regular loot profile to eliminate the biggest disadvantage of this weapon.

-Increase maximum melee defense modifier by 5%, and the maximum magic/missile modifiers by 3% (to make it 5.5% max). Gharu are a race strongly attuned to magic, it makes sense to make their racial weapons strong against magic attacks. Staves are more defensive a weapon than any of the others.

- Decrease the weight of staves, it doesn't make much sense for them to weigh nearly as much as swords/maces do. 100-200 BU would be more reasonable.

- Make good staves *easy* to find as a means of compensating for low stats by boosting the minimum loot staves stats by 50%. Example: if a perfect staff is 10-20 damage and the weakest 1-10, this would be changed to have the weakest at 5-15.

-Allow staffers to obtain/imbue unique and useful monster slaying weapons.

Note that these are options, I don't think all of the above should be implenmented... rather, a select few items that would balance this weapon with its competitors.

As for making staves 2 handed... it makes sense in a real-world standpoint, but not in the game. It would just work to confuse newer and returning players.

We can beat this dead horse further, but hopefully someday these weapons will get the upgrade they deserve. Personally, I think defense should be this weapon's specialty, not damage vs skill credit cost.

[Blendarus]

I think this makes perfect sense. The staff is most famous for 2-handed fighting styles, and there aren't two-handed staves in game. I think it would be pretty logical that this is because wielding a staff with two hands is different from swords, spears and maces, and such training is included with training for the staff itself.

I think if the current formula for 2-handed weapons were followed, staff wouldn't really need any other balancing. Just have the current one-handed staves, two handed double-strike thrusting staves with slightly reduced damage (for an overall slight gain due to the double strike, to offset the shield loss), and another set of two handed cleaving staves with greatly reduced damage (to make up for the double strike and cleaving).

This would lead to staff still being a very low-damage weapon, but one that is extremely versatile. I think this would balance it with the medium versatility and power of dagger, and the massive power and elemental choices of UA.

[Maraude]

The staff is primarily a defensive weapon; I think, that at the very least, it's defensive stat needs a boost. I agree that the burden should be lowered, as well

Too bad they don't have a "disarm" skill in the game

[Severlin]

I just added this to my ongoing list of things we want to do.

I wish we could develop as fast as our players can imagine cool stuff.

Sev~

[Brokin]

I've always envisioned the racials having a "2H" add-on skill.

- UA and Dagger would go double-wield.

- Staff would go 2H (or double-wield?)

Have it cost 10 skill credits... not quite sure what you would call it, since "Two Handed Combat" is now taken

That would make total skill-cost on attack be:

UA (Sho) 6 + 10 = 16
Dagger (Aluv) 4 + 10 = 14
Staff (Guar) 4 + 10 = 14

It wouldn't do much for UA DoT at full speed. But for all 3 racials, it would act like 2H multi-strike (minus the cleave perhaps?)

No shield would be allowed, insead a special "Mirror Glyph" would be equiped in the shield slot to activate dual-wield mode. This creates a "mirror" of the wielded weapon for UA and Dagger, or something appropriate for Staff. But attack and defense modifiers would not be doubled.

They would have to balance the damage output in dual-wield mode. But if at all possible, do it with math, not new weapons. Being able to use the same weapons in normal or dual-wield modes would be great.

The Mirror Glyph would not be visible by players or monsters. They would see two weapons, (or whatever for staff). The Mirror Glyph would not be target-able by monsters or pk's... would stink to get tattercoat or lured AND not have a shield!

I could just imagine how cool dual-wield UA claws would look.... Wolverine anyone?

droooooooooooool...

[Maraude]

I think UA has gotten enough attention.....staff has been sadly neglected. UA is fine (over-powered) the way it is

[Endrin]

Originally Posted by Maraude

The staff is primarily a defensive weapon; I think, that at the very least, it's defensive stat needs a boost. I agree that the burden should be lowered, as well

Too bad they don't have a "disarm" skill in the game

This idea I like, but I dunno about 2-handed staffs. It is clear staff is underpowered and needs a boost of some variety. But it is still a 4 point racial skill. Be very gentle if your going to attempt to make a 2 handed version which will take away form the specialness associated with the 2 handed weapon skill currently.

[Brokin]

Originally Posted by Maraude

I think UA has gotten enough attention.....staff has been sadly neglected. UA is fine (over-powered) the way it is

I agree Maraude, that Staff needs the most love. But my idea was not to boost the 3 racials and keep their skill cost the same. The Dual-Wield skill would cost 10 skill points in addition to the cost of specializing the racial attack skill.

So ...
UA would be a total of 16 with dual-wield.
Dagger would be a total of 14 with dual-wield.
Staff would be a total of 14 with dual-wield.

That, and the lack of a shield would justify boosting damage to all of them. They could boost the damage of UA + dual-wield by a smaller ammount then dagger or staff + dual-wield, or whatever it takes to keep the 3 dual-wield options in-line with eachother.

[Angier]

I think that if we ever get a dual wield that it should be an entirely separate skill with entirely separate weapons. Offhand weapons could have lower damage, and their to-hit would be an entirely separate skill check. They should be wieldable with any of the current 1H melee weapons.


The total DPS should be capable of exceeding 2H (with sword in main hand) at the expense of twice the XP expenditure, twice the weapons to maintain, and working on only a single target. They could also use coord/quick as they would be light fast weapons by definition, and this would favor dagger and extreme melee templates.