Anyone using Staffs?

[F4lc0n]

Even with the endless spells, I feel that the charge time is way too long and the damage output is way too low. Plus, I miss a lot. Sometimes I can open combat with one spell but the wand does similar damage and has a cast time of only 0.6 seconds.

So are Staffs useless? Or is there any good spell?

Spells like meteor sound nice in theory but when you are getting swarmed with enemies, you don't have the time to prepare the charge.

[Unfug]

Just unlocked the Endless Fire Spell...let me tell you: I have a Blast with it.
Dealing 700 Damage (unbuffed) or up to 1000 Damage (Buffed) oneshots any enemy under level 15, two shots those above and kills Bosses extremly fast.
I play Coop with someone tanking the Enemy, but even if i run around alone i can just shoot them in their face before they get to me, most times they are dead or can be really easily killed. And i dont even wear the Magearmor (Healerset instead)

[Marinxar]

Only in Boss fights, I will drop Eternal Acid Splash, but Wands are just amazing. Wand and Shield is just so good.

For general use, Staves are useless. Way too slow and way too heavy on mana.

EDIT : ( Got to add, I play Solo... Just for context. )

[Mr. Fibble]

That fireball has a stupidly long range once you get the range on arcing it to the point where you're so far away mobs don't react to being hit.
Charge time is fast enough that a crit stun will easily let you throw another without having to move.
Big aoe radius as well.

[Lifty]

Staffs can be very good, if you have the right ring setup for it. Mana Regeneration is mandatory.

There is "Commanders Ring" (+30%Mana, +30Health) that drops from the Boss in Pike. Another Ring you will want/need for near endless Staff spell slinging is "Ring of Rapacity" (-20% Mana, +20% Mana Regen).

Also make sure you pick up "Quick Charge" in the Wizard Tree for an additional +50% charge speed.

Fireball I, II and Eternal are great for long range AoE sniping. You can basically cast with no downtime and easily level an entire outpost from a safe vantage point.

Bosses get absolutely shredded by Acid Breath. They typically die in 1-2 casts.

Few more things to note, lower level spells cast faster and might be better in certain situations than higher variants or eternals.

Side Note i'm also Wand Slinging, but most of the time i clear areas with the Staff.

Edit: Also don't forget to actually equip your Staff to benefit from its stats. By equipping it that way you can also quickly charge a spell by holding "Q" and swapping back to Wand&Shield for example.

[Fryskar]

Originally posted by Marinxar:

Only in Boss fights, I will drop Eternal Acid Splash, but Wands are just amazing. Wand and Shield is just so good.

For general use, Staves are useless. Way too slow and way too heavy on mana.

EDIT : ( Got to add, I play Solo... Just for context. )

Time to get those skillpoints. Or manareggear. Only the heavy spells stay above 1s.

[Loot]

With Blood Magic, Water Aura, and the quick casting perks, you can mow enemies down with the staff. It also doesn't have a range limit, so you can lob fireballs off into the distance and kill enemies long before they reach you. It's not as easy to use as the wand, due to not being able to just walk backwards, but I don't think that makes it worse. That said, I have yet to get an adequate staff on my mage, dang it.

[PlagueBrain]

Staves are viable in solo - but early on, you'll want to use them as nuke weapons. The charge time trades off for greater damage (esp if you're buffing INT).

Mage spec needs the charge time reduction and range on the skill tree to turn into a primary weapon.

It's more the old D&D system of mage progression than most games - early game, you're squishy and don't hit very hard. Late game, you can easily outnuke anything melee and ranged phys damage can make, and do it just as quickly.

Mages here really feel they're geared toward party play and not solo at this point. They're great as healers, but for most of the game, playing straight wizard kinda sucks in favor of sword/bow.

It's a better experience playing more a battlemage early-mid game.

I'm hoping they add more DOT and status effects to magic going forward in EA, because that would make it a more fun (and viable) class to play. Because staves in particular *feel* more useless than they actually are. Early-mid game and solo, anyway.

[Mr. Fibble]

With how good the water aura is the now, healing a group could probably be more than covered by a mage and tank using it rather than having a dedicated healer. Which is actually quite a good thing since it won't have the MMO issue where a healer has really low dps.

[Lifty]

Originally posted by Mr. Fibble:

With how good the water aura is the now, healing a group could probably be more than covered by a mage and tank using it rather than having a dedicated healer. Which is actually quite a good thing since it won't have the MMO issue where a healer has really low dps.

Helps that a very good Int boosting Talent is actually behind the Water Aura

[Sir. Foxford]

I speced into magic and I have the lvl 30 staff. Magic is OP AF when you spec into it and have the eternal spells. My armor set regens my mana almost instantly so I can keep popping shots off pretty damn quick. I played it like I played my archer, kept moving to keep range and popping off shots, although archer could shoot a tiny bit faster.

[bourland]

More players talk about Damage but not Healing.
Stationary Healers for a cast, sounds doable.
I play Wand, with Archer/Sniper. My Axe is rarely used.

[Lightning]

Yeah my friend is in the lvl 25 paladin gear i found for him and the light shield but still dies fairly quick for some reason, he has like 1200+ life and like 400/400 defense or something around there even though he was doing decent against lvl 30 stuff the bosses are the problem it seems even for the tankiest class. Forgot to mention he's lvl 18 so he still has 7 more levels to go and more skill trees so maybe it gets better at max lvl.

[Fryskar]

Copied from the "mage+op thread".

I switched now to mage. Full elder set + the same p35 shroud weaver.
I hurl fireballs ranging from ~600 (resisted normal hit) to 1.5k (crit effective). Infinite mana due to bloodletting (oh no it takes hp, instantregen from water aura, full again), 890 hp and the dmg i take is only marginally higher than with the soldier set.
Each fireball hits a decent large area, stuns them if it crits and makes orbs if close enough (states no range strangly enough). +10%crit (skill), +10%crit (staff), +15% crit +baseline make sure i crit very often.
So yes, mage pretty powerful unless ambushed.
Now i only wish for more eternal spells to test better.

Oh, i forgot to mention. Walls don't stop the blast.
E: There's still the elexir buff and the flame prayer to boost the dmg even further.
Just as heads up, don't use fireballs in your base.

[Fryskar]

Originally posted by Lightning:

Yeah my friend is in the lvl 25 paladin gear i found for him and the light shield but still dies fairly quick for some reason, he has like 1200+ life and like 400/400 defense or something around there even though he was doing decent against lvl 30 stuff the bosses are the problem it seems even for the tankiest class. Forgot to mention he's lvl 18 so he still has 7 more levels to go and more skill trees so maybe it gets better at max lvl.

If he has 1.2k hp, he can still gain a lot.
Not sure if its the max, but i've hit 1650 before. Full soldier is mere 260/130 resistance, paladin is slightly stronger.
Yes, you die quick as melee if you let them hit you.

[Zalzany]

Yeah you got build into it, also you got dodge with any ranged build or group up. Its like healing tree its kind dodo unless you doing CO-OP. Accept you can actually do still S tier according to all the guides with wizzard you just got spec into it right. If you want easy mode you should pick a melee build as most thing rush at you and not just stand there for you to range them UNLESS they can range attack back.

Like its same in every game I played with magic, close quarters is you weak point. I mean what proposed fix a summed pet to tank for you?