How to start off fast and strong as any class by using lightning staff.

[wulfster42]

I've played all the classes and used all the weapons but one has stood out significantly stronger than the rest, to the point that even non-spellcasting classes are better off going with it.

The lightning staff makes all the early game cake, especially once you hit level 6 and can get orb of storms as well. You only need 1 staff and orb for all characters as you can switch them between them.

The staff itself lets you cast lightning which is way better than any other spell, for free. You can support it with concentrated effect (which makes it's tiny aoe just a bit tinier) and the one that prevents crits but boosts damage by 40% (more). Both are more bonuses and together I believe the total is 90% more damage. That happens after all the basic damage bonuses you get on equipment and skill nodes, so it makes you hit REALLY hard.

That lets you just demolish everything till you get to level 6. You can kill at range, and just target with the mouse to always hit what you want. Lets you focus on dodging if needed and staying away from bosses.

Then you get to level 6 and get orb of storms. You want to supoprt that with any 50% aoe increase support gem (do it with one that doesn't have a penalty to you, like the one that adds 6 second cooldown, but the duration is 10 seconds and you can only have 1 at a time without other supports). Any other support gem that boosts damage is great, but duration isn't horrid if you can't get that yet.

Orb of storms naturally shoots anything in it's AoE but shoots again if you are in it and use a lightning skill (and you will be spamming lightning), so it adds a ton of damage.

That works for EVERYONE, especially since mana regen and max mana doesn't matter at all (you will regen the mana used for orb since it's once every 10 seconds naturally as any class) and you use no mana for lightning bolt.

Now both the witch and sorc have alot of +spell damage mods (and sorc has lightning damage and penetrate lightning resist nearby as well), so they work the best with the setup. i would recommend Sorc as your first run to get currency and good equipment for other characters if you want to play them using the weapons/skills they are meant to generally use.

Oh as far as the staff, since it's so important. Lighting staves (possibly all spell casting staves) have the ability to get a magic mod of +1 (all I have gotten so far) to lightning skills. The lowest level staff I have seen it on is level 2 (well lightning was level 2 on it), but you may be able to roll it with a lower staff (no reason for me to try).

Even on a level 2 lightning staff that gives you level 3 base lightning and boosts your level 3 (when you first get it) orb of storms to 4 right away. It's worth rolling for that mod I think, although you might want to focus more on +spell damage if you are not a sorc/witch.

Anyway with those spells you can blow through everything as any class MUCH faster than pretty much any other setup. Orb of storms takes care of large groups super fast, but....it also is quite great vs bosses. Having fought a bunch of early bosses with all the classes, I found melee quite more challenging over all, but even lightning arrow/bow users were much slower at killing compared to using the lightning staff (even as a ranger).

Due to it's ability to hit anywhere on the screen while you are moving anywhere else on the screen, and the ability to roll/cast/roll cast as well, you really never get hurt. A few of the bosses have big hits or spells that you can see coming, and you can focus on getting out of the way of them or the circles they create etc.

Lightning also boosts damage when you shock enemies so not only are you doing more base damage then most other abilities/weapons, but you are increasing it as you shock enemies as well. You will actually have a hard time dying to anything due to them both dying so fast, and you being able to just focus on staying away from them and their attacks.

Anyway, hope this helps some people struggling. You can certainly get some really high DPS for warrior, but he is highly focused at being near enemies, and the highest dps I found required a 2 handed mace (I did weapon swap to block but ugh, rather just not be that close). Monk couldn't hit the damage levels of Warrior AND was more squishy (kinda dissapointed by him so far).Merc and Ranger were both decent but the AoE damage was't great for either, and it certainly took much longer to take down bosses with crossbows and bows. I'd say lightning arrow might be my second favorite ranged ability though.

Good luck ya'll.