Another Staff Set Suggestion Thread!

Bo Staffs. Spears. Halberds. Glaives. We want 'em, the devs wanna make 'em, but darn it, it hasn't happened yet so we're just gonna keep making suggestions to get 'em in-game!

*ahem*

My proposal for a staff set would be one that focuses on AoEs and knockdown. However, the Devs have clearly shown that they don't want any set having too many AoE attacks, let alone with mitigation, so the set would probably have to be low in damage (smashing) overall. Still, i can think of a few ways to work around that. Also, most attacks would probably be animated with some kind of show-offy swinging effect before landing a blow. I realize people may be getting tired of time-consuming, showy animations, but staff fighting actually does rely on misdirecting your opponent so they don't know where you're attacking from.


Thrust: You lunge the front of your weapon into your opponent for a fair amount of damage. Short activation and recharge makes for a decent, spammable attack.

Smash: You twirl your staff and bring it down on your foe, hitting them hard. This attack gains a +15-20% (Depends on AT) damage bonus if the target is already knocked down.

Swing: You swing your staff in an arc, hitting multiple foes in front of you (30 degree cone attack) with a small chance for Knock Down (say 15-20% chance?).

Taunt/Confront/Assassin Strike varies by AT, of course. The AS version would be an overhead jab that forces the opponent down (50% chance of KD)

Staff Twirl Click, 1 minute duration. You spin your staff furiously, gaining a defense bonus to all melee and ranged attacks for a short time. This bonus is somewhat reduced if you're actively attacking though. (Tank numbers: +10% melee(7.5% when attacking), +7.5% range(5% when attacking). Scrap/Stalker numbers: 7.5% melee(5% when attacking), 5% ranged(3.75% when attacking))

Trip: You take your opponent's feet out from under them. This attack does little damage but results in 100% chance for Knock Down and a small chance for disorient.

Placate/Clothesline Placate is the standard Stalker maneuver (tier 6, pushing Trip down to T7). Clothesline: You hold your staff parallel and thrust forward, possibly knocking down any foes in front of you (145 degree cone, but only 6 foot range) and doing a small amount of damage.

Pole Vault You plant your staff into the ground, and use it for leverage to deliver a forceful flying kick towards a foe up to 21 feet away. This attack will do decent damage against your target, knocking him back and possibly knocking down any foes next to him (only target receives damage and KB... any foes within 5 feet and 30 degrees have a 50% chance of knock down). You will also be propelled forward to where your target was as a result.

Whirling Smash You spin your staff completely around, hitting all opponents within 15 feet for decent damage and a chance for Knockdown. Then you jump, spin and bring your staff down, hitting your current target hard for extra damage and knocking him back. Basically two attacks in one.


Notes: The set has no Build-Up... this is on purpose. With 4 attacks that affect multiple targets that do damage AND knock down, the set would need to maintain low damage to be balanced (otherwise it'd be a fotm farming build that would get nerfed to high heck eventually), but the inclusion of a (single target) power that relies on KD for extra damage in a set where most attacks have KD built in i think makes up for it. Using Trip + Smash would essentially achieve the effect of build up, so it's not all bad.

Thoughts or other ideas?

Although this is a set I probably would not play, I find the idea intriguing and would love playing with a staff tanker or scrapper. Thumbs up!

/signed !

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deus_Otiosus This entire post should receive some kind of award for being both hysterical and fantastic. Well done.

YES ! YES ! YES !

I want this powerset !

Additional comments: Though I understand your logic for not having a "buildup" type power, I am not certain that it would be necessary to leave it out. They could simply balance out the AoE damage and be done with it. Or... go with only 3 AoE powers.

Also, I like the idea of having one or more of the attacks having "disorient" secondary effect. Nothing like a "round-pine" to the head for making the stars come out.

/signed... I would also like to ask for a spear set as well, because I have a samurai character and not all samurai used swords. (And there's no "Mounted" secondary for blasters, ruling out archery, I don't want to farm fake Nemis for a nemesis rifle that would look only in the vaguest sense a matchlock rifle, also, assault rifle's concept is too all over the place.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

Yeah, i included "spear" in the opening blurb and considered power animations based on the staff possibly having a blade at the end.

Personally I'd make a character using a speed limit sign, but that's just me =D

Though funny you should mention samurais... i was doing some research on staffs before making this post and learned that staffs were weapons made by Japanese farmers because the samurai forbid them to use swords. So it'd actually be a bit.. inaccurate, to give a feudal samurai a bo staff =)

As for a blaster secondary... It could work. Replace the first power with a stun, remove an AoE in favor of build-Up and you'd probably have a decent Secondary there =)

I'd prefer more super powers as opposed to weapons, but if we were to get a new weapon set, staves would be the way to go.

Well, we have all-purpose Energy melee, then dark melee, Stone melee, Fire melee, Ice melee, Super strength, and up-and-coming kinetic melee... Shields can be MADE to look elemental... i guess Psi melee would be nice, but other than that, how many other "super" melee sets would the game support (ie, no stretching powers)? Unless you mean across all ATs in general, but we ARE getting demon summoning and electric control soon, so this wouldn't hurt =)

Perhaps something along these lines? I am VERY not up on Recharge/Damage type things, so those are likely to be off. Basically I was shooting for a set like Electric Melee... Also, with the -Res effect, the damage numbers will have to be fairly low. Also also, the Toxic should probably take a hint from Dual Pistols and make up about 30% of the damage, with the other 70% coming from the other component (mostly Smashing)... A notable exception being Toxic Cloud, a power that will do very little damage (maybe even none).

With that noted, here's:

Poisoned Staff (Melee set for Scrappers, Stalkers, Brutes, Tanks)
This set centers around the player’s ability to create a staff composed of a mostly solid toxic slime. The draw animation will feature the player holding his fists in front of him and having the slime flow outward to create the staff

Tier 1 — Toxic Smash [Recharge: Fast]
Foe, Melee, ST: Minor Dmg(Smash, Toxic), -Res
The player does a quick strike which smashes the enemy with his staff.

Tier 2 — Poisoned Slam [Recharge: Moderate]
Foe, Melee, ST: Moderate Dmg(Smash, Toxic), -Res, Chance for Stun
The player holds the staff in one hand and brings the staff up over his head and back around to slam into the enemy.

Tier 3 — Swath of Poison [Recharge: Slow]
Foe, Melee, Cone: Moderate Dmg(Smash, Toxic), -Res, Chance for Stun
The player holds his staff at almost full length and moves it back and forth in front of him, causing it to smash into enemies in a 45° arc.

Tier 4 — Solidify (Build Up) [Recharge: Long]
Self, Buff: +Dmg, +ToHit
The player focuses for a moment causing his slime to become denser, and thus do more damage when it strikes an enemy. This will use the standard [Build Up] animation.

Tier 5 — Sweeping Slime [Recharge: Long]
Foe, PBAoE: Minor Dmg(Smash, Toxic), -Res, Knockdown
The player creates his staff and it continues to extend, making a whip-like object. He whirls it around at ground level knocking down opponents in range.

Tier 6 — Taunt, Confront [Recharge: Slow]
Foe, Ranged, ST/AoE: Taunt, -Range
The player holds his staff in one had while motioning toward the enemy to “come get some” with the other.

Tier 6 — Assassin’s Spear [Recharge: Slow]
Foe, Melee, ST: Special Dmg(Lethal, Toxic), -Res
The player leans back, one foot in front of the other, and slowly creates an imposing spear the lunges forward driving the spear through the enemy’s body.

Tier 7 — Devastator [Recharge: Very Slow]
Foe, Melee, AoE: High Dmg(Smash, Toxic), -Res, Chance for Stun
The player jumps into the air bringing his staff down as he falls, bashing into the targeted enemy and making a shockwave that can Stun the surrounding enemies.

Tier 8 — Toxic Cloud [Recharge: Very Long]
Foe, PBAoE: Minimal Dmg(Toxic), -Res, Stun
The player slams the end of his staff into the ground (actually it will clip through the ground to make it appear as though the cloud is caused by the end of the slime staff breaking up) causing a cloud of slime particles to scatter.

Tier 9 — Spear Barrage [Recharge: Very Long]
Foe, PBAoE: Superior Dmg(Lethal, Toxic), -Res, Chance for Knockup
The player slams his foot into the ground causing many spears of slime to erupt from the ground in a large area. Enemies who are hit may be knocked up.

I concede the point on the radius issue.

Also... The fact that the proposed set does not lend itself to customization is a bit of the point. I, personally, do not want another purely weapon-based set. So, I proposed a more superpower related set that uses a staff, whip and spear in it's animations. It was intended to solve the issue of multiple damage types in a single set, and to make a staff more "super." I think I did alright.

A staff set! That would be cool as hell! I mean, if my MM could summon the staff as pets, that would be the pinnacle of total awesomeness!

Oh wait, you meant THAT kind of staff. Well, yeah, that's pretty cool too.

IIRC, Positron or Castle, or one of the devs said, during the in-game New Years meet and greet mentioned that staves may, at some point, be added to an existing set as a weapon customization option or something. Or maybe it was said they may be an option for some new set that would include other blunt objects used to pummel people into submission.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

/signed.

Leo, yes, it is kinda random. My thoughts were simply that if a staff set gets introduced, it should have some sort of element of "super" to it... it should be a power, not just a weapon. Annnnnd, there is no Toxic damage as a damage type represented in melee... so I combined them.

In retrospect, what I SHOULD have suggested was to have a First Tier power akin to [Change Ammo] that changed the appearance of the Staff from Toxic, to Fire, to Energy to Electric to Dark.... etc. That way, you get a variable set that isn't so pigeonholed. (In fact, it could include a Smashing and/or lethal mode that would make it look like a normal staff... which would require me to change the idea behind Sweeping Staff just a bit, but is at the end the best of both worlds).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo_G This set is called Poisoned Staff yet it has spear attacks in it? Why?

Because I couldn't think of a good name... and I wanted it to include a few pole arm-like attacks.