Discussion: The Intrepid Informer: Issue #20

Staff Fighting
by Phil "Synapse" Zeleski

Introduction
If you've ever wanted to play a super hero who wields a bo staff, trident or spear to pummel his or her foes senseless, I have good news for you. Today we'll be talking about Staff Fighting, which is a primary powerset choice for Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers and a secondary powerset choice for Tankers. We'll go into greater detail on the individual powers within this exciting new power set, then we'll talk about some ways to get started with Staff Fighting and lastly we'll talk about some character themes.

Staff Fighting introduces a new mechanic called "Perfections" which are used to augment your staff powers. Early on, you can select the Staff Mastery power. Upon selecting this power, you'll earn three toggle powers: Form of the Body, Form of the Mind and Form of the Soul. You may only have one of these toggles active at a time. While one of these toggles is active, your Staff Fighting powers will grant you a level of Perfection, based on which Form you have active. Form of the Body grants levels of Perfection of Body, Form of the Mind grants levels of Perfection of Mind and Form of the Soul grants you levels of Perfection of Soul. You may have up to 3 levels of Perfection at a time, each level granting you a scaling buff based on which type of Perfection you have active.

• Perfection of Body increases your damage
• Perfection of Mind increases your recharge
• Perfection of Soul grants you an endurance cost discount

Eye of the Storm and Sky Splitter can consume these levels of perfection to deal additional damage and either debuff enemies or buff you. One way to think of this mechanic is like a cross between Street Justice's combo levels and Dual Pistol's Ammo Swapping mechanic, but with an added twist.

Powers
Below you'll find the powers that make up Staff Fighting along with their short and long description as well as some of my comments for each of the powers listed.

Staff Fighting
You have mastered the art of staff fighting, allowing you to strike at your foes in great sweeping arcs. Staff Fighting provides a good amount of control effects as well as some self buffs. By selecting the Staff Mastery power, you will gain access to techniques that further empower your Staff Fighting techniques and grant you useful augmentations that build up as you fight.

Below is a table showing which archetype gets which powers:


*Purchasing this power grants Form of the Body, Form of the Mind and Form of the Soul

Mercurial Strike

Melee, Light DMG(Smash), Foe -Def

You strike your foe with a lightning fast blow from your staff dealing Light Smashing damage. The attack is so unexpected that the target's defenses are reduced slightly for a short time. While a form is active, this power will build one level of Perfection. Damage: Light, Recharge: Fast
Designer's Comments: Mercurial Strike is the bread and butter quick attack in this power set and provides a very useful defense debuff allowing subsequent attacks to be more likely to hit your target.

Precise Strike

Melee, Moderate DMG(Smash), Foe Disorient

You attempt to daze your foe with a heavy staff blow to their head. Precise Strike has a higher chance to hit than normal, deals Moderate Smashing damage, and has a small chance to disorient the target briefly. While a form is active, this power will build one level of Perfection. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Fast.
Designer's Comments: As the name implies, this power is slightly more accurate than other Staff Fighting powers. It also has a fairly good chance to disorient its target allowing for an additional amount of crowd control.

Guarded Spin

Melee (Cone), Moderate DMG (Smash), Self +Def(Melee, Lethal)

You spin your staff like a propeller in front of you dealing Light Smashing damage to enemies in your frontal arc and deflecting any incoming attacks, thus boosting your Melee and Lethal defense briefly. While a form is active, this power will build one level of Perfection. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Moderate
Designer's Comments: Guarded Spin is not unlike Defensive Sweep from Titan Weapons in that is a cone damage power that also boosts defense. Guarded Spin does a fair amount of damage as well making for a pretty useful power to throw into your attack chain.

Eye of the Storm

PBAoE Melee, Moderate DMG(Smash), Foe Knockdown, Consumes Perfection

With a lightning fast series of spins of your staff you strike at all nearby foes dealing moderate damage with a chance of knocking foes down. While a form is active, this power will build one level of Perfection if the user has two or less levels, if the user has three levels of Perfection it will consume them and gain some benefit. 3 Levels of Perfection of Body will cause additional smashing damage and reduce damage resistance slightly for a short time. 3 Levels of Perfection of Mind will cause additional psionic damage and reduce attack and movement speed for a short time. 3 Levels of Perfection of Soul will cause additional energy damage and reduce defense for a short time. Critical Hit damage isn't enhanced by levels of Perfection. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Long
Designer's Comments: Eye of the Storm does a good amount of damage on its own, however should the user have 3 stacks of Perfection is will deal an additional 20% damage in either Smashing, Energy or Psionic damage depending upon which form is active. In addition to this Eye of the Storm will also place a moderate debuff on affected foes if the caster has 3 levels of Perfection. The debuff effects vary depending on the user's active form.

Staff Mastery

Change Stances/Special

By purchasing this power, you will gain access to the following powers: Form of the Body, Form of the Mind and Form of the Soul. Each of these toggle powers will allow the user to build up levels of Perfection, which grant the user a stacking short duration buff. Each buff is unique to the active form, and only one form can be active at a time. Perfection can be released by executing Eye of the Storm or Sky Splitter. When either of these attacks are empowered with Perfection they will have additional effects that are unique to each form. See Forms for additional details.
Designer's Comments: Don't pass up this power! Staff Fighting grants you your three form powers. These forms allow your character additional power and versatility that you really don't want to miss out on.

Form of the Body

Toggle: Grants Perfection of Body levels

This power is obtained by purchasing Staff Mastery. All Staff Fighting attacks will build a level of Perfection of Body while this toggle is active. Each level will boost the user's damage output slightly. Once the user has built up 3 levels of Perfection of Body and they execute Eye of the Storm, the attack will reduce the targets' damage resistance slightly and will deal additional smashing damage. Executing Sky Splitter with three 3 levels of Perfection of Body will deal additional smashing damage and grant the user a moderate resistance buff for a short time. Recharge: Fast
Designer's Comments: Keep this toggle active when you need to deal additional damage. This form also allows Eye of the Storm to reduce target damage resistance (allowing you and your allies to deal even greater damage) and Sky Splitter to boost your damage resistance.

Form of the Mind

Toggle: Grants Perfection of Mind levels

This power is obtained by purchasing Staff Mastery. All Staff Fighting attacks will build a level of Perfection of Mind while this toggle is active. Each level will boost the user's recharge rate slightly. Once the user has built up 3 levels of Perfection of Mind and they execute Eye of the Storm, the attack will slow the targets slightly and will deal additional psychic damage. Executing Sky Splitter with three 3 levels of Perfection of Mind will deal additional psychic damage and grant the user a moderate to hit buff for a short time. Recharge: Fast
Designer's Comments: Form of the Mind is excellent as it grants you a scaling recharge buff per stack of Perfection of Mind. Having three stacks of Perfection of Mind and using Eye of the Storm is a great way to weaken nearby enemies' recharge and movement speed.

Form of the Soul

Toggle: Grants Perfection of Soul levels

This power is obtained by purchasing Staff Mastery. All Staff Fighting attacks will build a level of Perfection of Soul while this toggle is active. Each level will grant the user an Endurance Discount. Once the user has built up 3 levels of Perfection of Soul and they execute Eye of the Storm, the attack will reduce targets' defense slightly and will deal additional energy damage. Executing Sky Splitter with three 3 levels of Perfection of Soul will deal additional energy damage and grant the user a moderate regeneration and recovery buff for a short time. Recharge: Fast
Designer's Comments: Form of the Soul is fantastic at lower levels when endurance consumption is a lot higher. Activating this toggle and hitting foes is going to reduce the cost of all of your powers. This is incredibly useful for protracted fights and against enemies who drain your endurance as Form of the Soul will make each power's endurance cost that less painful.

Taunt

Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Taunt

Taunt foes to attack you. Useful to pull enemies off allies and keep them attacking you to raise your Fury. A To-Hit check is required to Taunt enemy players, but is not needed against critter targets. Recharge: Fast
Designer's Comments: Brutes and Tankers naturally get Taunt (their AoE taunt power) and Scrappers get Confront (their single target taunt power).

Serpent's Reach

Ranged, High Dmg(Smash), Foe Knockdown

You fully extend your staff and release a burst of energy to lash out at a distant target and deal High Smashing damage with a good chance to knock your target down. While a form is active, this power will build one level of Perfection. Damage: High, Recharge: Long
Designer's Comments: Serpent's Reach is not only a good damage power, but it's also great for stopping that pesky enemy who tries to run away from you as it has a modest amount of range.

Innocuous Strikes

Melee Cone, High DMG(Smash), Foe Immobilize, -Speed

You repeatedly batter your foes' feet and legs with a flurry of sweeps of your staff. This attack deals Moderate Smashing damage to all foes within its cone. All affected targets will have their movement speed reduced, with a chance of being immobilized briefly. While a form is active, this power will build one level of Perfection. Damage: High, Recharge: Long
Designer's Comments: Innocuous Strikes offers a measure of control in the form of immobilization and a movement speed debuff. It also deals a good amount of damage in a good sized cone.

Sky Splitter

Melee, Extreme DMG(Smash), Foe Knock Up, Disorient, -Fly, Consumes Perfection

You leap into the air and hammer your foe with an overhead bash from your staff. Sky Splitter deals Extreme Smashing damage, will knock the target into the air and will briefly disorient your target. While a form is active, this power will build one level of Perfection if the user has two or less levels, if the user has three levels of Perfection it will consume them and gain some benefit. 3 Levels of Perfection of Body will cause additional smashing damage and grant the user a bonus to damage resistance a short time. 3 Levels of Perfection of Mind will cause additional psionic damage and boost the user's chance to hit for a short time. 3 Levels of Perfection of Soul will cause additional energy damage and increase the user's regeneration and recovery rate briefly. Critical Hit damage isn't enhanced by levels of Perfection. Damage: Extreme, Recharge: Slow
Designer's Comments: Sky Splitter is the heavy hitting single target power within the set. With 3 levels of Perfection you'll deal additional damage and buff yourself. What's not to love about that? Also, its animations and effects are superb.

Stalker Powers
Stalker power sets need Assassin's Strike, Build Up and Placate to function as intended. Due to this they don't get access to Staff Mastery. Instead of having this power and the 3 form toggles, Stalkers count as always having Form of the Body active from level 1 on. This means their attacks build Perfection of Body and Eye of the Storm and Sky Splitter consume them. Below are the powers that are exclusive to the Stalker version of Staff Fighting.

Assassin's Staff

Melee, Special DMG (Smash), Combo Builder

A signature Stalker attack. This attack does superior smashing damage on its own as a frontal attack and cannot be interrupted. However, if it is executed while you are Hidden, this attack will do tremendous damage, as you waylay your unsuspecting foe. This attack may be interrupted if you move or are attacked while executing this power and are hidden. Using this power while not hidden has a chance to critically hit equal to 33.3% times the number of stacks of Assassin's Focus. This power grants one stack of Perfection of Body. Using Assassin's Strike when not hidden will remove all stacks of Assassin's Focus regardless if you critically hit or not. Damage: Special, Recharge: Slow
Designer's Comments: No Stalker primary power set choice would be complete without Assassin's Strike.

Build Up

Self +DMG, +To Hit

Greatly increases the amount of damage you deal for a few seconds, as well as slightly increasing your chance to hit. Recharge: Long
Designer's Comments: Stalkers get Build Up instead of Staff Mastery.

Placate

Ranged, Foe Placate, Self Stealth/Hide

Allows you to trick a foe to no longer attack you. A Successful Placate will also Hide you. This Hide is very brief, and offers no Defense bonus, but it will allow you to deliver a Critical Hit or an Assassins Strike. However, if you attack a Placated Foe, he will be able to attack you back. Recharge: Long
Designer's Comments: As one would expect, Stalkers get Placate.

Tips and Tricks
Here are some tips and tricks for Staff Fighting that will hopefully get you started. These tips aren't intended to be the definitive method for playing Staff Fighting, but they might help you determine your own preferred way of playing with this powerset.

• Don't forget Staff Mastery!
  • This set heavily relies on the mechanics introduced in Staff Mastery and the granted Form powers. Picking up Staff Mastery will allow you do to the following:
    • Grant you a fairly constant damage buff, global recharge buff or endurance cost discount.
    • Cause Eye of the Storm and Sky Splitter to deal 20% additional damage if you have 3 stacks of Perfection.
    • Cause Eye of the Storm to debuff nearby foes if you have 3 stacks of Perfection.
    • Cause Sky Splitter to buff you if you have 3 stacks of Perfection.
  • Note that Stalkers do not have Staff Mastery. Instead they count as always having Form of the Body active. Their attacks will build levels of Perfection of Body.
• Know which form to use when
  • The 3 forms granted by Staff Mastery grant a level of versatility that isn't found in many melee power sets. Knowing which form to use and when can make your gameplay experience a lot more fun and will allow you to roll through some content that might be significantly more challenging to other characters without your versatility.
    • Use Form of the Body when the need to deal extra damage eclipses anything else. This Form will allow Eye of the Storm to reduce enemy damage resistance and for Sky Splitter to boost your own damage resistance.
    • Use Form of the Mind when you need a boost to recharge on any of your powers. This includes long cooldown powers in your other power set or pools. This Form will allow Eye of the Storm to debuff movement and recharge speed and cause Sky Splitter to boost your to hit.
    • Use Form of the Soul when endurance costs are an issue. If you find yourself running out of endurance a lot or simply running low on endurance activate this form. It can dramatically reduce your endurance costs while you have 3 levels of Perfection of Soul. Additionally, it allows Eye of the Storm to debuff enemy defense and causes Sky Splitter to boost your own recovery and regeneration.
• Strengths and Weaknesses
  • Staff Fighting is a fairly balanced set in that it has a good amount of single target and area of effect damage. When fighting a lot of enemies that are clumped together use your area of effect attacks like Guarded Spin, Eye of the Storm and Innocuous Strikes. However, mind your endurance. These powers tend to consume it quickly. So, activating Form of Soul can be tremendously useful in these situations.
  • Staff Fighting doesn't excel at burst damage like some other power sets that have Build Up. Instead Staff Fighting allows for good sustained damage and versatility. Identifying when to use your various Forms will allow you to more effectively leverage your additional level of versatility.

Themes
The nice thing about most weapon sets is that they can be worked into all Origins fairly easily. You can be a martial arts expert who has dedicated their life to mastering the long staff. You could also be enhanced by science to have improved reflexes, speed and strength and you so happen to use a staff or spear as your weapon of choice. Perhaps you've crafted a marvel or technology or magic that you wield to crush your foes. Maybe you're a mutant who was born with incredible strength and agility. In any case, if you're struggling with how you can make your character concept fit into a desired Origin, I find that leaning on my other power set to help explain my character's back story.

As always, I look forward to seeing the amazing character concepts you all produce along with the incredible costumes you build for these characters.

Passive aggressive is the new slap to the face

Looks like this was copied directly from the Street Justice Intrepid Informer. So does this:

It's mentioned twice, 3 times if you count the part on Assassin's Staff.

It's mentioned specifically in the header text for the stalker powers:

Not everyone has any experience with the set from beta. While some people are of the "want moar nao" persuasion, it's nice to have a formal response from the devs. Gives good indication it will be out soon, since this communication to the public has been missing for some time.

In case you or anyone else missed it, Z announced yesterday that it's being released on the 17th.

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

Understated I see.

Thanks for the post Freitag.

This is quite true. I have very limited time to play at present so I spend none of it on Beta. I do appreciate all of you who test it and tweak it, but it can't be me right now.

This does sound like a fun set tho'!

Yes; they occasionally refer to getting powers at a trainer using that phrase. Like Swap Ammo from Dual Pistols:

I'm guessing "because it looks cool".

That's kinda what happens when you are slammed into the ground... you bounce.

Also, any word on any alternate weapon types that weren't on Beta? Say, a pack like the Titan Weapons.... >.>

Probably because the set already has 3 other AoEs, in Guarded Spin, Eye of the Storm and Innocous Strikes.

Simple.... you bash them into the ground so hard that they rebound and bounce up.