Staff Mastery (SM)

[Almighty1]

Originally Posted by Lebeau

Solutions?:

1) Slightly more base damage from Magnification-buffs.

2) Droppable/boxable range-30 endgame-level staves.

3) Shorter cd's (& global cd's) for all SM damage/a.s./range buffs (say 30-or-so secs/very short?).

I would agree with points 1 and 2, but not 3. Implementing 3 will only make it easier to play SM. I feel SM is very hard to play on a lock (poor def, less range compared to archers). You need to constantly position yourself very well to avoid rushes or getting cc'd from archers bcoz u have less cc(or lower lvl CCS to get ou from it).
And also you need keep track of the buff duration , coz you need a decent amount of time to full buff again.

And for me, I like this difficulty. It makes me want to play this style more. I personally do not want SM style to be made easy. But it should be buffed up a bit more.

[Lebeau]

Originally Posted by Lebeau

...

Another thing I forgot to mention is that jewelry damage adds (whether older &/or newer ones) are linear for staff mastery (i.e. straight numeric additions), as the tree has no %-based damage boosts such as Recharged Arrows, Dirty Fighting, Deadeye, Cold Blood, Berserk, Fulminating, normal + #% spells, etc. As such, the newer harder-hitting lvl-60 weapons (for archers & barbs) net an even greater damage addition due to having these %-based damage buffs. Thus, the subclass damage differences between then (lvl 50 cap) & now (60 lvl cap) are even wider & more imbalanced than I had already said. Alas....

-As to cd's, Almighty, 30 secs is merely my own balance suggestion ... they could be made 45 secs, or even 60 secs ... but the current 2 min. cd's/short gcd's are just entirely too long imho in balanced relation to the very little that one obtains from each buff.

[Almighty1]

Originally Posted by Lebeau

Another thing I forgot to mention is that jewelry damage adds (whether older &/or newer ones) are linear for staff mastery (i.e. straight numeric additions), as the tree has no %-based damage boosts such as Recharged Arrows, Dirty Fighting, Deadeye, Cold Blood, Berserk, Fulminating, normal + #% spells, etc. As such, the newer harder-hitting lvl-60 weapons (for archers & barbs) net an even greater damage addition due to having these %-based damage buffs. Thus, the subclass damage differences between then (lvl 50 cap) & now (60 lvl cap) are even wider & more imbalanced than I had already said. Alas....

Yes, this is true. Warlocks do lack spells/passives which give them % dmg bonus, which is why we are forced to look for more speed with adequate dmg. Pure dmg won't help locks with DPS.

Originally Posted by Lebeau

-As to cd's, Almighty, 30 secs is merely my own balance suggestion ... they could be made 45 secs, or even 60 secs ... but the current 2 min. cd's/short gcd's are just entirely too long imho in balanced relation to the very little that one obtains from each buff.

I don't think the duration should be more than the cool down, bcoz it would be op then. Duration should remain the same as Cool down. The GCD or the casting time can be reduced to makes the buffing up faster. It's pretty time consuming now.

[Sentan]

What I'm missing in Staff Mastery Tree is spell such as South Cross or Shield Piercing which scales with +110/120/130/140/150% Attack Damage Bonus... even base +100% Attack Damage spell with 40 range would be cool helpful to finish enemies whenever they are out of range.

[Almighty1]

Originally Posted by Sentan

What I'm missing in Staff Mastery Tree is spell such as South Cross or Shield Piercing which scales with +110/120/130/140/150% Attack Damage Bonus... even base +100% Attack Damage spell with 40 range would be cool helpful to finish enemies whenever they are out of range.

Now that would be cool

[Kimahri_Ronso]

Originally Posted by Sentan

What I'm missing in Staff Mastery Tree is spell such as South Cross or Shield Piercing which scales with +110/120/130/140/150% Attack Damage Bonus... even base +100% Attack Damage spell with 40 range would be cool helpful to finish enemies whenever they are out of range.

Ffs, no.
Why warlocks wanna play as a marksman too?
Marksman is plain boring, range + phewphew.

Warlocks are spellcasters, they are meant to use magic and not normal hits. Sorry Allmighty and Mr Freaky, but SM and AS is something that other subclasses should value more, I know you can skill it, but you shouldn't use it. Right, NGD's fault too, years of begging for making warlocks REALLY warlocks will happen (soon but not soon ) hopefully. Untill that, I suggest you to try some other subclass(es).

[Sentan]

Originally Posted by Kimahri_Ronso

Ffs, no.
Why warlocks wanna play as a marksman too?
Marksman is plain boring, range + phewphew.

Warlocks are spellcasters, they are meant to use magic and not normal hits.

atm Marksman spells deal much more dmg than lock ones even AoE spell like Fire Rain with 30 sec cd hits for 800+... just take a look at Arrow Mastery tree and spells placed there.

[standistortion]

Originally Posted by Lebeau

Another thing I forgot to mention is that jewelry damage adds (whether older &/or newer ones) are linear for staff mastery (i.e. straight numeric additions), as the tree has no %-based damage boosts such as Recharged Arrows, Dirty Fighting, Deadeye, Cold Blood, Berserk, Fulminating, normal + #% spells, etc. As such, the newer harder-hitting lvl-60 weapons (for archers & barbs) net an even greater damage addition due to having these %-based damage buffs. Thus, the subclass damage differences between then (lvl 50 cap) & now (60 lvl cap) are even wider & more imbalanced than I had already said. Alas....

-As to cd's, Almighty, 30 secs is merely my own balance suggestion ... they could be made 45 secs, or even 60 secs ... but the current 2 min. cd's/short gcd's are just entirely too long imho in balanced relation to the very little that one obtains from each buff.

Or even pulled back lower so you've only 2 buffs running continuously with a comfortable overlap for casting one as another is about to run out, all that time spent buffing is really all that prevents SM from being both OP and a nice way to play. The whole tree would benefit from a rework imho, there are some really good general spells that could be more popular if they weren't mixed in with staff damage specific stuff. Evendims fury at the top for example, not staff related at all and similar to mana burn which is in a different tree entirely.

[Kimahri_Ronso]

Originally Posted by Sentan

atm Marksman spells deal much more dmg than lock ones even AoE spell like Fire Rain with 30 sec cd hits for 800+... just take a look at Arrow Mastery tree and spells placed there.

Why do you even compare Marks damage to warlock one?
They are two different subclass. Just because Marks hits high it doesn't mean that warlock should be able to do the same.

What I mean is that SM indeed must be a warlock skill and a warlock skill ONLY.
The whole tree should be reworked, staff mastery should be about using devastating spells and not about buffing the damage, range and speed of normal hits...

[MrFreaky]

Originally Posted by Kimahri_Ronso

Why do you even compare Marks damage to warlock one?
They are two different subclass. Just because Marks hits high it doesn't mean that warlock should be able to do the same.

What I mean is that SM indeed must be a warlock skill and a warlock skill ONLY.
The whole tree should be reworked, staff mastery should be about using devastating spells and not about buffing the damage, range and speed of normal hits...

no. i agree that warlocks in general needs a serious revamp of spell and overall dps, but asking us to abandon a playstyle because it doesn't fit the "warlock" is of no help.

at this moment in time SM is very feasible and surprisingly fun. it is certainly not the best setup because of its long CDs and buffing time, but it works and proves a whole lot more entertaining than spell casting alone.

we can see a lot of locks either a) abandoning their setup and shifting over to SM or b) completely ridding of their character and switching to a much more brainless and easy class to play *cough* barbs/marks *cough*

i would much rather go back to spells, a playstyle which i played for 5 years or so, but myself being unwilling to grind new characters, i am forced to play the only level 60 which i retain. and the only way ican do it is by using SM.