Enhancer Staffs As Melee Weapons


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Tomb Titivator

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Joined: Tuesday, 25th November 2014, 02:47

Post Tuesday, 1st March 2016, 03:29

Enhancer Staffs As Melee Weapons

I -never- use an enhancer staff as a melee weapon. I never plan to use an enhancer staff as a melee weapon. I always carry a swap. Demon Blade/Whip/Trident are all common candidates, though other weapons do serve. If I am training staves, it is for a lajatang. Is this a mistake?

Vestibule Violator

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Joined: Sunday, 14th July 2013, 16:36

Post Tuesday, 1st March 2016, 04:01

Re: Enhancer Staffs As Melee Weapons

I know the Staff of Air is a very strong weapon against anything that doesn't resist electricty when in the hands of someone going for Tornado. (assuming staves and evocations are trained up, of course)

I've never really looked at the others. (or the staff of air in the hands of an air mage that isn't going for lvl 8-9 spells)
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Dis Charger

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Joined: Wednesday, 7th August 2013, 08:25

Post Tuesday, 1st March 2016, 04:08

Re: Enhancer Staffs As Melee Weapons

  • The Fire, Ice and Air staves are all pretty solid melee weapons. This is because they essentially give you the same as enemy AF_Fire, AF_Cold, AF_Elec, which check the appropriate resistance BUT COMPLETELY IGNORE AC.
  • Damage is 1d(1.25*(magic skill + evoc/2)) -1.
  • It takes more XP to get this online than other similar damage tier weapons, but if you're also using magic anyways it's not that bad.
  • Skill necessary to use a Staff well, 10 Staves [min delay], and (2*evoc + magic skill) must be greater than 30. (To pass the check for it to apply the extra damage on every hit).
    • For getting it online early; this generally translates to 10 Staves, 14 {Fire, Ice, Air}, 8 Evocations.
  • The Earth Staff not so much (it checks AC). Staff of Death is basically a dagger of pain, though it's slightly slower 0.6 instead of 0.5; and the pain damage is more per hit.
For my own advice; yes a staff melee is a good option. Staff of (Element) + Buckler gets better melee tests (fsim) than Lajatang versus most early/midgame targets; though since the physical part is very low (5 Damage, dagger tier); you'll probably want a demon trident or Lajatang as a swap against something that resists. Staff of Air is probably the best one, since rElec is rare among enemies and rElec is rare for you (it's the only non-artifact source).
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Vestibule Violator

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Joined: Sunday, 14th July 2013, 16:36

Post Tuesday, 1st March 2016, 05:01

Re: Enhancer Staffs As Melee Weapons

Air staff rolls for more damage than the others. It takes more training to get up to 100% trigger rate, though. Min delay is at 12 skill, not 10.

Ziggurat Zagger

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Joined: Tuesday, 10th January 2012, 19:49

Post Tuesday, 1st March 2016, 05:43

Re: Enhancer Staffs As Melee Weapons

Air deals the same damage as the other staves (assuming no resistances) and the extra check for air damage seems to have been removed.

Vestibule Violator

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Post Tuesday, 1st March 2016, 06:16

Re: Enhancer Staffs As Melee Weapons

Huh, I missed that it had changed.

Ziggurat Zagger

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Joined: Sunday, 5th May 2013, 08:25

Post Tuesday, 1st March 2016, 07:36

Re: Enhancer Staffs As Melee Weapons

Staff of air has never, ever done more damage (or different damage) than the others.
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Barkeep

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Joined: Tuesday, 11th January 2011, 12:28

Post Tuesday, 1st March 2016, 15:46

Re: Enhancer Staffs As Melee Weapons

If I were planning to kill stuff largely with conjurations and had a matching enhancer staff, I'd probably use it as my melee weapon. The weapon skill investment is low, Evo is great for a bunch of other reasons (which can fill in the gaps for things resistant to your element of choice), and you'll be training your element anyhow. Unless you're tiny, you can use a shield too. And hey, you'll be doing a lot of damage with conjurations so it doesn't hugely matter what you're using to hit the rest of the game's popcorn.

If I had a bunch of experience to spare or found something really baller (demon weapons come to mind), I might train up another weapon as well, but I'm kind of lazy and don't like swapping weapons and 'conjurations plus an enhancer staff' is good enough to win.
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Barkeep

Posts: 4435

Joined: Tuesday, 11th January 2011, 12:28

Post Tuesday, 1st March 2016, 15:48

Re: Enhancer Staffs As Melee Weapons

A further caveat to the above: *and* I hadn't already spent a bunch of XP training something else to mindelay. If I were killing dudes with a demon whip at-or-near mindelay, I wouldn't drop it when I found my enhancer.
I am not a very good player. My mouth is a foul pit of LIES. KNOW THIS.

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