Staffs (and two-handed weapons in general) have always had the disadvantage on losing an extra armor set bonus. I do not understand why the designers made this a conscious decision. If the logic was that two-handed weapons were compensated for more damage, that does not hold true in this case.
Here is my one-handed axe:
Here is my two-handed staff:
This was not a big deal when the game had soft-caps and when weapon damage was segregated from spell damage. When 1.6 came out, theory crafters instantly recognized that dual swords gave more "spell" damage than a staff and gained an extra armor set bonus to boot (which invariably also meant more spell damage) - all without being reined in by soft-caps.
This format has been critiqued and asked many times on these forums and in ESO Live and the answer has always been the same: sword users are at greater risk and thus deserve a greater reward, staff users have the advantage of a ranged attack and easier ultimate regeneration. The "spellsword" archetype has also been cited as a reason for this format to stay.
To this I say the reasoning does not reflect the gameplay mechanics:
- Sword "users" do not necessarily put themselves at a greater risk because they get that bonus damage when they spam overload, curse, trapping web, etc. from 28 meters away
- Staff using templar biting jabs spammers NB ambushers actually do place themselves at risk without the same corresponding benefits
- Any random heal (hello structured entropy) with grant the same ultimate gain and thus negates the staff users alleged advantage
- I too think the "spellsword" archetype is cool - but why does this existence of this archetype mean I have to be less effective with a staff?
While this debate is cute, it has obscured the reality that the game has changed in a way that now gives too much of an advantage to dual swords over staffs.
When 1.6 came out, no champion points, low attribute points, and relatively modest spell damage meant dual sword users got a marginal benefit from using them. Let the min-maxers look silly holding two swords and firing range spells.
But now, many champion points, high attribute points (40K is now the standard!), and much higher spell damage means all those percentage multipliers to raw damage, to spell/weapon power, and critical hits make the damage from a dual wielder's spells such as dark flare now
noticeably higher than a staff users:
With Staff:
With Swords:
Every new item set, champion point, or situational bonus that adds spell power will exacerbate this! This imbalance will continue to get worse when Orsinium comes out and the power creep continues.
Why I don't want to use a restoration staff on my templar:
With Staff:
With Swords:
This is unbuffed. With a bad race (8 months since 1.6 and Nord magicka users are still running around with two crappy passive and thousands less magicka).
The resto staffs used to have a bonus to damage. It used to be unique in that it restored resources. Neither of these holds true anymore. It's sole purpose it to heal. It isn't even very good at that. The last passive is called "restoration master," it increases your healing done. But restoration masters use two swords, not a restoration staff:
My templar with a staff:
My templar with swords:
This is a HoT. Unbuffed. No food, no spellpower bonus, nothing.
Well, Joy, you are a Templar, so you can use dual swords. Other healers can't. Exactly. As if we templars already did not have a monopoly on healing, the IC nerf to blocking has further made us and our shards critical to group-play. My build isn't even optimized for spell damage. Those players who have 3.3k spell damage will lose more than the 550 I am losing - perhaps as much as 700 - by being forced to use a resto staff! This mechanic undercuts their heals and their overall versatility (healers today are expected to contribute good DPS).
In sum: Why do I have to lose all that spellpower just to use the healing springs spell?
Why I decon destruction staffs
Stamina users have a choice of 4 weapons to use. If 1 or 2 of them are suboptimal in the current meta (as usually happens), while this may be annoying to their preferred play-style, they can simply use one of the others and still perform efficiently and effectively. When the single DPS item ostensibly available to magicka users is suboptimal, they are screwed. The destruction staff went from arguably OP at game's launch to reasonably balanced by 1.5, to underperforming in 1.6, to just plain bad as of right now - all of this
completely independent of the whole loss of hundreds and hundreds spellpower for using one.
And it is bad. Destructive touch is a waste of mana Vs. anyone with a damage shield:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeN99_z7N6M&feature=youtu.be
Wall of elements, the skill you staff users will get rewarded for farming Orsinium's arena, does nothing to enemies that stand in it. Watch the video, my health bar
does not move:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJJb863umd4&feature=youtu.be
Use trapping webs from the undaunted tree for range spam. Crushing shock was nerfed and lost its chance to inflict elemental status effects. It just does modest damage now. Webs does as much damage, snares enemies, and has a fear CC synergy.
Etc, etc. The passives are underwhelming and the only skill that is good is elemental drain, one that does no damage, rather it provides unlimited resources.
In Sum: Is trading up to 700 spell damage for light attack spam compelling, let alone fair, game design? I don't think so.
What to do:
- Reevaluate the Restoration staff. Regeneration is a marginal skill. Siphon Spirit is now a bad one because ZoS limited this ability so it will only heal for a small amount once from any attack, no matter how much damage it did, no matter if it has secondary DoTs, no matter if the attack has additional damaging components (such as a weapon enchant proc). Cycle of Life, Essence Drain, Absorb are all obsolete passives.
- Reevaluate the Destruction Staff. All of its damaging skills are suboptimal and all of its passives are tied to mechanics that have been rendered obsolete since 1.6.
- Staffs now count as two gear set pieces.
- Note: I am not familiar enough with stamina to know if bows and two-handed swords suffer from the same problem as staff users. I see a lot of stamina DPS use a two-handed sword / wrecking blow instead of dual wield / rapid strikes so perhaps the inherent higher damage a two-handed sword has been enough to avoid the problem altogether. Still, my suggestions should only be considered for the state of magicka as I do not have enough knowledge in stamina DPS to be comfortable suggesting changes.
Finally, roll the "spellsword" archetype into the game's mechanics so that it will be relatively equal to a staff user instead of superior.
- The charged weapon trait is useless. It is replaced with the arcane property. An arcane trait makes it so the damage a sword's (basic) attacks do is based on magicka/spell damage. Now those spellswords who actually do use their swords are being rewarded for doing so.
- Arcane weapons give a small bonus for critical hits, spell penetration, and spell resistance because magicka dual wielders used either precise or nirn and should not lose their trait.
- From what I understand, magicka sword users benefit from the damage passive associated with these weapons on all of their attacks. This is fine, but again, why do sword users get a monopoly on damage?
- The destruction staff only offers penetration only for destruction skills. Either grant penetration to all magic attacks or make it so the passives from a destruction staff actually augment elemental damage.
- The resto staff had its damage bonus taken away, which I guess is fine, but it was never replaced with anything, which is not fine. Essence Drain and the Cycle of life are the two worst passives in the game. Please do something
tl;dr: Dual "sword" users are not nerfed under this format. In fact they are buffed since if they actually use their swords, that damage now scales off the magicka. Staff users are now no longer penalized with losing hundreds and hundreds spell damage (which will get worse every time a new gear bonus to spellpower makes its way into the game). Play as you want ... and not be penalized for it