I have destruction staff equipped but don't use the abilities. Should I still take some passives?

SilverBride

The subject pretty much says it all. I have a destruction staff equipped but I am not using any of the abilities in my rotation. Will I still benefit from taking some of the passives?

the1andonlyskwex

Yes. Elemental Force and Ancient knowledge buff all of your attacks just for having the staff equipped. Tri Focus buffs heavy attacks, and I think Penetrating Magic and Destruction Expert affect light and heavy attacks (although I'm not 100% sure).

InaMoonlight

Yep They often also benefit your class or whatever skills - Make sure to read the tooltips, so you don't accidentally slot a passive ice-staff taunt if you don't want one

Fur_like_snow

Yes. But I would suggest at least using blockade in your rotation.

YandereGirlfriend

You can definitely skip some of them.

The passive that gives Penetration and the Magicka-on-kill abilities come to mind as neither of those will be useful to you in a single-target boss fight when you're already at the Penetration cap.

Also the Ice Staff taunt if you're not a tank and use an Ice Staff.

SilverBride

So I should either not take the Ice Staff taunt passive, or if I do just make sure I don't use an Ice Staff. That is very good to know. The last thing I want is to taunt!

Vevvev

I'd take the following

• Tri Focus ((Unless you use an ice staff and are not a tank))
• Elemental Force
• Ancient Knowledge
• (Edit) Adding Destruction Expert on here since I just realized it also restores magicka on weapon attacks. You land the killing blow with a Light or Heavy Attack and it'll restore 3,600 magicka.

Penetrating Magic only effects Destruction staff abilities, but it can be very powerful since it ignores 10% of a target's spell resistance. This makes it very powerful against enemies with lots of resistances like other players.

SilverBride

Vevvev wrote: »

I'd take the following

• Tri Focus ((Unless you use an ice staff and are not a tank))
• Elemental Force
• Ancient Knowledge
• (Edit) Adding Destruction Expert on here since I just realized it also restores magicka on weapon attacks. You land the killing blow with a Light or Heavy Attack and it'll restore 3,600 magicka.

This is what I chose to go with. I did take Tri Focus but will be sure not to equip an ice staff. I prefer fire anyway.

Thanks to all for the great advice!