Destro Staff Changes

spoqster

I really like the idea behind the changes. It's never good game design to distinguish between buffing single target and aoe damage. Good content has both bosses AND adds, and thus you need both kinds of damage in your build. Buffing either single target or aoe damage one at a time means players are either underoptimized or you're forcing them to switch setups mid-content - neither of which is an enjoyable experience. All in all, I think it's a much better approach to distinguish buffs by the type of damage you're doing.

In particular I prefer the most recent design (flame buff dots, lightning buff direct and channeled) over the initial proposal. However I am missing two things:

• Lightning staves feel a bit stronger than flame staffs with this design. Will flame staves now just get left behind?
• What about ice staves? Yes, they got buffed last patch. But will that be enough to keep them in line with the other two?

Having played quite a bit of sorc in D4 with the ice shards build, I've seen how fun an offensive ice magic spec can be.
Ultimately it would be amazing if all three staffs would be used in equal amounts in endgame builds - just by different builds and classes.

Essentially I am worried that the proposed changes will fall short on creating a truly even playing field for the weapons in endgame builds. So I am throwing in two more ideas to act as inspiration for developing this idea further:

1. Idea 1: Add the direct dmg buff to both. Have flame staves buff direct damage and dots. Have lightning staves buff direct damage and channeled.
2. Idea 2: Move the direct dmg buff to ice staves. Have flame staves buff dots, lightning buff channeled, ice staves buff direct damage.

Chilly-McFreeze

About idea 1: how many channels are there even in the game? Now compare that to the amount of dots