Arcanist weapon --> staff advice needed

Denisgsv

So i'm a stamina arcanist, most, no all builds recommend dual wield, but i kinda like staff's, also it seems lightning one for arcanist will be even better.

So i reached 160cp and wanted to invest into a proper decent weapon. I thought something like deadly nirnhoned lightning staff, but do such even exist ? If not what should i go for ? charged precise ?

LunaFlora

i suggest precise for all weapons except maybe daggers.

though if you have researched Nirnhoned for Lightning Staff and you've collected the Deadly's Strike Lightning Staff you should be able to reconstruct it at a transmute station if you have Nirncrux

El_Borracho

A staff may only be useful on an Arcanist if you are trying to force Relequen into being effective or are using a heavy attack setup. But the majority of your damage is Fulminating Rune, Flail, and Fatecarver instead of the traditional LA rotation

Denisgsv

El_Borracho wrote: »

A staff may only be useful on an Arcanist if you are trying to force Relequen into being effective or are using a heavy attack setup. But the majority of your damage is Fulminating Rune, Flail, and Fatecarver instead of the traditional LA rotation

so even with upcoming changes you mean that dual wield will be superior ?

Syiccal

Denisgsv wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

A staff may only be useful on an Arcanist if you are trying to force Relequen into being effective or are using a heavy attack setup. But the majority of your damage is Fulminating Rune, Flail, and Fatecarver instead of the traditional LA rotation

so even with upcoming changes you mean that dual wield will be superior ?

Most likely as in pve daggers (crit) will be superior and in pvp maces are still likely to give more raw dmg. I'd like to be wrong and for someone on pts to prove it if possible as the dw meta has been boring for a while now

Necrotech_Master

i would think that with the upcoming changes, lightning staff could be very competitive for a arcanist giving a big buff to dot and channels (which fatecarver is counted as both, so it might double dip on that passive for (based on current pts values) +24% extra dmg just for wielding a lightning staff)

my arcanist right now is using a bow and im sitting at 52% crit chance

Denisgsv

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i would think that with the upcoming changes, lightning staff could be very competitive for a arcanist giving a big buff to dot and channels (which fatecarver is counted as both, so it might double dip on that passive for (based on current pts values) +24% extra dmg just for wielding a lightning staff)

my arcanist right now is using a bow and im sitting at 52% crit chance

if i were to go for lightning staff already, what would be best trait ? i suppose fiery weapon enchant but with what trait ?
nirnhoned infused charged?

Necrotech_Master

Denisgsv wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i would think that with the upcoming changes, lightning staff could be very competitive for a arcanist giving a big buff to dot and channels (which fatecarver is counted as both, so it might double dip on that passive for (based on current pts values) +24% extra dmg just for wielding a lightning staff)

my arcanist right now is using a bow and im sitting at 52% crit chance

if i were to go for lightning staff already, what would be best trait ? i suppose fiery weapon enchant but with what trait ?
nirnhoned infused charged?

i think most usually do nirnhoned for the raw dmg (since on a 2h weapon that could be like 200-250 more dmg compared to non-nirn), but arcanist might be OK doing charged as well for increasing the chance for status effects (since they already have an inherent chance increase and dmg of status effects)

i also wanted to update my previous post, i forgot the pts patch this week changed the lightning staff to buff direct and channel, instead of dot and channel (fire staff buffs dots on pts)

so fatecarver wouldnt be able to double dip on the passive, but it would still be getting 12% buff, along with your spammable (flail im guessing) getting a 12% buff as well

BasP

You might actually be better off with an Inferno Staff than a Lightning Staff as an Arcanist. I've done a few bad parses on the PTS to test the different weapons and ended up doing a bit more DPS with an Inferno Staff myself (and a few posts below mine Skinnycheeks has also said that an Inferno Staff would probably be slightly better on an Arcanist).

I used a Precise staff for the parses in I linked to in that post, but just tried Charged and Nirnhoned as well. With Charged I did 97K and with Nirnhoned 96K (instead of 100K with the Precise staff).

I normally don't use as many DOTs on my solo Arcanist as in those parses because I also slot Elemental Susceptibility, Vigor and Cruxweaver Armor on the back bar, so in actual content I'd benefit more from a Lightning Staff than an Inferno Staff (considering Lightning boosts Cephaliarch's Flail too). If you're more optimized than me though, Inferno might be better for you.

Denisgsv

BasP wrote: »

You might actually be better off with an Inferno Staff than a Lightning Staff as an Arcanist. I've done a few bad parses on the PTS to test the different weapons and ended up doing a bit more DPS with an Inferno Staff myself (and a few posts below mine Skinnycheeks has also said that an Inferno Staff would probably be slightly better on an Arcanist).

I used a Precise staff for the parses in I linked to in that post, but just tried Charged and Nirnhoned as well. With Charged I did 97K and with Nirnhoned 96K (instead of 100K with the Precise staff).

I normally don't use as many DOTs on my solo Arcanist as in those parses because I also slot Elemental Susceptibility, Vigor and Cruxweaver Armor on the back bar, so in actual content I'd benefit more from a Lightning Staff than an Inferno Staff (considering Lightning boosts Cephaliarch's Flail too). If you're more optimized than me though, Inferno might be better for you.

damn even with the patch staff are way behind dw

BasP

Denisgsv wrote: »

BasP wrote: »

You might actually be better off with an Inferno Staff than a Lightning Staff as an Arcanist. I've done a few bad parses on the PTS to test the different weapons and ended up doing a bit more DPS with an Inferno Staff myself (and a few posts below mine Skinnycheeks has also said that an Inferno Staff would probably be slightly better on an Arcanist).

I used a Precise staff for the parses in I linked to in that post, but just tried Charged and Nirnhoned as well. With Charged I did 97K and with Nirnhoned 96K (instead of 100K with the Precise staff).

I normally don't use as many DOTs on my solo Arcanist as in those parses because I also slot Elemental Susceptibility, Vigor and Cruxweaver Armor on the back bar, so in actual content I'd benefit more from a Lightning Staff than an Inferno Staff (considering Lightning boosts Cephaliarch's Flail too). If you're more optimized than me though, Inferno might be better for you.

damn even with the patch staff are way behind dw

Yeah, it looks that way. I wouldn't count my parses as definitive proof that staffs are worse though, as I'm not the greatest at parsing and didn't use the best setup gear wise. I'm definitely curious what numbers people hit with the various weapons that normally do 125K - 130K parses with a meta setup though.

But daggers have some clear advantages over staffs, such as a higher base Weapon Damage, more Crit Chance, the ability to proc two Enchants on the front bar and so forth. I believe the preferred DW DOT, Deadly Cloak, also beats whatever DOT you can slot from the Staff or Mages Guild skill line (not only because it deals 20% more damage to enemies in Execute range due to the DW passives).

It's hard to make up for all that with just a 12% damage increase to your spammable and Fatecarver if you use a Lightning Staff, or 12% damage to Fatecarver and your DOTs with an Inferno Staff.