Fixing Destruction Staff.

Ralathar44

There are 3 major problems with Destruction Staff atm:

1. It under-performs in the general DPS role compared to bow. While bow is very good this is more due to the failings of Destruction Staff than how good bow is.

2. It does not feel satisfying to play and does not embody destruction magic at all. Too many close ranged moves, a lackluster force shock, and the need to go out of your way to debuff to get the most out of your damage make it have a very disjointed feel as well as being in many ways opposite of destruction magic.

3. The presence of a dedicated and powerful elemental resistance debuff in the set makes it necessary for every other skill in the set to be weaker for balance reasons. Additionally gameplay emphasizing debuffing and then attacking is a flawed DPS idea, debuffing should happen as part of your attacks if it is included to keep the destructive feel present.



My personal ideas on what is needed to fix this set:

New Passive Staff characteristic: 5% baseline chance to apply status effects on a heavy attack, Elemental force would apply to this chance for a grand total of 20%.

Destructive Touch: Extend range to 10m baseline.

Wall of Elements: 20% chance to cause elemental status effect on every pulse. This would be increased by elemental force. Ice Wall: If an enemy is chilled they are frozen. Fire Wall: If an enemy is burning the damage bonus for fire increases from 10% to 20%.

Force Shock: Complete redesign.

New ability: Elemental Bolt: Does moderate damage of the equipped staff's damage type. 20% chance to cause elemental status effects. This would be increased by elemental force.

Morph 1: Concussive Bolt: Stuns and unbalances casting targets for 3 seconds

Morph 2: Explosive Bolt: Deals damage to up to 2 enemies near the target, but now deals 25% less damage. Chance to apply status effects applies to all targets.

Names for each Bolt: Fire Bolt, Ice Shard, Lightning Bolt.

Morph 1 names: Concussive Fire Bolt, Concussive Ice Shard, Concussive Lightning Bolt.

Morph 2 names: Fireball, Explosive Ice, Chain Lightning.

Weakness to Elements: Completely removed

Replaced with:

Elemental Storm: Ranged AOE damage that pulses similar to volley only with destructive flavor. Range: 25, radius 5. Deals damage every 0.5 seconds for 3 seconds. 5% chance to apply elemental effects per tick.

Morph 1: Lasting Storm: Duration is increased to 5 seconds.
Morph 2: Intense Storm: Chance to inflict elemental effects is raised to 30%

Impulse: Left as is.





I'd like to stress that while this aims to improve the efficacy of destruction staff at dealing damage instead of just being good at AOE farming trash, it's also aimed at making it FEEL way more satisfying to play.


Explanation of changes:

• The range increase to Destructive touch make it feel less melee and less limiting.
• The chance to cause status elements has been sprinkled throughout to increase the feel of actually using those elements.
• Elemental Wall feels more impactful on it's own.
• Force Shock felt very lacking, the redesign to force bolt will make it feel much more like destruction magic, and provide a reliable ranged AOE option for those that morph it that way.
• Weakness to Elements removal: This was holding back the set
• Elemental Storm: Ranged AOE damage without needing a morph. Wohoo! Didn't want to include this one because it requires alot more work, but I feel to achieve parity with bow it is needed.

Nabren

I tend to agree that with only 5 skill slots its hard to justify the debuff. I just don't feel the Destruction Staff has any advantages over the Restoration Staff when using class skills and world skills.

WhiteQueen

Compared to the previous history of the Destruction skill, I agree that the abilities are lackluster.

valkaneer2b14_ESO

There is a huge argument on Tamriel Foundry on Destruction staff and Bow. There are a lot of ppl that swear up and down the Staff blows the Bow out of the water in veteran levels. They say the AoE of the staff gives a large dps advantage over the bow in AoE situations.

Relicz

yeah you have to suffer through 38 rank up till you get impulse then you'll be happy I'm at 34 now

Rizzit

i played aoe bow templar used to farm up to 50 in 3 days with bombard and spears, came in VR died on first 3er mob grp respecced to destro/heal lolwut on mobs now

edit still everything except impulse is crap in destro. debuff resistance total useless wall of elements not viable and the touch thing can be morphed to 17m range its kinda okayish for soloing but not justifiable in grps or pvp

steinernein

There isn't an argument, people just don't bother running the numbers. No *** Bow can't keep up against a destro staff AE machine.

Rizzit wrote: »

i played aoe bow templar used to farm up to 50 in 3 days with bombard and spears, came in VR died on first 3er mob grp respecced to destro/heal lolwut on mobs now

edit still everything except impulse is crap in destro. debuff resistance total useless wall of elements not viable and the touch thing can be morphed to 17m range its kinda okayish for soloing but not justifiable in grps or pvp

Wall of Elements is supplements Impulse pretty well especially if you go the Shock route, it's called more damage mitigation. How is that not viable?

Weakness to elements is also pretty good depending on your group make up.

The only destro spell that is questionable is destructive clench/reach - that spell is pretty lackluster and underperforms while Crushing Force or whatever just requires good timing, but it's spammable and with the right build you can make it a proc based one.

Ralathar44

The fact that people are arguing that the entire skill line is weak and that the last skill is powerful enough on it's own to outclass all of Bow in AOE damage is pretty strong proof that destruction staff needs a major revamp.

It also suggests that impulse may need a nerf lol. Though honestly it doing more AOE damage seems fair enough considering that it's PBAOE. and thus has no real range.

steinernein

Ralathar44 wrote: »

The fact that people are arguing that the entire skill line is weak and that the last skill is powerful enough on it's own to outclass all of Bow in AOE damage is pretty strong proof that destruction staff needs a major revamp.

It also suggests that impulse may need a nerf lol. Though honestly it doing more AOE damage seems fair enough considering that it's PBAOE. and thus has no real range.

So you listen to a random grouping of people with absolutely no numbers to back it up because it fits your agenda? As obvious as that is the only real questionable skills in the destruction line is the non-interrupt force shock and possibly destructive reach/clench.

The rest of it is solid. It's sad you really don't understand how much of a DPS increase Weakness to Element's morph gives.

Ralathar44

steinernein wrote: »

So you listen to a random grouping of people with absolutely no numbers to back it up because it fits your agenda? As obvious as that is the only real questionable skills in the destruction line is the non-interrupt force shock and possibly destructive reach/clench.

The rest of it is solid. It's sad you really don't understand how much of a DPS increase Weakness to Element's morph gives.

I'll be here when it gets buffed. This isn't my first rodeo. I just won't be using it until then. Staff can be pretty nice for CC though.

Aimeryan

Does the destro staff light/heavy attacks get buffed by weakness to elements?

The issue with weakness to elements is that it is single-target in an aoe-heavy weapon skill line. If you are playing sorc as well, the only single-target elemental skill you would use is Fury, which is only great as an execute.

If weakness to elements was aoe...

P.S. In groups there are other sources of minus spell resist.

Sleepydan

Ild really like how your changes are bringing out currently iconic tes spells in the fire ice and lightning bolts etc.

I would like to see the flames, sparks, etc line added as well if possible. Maybe in place of the light/heavy attacks?

I'm not sure. I'm with you though good stuff that's definitely a step in the right direction

Ralathar44

Sleepydan wrote: »

Ild really like how your changes are bringing out currently iconic tes spells in the fire ice and lightning bolts etc.

I would like to see the flames, sparks, etc line added as well if possible. Maybe in place of the light/heavy attacks?

I'm not sure. I'm with you though good stuff that's definitely a step in the right direction

Thanks, to be honest I made changes based on things from a balance perspective and achieving the feeling of having DESTRUCTION MAGIC first and it was a happy accident that they ended up close enough to some of the old spells for me to make it like that .

I was trying to use Bow as a good comparison on functionality. IE range, single target vs AOE vs CC. I also had a driving principle that each spell should be worth it in and of itself.

steinernein

Aimeryan wrote: »

Does the destro staff light/heavy attacks get buffed by weakness to elements?

The issue with weakness to elements is that it is single-target in an aoe-heavy weapon skill line. If you are playing sorc as well, the only single-target elemental skill you would use is Fury, which is only great as an execute.

If weakness to elements was aoe...

P.S. In groups there are other sources of minus spell resist.

Yes; it deals elemental damage so it's indirectly buffed by weakness to elements. If you're playing a sorc and using weakness to elements chances are you're in a group and chances are there will be either another sorc or a DK or anyone wielding elemental enhanced weapons will benefit.

Depending on your approach, I need to run the numbers on this, it'll always be beneficial for someone to throw on weakness to elements since you ought to animation cancel between attacks for DPS purposes. That and it'll restore magicka.

1111scornneb18_ESO

i just skilled force shock and im SHOCKED.... it only does one time( fire,frost, OR Shock and not AND) dmg not 3 times as there stand so its extrem weak

Pyatra

Pulsar is the thing that pulls the staff ahead... no, I mean drags kicking and screaming. Lowering Max Health on first hit basically does around 20% off HP, as an AoE that is great... but spamming it is a little lack luster as you may as well drop lightning pool with the DMG spike morph.