The DKS bonuses (major brutality) and weapon damage bonuses will not affect staff ability or staff LA/HA damage as far as I know (those are all dependent on spell damage). As such, the dreugh kings totem (named drop that is most likely what you got) is not a particularly useful piece.

If we're talking Pelinal's Aptitude, you'll have to do some research on that specific set to see what all it carries over, because due to the damage formula you'd still not get the full power bonus of either weapons or magic just by transferring weapon or spell damage (crit and max magicka/stamina for example also affect damage).

But yeah, any staff damage or magicka based ability are based off of spell damage, spell crit, and magicka, whereas all other weapons and stamina based abilities are based off of weapon damage, weapon crit, and stamina. The only exceptions are some damage shields (most of which scale off of magicka stats), some abilities based off specific attributes (like health or percentages), ultimates (which are I believe almost always based off stamina or magicka stats, whichever is higher), and summoned pet stats (which I am not the most knowledgable about but I think mostly scale off stamina stats). Buffs like Berserk (major or minor) only affect spell or weapon damage, never both. That's why a lot of defensive tank abilities will give both Ward and Resolve buffs, to increase spell and physical resistance, instead of just one buff.

firedrgn wrote: »

On this subject ...does the gladiators set buff staff. La and ha...Says 1800 weapon damage to light and heavy attacks.
Im guessing it does not.

The 1, 2, 3, and 4 piece bonuses do not. They only add weapon damage, which only affects things already using that stat. According to the tooltip, it should add weapon damage to your staff if you're using a light or heavy attack, but I'm not sure if that's the case. Regardless, the 5 piece bonus is generally considered underwhelming in most scenarios, and even then, should probably only be in consideration for a stamina based build. If you have a magicka build, you want to increase spell damage over weapon damage, and if you're a hybrid, there are better set options. Outside of that, a cursory glance at google results, and the lack of reddit access, you may have to go in game and test to see if the 5 piece bonus actually affects staff light and heavy attacks.

Wouldn't it be wiser to research 6 traits & build some armor of Mechanical Acuity, because from what I heard, it is a set that performs better than Julianos/Hundings Rage, DPS wise.