Neft lifestaff FFS

General Discussion General Discussion
140

Healing is strong.

I play as a healer, and while I do find that I get blown up by good players, I think that is fine given that most of the time it is due to me making a mistake.

However, the skill ceiling for healing is definitely not lower than it is for a lot of other weapons. I have played virtually everything apart from bow, musket, and blunderbuss, and in my experience Lifestaff is definitely not easier than, say, GA / Hammer or Spear / Rapier or Void Gauntlet / Ice Gauntlet or Firestaff / Rapier, etc.

I will say that my gear definitely isn’t the best. I only have one item at 625, and almost no item is perfectly optimized, so perhaps when I get the best gear I will magically be able to roll my face across the keyboard and keep everything in a 1.000 feet radius, including myself, alive. Until then, I have to actually try to keep two / three people (and myself) alive.

Now, the above only applies if I have one (or more) people harassing me. If I am left to heal (like the healer in the video) it is dead easy. The skill ceiling is, indeed, low. But, if people ignored me as I was ramming my VG blade through their throats, then the skill ceiling would be similarly low.

Just stick a spear guy on a healer and CC them to hell and back, or a hatchet player like the likes of Wiliam Pico or Iloh and that should make any healer’s job quite challenging. Heck, if you have musket players in your squad who are anywhere near as good as Israelious, Bx3, and Okarin (spelling?) (they are all on our server), then let those musket players have a field day and target the healers.

  1. If I am allowed to freecast, then I am able to keep my teammates alive most of the time (unless the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against us) without too much effort. Skill ceiling: low (at that point, it depends on the skill of my teammates).
  2. If MOST players focused on me, I would be pretty happy too as I would pull out my rapier and run around. Skill ceiling: low to moderate depending on who I am facing.
  3. If I have to defend myself from one or two good assailants as well as keep my teammates up. Skill ceiling: high.

Like with most things, the skill ceiling for a healer exists on a sliding scale. In some instance and with certain specs, the skill ceiling is, admittedly, low, but that isn’t always so.

1 Like
141

It’s a pretty easy weapon to play if left alone but pretty hard and harder than most dps weapons when people are focusing on you at that point yeah skill matters
I mean i most of the time is able to keep 3 stacks of intensify while healing even when people are focused on me that means most the time I’m not using rapier
I mostly use rapier when i solo a point in opr at that time it’s about me alive not get hit by any abilities and annoy others

142

If I have the time to manage stacks of intensify, then most of the time I don’t really need the extra healing it provides :stuck_out_tongue: I agree, though. Healing when under pressure is difficult, but that is also why it is fun.

@GIMSE I do wish they would change Sacred Ground, though. I think the main problem is the 50% extra healing from all other sources. 8k health pots, Infused regeneration pots, and 6k mana pots (with Healthy toast) turns every player standing inside SG into a healer on steroids.

I personally dislike the ability because it doesn’t fit my playstyle. I like being on the move, not be confined to a tiny patch on the ground. Yet, it is too powerful a skill to pass up on. I would be 100% fine if they increased the radius (by a lot), slashed the healing so it is perhaps a 300 health per second heal, and reduced the healing effectiveness boost from 50% to 15%. However, if they did that, then I want Splash of Light to get a rework :stuck_out_tongue: It is a F*^%$@ terrible skill. I would love for it to be something akin to Prayer of Mending from WoW, for example. Really anything beyond what it is now. The casting animation is prohibitively long and the healing subpar at best.

2 Likes
143

But if a healer is being pressured or forced to use abilities on themselves, then they’re not healing their group. That’s how groups die. The burst damage is nuts after patch. People are vanishing during the 1 second cast time.

144

or just nerf rapier as its literally a get out of jail free card for all builds, and buff other weapons to more effectively burst life staff. Ive seen u make so many nerf posts im starting to think ur trolling.

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145

Slotting rapier means you lose 50% of your offensive capabilities. Cause let’s face it, rapier can’t hold its own weight against Spear + Hatchet in CQC.

Not every build can run rapier because they can’t afford a dead weight weapon for their off hand.

146

depends, the defensive capacities more than well makes up for its lack of offense, which does need a buff and soon. There is no dead weight with rapier, unless ur just bad then ok theres that, but the breath time u get with reposte, plus a small aoe stun with rend, plus fleche and evades extra I frame, u literally can get out of any situation. only builds I can see this not working on is ice gauntlet and void gauntlet as those arent really good at being their own weapon. besides that, it can literally double ur survivability in just about any other build.

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147

DEX + INT scaling means you get literally nothing offensively if you aren’t exclusively a ranger or mage.

Three major build paths (CON / STR / FOC) have zero offensive capabilities with the weapon. I mean healers run it because they have zero viable offensive tools to use. Might as well use the poking stick to flee from opponents.

Healers/Tanks/Bruisers aren’t going to pump respectable DPS numbers into someone enough to force them to back off for a hot minute using the weapon. Running 5 stats on a weapon is pretty troll.

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I said defensive capabilities, which is the issue. bruisers pumping dmg is irrelevant when my issue is that they wont die if they have a rapier. im not saying theyll be super high dmg gladiators, im saying that they will be a hell of a lot harder to kill.

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149

I think reworking riposte would not be a bad idea, but let’s face it: if they, Amazon Games, decide to “nerf” the rapier, then a lot of healers would probably switch to the Hatchet. The Social Distance ability is a great escape tool after the patch and together with Defy Death and Berserk it turns the Hatchet into a solid secondary, defensive weapon. So they must then nerf the Hatchet because it is clearly too strong. After the Hatchet nerf, a lot of healers might see the merit in running Spear as their 2nd weapon, so then the spear would need a nerf…

I don’t think there is a solution that would truly satisfy the crowd that shouts “Nerf Lifestaff FFS.” I mean, they probably just want to see healers face down in the mud, dead and beaten :smiley:

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150

it would still be an improvement to rapier. Defy death would be annoying but it can’t be used basically every encounter like riposte or fleche + evade

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151

I think this just clearly shows that healers have no defensive options from the life staff alone, which is why everyone uses a rapier to survive. GA has charge, FS has burnout, WH and IG have CC etc etc. VG has scream which is still short from a defence perspective, but that’s an ability that is used offensively as well so it needs to be balanced.

If healers have no survivability then what exactly is the point of them?

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they can self heal and self sacred

153

But then that’s using abilities on themselves and not their group = group dies. Besides, its not possible to survive just standing in an SG with this amount of burst damage. Plus, can get staggered during the DE/LE cast time

154

I run with the rapier, and even I find it an annoying ability. Using Riposte is kind of like being addicted to a drug, though. It is so hard to give up, so a nerf (the equivalent of going cold turkey) would almost feel like a relief :slight_smile:

Still, a nerf to riposte won’t sate the bloodlust of those that simply want everything to die with a single swing of their Great Axe (sorry Great Axe players. I am stereotyping you).

I don’t have any solutions, but the fact so many healers run the rapier (me included) is because we “need” some kind of defensive tool(s) and right now the rapier is the single best defensive weapon.

3 Likes
155

and when IG users pick entomb they give up an offensive skill, same with charge. At least be consistent.

it very easily is, not just for healers

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156

It depends. I kind of use SG on myself most of the time because most of the people I play with don’t stay inside SG. They get the single target heals, and I get SG + my pots. Just standing inside it is not enough to survive, though. I can dodge-roll around in it for a bit as I pot and maybe get a heal off, but then I HAVE to move. If I stay, I get swarmed by too many enemies and I am royally screwed.

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157

If it’s not easy for healers to survive in SG then the fact that they can self heal and self sacred is not a defensive ability

158

i think having an ability that forces people to just not waste time on you counts as a defensive ability

159

Put an Oblivion under them. Lets see if they can be killed or not…