The Way of the Staff
"Those who spare the rod hate their children,
but those who love them are diligent to discipline them."
- Proverbs 13:24
(Don't hit your children, hit mobs in an online game instead.)
Introduction
In the time I've played Project: Gorgon, I've heard many differing opinions regarding my ultimate all-time favorite combat skill in the game: Staff skill. This guide will serve to describe the versatility, playstyles, abilities, and *some* of the combat skill combinations which can create powerful builds in the game (as of Update 273). You might hear people say Staff is a weak or underwelming combat skill. You might also hear them say it just doesn't seem very cool or it wasn't what they expected. Don't listen to them. Always try it for yourself and form your own opinion. That said, I played Gorgon using this skill for the past 9 months and it was...addictive.
Note: @BetaNotus, if you are looking for content like this for the wiki, please feel free to repost it there and edit it as you see fit.
Abilities
I wanted to describe Staff abilities in my own words, in case it helps newer players understand how they function more easily. If you're not new to the skill, you can probably skip this whole section or most of it.
Hogan
Heed the Stick - "tanking" ability. increases your aggro. you can mod it to mitigate 24 damage for 10 seconds. Thats enough time to fire off the skill again and always have 24 mitigation up.
Headcracker (Nice) - damage ability. If modded to be the end stage of the Suppression Stun combo, this will stun your single target. can also reduce the targets rage.
Phoenix Strike (Epic) - newly added this year. 60 second cooldown unmodded. moddable to increase Fire dmg for some seconds, heal you, decrease its own cooldown, buff your Major Healing abilities, and trigger vulnerability.
Wombat
Suppress - Strongest AOE dmg dealer and rage reduction. beginning of Suppression Stun combo (Suppress+AnyMelee+AnyMelee+Headcracker). moddable to deal more dmg and reduce more rage.
Furlak
Pinning Slash - Shares a cooldown with Pin. Deals some initial dmg and then some trauma over time. Meant to be used as part of the Staff/Unarmed skill combo that Citan has been working on. This version of pin doesn't root the target for multiple seconds. It stuns them momentarily.
Level Up
Double Hit (Core) - great dmg dealer that can reduce cooldown on Headcracker and increase dmg the next crushing attack you do.
Deflective Spin - reduces all types of incoming dmg by 40% for 8 seconds! amazing. can be modded to restore health over time, immediately, and restore power after a delay. Spam it!
Blocking Stance (Survival Utility) - makes you immune to piercing, crushing, and slashing damage for 10 sec. costs no power at higher ranks. can be modded to restore power immediately, increase dmg to Mentalism attacks, and increase healing amount of First Aid ability. This means you can save money and use only Good kits and still get the heal of an Amazing kit. They are expensive.
Smash (Basic) - pretty straightforward Combat Refresh ability. Pretty moddable but nothing very exciting.
Safe Fall (Sidebar) - extremely useful ability which allows you to take zero fall damage. useful if you don't have a flight form like me.
Pin (Signature Debuff) - roots the target in place. modded, this ability can have the widest array of effects such as -40% dmg to target, healing, reduce rage, increase dmg of Core attacks, etc.
Lunge - a light hit that can be modded to do AOE dmg, restore armor, and knockback.
Redirect - hits target, knocks them back, and reduces your taunt to them so they attack someone else. very moddable (-taunt, +%dmg, trauma dmg, more rage reduction).
Strategic Thrust - piercing dmg. deals more dmg to vulnerable targets.
Level 51+ staff abilities are taught by Roshun the Traitor in Serbule.
Playstyles
There is a high fantasy image engrained in our mind that Staff skill is meant to be used to enhance our magical abilities. I believe it is this that has affected Staff's reputation. This is not to say that the skill doesn't function well as a Secondary skill to Fire Magic, Ice Magic, Psychology, Mentalism, or even Archery (!). It functions quite well as a secondary skill. However, when you think of Staff skill, think more along the lines of the scene from Kung Fu Hustle that I posted above. This is the Bo Staff skill. Highly offensive, Highly defensive, Highly useful as a primary damage dealing and tanking skill, Highly supportive.
*Some* Staff skill playstyles
Defensive: Many of the skills directly reduce the amount of damage you receive. From being fully immune to any physical damage to mitigating a set amount of damage every time you're hit, to reducing all types of incoming damage by a percentage. Staff offers true survivability. In addition, modifications on Staff gear offer self-heals over time, percentage of max health heals when under a 50% health, self-heals on skill use (Suppress), and more.
Tanking: These abilities and mods also make this skill as viable for tanking as Shield and Cow. Mods on gear can increase the amount you taunt with the skill Heed the Stick. Pin can reduce incoming damage from your target, as well as keep the target from running.
Offensive: Staff isn't the strongest damage in the game. The difference here is that the innate defensive nature of Staff allows the player to survive longer than other skills when receiving direct damage from named mobs or full groups of enemies. Staff mods can increase Crushing damage done to targets, create combos which allow you to deal more damage, and increase the Area of Effect damage you do as well. In fact, the majority of these mods can be built into your gear without losing any of Staff's signature defensive capabilities. The best mods for this playstyle are the Headcracker combo (Suppression Stun) mod on gloves and the 2 +75 crushing dmg mods to Double Hit.
Simple Survival: When I first used this skill, I had it paired with Ice Magic and only used 2 abilities. Blocking Stance and Deflective Spin. Both abilities were completely unmodded in my gear and still offered more than enough reason to use Staff as my secondary. The No-risk solution to taking too much damage in AOE farming. It's notable here to say that if you mod these two skills, you can receive substantial health and power regen on use and over time.
Staff's helping skill "Hoplology"
This skill allows you to regain up to 15 Armor every time you use a Staff ability in combat. It currently only provides a bonus up to level 50 Hoplology, but is fairly easy to level up. It can be learned from Timmy's research table in Wolf Cave. Open your Recipes window after learning it. Each base item (armor or weapons or jewelry or instruments) in the game can be "studied" there. You may study a new item every 5 minutes and you receive a level every 3 or 4 times you study. You can only study each base item once. This secondary skill is still pretty powerful and essential to getting the most out of Staff. I levelled it up to 50 by setting an alarm to go off every 5 minutes until I was finished. I did this while I did my normal farming and grinding panthers in Kur. I still hear the alarm in my nightmares.
Which skills can I pair with Staff?
AnyRanged: Really any ranged skill can be paired with staff as long as it doesnt require a special Main Hand weapon other than a staff. I recommend building your gear as a Defensive staff build or a Simple Survival staff build. Pin is useful for getting out of harm's way. Redirect can send the mob back to the tank or another party member or even deaggro it entirely. Suppress can reduce their rage greatly. Defensive Spin and Blocking Stance are always must-haves. Don't focus on melee dmg with these combos, obviously.
Staff/Unarmed: I've tried desperately to get this build to work the way Citan seems to want to make it work. As a Pinning Slash & Slashing Strike trauma build. I can't. Building this as a Crushing Damage build is very very effective though. Use Bruising Blow & Double Hit to increase your overall dmg, with Bodyslam and Suppression Stun combo as your heavy hitters. Many have told me this is a stupid build, but Autopsy tells the truth. My numbers matched theirs.
Staff/Druid: A seemingly good combo that combines the utilities of both skills to reduce alot of damage. I'd call it an "Off Tank" build I guess. You could probably do some interesting things with this skill combo, but I'm not a druid.
Staff/Shield: So unstoppable that it got nerfed twice. Even still, this is a great tank/soloing build with lots of immunities and regen. If you've never played Gorgon this way, you've gotta try it. It's not all about the glass cannon builds.
Staff/Necro or AH: Pet(s) tanks or damages, you stay alive and deal damage for as long as the pet needs to kill the mob. Very cool, but not a recommended group or dungeon build at this time.
Conclusion
I hope this guide has been informative to you! If you have any questions or further suggestions to add to the guide, please post them below or message me ingame. -Hood
Spoiler:
The Way of the Staff
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