It’s safe to say that the current nerfs to Beam staff failed to knock it out of the top spot.
I think the nerfs brought the Sniper component in line. We need to talk about Beam deleting hordes without needing to Vent. How is this possible? RNG Heat Sink procs paired with the Pyro passive and the Pyro Ult to compensate for bad RNG on a short timer.
My suggestion is to make the heat reduction from Heat Sink happen overtime instead of instant. I don’t have a suggestion on the mechanic specifics - but break the synergy with pyro ult compensating bad RNG in the moment. Force Beam staff users to Vent for heat at least SOME of the time.
I don’t think you’re wrong. There is definitely a point where the heat sink numbers are balances and it isn’t OP with Beam. My goal wasn’t to fix Beam specifically, but Heat Sink vs. ALL Staves. I think there is an issue with the instant mechanic itself and other issues we see with it might just be “symptoms” of that?
Even if you did that What would happen? they would just vent between attacks instead. and would still spam just a little less frequently. What did that solve?
More important. are other staves having issues as well?
I agree that Heat Sink is one of the most potent traits and I feel they would have been better off including the 50% faster venting traits from VT1 instead. That being said, Heat Sink or not, I’m never going to take the vent option on Burning Head over 30% more Burning Heads… it’s just not worth it ever. Extremely situational at best and a drastic reduction in overall DPS. Sienna has the safest and most limitless means of generating temp health so vent damage is meaningless, whether or not you’re using NB (you should on her). Even if I don’t get a single Heat Sink proc, all you have to do is dodge backwards, vent quickly (because vent speeds when the meter is full are very fast), and you’re back in action murdering everything, regardless of staff choice or range from enemy. Only in the most dire straits can you not afford to vent and in those situations, relying on Heat Sink RNG to save you will often trigger death by Overheat anyways.
So, yes, I agree but no, it wouldn’t make Sienna any less versatile if it wasn’t in the game.
So you want to nerf a trait that applies to multiple weapons because of its effectiveness on a single weapon? The beam staff train is real. Choo choo. The design of the weapon can be adjusted to be less effective with the trait, if need be. It’d be asanine to nerf or change something like a trait that affects all of her staves and Bardin’s drake weapons just because of a single staff’s performance.
It’s not about “what is the best staff”. There are different play styles and uses for each of her staves. Beam staff being overpowered doesn’t make the other staves bad. Ideally, weapons should reach a good enough equilibrium where you don’t see something along the lines of overpowered or underpowered. I see a lot of posts saying one weapon is bad and then another post saying it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Often times people have a hard time accepting the idea that there is more than one way to “skin the cat”, so to speak. For example, some people love the longbow, others swiftbow, and others hagbane. That isn’t to say the other bows are bad. It just comes down to a matter of preference and situation. Sometimes adjustments are needed (like in the case of beam staff, which the recent balance changes have brought it further in line to where it should be for this game). And they’re coming. They’re coming in wa~ves.
Why not start with 3 and see how it is then? Why start so extreme? Remember that any nerf to this (or the -20% heat) trait affects all of Sienna’s staves, not just beam.
Exactly, and the recent patch was specifically designed to make it so you couldn’t cheese Heat Sink procs by wiggling the beam over enemies for the fast first few ticks of damage until your overheat was gone, so they’ve already done just that. Yeah, it can still proc when blasting a horde but it’s still RNG and even with perfect crit and Heat Sink, I still have to vent more often than not.
Agreed. Some of the issues with other staves is the matter of “feel”. So when using flamestorm, it feels clunky and awkward to use. I was actually about to try out Sienna and her staves after the changes they made. But in the case of flamestorm, the charge up on her RMB was awkward, long, and would be instantly stopped by any hit she took.
Conflag looks awesome but was basically just a stun that applied burn. When you charge up for that big explosion, you’d expect some kind of impact damage or something. Instead it’s basically a gust of air that knocks enemies over and lights their hair on fire. That’s what it feels like when using that one.
A good balance of practical use/functionality, satisfying feel, and game balance is ideal. Staves like those two really feel that they miss the mark and could use improvements in that sense. Speaking for myself, I find that the bolt staff is pretty good right now and has been for a while. It’s pretty enjoyable to use, its design is pretty good, and it functions well and proper with traits and such. Not overpowered, not underpowered. It performs its role.
I feel like fireball is really close to the right spot, but the charge up time is kind of slow for RMB and most importantly, the damn fireball glow is blinding. When you’re charging and then holding the fireball via RMB, it severely hinders your vision. It’s basically a detriment to your gameplay. If those two things were fixed, I think it’d be just right. It’s a pretty cool staff and would work very well were it not for those two things I mentioned.
Or you know, have heatsink as a trait for her melee weapons instead, like V1. I like the idea of only being able to dissipate heat through venting via reload button or through melee use…for pyro at least…
Flame should be capable of continuous short-range burn (like a PBAOE Beam staff) and the charged long range burn.
Conflag needs a second damage zone in the center that deals massive damage to a few pinpoint targets on higher charge levels.
Bolt is good but the charged attack feels clunky to me.
Fireball is ok but doesn’t feel quite right. should be capable of a much larger aoe imo from point of impact, even if there’s damage falloff to go with it.
Have to disagree. Heat sink doesn’t need to change. Beam just needs to be balanced and it looks like its under the scope to be balanced now.
Heat sink is a trait that can go on all staffs. Beam staff is not the only staff in the game. If you want to force Beam Staff users to vent more, then increasing the overcharge of Beam Staff is the more intelligent move. Which happened in the patch.
Honestly a nerf to the heat sink trait might be the way to go… I feel like everyone I know puts that on their staves no matter which one (except Conflag since it’s bugged for crits right now)
Disagree with post. Beam staff is still the issue. Heat sink also doesn’t work on both the conflag and fireball staves RMB right now, so pointless to use on those.
Honestly once they fix crits on these two staves I might be okay with how things are. Yes you can spec to not have to worry about overcharge, but as long as people have to SPEC for it I don’t see an issue.