Dont know if its been suggested before but i think a great staff could be an assail staff. Something like the primary fire firing off the single seeker shots and the charged could be either a cone/shotgun or a horizontial line depending on the version of staff and the charges vary between 3 to 5 for short and mid charge with a max of 8 and lengthy cool down but those dont track and would fire in a straight line. Hope its not to crazy expecting alot of hate but hey its worth a shot.
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An Assail Staff actually already exists in Fatsharkâs previous title! Itâs called the Deepwood Staff.
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Does the deepwood staff fire seeker projectiles that can bounce between multiple targets?
I think you might have mixed it up with the new sienna staff (soulstealer).
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I would want something akin to that, but without the autoaim projectiles.
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Does the Electrokinetic Force Staff jump to the same number of enemies as Smite? No.
Soulstealerâs arguably more of a Brain Rupture Staff.
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No. Both shoot lighthing that arcs btween enemies to some degree. But the two are quite different, functionally.
I did not make this comparison btw.
But you called the deepwood staff an âassail staffâ.
So what is it, that would make the deepwood staff an âassail staffâ?
Is it the fire mode that lifts enemies into the air?
Or the fire mode that releases a rapid burst of non tracking projectiles?
One of the two fire modes is basically brain rupture.
The other shoots tracking projectiles that bounce between enemies.
It is both.
Iâm not opposed to new staves of any kind.
But seeing as we only have 4 and havenât gotten a single new one since release, I think the first priority is addressing the needs psykers havenât gotten met yet. Yet another AoE / cleave staff when 3/4 staves and 2/3 blitzes already do that (nvm modeled after what Assail already does) isnât it, imo.
What we need is a long-range sniper: A proper elite & boss killer. Something like VT2âs bolt staff. A hitscan finesse staff with insane dmg, at the cost of bad cleave, slow cast times & high peril costs. 
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I donât think that this would make for a great weapon.
Slow cast and bad cleave (with no aoe) seems enough to make a weapon bad.
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On this I do agree, the Bolt Staff does deserve better than that.
Theyâre both forms of channeled Force Lightning that serve to stunlock and progressively electrocute enemies, damaging them. Theyâre used for different things, but the initial premise remains the same.
Itâs called an analogy.
Because itâs the most appropriate candidate when you consider that the OP was simply asking for an âAssailâ Staff and not an âAssail-Brain Ruptureâ Staff. The Deepwood Staffâs also the most unique (going over Critical Peril causes the weapon to have a cooldown instead of blowing you up) and Psykers definitely deserve more uniqueness in their Force Staves.
This also factors into my âwe need more uniquenessâ stance, I grant.
Within the context of Darktide, this would be a faster, more precise and single target application of Psykerâs Assail shards that require the Psyker to be more focused on Elites and Specialists. Blitzes and Staves should be similar and not identical, ergo Smite compared to the Electrokinetic Force Staff.
Hence why both options are great candidates and should be added, theyâre simply suited to different niches.
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If the weapon is to be hitscan & hecking strong ranged, it needs a weakness to offset the strengths to be balanced. We donât need another Voidstrike after all. Bad cleave, slow charge & high cost doesnât mean absolutely horrid in each, itâs not binary. It simply means those would be its weakness where the rest would be its strength.
We have plenty of tools to cleave with in the same build:
- Blitzes & ults
- Assail, EP Smite, Vent (& Creeping Flames)
- Melee
- Illisi, DClaw, Combat Axe, Shock Maul
- Plus weâre about to get the mother of all cleave weapons with the Two-Handed Force Sword
A staff like this is the only core type psykers have been missing since release, we have everything else. Surge/Electrokinetic is the most similar but itâs mid-ranged, quick-charging auto-aim that doesnât do weak spots and definitely doesnât excel at boss killing either. None of our staves are boss-killers.
The burst fire attack of the deepwood staff is more similar to any regular gun, or to any of the âlittle ballâ primary staff attacks, than it is to assail.
Come oonâŚ
The deepwood staff also has two fire modes. So even if one of the two was assail-like, the argument that you are trying to make here, would apply to the deepwood staff in the same way.
Just say it. You were wrong.
I think that the Bolt Staff not having any AoE would be perfectly fine by itself. Thatâs already a fairly significant flaw on Damnation+ where thereâs, like, a whole pack of Crushers in every second room.
Compare the same situation but with a Voidstrike Staff, where a well-timed charged attack will knock over the entire Crusher pack. The same sort of thing can be said of an Electrokinetic Staff, although the Crusher pack would get bombarded with temporary stunlocks instead of being knocked over.
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Using that logic a Bolt Staffâs identical to a Bolter, and we both know thatâs not 100% true. Staves can be similar to guns; thereâs nothing wrong with that.
We donât have a Blitz that puts enemies into air gaol. If we ever get one for some reason, Iâll eat my words. Now? My point stands that the Deepwood Staff works just as well as the Soulstealer Staff and they should both be implemented so that personal choice reigns as king.
Ew. Youâre just screaming for the attention at this point⌠I thought we were having a constructive discussion. Iâm disappointed.
Seriously? Pulling the âYouâre wrongâ card not because I disagreed with you (which I never explicitly did, mind you) but because I put forward a different candidate than you? Please go outside.
Iâll admit that Iâm wrong when someone provides me with a compelling argument that prompts me to do so. In fact, many people have done so. Youâre just not that guy, Flawless. Iâm sorry.
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The only reason for it to be âbadâ in the current state of the game is because of how lopsided a lot of the design is in general. Thereâs a distinct lack of distinct weapon roles in general. Staves are ironically probably the closest to this overall (while still being decent) but even then every staff falls under a general crowd control category right now.
Itâs the same flaws with melee weapon/gun balance in general as well, you can use a specialized weapon thatâs only good for single target (or whatever) or you can use one of the options that does it all. You basically choose your flavor of âIs it slightly better at single target or crowd control or vice versa?â
Frankly we need to move back towards that sort of design IMO, itâs far too easy to just have a loadout that can very easily do everything with either weapon out. More Vermintide axes, less Darktide dueling swords.
A beam staff equivalent is what weâre missing in Darktide IMO. Predominately single target focused with the ability to trade massive peril generation for some quick and dirty horde control. (Which can also then synergize with high peril builds in the first place) Give it some blessings that do soul blaze so it can also pseudo specialize into soul blaze builds/help maintain/build stacks of it.
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No.
Stop it with the strawmen.
That is not the point you made.
If that is what you thought, i wonder why you did not participate in being constructive and reasonable.
Not because you disagreed with me, but because you called something an âassail staffâ despite not sharing any of the defining characteristics of assail, while there is an other staff that has a few of the defining characteristics.
If you think that your comparison is reasonable, please be so kind and point out all of the similarities between assail and the deepwood staff for me.
It seems that in your mind, you are more reasonable than i am.
And in your mind, calling the deepwood staff an âassail staffâ is valid and reasonable.
In that case, you should be able to argue your position, by using reason.
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Having the alt-fire (levitate) from the Deepwood Staff as a weapon for the Psyker is something I have mentioned previously.
The intriguing aspect of Deepwood-Assail, in my opinion, is that it is evident where the Darktide developers drew inspiration for Assailâs hand animations.
Although Deepwoodâs projectiles do not leap between enemies, the attack itself is fairly similar, firing multiple thorns that can result in a barrage.
Uncertain of why you are so critical of other peopleâs wording?
Unfortunately, the thread was on an interesting topic, but this argument is taking it in a different direction. Instead of sneering at each other and arguing, can not we talk about new staff ideas?
Here, we are all Warband pals. <3
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If you look at it objectively, it is very clear that there are very few similarities between the two.
The deepwood projectiles do not leap between enemies.
They have no tracking.
They have almost no travel time.
They are released in a burst.
Visuals aside, that sounds much more like a burst rifle to me.
Meanwhile, the soulstealer staff exsits.
The projectiles leap between enemies.
They have tracking.
They have a noticeable travel time.
They are released individually.
Yes, you have stated that, but by shifting the conversation away from the OPâs intended topic and toward your criticism of someone elseâs wording, you are causing the thread to veer off course.
Whether the comparison between Assail and Deepwood was inaccurate or not does not matter to me. The topic is intriguing, which is why I joined this thread. Something you do not want to talk about for some reason.
Reading the responses makes it seem like you are only interested in discussing wording, so I implore you to move past that goal post and instead come up with some interesting concepts for new staff weapons that we can discuss and work through together.
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