I gotta say, the Purgatus staff is probably the coolest piece of trash I’ve managed to get my hands on beside the Surge staff. More’s the pity that the thing is terrible. The DoT that it inflicts is incredibly low, even after a full charged blast from the secondary fire. The “normal” damage seems quite low to begin with (most likely banking on DoT damage to bridge the gap) and makes fighting anything with it a chore. On paper it seems like it’s supposed to be a great horde clearer, but in practice it’s time to kill even chaff units (let alone any elites) is horrendous.
The one good thing I can say about the staff is it’s peril buildup is quite nice, I can comfortably use it for a prolonged engagement without having to quell. That, however, is not enough to save it from simply going in my metaphorical closet and not using it again.
Baseline fix suggestions:
Increase the base damage slightly.
Increase the damage of Soulfire DoTs
Make the main and secondary fire count as soulfire for synergy with feats (If I kill something with the damage from the staff, it doesn’t seem to count as “soulfire” for the purpose of feats which rely on kills with soulfire, only the DoT semms too, but it’s hard to test.)
More complex fix suggestions:
Add some form of crowd control effect to the flames, like a slow or confusion/terror. If the damage is going to be sow low, make it a utility weapon, one that can help keep hordes in disarray while whittling down their health. Hell, it is warp fire, it’s not hard to justify the fire f#cking with someone’s mind right?
Add a fire patch effect like enemy flamers/fire grenades.
That’s all I can think of now, anyone else feel the staff could use some sort of buff?
The feats that rely on kills from soulfire should not require soulfire to deal the killing blow, they should just require the target to be on fire when it dies. The primary fire should have more stagger.
Also, soulfire is incredibly weak unless stacked high, so the feats that add 2 stacks on kill or up to 6 on ult are super weak. The weapon trait that grants 1 stack on crit suffers from this too.
Either buff the damage of soulfire, or have these traits and feats add more stacks.
Thanks for clarifying that death by soulfire only requires that they be on fire when they die. In my testing I was having trouble figuring out exactly how it worked and I came to the opposite conclusion, but it was not exhaustive in scope, more post fight observations.
All told, the damage definitely needs to be higher, or the stacks of DoT applied for m1/m2 attacks need to be significantly higher to aid in killing stuff.
I still maintain some form of CC attached to the alt fire would also improve the viability of the weapon.
I think you’re misunderstanding the other comment. Currently, the effects that activate based on soulfire needs the soulfire burn to land the killing blow. The comment is suggesting that it should be changed to activate when an enemy dies from any source while burning with soulfire.
I think you’re misunderstanding the other comment. Currently, the effects that activate based on soulfire needs the soulfire burn to land the killing blow. The comment is suggesting that it should be changed to activate when an enemy dies from any source while burning with soulfire.
I wouldn’t hold my breath. To this day Sienna’s Flamestorm staff is bottom tier in terms of usefulness and damage. The Purg staff is almost a direct copy past and functions even worse because Psyker lacks any Talents that boost a dot build.
If built right, purgatus staff is easily the best clearing weapon in the game - even better than the flamer. Soulfire feats are underpowered, yes - so don’t take them.
Instead, take Warp Absorption, Psykinetic’s Wrath, Psychic Communion, Kinetic Shield, Kinetic Flayer, and Quicken. Position by a wall, melt the horde until about to explode, ult, and repeat.