Trauma staff is cool, but very pointless and underwhelming. It would help immensely if the dmg hit more than a single enemy. If it did fall off damage from the center of the thing, that would be better than simply single target with pushback. Since no one using it would assume it only does single target damage, very unintuitive.
I don’t see why you think voidstrike is underwhelming as I find that to be the only useful staff, the others are way to dependant on your teammates.
Though you might think it’s underwhelming because your are fully charging it. That is simply not worth it.
You should instant shoot instead of charging it or only charge it to 50%, that seemed to me to be the most effective thing since it’s dmg seems very rng and the upside of throwing a lot of them means more stagger on groups.
Spamming void made me feel more useful in mission than any of the other staffs, simply because I can use void at any range and from safety and it allows you to stagger/interrupt the most dangerous enemy, random ranged mobs, won’t be able to do that with the other staffs.
Trauma Staff is very much like Sienna’s Conflag staff in VT2. I would say Conflag staff is one of more useless staves to use though. The ground targeting mechanic works betterish in VT2 due to how levels are designed, the color of the ring vs everything else, and enemy AI focusing on getting into melee combat. It still feels pretty clunky to use effectively though.
Trauma pretty much suffers from the same negatives but they are much more pronounced. That light blue circle gets lost in the sea of dark colors and geometry making it super annoying to target. The Peril generation compared to other staffs is much higher vs the effect being generated. The only effective way to use the staff is to pop little tiny explosions with it as fast as you possibly can. Taking the time to actually aim and charge is just not worth it. Because dmg is so low and the CC effect is a pronounced knock back the staff can actually be detrimental to your team when they are trying to fight in melee. Random not dead bodies falling all over makes it hard for your Ogryn and Zealot to dodge around and actually hit anything. Trauma needs some work to be made viable in anything after Malice.
Void doesn’t do jack on heresy and higher… Can’t kill Poxwalkers unless you fully charge it, can’t kill Dregs or Scabs even on a full charge - all it does is spread mobs all around and that’s bad for both Vets and Preachers when you constantly knock enemies out of their shots and/or their melee range.
However, Purgatus will wipe an entire horde without it ever getting close including the elites and Surge will kill Scabs on a full charge and stun all specials/elites in the game - those you can’t reach with Surge you can BB even if it doesn’t kill them it’s better than obstructing a Vet from killing them…
Granted both requires you to not be a bad Psyker in the first place.
They really messed up the effectiveness of staves on Heresy and Damnation.
In Malice you can carry like a pro with a well rolled Void staff. Full charges can delete hordes and keep specials staggered until dead. You think to yourself “wow this is a really great weapon, I should try Heresy”. During your first mixed horde with specials you realize you are shooting exploding cotton balls at everything and noting is dying but everything sure is spread out all over the place.
Surge and Purge really are the only viable staffs for high difficulty play in quick match. I love Surge(when its fixed) because Lightning is always the coolest “element” to play as a “spell caster” and that hard stun is invaluable. Purge I have a love hate relationship with. Mostly because at 200 hours I’ve still yet to even see a decent rolled staff but also because what it does well it does really well but what it lacks it really lacks in certain team comps. I’ve had games with 2 flamers and an Ogryn mixed with my Purge staff and we just got wrecked hard because no one could take anything out at range without me having to channel BB over and over and over which is just not effective.
Our currents staves need some work. I would love to see more unique primary attacks that work off the base mechanic of the staff. Surge could shoot a ball/bolt/stream that applies a strong stagger and DoT, this would allow you to focus down on a priority target with CC instead of relying on the pure RNG targeting of the secondary. Void primary I wouldn’t touch much. Trauma could use a lobbed projectile with high dmg and a super small AoE.
So weird that they copy pasted a bad staff like Trauma almost straight from Sienna but then failed to copy paste staff mechanics that people actually enjoyed using. You can still have a “Beam” staff and a “Bolt” staff without it being a total copy of Sienna.
Trauma is currently bugged (anyone surprised?). It deals approx. 2 times less damage than it is supposed to. I do think that peril cost should be reduced and the epicenter area increased by, at least, two times.
Voidstrike is not useless. It can be very efficient on damnation if you know how to use it well and have good stats. But it does feel just… less fun than others, so a minor buff would be welcome.
Every staff should have at least one blessing that procs off full charge or charge level.
I love fully charging staves. I find it rewarding to unleash really powerful attacks on a delay that reward me for foresight and positioning. Any game where I can get a weapon that rewards me big for predicting where the enemy would be and being ready for them with a charged or spooled attack is my favorite in shooters. But there isn’t enough of a reward to fully charging staff abilities most of the time. Rending Shockwave is missing from the Voidstrike staff, which is stupid. Generally there should at least be one blessing in there that just goes “More damage on full charge”.
Instantly blow up poxbursters even with a minimum charge.
Blow up huge swathes of the horde with bigger charges.
Save swarmed teammates by using it on them.
I do think it could use a minor buff (Less peril generation would help) but I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as people are making it out to be. It’s a control staff. Less powerful than the surge but much more controllable.
The trauma staff is a cool concept, but poorly executed. It’s a worse version of the Voidstrike staff in every way. I personally like using the Voidstrike staff, I like using it to bombard swathes of enemies from long range. If they buff the damage on it, it can very easily be an S-tier weapon.
Yea, the problem with the Trauma staff is the awkward ground targeting and extremely limited range.
What we don’t have but really should have is a staff that simply shoots a big explosion where you point it, or launches one on a trajectory. The Voidstrike staff is super fun and cool, but it’s more like a cannon where in order to hit the most targets you have to line them up. It doesn’t perform well for blowing enemies out of cover or hitting them from behind to circumvent shields and such. The Trauma staff does all that, but is crippled by its weird and limited targeting.
I have a trauma staff that is excessively powerful. I didn’t like most of the ones I tried, but for some reason this one blows mobs into gibs. I can knock entire hordes down with this thing.
Additional, while the targeting circle takes getting used to, it’s exceptionally good for exact placement once you do.
It does break down at longer ranges, and I’d like to see the ability to add the mouse wheel to it, IE, spin the mouse wheel to throw the circle another 20-meters distant.
Voidstrike staff - Decent for lane mob killing. Then again, so is one shot from a revolver. The explosions and no ammo requirement does make up for it though.
Purge staff - Great on Malice but on heresy or damnation, it gets tricky. Especially when you need to close the gap on a group of enemies to be effective with this weapon.
Trauma staff - This needs a damage buff to compensate for the insane peril gains you typically get from a full charged cast. Doing the lesser charged versions is decent but simply do enough damage to kill a bunch of mobs like the other staffs can.
Surge staff - I don’t even full charge anymore as quick casting the RMB mode allows for locking in specials. Full charging it is only meant for heavily armored enemies which leaves you wide open most of the time. Plus, it is currently seizure inducing with the rapid flashing lighting effects.
The staff is actually better on higher difficulties because of higher horde density and bigger size. Aoe damage in general becomes stronger, the more enemies you can hit with it.
Getting used to cannot really be the argument here. People can get used to all types of unhealthy arrangements irl and yet we would never encourage anybody in such situations.
The staff is unecessarily clunky for absolutely no reason whatsoever, being able to “make it work” doesn’t change that.
The conflag staff worked like this in V1 and V2. Now, I preferred the fireball staff, but the conflag was pretty danged effective.
Now, I grant that it DOES take some practice to get right, but that’s true of everything. “getting used to it” just means 'get the practice in."
That said, if you have a better control scheme you think will be an overall improvement, feel free to pitch it, but ‘getting used to it’ is pretty basic for anything new and a little awkward at first… and this setup does allow pin point control. Pinpoint control is worth a fair amount, and it’s fun to watch whole hordes explode.
Put the the center of the effect radius at the center of the crosshair. That way you don’t have to aim at the ceiling all the time. That way you also have better awareness of what is going around you while targeting, as your fov captures more of what happens below your eyeline, which is where Poxwalkers end up, when they are close to you.
