I like Surge a lot with right tree, especially the relatively new Warp Unbound SG node. Warp Nexus + Warp Flurry gets fantastic value during the 10 seconds of infinite peril. Feels like a nice complement to a right side melee build since there’s a lot of crossover there in benefits for both your melee and staff.
It may well be true that Void outperforms it with the same tree, I almost never run Void so I can’t really comment on that, but I do think Surge with this setup works well against the actual game’s content, so don’t really feel like it needs a buff. TBC I’m mostly using secondary attack in this build, NOT abusing primary attack macros or any of that nonsense, and it still feels pretty damn good to me in this setup (having warp flurry maxed for like 10 straight seconds makes you shoot off secondaries FAST).
Diversifying staff primary attacks is a different matter though, as well as special attacks. I do hope they do something with that.
‘Electro’ staff doesn’t have as many used cases as Voidstrike for certain, but that mostly comes down to true aim more than anything. The fact Voidstrike stacks true aim on top of benefiting from it feels great, and that’s where like 90% of it’s power comes from (I ask you all to use a Voidstrike staff on any build that doesn’t focus crit/true aim…I have 1-2 builds that do that just cause they need the range and the difference is kind of staggering).
I think the Voidstrike is fine simply due to the relative skill required to use it. You have to hit heads for the cleave to happen, you have to hit heads to get free crits, the staff itself has an insanely long cast time for a staff that is barely effected by Charge Time, so it takes even MORE skill to know how much you need to charge verses what enemies and what level will ‘get the job done’. I feel gutting it to the point you’d have to full charge it against everything to do anything isn’t really a great idea, and I don’t think it’s damage against armor is THAT bad given the fact this is literally the only option Psyker has right now that does good armor damage at a distance. And even then, it’s only if you yourself are good and can stay on target (it does f%#$ call if you miss the head). It will drop a Crusher on Damnation with a double ball fully charged, I think given what the rest of the classes can do at range, I don’t think that’s a problem. Maybe just give it’s infinite cleave a ‘stopping point’ against chaff and the staff will be golden.
‘Electro’ I’ll say feels very good with Scriers and Shriek to me. I got a few builds with it, and the ability to simply ‘spam it’ without thinking I feel is it’s entire draw. It is pretty much the entire reason Empiric Resolve even exists, and using such lets you spam a good bit more while still doing pretty well with toughness gen since you still generate a lot of peril by nature of using it.
It won’t clap a Crusher in one cast sure, but it does stun it, and a few things behind it, and I think that’s where the balancing factor comes in. It lets you clean out a target at the pace the staff needs to clean it out, which is usually 2-3 pulses and it plus a few things around it as you go die. It won’t do your taxes, but as Alsozara said it’s a perfect addition to a more melee centric build, or one that uses Assail, as you don’t need Voidstrikes wave clear but still would like some decent armor damage.
I’d say if you do anything to Electro, lower it’s peril cost to more evenly match the rest of the staves, so that it can lean into it’s very clear ‘spammy’ playstyle it’s trying to employ. It has the fastest charge time of all the staves and yet also eats like 40 peril with no other reductions, and that’s kinda ridiculous and leads to it feeling underpowered. It’s meant to spam crits while stunning as it does so, make it able to do so without needing a 10 second free mode, and I’m sure it will ‘slot in’ a lot better for a lot more people. (it does fire like 2-3 shots off before a voidstrike shoots one, but also maxes out your peril while the voidstrike just eat like 25…so I think that’s where the main issue is).
None taken, agreed. Voidstrike and Trauma are just far superior options. Surge is a misfit and it’s because of the inconsistent autoaim and the lack of ability to headshot.
I’ll have to try that Warp Unbound is quite fun with other staves, though Disrupt Destiny and True Aim are essentially wasted unless Blaze Bolt spam is the strategy, and at that point I’d rather just take Voidstrike. Could always go Warp Siphon for more Scrier’s, but then there’s the absurd cost to get from Scrier’s to the valuable Warp Siphon nodes.
It comes down to the autoaim being bad most of the time during mixed horde attacks and lack of ability to headshot on secondary fire which is why either autoaim should be scrapped entirely for a linear lightning bolt that can headshot/weakspot hit or Carapace damage bonuses should be increased so Surge actually can deal with Crushers effectively without requiring an entire build just to make Surge viable for this purpose.
DD still gives damage and crit damage, it’s really only the weakspot damage you miss out on and you can still benefit from that as well on the primary fire (which is handy for long range sniping).
WS for crazy SG uptime isn’t bad but personally I think running DD and sacrificing Assail to get Psykinetic Aura is the better play. You basically get best of both worlds that way (surprise surprise we all know PA is pretty busted) though how you feel about that will probably depend on how much you value having Assail.
I just spent way to much time getting all my builds up on Lantern (mainly to save them in case more talent changes happen and I need to remake them again, as I know with the amount I’ve come to now that could be a challenge…) so, might as well get some use out of that and show some of them off. Can edit them how one likes, but this should get the jist across for the main ‘actually shoot lightning bolts’ builds that I run around using.
(I name them after my characters names so that they are sorted cleaner, ignore my naming choicesss)
Is this a troll thread? Are people seriously asking for buffs for the highest DPS staff in the game? Do people actually want more Dueling Sword style balancing in the game?
Maybe he meant the secondary fire mode? That’s what I mostly use when playing staff Psyker. Although obviously inferno does more damage. Actually I’d rather buff the lightning a bit and take the auto targeting away do people actually have to keep the beam on target.
Not a fan of 3 staves shooting little balls though, they could have used more unique modes.
Already have enough aim staffs why turn electro into another void blast…then how would you aim lightning unless you want another fire staff cone with unlimited targets getting stunned?
The stun is also neglected as one of its pros which makes it a strong smite cc replacement if you wish to choice other blitz options.
Also mention void blast is harder to aim especially long charge up and long range enemies and if they are moving… good luck.
Its the only staff with Crit modifier making crit for either LMB or RMB consistent
Inherently fast 2nd charge time - you can also do a jog while actively charging
benefits from the latest exploit of LMB macros involving quell cancelling which 10x the fire-rate
You can also cancel the RMB while its channeling through a target, effectively reducing the completion to around 1 second.
Idk which iteration of this staff was better. Prior to smite the OG Surge staff was the go to for CC. Middle of the road they decided to make it a DPS 1 target nuker, then now we have this in between generalist meme pew staff.