Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Staff buff and elemental splash on hit.

I just ended the beta with a "battlemage" using a staff, and I noticed that it was pretty underwhelming in comparison to other weapons.

It has on average lower damage than any other 2 handed weapon and it only deals elemental damage which is reduced further by resistance.

The staff of magus skill is mostly useful for ranged focused characters and it is still worse than double wands because it can only be used once per turn.

The only pro I can find is that it is an intelligence based weapon so both spells and warfare skills will be benefited by your intelligence, however the damage increase provided by the stat is so low that it's counter balanced by the lower damage of the weapon and enemies resistances like I said before.

Not to mention focusing in melee you already have the cons of being in melee(engaging the enemy, surface statuses, etc..), without the benefits of having any other melee weapon(physical + elemental damage, in case of 2h weapons higher average damage, in case of single handed having a shield, in case of dual wielding higher damage, the all in skill, etc..).

Which brings me to my next point, elemental splash on hit. I don't remember this being a problem on both DOS1 and the first builds of the DOS2 beta, but now the weapon splashes their elemental damage on the ground, which in turn damages you and sets their status on you in case you have no magic armor. In later stages of the game it is just annoying because you will have more magic armor to protect you, but in the beginning of the game it's a nightmare. If you have an electrical weapon good luck, you WILL stun yourself if you use it on melee(because of blood surface), if you have a poison weapon you'll poison yourself, if you have a fire weapon you'll burn yourself. I don't understand the need for this mechanic at all.

I honestly didn't use better weapons just so I could use a water damage weapon.

I don't presume to know better than you professional game developers, so I don't know the best way to remedy everything while maintaining the balance. I will suggest though that it would be great if the staff had at least a bit of physical damage when used in melee just like a two handed sword only interchanging the physical and elemental damages.

Now about the splash damage, I know it's a harder sell. It is a much bigger change, but it is a mechanic that I could really do without, even though it is more manageable in later stages.

Enrage can make the enemy's resistance negative. Effects like warm also reduce resistances. There could be other items and skills allowing to do so. You can also trigger additional damage effects like while using a fire staff against a poisoned enemy.

I played a fire/earth/warfare character with a staff and was managing to solo fights since level 4, although I used Enrage only on myself.

To sum up, staffs could be a really powerful tool if being used in synergy with game mechanics and especially against enemies with low magic armour.

As for the splash damage, I just did not notice it. It might have been an older game version.

CC has been changed if you didn't already know.. you have to be hit by CC twice for it to work now (to be stunned you have to be shocked first, to be frozen you have to be chilled first) that alone gives you some time to escape/prepare before being fully CCed.

Yeah, I don't mean that it is weak, just that it is weaker than the other weapons. If they are going for balance which it seems they are, then I think it should be slightly buffed.

You would definitely notice the splash damage though, it's really annoying.


Right, it must remedy it a bit to have that "double debuff" mechanic, however I think the splash mechanic is unnecessarily punishing. Why should I be penalized for hitting an enemy? You already have things like retribution and shackles of pain which work just great because someone has to spend skill points or action points to cast it, there is a price for that, the splash mechanic on the other hand is punishing a melee characters for doing what melee characters do. I gather that they made it to buff ranged characters or maybe nerf meelee characters or even add another depth to combat, I don't know, but it makes no sense to me as a mechanic.