Staves Guide (in progress)
Below you'll find everything important to know about Staves.
In a Nutshell
Pros
- One of the only 2 skillsets with both offensive & defensive stepping maneuvers, allowing quicker transition between stances.
- PvP sweeps always have a chance to leave openings.
- Three (3) triple hitting attacks, allowing for high damage output.
- Parting and distanced attacks, making it highly effective at a distance.
- Custom skills are commonly known and taught.
Cons
- Only 2 layers of defense.
Advice & Tips
Custom Skills
The custom skills can only be learned in three ways.
- From another player
- In the VC creation lobby
- One of 2 NPC trainers.
The first NPC trainer, Veylen, can be found in the tent NW of the Stone Toga Inn and will teach until you have a total of 300 ranks. The second NPC trainer, a haggard one-legged soldier, is located south of Pretium in Franlius. The soldier requires that you help on the front before he'll teach you. (Not currently available, see Town of Franlius)
Strategy: Sweep & Support
Staves are an excellent support weapon. You can often maintain distance from your enemy and hit them from outside of their effective area. As a result, stavers are wonderful assets to close combat fighters, because they can knock down targets and then use high-damage and multi-striking attacks to deliver critical hits and fractures. Fighters choosing to be in a support role should do everything they can to stay back and let their partners with shields and heavy armor absorb blows. Stavers rarely act as the 'tank' and to do so requires not only strong dodges but you must also be well-trained in all staves blocks, including the less commonly-known Whirling Block.
Strategy: Distance Control
Keeping in the spirit of remaining at a distance, a staver with parting moves and sweep can prove both an annoyance to opponents and a heavy damage dealer. Parting moves keep your enemies at a distance, hit harder than their non-parting relatives (especially parting smash), and have a reduced roundtime. Coupled with a strategy of well timed approaching and falling back, you can cause your opponent to constantly reconsider their strategy if you get too close or move too far away for them to hit you effectively.
Weapons
This is the list of weapons that can be used by the Staves skill set.
Notes:
- Fangstaves will modify the damage type for all attacks from bruising to cutting damage.
- The [wood] (pine, ash, oak, softsun, moskan, etc.) mentioned in the stave description is optionally mentioned and only for aesthetics purposes. It is not known to have any impact on the stave's speed, weight or damage. For the reminder of the guide, the wood type will be ommited.
| Weapons | How to get it | Est. cost in shops |
|---|---|---|
| A padded quarterstave [T] | Usius (Bronze Lane) | 95d |
| A [wood] quarterstave [R] | A'rbora (Bronze Lane) & others | 400d - 1,000d |
| A dursc [wood] quarterstave [R] | A'rbora (Bronze Lane) & others | 1,000d - 1,400d |
| A [wood] bronze-capped quarterstave [R] | A'rbora (Bronze Lane) & others | 700d-1000d |
| A [wood] iron-capped quarterstave [R] | Occasionally sold by Nayden (Iridine Forum) | |
| A [wood] fangstave [R] | A'rbora (Bronze Lane) | 60d - 600d |
| A dursc [wood] fangstave [R] | ||
| An Altene double mace [RF] | A'rbora (Bronze Lane) & others | 15t - 44t |
[RF]: This item can be ReForged.
[R]: This item can be Runed.
[T]: This item is a training weapon and does no damage.
Summary
In most cases you'll want a reforged Iron capped quarterstave or an Altene double mace. (TO BE CONFIRMED FOR MAX SPEED AND UNLISTED WEAPON STATS)
A rank of 1 signifies the best in this category.
| Weapon | Damage Rank | Speed Rank | Weight Rank | Overall Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A padded quarterstave | N/A | |||
| A quarterstave | ||||
| A dursc quarterstave | ||||
| A fangstave | ||||
| An dursc fangstave | ||||
| A bronze-capped quarterstave | ||||
| An iron-capped quarterstave | ||||
| [Runed] An iron-capped quarterstave | ||||
| An Altene double mace | 2 | |||
| [ReForged] An Altene double mace | 1 |
Weapon Damage
A rank of 1 signifies the best in this category.
| Weapon | Damage Rank |
|---|---|
| [ReForged] An Altene double mace | 1 |
| An Altene double mace | 2 |
| [Runed] An iron-capped quarterstave | |
| An iron-capped quarterstave | |
| A quarterstave | |
| A dursc quarterstave | |
| A fangstave | |
| An dursc fangstave | |
| A bronze-capped quarterstave |
Weapon Speed
A rank of 1 signifies the best in this category. (FURTHER TESTING NEEDED)
| Rank 90 Reflexes | Maxed Speed | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Speed Rank | Median Speed | Speed Rank | Average Speed |
| A padded quarterstave | ||||
| A quarterstave | ||||
| A dursc quarterstave | 2 +MoS | |||
| A fangstave | 1.17 +MoS | |||
| An dursc fangstave | ||||
| A bronze-capped quarterstave | 1.17 +MoS | |||
| An iron-capped quarterstave | ||||
| An Altene double mace | ||||
Weapon Weight
| Weapon | Weight Rank | Weight (lbs) |
|---|---|---|
| A fangstave | 1 | 2 |
| A quarterstave | 1 | 2 |
| An iron-capped quarterstave | 2 | 6 |
| A dursc quarterstave | 2 | 6 |
| A dursc fangstave | 2 | 6 |
| A bronze-capped quarterstave | 2 | 6 |
| An Altene double mace | 3 | 10 |
Moves
Worthwhile
Less useful
Complementary Skill Sets
- Combat Maneuvers is necessary for any weapon, but especially so for Staves due to being one of only two defensive layers.
Complementary Traits
Miscellaneous
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