Bonus stats to Staffs

[Mysticism]

i was thinking that bonus stats or effects to staffs would be nice

like 1% chance to regain 10% mana on cast or other such effects.
i know at the moment the focus is rangers however once we get to mage classes this would be a really nice feature.

[Folder]

I think everyone will agree on this one. Number of threads have already asked about making staves more valuable to casters

[Eld]

I can think of 3-4 different options on this atm that have either been discussed or are similar to what we do elsewhere in game at the moment

1. Have leech MP options for a few more staves like you suggested, this is similar to what the Mana Scourge rare OAD has for Elders/Guards, but that's a very rare drop, i think only 2 in game?

2. Have additional spells granted for having a staff, similar to how Crimson Staff can give the special Ignite spell to a mage, however there's only 1 of these World Walker drops in game at the moment, and i don't think this is going to be that feasible for regular staves to start giving out spells too.

3. Rework spell casting so that the strength of staff causes you to do higher damage (this would work out to be lower damage than current for casters unless they had the top staff)

4. Rework spell casting so magic penetration was either determined or helped by the staff equipped

Can anyone think of any other options? Any arguments for/against each of these approaches?

[NiteHawk]

Staff already does penetration bonuses just to state.

[Lateralus]

3. Rework spell casting so that the strength of staff causes you to do higher damage (this would work out to be lower damage than current for casters unless they had the top staff)

I think just reworking cast dmg to be based off weapon damage like it is for the other classes would be the easiest to code and balance. It wouldnt have to be super dependent like melee is but some kind of progression shown would be nice (i understand there is penetration bonus but you dont really see it like you do damage going up so many thats why it doesn't feel like it makes a difference). As all the other classes get better as their purple weapons are released sorcs/necros kinda just stay the same progression wise and its a bit boring considering they only body armor and a hat that has little to no progression on it either.

Throwing effects on items can be a little rough to balance throwing extra skills on staves over complicates stuff. I mean i can see effects on staves down the road but for every one seems kinda over kill.

[Mysticism]

Throwing effects on items can be a little rough to balance

how so? as long as its nothing over kill.... Return mana or -mana cost or small things like that are not ground breaking or very noticeable.

[Lateralus]

Throwing effects on items can be a little rough to balance

how so? as long as its nothing over kill.... Return mana or -mana cost or small things like that are not ground breaking or very noticeable.

What i am getting at is this would be messy if we are going to do this for all staves and that's what would need to be done if we were to make all staves useful while leveling (not just the top staves). So we would have to go and write a system for staves levels 8-25. how do we balance a little bit or a lot, we want to make it useful but not over powered etc... Now we have to have 2 sets of staves for monks and sorc/necro as well...

While i would like to see this happen on some staves end game ones(getting little bonuses) it really doesnt address the issue of making them useful at all levels and an item to progress through for sorcs. However just using the average damage already on the item is easy to do code wise and already balanced for us. We wouldnt have to make a bunch of new areas with bosses and staff drops either.

[Mysticism]

What i am getting at is this would be messy if we are going to do this for all staves and that's what would need to be done if we were to make all staves useful while leveling (not just the top staves). So we would have to go and write a system for staves levels 8-25. how do we balance a little bit or a lot, we want to make it useful but not over powered etc... Now we have to have 2 sets of staves for monks and sorc/necro as well...

While i would like to see this happen on some staves end game ones(getting little bonuses) it really doesnt address the issue of making them useful at all levels and an item to progress through for sorcs. However just using the average damage already on the item is easy to do code wise and already balanced for us. We wouldnt have to make a bunch of new areas with bosses and staff drops either.

True however if this is decided on later in the game it will be much more difficult as we now have a total of 16+? I'm sure there will be a lot more added as time goes on. The balancing part I'm not so sure about. We wouldn't need two sets. The bonus would go by casting and not physical attacks so it wouldn't effect monks. Sorc and necro staffs wouldn't need to be different? Why would you think so?

As far as new areas etc. I'm referring to altering green or blue staffs. Not the normal ones as they are separate anyways.

[economist]

If monks used fist weapons instead of staffs?

Or make a new 2 handed staff-set for lvl 1,8,15,20,25 for sorc and necro. Where you can use a new formula which includes the staffs dmg. And perhaps tone down some of the penetration, some classes have no wis to even stand a chance.

Most options discussed will take time, but better start sooner then later with the long term solution in my humble opinion.