Druid: Staff or Totem

[JiffyPopTart]

I made a beast-form focused druid and went with the Staff of the Serpent. An extra 1d6 poison damage on all my attacks is way too sweet to pass up.

DS

 

[Valesin]

Thanks for all the advice gang. Earthfall totem is obviously the way to go given my build; now I just have to be patient until 7th level.

 

[Mengu]

Thanks for all the advice gang. Earthfall totem is obviously the way to go given my build; now I just have to be patient until 7th level.

Earthfall totem I think falls quite a bit short of the staff of ruin. At +2, the totem does extra 1d6 on a subset of your powers, a staff of ruin will do extra 2 damage on all your powers. At +3, the totem is still doing only 1d6, but the staff is doing +3. At +4 is when the Earthfall totem might become better depending on you power selections by that time.

And since it seems like you are looking for extra damage after all, weapon focus staff will help you along that path.

 

[Valesin]

Earthfall totem I think falls quite a bit short of the staff of ruin. At +2, the totem does extra 1d6 on a subset of your powers, a staff of ruin will do extra 2 damage on all your powers. At +3, the totem is still doing only 1d6, but the staff is doing +3. At +4 is when the Earthfall totem might become better depending on you power selections by that time.

And since it seems like you are looking for extra damage after all, weapon focus staff will help you along that path.

[sigh] Yeah, you're right. I loved the idea of my Wind Prison doing d6 damage to a lot of stuff with no attack roll, but by the time I am 7th level my enemies will sneer at at a d6 damage. Meanwhile I would have lost "x" opportunities to do +1 and eventually +2 with all attacks.

Sometimes the best choices are the less sexy ones...

 

[Destil]

Resisting the urge to give every PC Bracers of Archery/Iron Armbands of Power/Staff of Ruin builds character. If you really want the item bonus rather than something interesting just take the staff you originally wanted and a Dragonshard Augment of the Mage.

 

[Valesin]

This has probably been discussed a million times, but do we know for a fact (i.e., official ruling somewhere) that Weapon Focus works on an implement that is also a weapon when it is being used as an implement and NOT a weapon?

 

[DracoSuave]

Earthfall totem I think falls quite a bit short of the staff of ruin. At +2, the totem does extra 1d6 on a subset of your powers, a staff of ruin will do extra 2 damage on all your powers. At +3, the totem is still doing only 1d6, but the staff is doing +3. At +4 is when the Earthfall totem might become better depending on you power selections by that time.

And since it seems like you are looking for extra damage after all, weapon focus staff will help you along that path.

1d6 is an average of 3.5 damage.

3.5 > 3.

 

[DracoSuave]

This has probably been discussed a million times, but do we know for a fact (i.e., official ruling somewhere) that Weapon Focus works on an implement that is also a weapon when it is being used as an implement and NOT a weapon?

Yes, it's been that way since the Swordmage came out. Weapon Focus doesn't mention weapon attacks anywhere. It only mentions a type of weapon you pick for it.

It's in the faq and has been forever.

 

[Valesin]

Yes, it's been that way since the Swordmage came out. Weapon Focus doesn't mention weapon attacks anywhere. It only mentions a type of weapon you pick for it.

It's in the faq and has been forever.

Thanks.

 

[Mengu]

1d6 is an average of 3.5 damage.

3.5 > 3.

Yeah, the point was, it only applies to attacks that push, slide or knock prone, while the staff of ruin applies to every attack. Missing out on .5 (or 1.5) damage on those attacks to get 3 damage on all other attacks seems like a better deal, unless you can somehow make sure all your attacks do push, slide, or pull, but that seems like too much of a restriction on power selection, since immobilizing, dazing, penalizing, CA granting powers are as nice to have too.