I'm looking for some input on how to use staffstrike.

I have the basics. I know how many strikes to partially damage, and I have a nice working limb counter. I know the effects of each staffstrike.

I'm not explaining the effects here. If you don't know, then you probably don't have the knowledge to post here to begin with. So mages, people who fight mages, and people who have seen ways to make it effective, I'd like to ask you for your input.

I also understand staffstrike isn't supposed to be a substitute to staffcast. Which means staffstrike isn't supposed to kill anybody, but it's supposed to help me kill somebody.

The problem I've been seeing is chaining the staffstrikes. I'll prep limbs, but as soon as a limb breaks, most people seem to shield. You can shield with one leg partially damaged or one arm partially damaged. Only exception is if I staffstrike earth one arm, and the earth effect happens to the other arm.

If the opponent shields, that seems to be the end. The limb that I just prepared is now healed up. One partially broken limb doesn't take that long to fix. Just around 6 seconds.

Another problem I see is that, the goddamn rebound just always comes up at the greatest times. Sometimes, the enemy does something and it goes down right as I chain the staffstrike, but the times when they don't, the limb will cure by the time I rid the rebound. Really great.

I realize knights also have this problem so why is this a big deal for me? Mages can't exactly deliver 2 venoms at once with staffstrike, so I think it hits me harder than knights. No razeslash either.

Let's make everything zero. If an enemy doesn't parry or rebound or touch shield, what can I do? Staffstrike water is nice because you can stack salve balance. Earth is nice too. Fire too, since it rids the frost def that I really hate. But even if I break one after another, how would it help me kill somebody? It will keep somebody from attacking me. It'll stop people from moving. But it won't hinder. I can't behead off one. It's not like pound where if the enemy is frozen, a certain attack is double damaged. Is staffstrike just a defensive skill?

I talked to Mulkerrin a while back, and he said this was supposed to be used with retardation. But again, goes to the very top issue- if they shield on the first break, there will be no retardation, I need to rid the shield, and when I erode, I'll be the one dead to the retardation I just spun. On the flipside then, is there a use for staffstrike without retardation? Is there a specific order of elements I should use on a specific limb?

Keep in mind I'm not complaining. I'm not asking for a buff or anything. But I'm about to stop using staffstrike completely. I wanted to see if other mages have any luck, or some tips on how to use. If you get staffstriked a lot and find something annoying or kinda scary, those info would do too.

TY

Since you can tank a lot, I'd use it to hold people still for holobombs. Wall up, freeze ground, set limbs, kill their mount, set holos, then start breaking stuff just before your holos go off. I forget what broken limb prevents mountjump, but that will be the one you want to break if they're still in the room right before the holos go off. Plus stripping frost before holos go off would be absolutely devastating.

Get a second weapon for shattering, use shatter + staffstrike together.

Two broken legs prevents mountjump and dismount, so that person would have to sit there until they cure. Either way, maybe like Rynn said you can strip caloric in between breaks? you'd have to time your holos perfectly though which would be difficult, however, I do think that maybe if you incorporate illusions you might be able to keep an enemy prone or off salve balance for longer. Not much help, but illusions are something to think about

Stripping frost is largely useless because it can be re-deffed at no cost and without a certain balance.

@Rynn- I thought about that before, but it's easier said than done. To make that work, I need to make a long fuse holo, which can be managed. But the shield/rebound/parry issue isn't really cleared. And the final problem is that people run when they see holos.

Also frost is easily re-deffed, like Gorlasintan said. I actually have a way around this though, but it's a secret.

@Acar- The issue earlier was, how can staffstrike help me kill somebody. Illusions may? keep somebody with broken legs, but what can I link that with?

@Gorlasintan- You said use shatter and staffstrike, I actually do that in dragonform. Because the attack time between shatter and staffstrike is so short, it means few seconds longer when curing limbs. But again, what can I do with this. What is it you had in mind.

Ah. Well, hrm. Shield/rebound/parry are always an issue for classes that use breaks. Monks can get shut down by shield, knights can get shut down by rebounding, and any class that targets can get shut down by smart parrying.

I'll think on it some more, but if you want to -kill- with staffstrike, you're going to need to keep that double-edged sword (retardation) from stabbing yourself.

I don't want to derail here but it almost seems as you are looking for a "Do X to get to Y to make Z happen perfectly everytime." formula, I don't know if you're debating the effectivness of staffstrike as a whole or you're trying to get someone else to come up with combat strategies for you. I always thought the enjoyable part of combat (and part of what made Gamdian so good as a mage) was the little things you toss in from time to time to keep them guessing.

People (especially in upper-tier Achaea combat) recognize patterns and setups generally. Then you run into those people who either run away or refuse to acknowledge the setup pattern and get killed.

I believe one of the things that might have prompted the addition of staffstrike was a lot of mages have complained about how hard it is to get someone to stay in the room with you and beat on them. Maybe build your tactics around that concept? Then just see how you can make them work sometimes.

It's true that hit&run is one of the most frustrating things for a Mage what with being tied to Vibes and losing all damage momentum. Staffstrike for prepping was definitely meant to address that in part. But it was also meant as a setup skill, beyond simply timing Holo's and starting a Hailstorm before you Staff. One thing to explore is the skills that bypass Shield such as Hourglass tattoos and Deepfreeze, both of which can preserve momentum in Retardation even if your opponent stays Shielded. And you may not need to switch weapons in order to Shatter, a Shatter with a Staff won't break, but 1 Shatter + 1 Staffstrike will.

Staffstrike doesn't really make it more likely that someone stays in the same room as the magi, it is very easy to run from a magi, pretty much nothing a magi can do if his/her opponent doesn't want to fight them in vibes.