Sharing some Quarterstaff Revamp ideas with everyone.

Hello, I wanted to share my take on what I consider to be an improvement for the leveling experience for any build centred around the use of quarterstaves.

The reason why I consider these changes to be good because they quicken the timing where you learn all the relevant mechanics which makes this weapon unique (management of combo points and power charges).

1)Falling Thunder and Mantra of Destruction got moved all the way to T13. Mantra is a niche which synergises (poorly) exclusively with Acolyte of Chayula ascendancy, while Falling Thunder is a skill which often underperforms during the early campaign stages of the game because it doesn't have enough to support to generate Power Charges quickly enough to consistently nuke the screen between levels 1-18.

2)Vaulting Impact is moved to T1 and made the new starting gem because, in contrast to Falling Thunder, this is easier to use and deals more AoE damage in a short time frame.

3)Flicker Strike is a superior skill to Falling Thunder as a burst skill to clear the screen. Unlike Falling Thunder, which creates a micro slam that can barely hit a monster, this skill can be used without Power Charges to deal damage. I feel this skill deserves to be unlocked earlier than something as niche as Falling Thunder or Mantra of Destruction.

All other changes past this point are made on a whim to try and consolidate the main two changes I feel strongly will improve Quarterstaff as a weapon for new players.

The current skill progression exclusively favors monks that will take up the Invoker Ascendancy. Of the 20+ Quarterstaff skills available, TWO (2) carry the "Chaos" tag. Both are unsupported gimmicks that are level-gated behind higher tiers. Whoever developed this had zero consideration for nonInvokers and it really shows. The game's passive tree, itemization, and spirit/support gems also all reflect this.

Personally, I don't think Chayula should have any business in dealing Chaos Damage because it's supposed to be the tank/defensive specialization.

It's main gimmick is turning elemental damage into energy shields via the mana leech mechanic.

However, I do agree that Quarterstaff seems to be hyper focused on elements which benefit the Invoker. As is the bow and to a lesser extent the spear.

Any reason why you think AoC can't play tanky/defensive Chaos? No other ascendancy runs Chaos Thorns better than it!

The meta build for Leech ES, that I know of, takes 8 Ascendancy points to bring fully online with nodes like Consuming Question and Lucid Dreaming.

To get to Lucid Dreaming you have to invest 4 Ascendancy points and then 4 more to get to Consuming Question.

Meanwhile AoC has 2 random nodes dedicated to Chaos Damage and I never heard of Chaos Thorns before.

It's a shitbrew, but kinda fun. There's no leech involved. It uses Into the Breach then picks up Reality Rending/Gift of Chayula. The only required piece of gear is the Thorns staple Crown of the Pale King. Scavenged Plating and other gear pieces will supply base Physical thorns. Lightning Rune provides base elemental thorns (can later be converted/scaled with Original Sin). Purple Flames from the ascendancy & Mantra of Destruction (Gain 140% of Damage as extra Chaos at full 10 stacks), Reality Rending(Gain up to 175% on the rare triple-proc, imagine if it crits!), the Pure Chaos Notable(Gain 11%), and the new Agony Rune(Gain 13%) are the sources of Chaos Thorns. Mings Heart and Volatility too can give more but they chew up survivability. There's also more physical-leaning poison/bleed variants with Mace+Shield.

Ok, fair enough.

To me this doesn't change the fact that Mantra of Destruction is awarded to early in the game, considering it's a nieche weapon skill which benefits only one Ascendancy.

It also doesn't change the fact that skills required to introduce players to the unique-ness of the weapons are gated behind too many levels, while the skills we access during the early stages of the game - Act 1 normal are far too niche, impractical & slow functioning.

I think the real problem for that lies behind why Mantra is too niche. AoC ascendancy aside, Chaos in general is under-supported. It's non-damaging debuff Wither just got a Rune this most recent patch, but hopefully more toys get implemented soon. I think GGG tried with Volatility, but that might need more tuning. Skill Empowerment too (since that's what Mantra does) is a bit lacking. There's maybe a handful of supports that reference it, most of which seem designed for War-Cry.

I think that the biggest problem with Quarterstaff is not it's lack of support towards Chaos damage because at the end of the day, you can implement a new weapon type such as Daggers which could probably have better synergy with the current state of AoC Ascendancy.

Same goes for Skill empowerment mechanic.

If we were to look at Quarterstaff as a weapon available to multiple classes, the skills awarded for each tier is shit.

You don't have access to enough tools to make skills like Falling Thunder or even Flicker Strike viable for freaking Act 1 on Normal, because you don't have a good way of stacking Power Charges.

Killing Palm + Profusion, generates far too little Power Charges for those skills to be viable during the easiest part of the game, when compared to simply spamming Frost Bolt + Ice Nova.

Secondly, you need levels to gain passives which increase the duration and amount of Power Charges you can hold.

Furthermore, the skills you do have access to, do not teach you anything about how good damage rotations should feel, forcing you to go on Youtube (which is bad design) to see how to maximize damage with this specific weapon.

I personally consider my revamp to be better, because it's built around leveling, while ignoring Ascendancies up until the 7th tier.

It sounds like Killing Palm is causing some of this friction. Because GGG decided to make its inherent starting radius so frickin small, I think many forget that its an AoE Strike. When enough enemies are close together, a single use can grant max Power Charges. . I used it from start of Act1 all the way to mapping. It's not a bad skill, it just another Undersupported archetype (Unarmed).