Staves are for Mages? Why not Melee?

If there are players out there who like to be Martial Artists or Monks let's say, using staves as a mage-weapon seems like a bad plan. Now, I think having auto-attack at all is silly, but if it has to be there, how about "Scepters" aka large wands instead? What about equipable Spell Books? People loved that in EverQuest! Crystal Balls maybe? Something that's more mage-specific.

Next, let's say a player only wants to use Necromancy or perhaps Earth type spells... and suddenly auto-attack doesn't match the player's theme. Kinda ruins the immersion for that player right? If auto-attack stays, how about customizable spell effects?

 

Some images for reference.

Necromancer:

Monk:

 

There might be unenchanted staves in the final game. Keep in mind staves as they are right now aren't how they'll finally be. We've been told that staves in the future will be enchantable, a player will be able to store a spell on a staff with a limited number of charges. There might be possibly be unenchanted staffs, too, which are just polearms. (In my threads before, I suggested that if the'res an auto-attack on a staff, it might be connected to what magic its enchanted with).

But I also see no reason why using the staff as a pole-arm shouldn't be the mage's auto-attack, too. That wouldn't go against a mage's theme, and in fact I'd imagine it being a bit hard to use the staff as a long range magic weapon and close distance.

If nothing else, there could be a choice. I think instead of there being a defensive stance glyph, for instance, it could be a toggle for someone with both a sword and a shield: turning his shield into the auto-attack instead of the sword, making it an auto-block. A similar choice could be there while wielding a staff: toggling it between the magic use, which would be largely offensive, and the pole-arm use, which would be largely defensive.

 

Indeed having a variety of weapon choices will add so much depth to the combat, but I can understand why they would be added later. There are bigger fish to fry right now.

 

Actually i find it silly that mages have staves and can auto-attack. Actually auto-attack in itself is a bad feature.
But this shows that basically the combat system of SotA is nothing more than a WoW-combat system with a hotbar and auto-attacks. Sure there is a deck system and random elements at play here, too, but basically it is a WoW combat system. And this is neither innovative not something that makes SotA unique.

 

I don't know, if someone takes a swing at me I would auto attack if not for actively stopping my self.
So not auto attacking is for the paladins
I'm a rogue mage

 

I wish my wizard could use a staff for melee as well as an enchanted weapon. In UO my wizard had a large staff that you could always see while he was walking around. To me this the look for a wise old wizard. Also, having the ability to knock down opponents who get close so that you can regain distance is a great combat option.

 

I will not rest until Staves are considered Siege Weapons. I keep imagining doing this to a horde of Liches:

 

I think that magic staves have become a totally meaningless trope in fantasy settings that are thrown in without any understanding of what the point of mages with staves was in the first place. Gandalf in Lord of the Rings is a personification of Odin's Wanderer Guise, which is how Odin in Norse mythology interacts with humans a lot. He turns into an old man with a long beard and a wide brimmed hat who wanders the land with a walking stick. When Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings he adopted that image into the character of Gandalf, who was also a traveler who had been all over middle earth. The whole symbolic point of the staff is that a wizards power comes from his experience, from the fact that he's been everywhere and knows everyone and everything. The staff isn't a tool for doing magic, it's a tool for walking around so you can learn everything. In a sense the wizards in middle earth, who are actually divine beings given human form, had much of their power tied to a walking stick not because someone simply decided that it looked cool, but to be a constant reminder of what their purpose was.

But like with so many things in the fantasy genre people just started copying it without wondering why it was there in the first place, and now the idea that somehow a staff is the weapon of a spellcaster has just somehow become the standard. There is really no good reason why staves should in any way be related to magic in a universe where there is no symbolic meaning behind that. Of course it's easy to claim that staff shaped objects are just better at channeling magic somehow, but that's just the kind of weird rule that takes the mystery out of magic in the first place.

 

Wood from certain trees has been considered to hold mystic properties for a very very long time. Holly, Oak, Alder, Ash and Hawthorn in particular were heavily associated with old world deities, rituals and the Fae. Staves, rods and wands are just a convenient and readily available shape, as were woven crowns and effigies.

 

Personally Like I have said I prefer the mage assassin style of play

dual wield daggers with mage support skills and plate armor with fizzle reduction so i can be high defense with less penalties when it comes to casting
my main combat form would be dexterity dagger fighting BUT, I would also use magery as a backup to support my combat style, I was the same way in UO and other games, its my fav playstyle

 

I agree there should be melee staves. I wonder if there could be 2 kinds of staves, magic user ones with weakened durability for combat, and high durability for non magic ones.

 

i'd love for there to be a martial arts/brawler type class using medium and light armor. using moves from taekwondo, aikido, karate, jiu jitsu and others also hand weapons including staves spiked Cestus, old-school brass knuckles, and other neat things. some of the most fun i had in combat was watching my Monk in EQ2 just massacre with his moves, peeling off mobs one by one from the tank and just fighting alongside the group, making everyone elses jobs that much easier.

the skills could be throws, kicks, takedowns, grappling - some of the best martial artists use multiple styles to their best advantage.
think about it, a mage or archer runs away from the pack to get some distance and do some major damage, and you slap your combo to drop your bo/stave , and do a superman dive tackling the foe, then hit another skill to straddle them and just ground-and-pound on them for a while till your stamina drops by 20%, stunning them as you get up..

 

This is really interesting. However, I have a feeling that if staffs were to be removed, we would get just as many threads from people asking "why no staffs?"

 

very much so..... me being one of them lol

 

Staffs are mellee wepon, they are just blunt spears .

Silly to not have them

 

I think you're right. I'm not saying they should be removed though, just that they should simply be staves that people can use however they see fit. If someone wants to go Gandalf, hey, more power to them. It just shouldn't be set up in such a way that everyone has to. Especially considering that for hundreds of years the Quarterstaff was considered one of the best dueling weapons too, and especially in England practically all fighters trained with them.

 

I vote for
Mages have wands (can be from twigg to quarterstaff size, allows loading with spell and thumping heads of foes to close if big enough)
Mellees have quarterstaffs who allow all the cool moves and dishing out the ouch

 

How about mages can just use whatever weapon/item they feel is appropriate for them as their "focus"/auto-attack item. Could have a clericy guy using heal spells and a mace or sword, someone could go all harry potter with a wand or gandalf with a staff, druid/ranger guy slapping out nature spells with a bow, or some whacky chaos mage with a big ol' axe just because who doesn't like a big ol' axe.

And then staves could just join the rest of the weapons as a viable option for melee as well.

But I think we all agree that the most important part of using a staff is the ability to walk around with it in your hand, walking stick style, like you could in UO, just for awesomeness. *Nods*