staff master vs havoc specialist

[Stavros.8249]

I know that staff master is like 6% dmg increase ands havoc specialist is 15%, but i was looking at the benchmark video

and notice that the havoc one have the half uptime for vault cause its out of endurance. So the benchmark is with 5% increase from vault instead of 10%. The conclusion is a diference like 4% . Does it worth it or should i go easy mode with staff master and 3 bars of endurance and dodge every 4s, which i will do anyway i quess to avoid an attack.

[Trianox.3486]

Hum, for me, and I know many could disagree, it's about playstyle and comfort.

 

Personally, I tend to go with staff... There is DMG maximization (perfectly played build in perfect conditions and in a perfect scenario) and optimization based on real life (gaming hehe) circumstances.

I prefer to go for comfort and stability rather than unforgiving build/rotation. It provides more flexibility in case of mistakes from me or team mates.

 

I find myself picking traits for build that are sometimes not fully optimized/maximized, but are high enough to be competitive, yet allow for stable performance regardless of mistake or I should say with a higher mistake tolerance threshold, which give comfort and allow to focus on positioning, and mechanics. And ultimately, I think I perform overall better by a thin margin, then if I had the traits for maximized DPS output.

 

When I'm really really good with a build, then I eventually switch for more "hardcore" traits (more static rotations)... But to be honest prefer a slightly more relaxed playstay with fewer elements to worry about.

 

Side note: I tend to always have 1-2 bars empty, but avoid emptying all 3. Staff has the added benefit of providing more endurance regeneration, which further allows for extra dodges.

One could also make the argument that if you're stuck in a position in which the unavailability of Dodge would kill you is because you didn't time properly and perfectly your ration, and that therefore an extra dodges would not save you either way... That stance could push toward choosing havoc. But I don't think situations are black or white that much, we often play in grey zones and hence more flexibility is good when needed.

[Mor The Thief.9135]

In my case I actually prefer Staff Mastery over Havoc because then having Endurance is not an issue and therefore can take the Physical Skills trait for more Fist Flurry and having the Elite Physical Skill Marginally better than Basilisk because of lower CD.

 

Also usually doing so will result in me having better DPS than most pugs because rotation is much more forgiving.

[Yasai.3549]

Honestly Staff is better in my eyes because it is unconditional positive bonuses just by having Staff equipped.

With the mastery, yu gain alot of bonus Power as well as some Endurance Regen just by having Staff camped.

 

This also means more Boundings which can also translate into more damage as well as consistent Bounding buff.

 

If the encounter requires more rough dodgy movements, having more dodges is always welcome over having bars empty needed for Havoc to activate/be optimal.

 

There is just so much gain in using Staff Mastery that unless yu aren't using Staff as a main weapon, there is no reason not to pick it.

[Bovan.9481]

> @"Stavros.8249" said:

> and notice that the havoc one have the half uptime for vault cause its out of endurance. So the benchmark is with 5% increase from vault instead of 10%. The conclusion is a diference like 4% .

 

Yeah, no. Your line of thinking is a little bit off there and there are two different factors at play.

 

The act of spending time dodging is a short term DPS loss, but the buff from Bounding Dodger makes it come slightly ahead. It's not a ''free'' 10% damage buff, you lose damage, and then recuperate that loss and gain a little more afterwards.

The other one is is you only have so much initiative to spend on high damage attacks, and you auto-attack in between. The higher uptime you get on the Bounding Dodger buff with Staff Master will mostly be spend on more auto-attacks which makes it not have as much value compared to when you would do some high damage/DPS Weakening Charges. Study LEFT's benchmark very closely and you can see that all his initiative is spend extremely efficiently.

 

These are two things I felt I had to point out. Havoc Mastery is simply miles stronger in terms of the bonuses you get from it, and Staff Master's endurance and the higher Bounding Dodger uptimes simply don't really get close to it. In all honesty I forgot the exact numbers but from memory, Havoc Mastery was around 11% ahead in terms of DPS. Don't quote me on that number though because it's been months since I last looked at Staff Master. I just know it's so far behind that I simply never considered it for anything but soloing dungeons and some open world champions.

 

EDIT:

Okay something else I just thought of. I went over the exact video you linked and pulled together some numbers. You start with 12 initiative, and you gain 1 initiative per second. The benchmark took 1 minute and 53 seconds. Even if I ignore that you start with full endurance and literally convert every point of initiative into endurance you only end up with 250 total endurance, or 5 extra dodges which translates into 20 additional seconds of Bounding Dodger. Even taking things _that_ literally you only gain 17.69% more uptime on the Bounding Dodger buff. The endurance just isn't that big of a deal.

 

> @"Mor The Thief.9135" said:

> In my case I actually prefer Staff Mastery over Havoc because then having Endurance is not an issue and therefore can take the Physical Skills trait for more Fist Flurry

 

You can play whatever you like of course, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. But I do want to point out that taking the trait makes Fist Flurry not line up perfectly with Assassin's Signet anymore. You get more Fist Flurry casts in, but a bunch of them will do less damage compared to if you wouldn't have taken the trait.