I think a single best of the best post is too much. However, I think a favorites/best posting, 1 item type at a time might be a great way to help foster discussions and ranking. I started with Staffs because there are so many good ones and I am playing wizards this week. My favorite is still the Heartripper. I know punishing bolt is dangerous with the lower range and variable damage, but I love it especially against "rich" Dwarves with multiple Officer's Harnesses. Top Staffs that I have used (subset in the poll): Searing Pain Red Flame White Flame Staff of a Million Embers Staff of Embers Blue Destruction Mordecai's Staff of Magma Illusion Trembling Staff Hotglass Staff Mindsplinter Staff Trog Melter Staff of Chask Black Walnut Staff Sabo's Flamespit Staff Barnum's Staff Staff of Winter Deadly, Deadly Staff Any staffs I may have missed, especially from the new expansion? I have a couple of ETTSC staffs I am trying out, but none I felt like wow this is a must have.
I gave my vote to Mordecai's Staff Of Magma & Searing Pain. There are many good staves on the poll, but those two are the ones I use the most. Compared to the powerhouse staves in the poll, all EttSC's 17 staves are pretty underwhelming. I don't want another Searing Pain or Blue Destruction, so that's mostly a good thing. However, I'd like to see Cooling Laser pushed a bit further with a good quality cold attack staff, basically upgraded / more consistent version of Supercooled Laser.
I tried unsuccessfully but not yet thoroughly to use that in 1/1/1 with mass frenzy. You reminded me to go try again
I don't like having 2 Melee Attacks on a Staff. The Dancing Cut is cute, but adding the push the button makes it too melee focused for a staff, and ruins the surprise. Nothing like announcing I am drawing a melee attack with my wizard... unless your opponent is not paying attention and assumed you used a Pull the Trigger since that makes more sense. I guess it can be a nifty in SP to have a random laser melee attack, IDK not my style.
There's an alternate universe where the last two cards on Bug Zapper 2000 aren't Able Bludgeon and Fumble, but Firestorm and Combustible. It's a scary universe.
You wait until they throw out their parries at the end of round one or two before you push the button. Easy, breezy, beautiful.
I still remember when Punishing Bolt used to be range 8. Heartripper was THE CHAMP back then. But change was sorely needed because range 8 PB was just too much...
My two to-go-to staffs are Trog Melter and Counterblast Staff. They might not seem like much but they can provide utility and card advantage all rolled into one for very moderate token prices (Melt Armor can eat Armor AND Blocks!).. I also like Trembling Staff when i'm feeling like taking risks and Heirloom Laser Gun when I want to button-mash Alternatively, here's a little minigame: Take 3 Elf Wizards and gear them up with a pair of Laser Blunderbuss, try not to die
I did run 2 Laser Blunderbuss, on a human wiz on the 3 human wiz team I have. Definitely needed to be careful about LoS between the blunderbuss wiz and the other 2... although can't do much if you draw round 1.
Illusion and Blue_Destruction are coming along if it's barrels or death march. If I had a Searing_Pain (missed out the last DD appearance by ~400 gold, IIRC), I'd bring that too. But in terms of what I use the most... Staff_of_the_Misanthrope and Staff_of_the_Inferno see frequent visits to low-level adventures. Been accumulating laser rifles of various sorts so it's tempting to look at space-marine type builds for the lulz, but all the EttSC stuff is seriously token-hungry so you're pretty limited in how spaced out your characters can be.
I've been playing a lot of EttSC with wizards, and Mordecai's and Heartripper break the game completely open, as they always do in singleplayer.
The absence of Wym's Lavastaff kind of flagged this as a a PvP oriented thread. I'd like to know how many are purchased if it ever shows up in the DD.
I maxed out the poll choices and I personally rarely use a staff for FS. I would agree I am not much of an SP farmer and I think mostly in terms of MP.
Recently looted a Bug Zapper 2000. There REALLY should be a post for the most hated/worse staff. Of course not all items are equal, and we should not complain about what is just more and more content in a great game. But sometimes you can really see the evil intent of game designers.
