The Complete Guide to the Voodoo Staff

[Thalore]

Good guide man!

Just a little opinion here. Desolation really doesn't seem worth it.
I personally prefer Wither with 4 dots and Flaming skull with 5 dots. They do insane damage, and don't hurt me The way I look at it is, if I'm fighting something that I need to kill quick, it means it's something that is hurting me. In which case I don't want to be hurting myself. On the other hand if I'm fighting something that can't hurt me do I really need to take it out ASAP... In which case Flaming Skull does nicely.


PS. I'm 25 Staff, with 5 points in Spirit Mastery as well.

[WizardHawk]

I agree with your view on desolation, which is why I put in the guide that I can't see it being used for more than a novelty. That is, something for show.

As to how to divide up points, thalore chose to max out spirit mastery and I know others who have played with different levels of the passive skills. There is no one right answer I'm sure, but spirit mastery and concentration are both worth putting whatever you can spare.

If I had it to do all over again I wouldn't put even one point in pestilence, banish, or desolation. I wouldn't use any extra points on soulflay (I do only have one dot on it now) or blast (yep, just one point there). I would max wither and flameskull as well as concentration and spirit mastery and put the rest in the other two passive skills.

For me, I mostly use blast to get the attention of enemy to make them come to me and soulflay on lower level enemy so I can get some decent exp for them.

[Eliza Shipwrecker]

One thing I found that desolation is good for - if you're training on the field in Kingshead and use desolation first and then wither, you get double the exp points per veteran. At my level, I was only getting 3-4 pts., but doing this I could get 8-11 pts each, which speeds thing up a bit. And since my health level isn't any issue with those guys - they never hit me - I can just stand there until I'm recharged enough to do it again.

I agree that it's not very useful if you're trying to battle higher level enemies, though. It takes too long to charge, and the health drain is dangerous. I hate jail!

[mrcharisma316]

aww wicked those are some nice spells i cant wait till i lv up more my staff

[Spaghettimonster]

I think spending skill points for leveling benefits is unwise, because eventually you will have that skill maxed out and the skill points you used for leveling you will regret. Plan Long Term!

I've never used a staff before but after reading this I want to take a stab at a spec by applying knowledge from past MMOs. First you have to ask yourself what the point of the staff is? It's obvious of course, but for clarity I want to just list them off. There are three components.
1) Doing lots of damage
2) as quickly as possible
3) for as long as possible

You have to find a combinatin of these three elements that will allow you to sustain relatively high dps for a relatively long period of time (when grinding for example). Too much emphasis on damage will leave you out of voodoo and unable to cast anything! Too much emphasis on regen and replenishment and you will be weak or unable to spend those Voodoo fast enough. Where that balance is, is the question, and until I can get up to that level and do some number crunching I won't know.

If someone would be so kind as to type out the Base Cost and Base Cooldown for these abilities, with no benefits from passives, I would greatly appreciate it.

Few important questions about this:
Does "Curse" in the Voodoo Doll tree "Stack" with "Spirit Mastery?"
Would this be a 55% dmg increase in total, or is there some limitation or catch?

How much regeneration do you actually get in combat, and is that more or less than the average reduction in cost assuming a 20% reduction in commonly casted Hexes? Only the math will tell us, if I had the numbers I would happily share the findings with you guys.

This is my tentative outline of what a powerful build might be.

--Combat Skill--
(1/5) Blast. * [Frontal AOE] [Base Dmg?]
--Hexes--
(1/5) Soulflay. * [Cost?] [CD?] [Base Dmg?]
(0/5) Pestilence. * [Cost?] [CD?] [Base Dmg?]
(4/5) Wither. * [Cost?] [CD?] [Base Dmg?] [-30% AtkPwr for 30s]
(4/5) Flaming Skull. * [Cost?] [CD?] [Base Dmg?]
(0/5) Banish. * [Cost?] [CD?] [Base Dmg?]
(0/5) Desolation. * [Cost?] [CD?] [Base Dmg?]
--Passive Effects--
(5/5) Concentration. * [+50% Voodoo Recovery Rate]
(4/5) Spirit Lore. * [+20% Casting Speed for Staff]
(2/5) Conservation. * [-20% Casting Cost for Staff/Doll Hexes]
(4/5) Spirit Mastery. * [+25% Dmg to Doll/Staff Spells]
(25/25) Total

[katmgck]

I have a 20 staff and just got Desolation. I must say it is probably the silliest skill I have ever seen, except for the graphics which are pretty cool. I never heard of a high level skill that takes 2/3 of your health and does only fair damage.
Seems quite a waste to me.
Eliza, I tried your way of going to Kingshead and using it first and then wither. I am only Notoriety 32, but the soldiers did hurt me enough to make using the spell deadly for me.
I do love Fire Skull and Wither. I have 5 points in each and think I will be sticking to using those.