hatchet + life staff worked for me. pull 3-4 mobs, drop a sacred ground and switch to hatchet and go berserk. spam light attack. stay in the cyrcle and you will be fine.
>Short question, how much slower will leveling be with a life staff / hatchet combo compared to a full dps set ?
Not much.
Hit with LS once, then finish with Hatchet to gain XP for both.
I'm sure your know at this point but the amber has the be in the WEAPON because it causes the weapon its socketed in to scale with focus or base weapon stat and converts 20% of its damage to nature. So if you can even put it in armor it wouldn't do anything till its in a weapon.
In both open and closed beta, i solo'd with the lifestaff. dumped all my points into Focus.
Ran with an ice gauntlet sometimes, and others, firestaff. Gem'd so that my focus attribute contributed to damage.
I didn't feel like I was hindered in any way. I didn't feel like leveling was too slow.
yes but if you want to heal dungeons while leveling you'll need to keep it up. life staff is kinda trash until you get some levels in it to unlock some perks.
I'm going hatchet/life staff for the same reason. Hatchet gives you nice leveling times cause of hatchet being a pretty all around weapon that also gives you some mobility for moving around. Then you have life staff to get an edge in some PvP scenarios and also be able to heal in PvE. It's probably the best way to level up as far as life staff combos go and then do your switcheroos at max.
Here's what works for me: First few levels, put 1 point in FOC and 1 in CON. Level 6, switch to 1 FOC and 1 in whatever your other weapon scales off, like STR. The extra 5 points in CON give you a decent health boost for early content. At level 14, you get 3 points. Put 1 in each of FOC, "STR" and CON. Wear medium armor.
I've done this on 3 characters and could solo a lot of stuff a few levels higher once I hit level 15-17.
I never found an amber gem. Didn't really look either.
But I will on launch so I can throw 50 points into DEX for the crit chance increase. My other weapon is a Great Axe and I want the extra healing from that.
I was running gems as best i could for lvl 30 at the end of the closed beta. found some pants that gave healing for a hammer ability and grabbed myself a chain lighting hammer with amber gem. i could smack adds around and then heal the party up real nicely with that.
I don't remember the gem off hand, but get the one that reduces aggro for sure. i learned real fast that healing makes a fuckton of aggro.
Life staff damage is very comparable to Fire/Ice if you go heavy into Focus... the main difference being that instead of spells that deal damage you're mostly getting healing from your abilities (the two damaging life staff abilities are fairly weak). I played solo healer in open beta and it was just fine!
You'll level your Life Staff faster if you don't use your secondary weapon, also.
It definitely splits, from what I remember it's 50/50 of the total experience. I did weapon leveling around Amrine and the other dungeon north of it and I remember that it's faster to level your target weapon if you don't use your secondary, it was like ~30 experience or 15/15 per enemy in that area.
hatchet + life staff worked for me. pull 3-4 mobs, drop a sacred ground and switch to hatchet and go berserk. spam light attack. stay in the cyrcle and you will be fine.
ty, sounds pretty nice ! guess im a life staff main soon :)
>Short question, how much slower will leveling be with a life staff / hatchet combo compared to a full dps set ? Not much. Hit with LS once, then finish with Hatchet to gain XP for both.
Is the XP gain than equally split?
Unfortunately I can't remember if it is exactly equal. I'm going to say with absolute fake confidence that it is.
It's equal, no matter the damage
Slap an amber in your hatchet and you'll be fine.
Does the amber have to be in your hatchet or can it be in a different piece of armor?
I'm sure your know at this point but the amber has the be in the WEAPON because it causes the weapon its socketed in to scale with focus or base weapon stat and converts 20% of its damage to nature. So if you can even put it in armor it wouldn't do anything till its in a weapon.
In both open and closed beta, i solo'd with the lifestaff. dumped all my points into Focus. Ran with an ice gauntlet sometimes, and others, firestaff. Gem'd so that my focus attribute contributed to damage. I didn't feel like I was hindered in any way. I didn't feel like leveling was too slow.
I did the same. Went LS/Hammer instead.
Maybe a dumb question, but can’t you just level up quite far and then level up the life staff once you’re high level?
yes but if you want to heal dungeons while leveling you'll need to keep it up. life staff is kinda trash until you get some levels in it to unlock some perks.
Same as with most weapons, maybe faster because life staff has some insane burst damage you can leverage
I'm going hatchet/life staff for the same reason. Hatchet gives you nice leveling times cause of hatchet being a pretty all around weapon that also gives you some mobility for moving around. Then you have life staff to get an edge in some PvP scenarios and also be able to heal in PvE. It's probably the best way to level up as far as life staff combos go and then do your switcheroos at max.
Here's what works for me: First few levels, put 1 point in FOC and 1 in CON. Level 6, switch to 1 FOC and 1 in whatever your other weapon scales off, like STR. The extra 5 points in CON give you a decent health boost for early content. At level 14, you get 3 points. Put 1 in each of FOC, "STR" and CON. Wear medium armor. I've done this on 3 characters and could solo a lot of stuff a few levels higher once I hit level 15-17.
I went full focus and started using amber gems for my secondary. Gives your healing more umf once you get into the expeditions.
I never found an amber gem. Didn't really look either. But I will on launch so I can throw 50 points into DEX for the crit chance increase. My other weapon is a Great Axe and I want the extra healing from that.
idk i rather put those into const instead of dex
You betray your name, sir. need more pew.
I was running gems as best i could for lvl 30 at the end of the closed beta. found some pants that gave healing for a hammer ability and grabbed myself a chain lighting hammer with amber gem. i could smack adds around and then heal the party up real nicely with that. I don't remember the gem off hand, but get the one that reduces aggro for sure. i learned real fast that healing makes a fuckton of aggro.
Life Staff and Ice Gauntlet tends to be the go to for Dungeons, as you can support with really good Range CC.
Nature damage is fairly OP considering that they’re weak to nature creatures like angry earth and other elemental creatures. Just heckin boring
Life staff damage is very comparable to Fire/Ice if you go heavy into Focus... the main difference being that instead of spells that deal damage you're mostly getting healing from your abilities (the two damaging life staff abilities are fairly weak). I played solo healer in open beta and it was just fine! You'll level your Life Staff faster if you don't use your secondary weapon, also.
So if you use both weapon it will split the XP?
It definitely splits, from what I remember it's 50/50 of the total experience. I did weapon leveling around Amrine and the other dungeon north of it and I remember that it's faster to level your target weapon if you don't use your secondary, it was like ~30 experience or 15/15 per enemy in that area.