Crystalline staff

[supermini]

Using a crystal focus on a dragonbone staff gives a staff that gives +10% arcane/+30% fire damage. When you use command staff on it, it gives -28% arcane/+68% fire damage. This may be intentional, but it seems awfully buggy to me - first of all, you shouldn't be able to change it from arcane, and second, 68% fire damage is waaay too powerful. Stacking fire damage% is too easy as it is.

Also (a minor point) spellpower of the staff actually goes down when you use the focus on it.

[darkgod]

fixed

[skein]

Blargh! Don't fix that!

It is the only reason crystalline focus is worth a dang thing in the first place. You could actually have your +60% in any damage type since you can certainly command staff before you use the focus. A necro can easily use this for darkness or cold for instance.

+60% is also not at all outside the range of normal high level staves. I usually end up replacing it anyway when I find something better.

As an artifact it is already pretty dang useless most of the time. I certainly do not support making it any less useful, I would rather you just remove it then another real artifact could be made in its place :p

[supermini]

Blargh! Don't fix that!

It is the only reason crystalline focus is worth a dang thing in the first place. You could actually have your +60% in any damage type since you can certainly command staff before you use the focus. A necro can easily use this for darkness or cold for instance.

+60% is also not at all outside the range of normal high level staves. I usually end up replacing it anyway when I find something better.

As an artifact it is already pretty dang useless most of the time. I certainly do not support making it any less useful, I would rather you just remove it then another real artifact could be made in its place :p

It's worth a lot for use on weapons. I tore through overpowered wyrms with my berserker using a crystal focus weapon.

If it's the case that 60% is in the range of high level staves, then what's your complaint? Just use some other high level staff with command staff.

[skein]

My complaint to crystallize it down to the essence is that right now both melee characters and casters can get some use out of it. It is of course hard to use since you first have to find something to use it on and the something to use it on is FAR rarer then the focus itself. (You will actually find the focus most of the time by just opening all the gem stores after level 20 or so if you have not found it earlier, while finding the something to use it on usually requires a trip to the Vor armory)

You are removing the ability for most casters to use it all. The only casters who would still want it are archmages specializing in arcane, and probably only if they remember to command staff it to arcane before using it so really only useful the second run through they find it. There is already another artifact staff that is only arcane.

There is no reason to make a conditionally useful artifact useless for many people. There are already plenty enough of those to go around. Your main fault was considering it broken in the first place, it isn't broken at all. It may have given the appearance of being broken, and you sold that appearance, and that broke it

[supermini]

There is no reason to make a conditionally useful artifact useless for many people. There are already plenty enough of those to go around. Your main fault was considering it broken in the first place, it isn't broken at all. It may have given the appearance of being broken, and you sold that appearance, and that broke it

Show me a staff that has 68% bonus on fire damage. That's more than double of the standard t5. Don't tell me it's not broken just because it's your favourite toy.

If the issue is that the crystal staff is too weak now, then that can be further changed, but it shouldn't have command staff. The crystal focus is supposed to create arcane weapons.

So instead of arguing with me write in the idea thread what you think the bonuses on crystal staff should be.

[darkgod]

The crystal is a tier1 artifact, why should it be on par with tier5 weapons ???

[skein]

Because it is not really a tier 5 artifact. It is half of a tier 5 artifact that requires a tier 5 drop almost as rare as an artifact itself to find. The artifact part is not the hard part.

The goal should be that it sees some use. Many early artifacts have a very limited lifespan but the focus is weird since it very rarely sees use at all until very late.

The alchemist I am running now for instance has the focus in inventory but not only is NOT using it even bugged, he will never use it. I have already found two randart tier 4 staves. (One with warding 4 and the other with illuminate). I found both randarts BEFORE I found an unenchanted staff to use the focus on. Even after finding one it would only match the other staves not surpass them. (BTW the big bonuses on damage from staves come from the odd rares that also have channel staff and let you match whatever they randomly had)

I will also never use it to enchant a weapon for the golem. Golem is presently using a voratun waraxe randart and titanic in the primary and a stralite 2 handed randart in the secondary.

The goal should be for it to see use. It already does not get used most of the time. Nerfing half of the little use it sees now is not productive. If it is going to end up being universally useless you might as well just get rid of it. It is not, as has been implied, my favorite toy by a long shot.

If you want to key it as a low artifact only what you should do is just set the amount it adds to a set amount instead of letting it float with the tier of the base item. It is also unclear why you want multiple artifact staffs doing arcane damage when arcane damage users ave very very rare.

[supermini]

Because it is not really a tier 5 artifact. It is half of a tier 5 artifact that requires a tier 5 drop almost as rare as an artifact itself to find. The artifact part is not the hard part.

Only if you want to use it on a t5 staff. You can find a white 1h/2h voratun weapon more often, especially in Vor Armory.

The goal should be that it sees some use. Many early artifacts have a very limited lifespan but the focus is weird since it very rarely sees use at all until very late.

You can either use it early or late, the choice is yours. I wouldn't necessarily say that waiting until t5 is the best option. There could be better weapons for your class in t5, and using a crystal focus weapon means you need to stack +arcane damage%, not +physical damage%, so there isn't a lot of synergy with other artifacts for melee classes. Early on you don't have a lot of physical damage bonuses so you might get more use out of it then.

The alchemist I am running now for instance has the focus in inventory but not only is NOT using it even bugged, he will never use it. I have already found two randart tier 4 staves. (One with warding 4 and the other with illuminate). I found both randarts BEFORE I found an unenchanted staff to use the focus on. Even after finding one it would only match the other staves not surpass them. (BTW the big bonuses on damage from staves come from the odd rares that also have channel staff and let you match whatever they randomly had)

So you could have used it on a t2 staff and gotten some use out of it, which is my point exactly.

I will also never use it to enchant a weapon for the golem. Golem is presently using a voratun waraxe randart and titanic in the primary and a stralite 2 handed randart in the secondary.

The goal should be for it to see use. It already does not get used most of the time. Nerfing half of the little use it sees now is not productive. If it is going to end up being universally useless you might as well just get rid of it. It is not, as has been implied, my favorite toy by a long shot.

Just because you are not using it, it doesn't mean that it doesn't get used most of the time. It makes for a great backup weapon for melee classes. Meet something with high physical damage resistance but low arcane damage resistance? Take out the crystal weapon. Multi-hued wyrms are such enemies, but there are more. It is also a great thing to use pre-Dreadfell if you can find a higher tier white, especially if you didn't find a good enough early weapon.

If you want to key it as a low artifact only what you should do is just set the amount it adds to a set amount instead of letting it float with the tier of the base item. It is also unclear why you want multiple artifact staffs doing arcane damage when arcane damage users ave very very rare.

No other melee weapon does arcane damage, that's the whole point. Why should it be balanced vs staffs at all? Just treat it as a non caster artifact, like finding unerring scalpel.

[attila]

I command-staffed a dragonbone staff to Arcane damage, then applied Crystal Focus to it. What I got back was disappointingly a staff with just +10% arcane damage. So basically the original plain dragonbone staff's +30% arcane damage was reduced to just +10% by the crystal.

However if the original dragonbone staff is dishing out other damage types (e.g.: fire or ice), then the crystal focus will produce an additional +10% arcane damage, while keeping the original +30% damage type.

Is this intended behavior or a bug?

[R_D]

The crystal is a tier1 artifact, why should it be on par with tier5 weapons ???

Last I checked, the Crystal Focus was a tier 2 artifact.
(I'm looking at it right now, it's in my inventory atm)