Throne and Liberty: The Ultimate Staff Wand DPS Build Guide
Overview of the Staff Wand DPS Build
While Staff Wand builds are generally associated with support roles, this one flips the script and focuses on raw DPS. The key here is that it doesn’t rely on burst damage (which often doesn't translate well into sustained DPS). Instead, this build builds up over time, stacking curses and burns to unleash massive damage during your main phase. Let’s get into the details.
Core Skills
The core of this build revolves around managing burns and curses effectively. Here’s a breakdown of the essential skills:
1. Serial Firebombs
Your main burning skill. You’ll use this to apply burn stacks and generate damage over time.
2. Touch of Despair
A curse skill that will apply and maintain curse stacks.
3. Inferno Wave
A key damage tool that generates burn stacks, especially when its cooldown is reduced.
4. Chain Lightning
This helps spread the curse and burn effects in an area, but since we’re focusing on single-target DPS, it’s mostly about the curse benefit.
5. Fireball Barrage
A solid damage-dealer that gets even better with Fireball Frenzy (adding more fireballs based on your burn stacks).
6. Judgment Lightning
A key nuke that does substantial single-target damage, especially when used with maximum burn and curse stacks.
7. Decay Touch
Works well with Cursed Explosion, resetting both burn and curse stacks for high DPS spikes.
8. Cursed Explosion
This is the real damage-dealer in your rotation. By leveraging both burn and curse effects, you’ll get massive damage spikes. Keep in mind that while it consumes your burn and curse stacks, this skill has a powerful effect when used correctly.
Specializations Breakdown
You’ll want to focus on maximizing the effectiveness of your key skills with the right specializations. Here are the highlights:
· Serial Firebombs:
The cast time reduction here is crucial. It lets you throw bombs faster and build your burn stacks more efficiently. It’s not about mobility here—this build rewards you for standing still and building up those stacks.
· Inferno Wave:
Reducing the cooldown here means you can spam this skill more often, keeping your burn stacks rolling and increasing overall damage.
· Chain Lightning:
The area curse that Chain Lightning provides helps you stack up damage on single targets. This skill doesn’t spread to multiple enemies for this build—it's just another tool to apply curses quickly.
· Thunder Blessing:
One of the most important passives in this build. This skill helps regenerate mana while also dealing damage. It’s a lifesaver for staff builds that need high mana sustain to keep up their DPS.
· Fireball Barrage:
Take Fireball Frenzy to get even more fireballs when burn stacks are maxed. The increased cooldown reduction helps you maintain constant pressure on your target.
· Curse Explosion:
This is the big one. You want to heavily specialize in Curse Explosion. It scales with both your curse and burn stacks, so maximizing this will give you the highest possible damage spikes.
· Decaying Touch:
By specializing in this, you transform Corrupted Magic Circle into Touch of Decay, which turns it into a single-target DPS skill. It has no cast time, which is excellent for building up your DPS uptime.
Passive Skills (Mana Regeneration Focus)
Your passive skills are designed to enhance mana regeneration and boost your overall damage output. Key passives include:
· Mana Ball Eruption
Boosts your mana regeneration, ensuring you never run dry.
· Flame Condensation
Increases damage by adding burning effects.
· Forbidden Sanctuary
Provides both damage boosts and mana regeneration.
· Aestheticism
Reduces your mana consumption while boosting your spellcasting efficiency.
· Devotion and Emptiness
These give you a solid boost to your damage over time capabilities.
Stat Priority and Gear Setup
To maximize the DPS of this build, you’ll need to prioritize the right stats. Here’s what to aim for:
· 40 Dexterity, 40 Wisdom
Dexterity boosts your attack speed and overall damage, while Wisdom increases your mana pool and regeneration. These stats are essential for sustaining your damage output.
· Secondary Stats:
Focus on cooldown reduction, as it allows you to spam your key abilities more often. You can also look into increasing max mana and damage scaling.
Guardian Selection: Lady Karmar
For your Guardian, Lady Karmar is the go-to choice. She offers:
· Cooldown reduction by 40%, which stacks on top of your existing cooldown reduction from the Staff Wand build.
· A 30-second duration, allowing for sustained DPS during boss fights.
This is huge for making sure your skills are up more often, especially during those critical phases when you’re unleashing your full damage potential.
The Rotation: Building and DPS Phases
Your DPS rotation can be broken into three main phases: Build, Buff, and DPS.
1. Building Phase (Burn & Curse Stacks):
Your goal in this phase is to build up max burn (10 stacks) and max curse (3 stacks). To do this, cast Serial Firebombs, Touch of Despair, Inferno Wave, and Chain Lightning on cooldown. Maintain these stacks as your primary focus.
2. Buff Phase:
Once you’ve hit max burn and curse stacks, it’s time to buff yourself. Activate your Enchanting Time and Fighting Spirit to boost damage. Now it’s time to cast your big DPS abilities in this order:
o Fireball Barrage
o Judgment Lightning
o Decaying Touch
o Cursed Explosion
3. DPS Phase:
Now that your buffs are active, you’ll focus on spamming Fireball Barrage, Judgment Lightning, Decaying Touch, and Cursed Explosion. This is your highest-damage phase, where you maximize output by maintaining your burn and curse stacks and using your strongest skills.
4. Recovery Phase:
During the downtime, you’ll want to use Thunder Blessing to regenerate mana and ensure you don’t run out. Make sure to refresh your burn and curse stacks before you go into the next phase.
Final Tips and Tricks
· Maintain Max Stacks: Always make sure your burn and curse stacks are up before diving into the DPS phase. If they fall off, your damage will drop significantly.
· Skill Priority: Focus on cooldowns—the more frequently you can cast your key skills, the more damage you’ll deal.
· Positioning: Since the Staff Wand build benefits from standing still for some passive effects, find a position where you can stay put and still dodge any major boss mechanics.
Conclusion
This Staff DPS build for Throne and Liberty is designed to deal sustained damage through careful stack management and efficient use of skills. While it's not a burst-focused build, once you build up Curse and Burn you'll be dealing some serious damage over time. The key to mastering this build is timing - keep your buffs up, refresh your stacks, and always keep an eye on your cooldowns. Optimize your build further with MMOEXP purchases of cheap TL Lucent and manage it, and you'll become one of the most effective DPS classes in the game. Good luck, and happy hunting!