The Issue with Mage Guns and Why They are Frustrating to Use

[Kaziscate]

If you don't want to read about my rambling and just want to see the main points that I have, just scroll down to the "Short Version" section

So I've been using the staff for a pretty long time and I decided to try out guns again after a long time. One of the things I immediately noticed was how annoyingly sluggish it was. Attacking felt slower and charging attacks felt slower as well. So I did some messing around and testing and comparing to make sure I wasn't crazy. Sure enough, my testing confirmed that guns were indeed slower than staffs. About 0.4 seconds slower on attack speed and 0.3 seconds slower on charge time. That does not seem like much, but it is surprisingly noticeable when you switch between the two weapons. I'm sure some of you are not surprised since guns have been this way for a long time. I never saw guns attacking slower than staves as an issue at first, but after using guns again I see it as an issue because this slower attack speed guns have can make them more tedious to use and possibly deal less single target dps than staves. Yeah they have much more damage per hit and are meant for single target damage, but even if I'm fighting a boss, I'd take a staff any day because it feels so much better to use because of the faster attack speed.

Pretty much, I feel like guns need to have a buff to their attack speed so that they can be as desirable and good to use as a staff.

Short Version

Guns feel noticeably slower than staves
Guns attack 0.4 seconds slower and charge 0.3 seconds slower (compared to staves)
Staves feel much better to use than guns because of faster attack speed
Guns should have attack speed buffed

[Gouiwaa9000]

Well , guns do have 250% extra attack damage ...

[Kaziscate]

Well , guns do have 250% extra attack damage ...
I am aware of that, but procs dominate right now and
having guns shoot and charge up slower does not help when it comes to procs. Staves also tend to have better procs than guns anyways.

[Sir zir]

Have you told moma about it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kystone]

You spelled staff right, add an s for staffs :)

[PsychoNuke]

@Thread: Guns do not have +250% basic attack damage anymore. Sure the numbers are higher but that should be a counter for the single target damage vs the spread damage from a Staff.

@OP:
From JaytB's thread (https://www.spacetimestudios.com/showthread.php?88373-DPS-vs-Damage-a-detailed-comparison):

"DPS=Dmg/Weapon Speed" and refers to your auto attack dmg.
Higher speed weapons, in general, will give you a higher DPS but lower Dmg value.
Skill Damage is more important than Auto attack DMG for a high DMG output mage.

I understand Jaytb's thread has legit info because dev also thanked him for that. Now, if you look at the images on his thread you will notice that when he equipped staff (DPS build) he had 204-Damage and 367-DPS, VS when he equipped Gun (Damage build) he had 227-Damage and 256 DPS; notice the Damage and DPS difference, this does not exist anymore.

Weapons today are quite opposite, DPS value contributes to the Damage value, a weapon with higher DPS value will certainly have higher Damage value. Which also means higher DPS = higher Attack Speed and higher Skill Damage value.

It is a major issue, at present with spirit weapons this damage gap has been reduced, but even after that Spirit Staff has higher DPS value and 6% higher Skill Damage value then a Spirit Gun. In short, the choice is forced. This has a massive affect on mage PVP, and reviving guns should be the 1st step of balancing mage in pvp.

[Bryx0023]

@Thread: Guns do not have +250% basic attack damage anymore. Sure the numbers are higher but that should be a counter for the single target damage vs the spread damage from a Staff.

@OP:
From JaytB's thread (https://www.spacetimestudios.com/showthread.php?88373-DPS-vs-Damage-a-detailed-comparison):

"DPS=Dmg/Weapon Speed" and refers to your auto attack dmg.
Higher speed weapons, in general, will give you a higher DPS but lower Dmg value.
Skill Damage is more important than Auto attack DMG for a high DMG output mage.

I understand Jaytb's thread has legit info because dev also thanked him for that. Now, if you look at the images on his thread you will notice that when he equipped staff (DPS build) he had 204-Damage and 367-DPS, VS when he equipped Gun (Damage build) he had 227-Damage and 256 DPS; notice the Damage and DPS difference, this does not exist anymore.

Weapons today are quite opposite, DPS value contributes to the Damage value, a weapon with higher DPS value will certainly have higher Damage value. Which also means higher DPS = higher Attack Speed and higher Skill Damage value.

It is a major issue, at present with spirit weapons this damage gap has been reduced, but even after that Spirit Staff has higher DPS value and 6% higher Skill Damage value then a Spirit Gun. In short, the choice is forced. This has a massive affect on mage PVP, and reviving guns should be the 1st step of balancing mage in pvp.

Finally someone had pointed it out, thank you very much for that! :D Here's a practical question: if you are a mage and you are to choose which weapon will you use (proc aside), which one? The one with higher dps, damage, and hits many mobs at normal attack with higher attack speed (staff) or the one that hits with range, but has lower damage,hits only one target at normal attack and is slower? Majority (but not all) would definitely choose staff over guns. Rereading that thread where gun had higher dmg than dps (supposedly..?), I think this is one of the things that should be fixed.

[PostNoob]

Guns are only usefull for lower elites. Havent played my mage in a while but thats all ive used a gun for.

Staffs are just better in this game.. I would like to see a useful gun at its respective content lvl.