How exactly does Charged Staff work?
I just started playing an Ice Strike monk and I've been having fun freezing and shattering mobs with my Ice Strike, lotta fun. Most builds I've looked at add Charged Staff to the mix and I tried that but I'm not familiar with it and not sure I'm using it correctly.
When I use my Ice Strike, eventually my Charged Staff receives charges and lights up. If I then hit the button my staff attacks (Ice Strike) appear to be shooting lightning waves and eventually the button uses up its charges and I have to repeat the cycle. The skill text suggests that I can extend the duration and damage if I keep using it while active, so I continue to hit the button but I don't see any obvious effect. I feel like I'm not using it correctly.
Can someone please explain the mechanics of what's happening and how I can use it optimally? Thanks, appreciate any insights or suggestions.
Comments
it consumers power charges which you can get lets of by taking anode to change rage -> power and getting rage on melee hit or damage in a few jewels. i also use my bell to boot strap it since it counts as hitting something to get a bunch of power (rage) charges. as with all skill gems you can extend its duration with a high level of gem + corrruption + an ascendary node gives you a buff to gems if you play legionaire. so mine lasts around 30 seconds and i have enough power charges to use it 2 times if i dont get more charges. since you move so fast when using it i use it to ice skate around levels to packs of enemies recharge with mana flask and it makes much more zooomie
Charged Staff consumes Power Charges to provide a buff to you. The more charges you consume, the longer the duration and the more additional damage Charged Staff does. If you trigger it again while it's active, it'll refresh and potentially make it more powerful but it cannot have more charges than your maximum Power Charges (default is 3 Power Charges).
Early on, it's useful as it's a really cheap and easy way to add damage. Spec into +Maximum Power Charges and you'll have a buff that lasts longer and deals a boatload of extra damage.
It's funny to read that after watching the whole subathon of a streamer where many of his viewers kept asking him "How to charge the staff?" xd
Reading your tooltip will explain all you need to know. Along with at least 2 of the monk skills that specifically give you charges for it and video tooltip ingame that shows it and explains it.
For the edit, as far as I understand it does two things:
-grants flat lightning dmg to all attacks
-makes all attacks fire a lightning wave (a separate skill which deals some % of your attack dmg)
Each charge you generate becomes a charge of charged staff.
So 1 power charge = 1 charge of charged staff.
If you have 3 power charges you get 3 charges on charged staff.
Each charge of charged staff gives you 10s of increased duration and more damage.
You can use 1 power charge to get 1 charged staff charge which helps generate more charges on your hits, if you add one to the one it will be whatever time is remaining plus 10 seconds and you get the 2 charge damage. I use 6 on mine so I'm about a minute of time on it.
It also shoots a wave out Infront of you causing lightning damage and shock/electrocute so you build more.
Hope that answers it.
Does everybody in here use Frenzy to get power charges? I spent a long time not realizing you need this.
It add lightning damage and projectiles to your melee attacks