Your Favorite Staff?

[TheBSZombie]

So after the map being out for a couple months, what is your favorite staff?

Mine is either the ice or wind staff.

[AwesomeSauce117]

Ice. Was in love with it once I saw the trailer.

[The Twirp]

Gonna have to go with Wind, I love it for the earlier rounds. It's like a mini Thundergun

When upgraded, still maintains its one hit kill ability until later rounds as well.

[MysteryMachineX]

I don't have a favorite.

[InfestLithium]

The Wind Staff always wins in my book. Such a difficult object to make, but totally worth the treacherous effort in the end. Blasting away at some meatsacks for an instant halt.

[MegaAfroMan]

I have a fondness for the lightning staff, with it's high ammo count, and in my opnion, the easiest puzzles and obtainable pieces.

Every game without fail, you can get the lightning staff parts at whatever time you desire, limited only by door prices and the tank price.

The switches can be triggered as you first progress to each area to maximize efficiency, leaving the entire upgrading process to playing 3 chords, setting the dials, shooting the orb, and collecting souls.

The electric trap like charged shot is quite effective in my opinion, as long as you aim at the ground, or a solid wall. I haven't passed the mid 40s, and I hadn't seen any upper bounds in it's power by then, so for 90% of my games it is sufficiently powerful.

The icing on the cake, is most randoms never seem to call dibs on the lightning staff. I always hear Ice or wind, and then ocassionally fire. So I never have to compete with others over it.

[Chopper]

Very hard to say.

From a usability point of view the Ice.

From a visual killing point of view, the wind. Seeing a big group explode in a cloud of claret takes some beating.

From an effect point of view, watching them burn is very cool with the Fire staff.

But I love the colours the lightning gives off.

Overall, probably the wind. Looks the best, works as long as you need it.

[Hells Warrrior]

I have no preference, although if no one else calls dibs on the ice staff I will take it. I like the wind staff but think the ammo count on it is a bit low.

As mentioned previously, no one seems to want the lighting staff, don't know why, it is very effective and powerful. I voted for Ice but I would take anyone of them.

[Stop Mocking Me0]

-Fire is the best, before it's upgraded, afterward I prefer ice...

-Ice is good pre-upgrade and fantastic upgraded

-Lighning is always my 3rd choice. Upgraded or not...

-Stupid wind staff... Mimial amo and low power....Least favorite one of the bunch even with it upgraded....

[TheBSZombie]

I guess all of them should have been an option, o well. But im surprised no one had voted for fire. A lot of people were saying how fire was the best in the beginning, but now its between the other three. i love ice because its the only staff that has an added bonus of free zombie blood :)

[sh3baproject]

wind:THE BOSS

ice:amazing

lightning:fun and lots of ammo,but i wish there was an earth staff instead

fire:YOUR DEAD TO ME FIRE STAFF :evil:

[ThrowAmonkeyBomb]

Never had one.I havent played origins in awhile,and I havent played it that much.i should though.Ive been a bit addicted to NML lately. :)

[83457]

Why can only one be my favorite?

I voted lightning.

In the long run, ice and presumably wind have the most damage, but lightning clears the way the easiest (wind stops blowing them away too early). If one shot doesn't do it, or makes a crawler, then just fire again, there's plenty of ammo.

1. Lightning

2. Ice

3. Wind

4. Fire

Since i play solo most often, i get all 4!

[MegaAfroMan]

Y'know, I'd like to see someone chart out the comparison between ammo count (and number of charged shots per clip) and killing power.

I always hear that Wind and Ice are by far the most powerful, I haven't been high enough to see where lightning and fire start to drop off, but if it so happened that lightning was half as strong as wind, but with twice the ammo, it'd make a lot of sense to me in the end for balancing purposes.

Anywho, with the staves, for a typical game and not a high round game, I prefer the lightning because it is the only staff without any element of randomness.

Lightning pieces can be obtained with 3 tank trips (or 2 if you have staminup) and you can plan to spend the exact same amount of cash doing so each time. You can repeat the exact process 100 times and not see a change.

The switches all spawn in and need to end up in the same directions, so as I said, you can do that ahead of time, and you can repeat that 100 times without fail. The chords are alos the same everytime.

Wind on the other hand, requires you and the robots to cooperate. Some games this can work out for you perfectly, other games you'll either keep ending up at the wrong foot, or you'll wait 20 minutes for the right one. If you're really determined and patient, you can repeat the round you get the staff on, but never the length of time it takes you to get all the parts.

Add in how long it takes to run around and do the smokestacks (I know it isn't awful, but it still is something) and you've got an inconvenient staff.

Fire is less random, but still a pain. You can NEVER get it before round 8. The plane seems to spawn in around that time as well, but I've seen it as early as 4 and as late as 11.

Just as well, having to spend a second time getting kills in the crazy place also introduces an additional hassle. It may be minor, but it still has a level of unpredictability.

Finally, the puzzle is different each time. In my opinion it only takes a few seconds to translate, so it isn't terrible, but it is still one more inconvenience.

Ice is terribly random. In a good game you can have all the parts before round 4, other times you may not have a single part until round 10. Very impossible to repat. You cannot proceduralize the process. It requires a varied chart of "what if".

Just as well, I'd also claim that it's puzzle is the most difficult to complete. It requires a double translation, which may become second nature for some if you do it a lot, but in raw complexity it leads the pack.

It's final challenge, is semi inconvenient as well, as it requires you run all over the map, and have a bullet based weapon. Unless it has changed, Boomhilda does not shatter the tombstones. This annoys me greatly.

So, when I'm playing a casual game, and I don't have to worry about their power capping out, I personally think lightning reigns supreme. It is the easiest to obtain, to upgrade, and has the most ammo.

Also, how does the ice, wind, and fire charge shot react when you do not fire at the ground?

I've never checked, but I know lightning still works quite effectively as it slowly moves forward zapping anything near by. You can even move with it, if you'd like the mobile cover.

that is my detailed thoughts purely for the idea of a casual game. I suppose a pro high round game, I would need more info on, as waiting another 40 minutes and 2 rounds for a much more powerful staff, would not be a problem.

[fvdes]

Ice staff, it's the best so far in my opinion.

[Mr. Jay]

My favorite staff of all time was Afro. Although at times he took his job way too serious he relentlessly and professionally worked out many issues.

I purposely skipped Way because many of you know I was married to him.

:twisted:

Sorry but I could not resist.

[MegaAfroMan]

Haha Jay. Thanks. I'm glad I'm someone's favorite. I always tried to keep things professional.

[MysteryMachineX]

I actually attempted to combine all of the weapon data that's been figured out by Tom852 and BinSys, and fill in the missing holes, including the staffs, and try to make a definitive which weapon is better chart. However, it won't work, sadly. There's too many holes. To fill in that information would take a team of people to scout out data. Most people don't have the time nor capability to do that. So, with some weapons, I could tell you which is better, but there are some, like the staffs, that I cannot. : /

[MegaAfroMan]

Exactly MMX. It's not tough to chart most of the "regular" weapons with some time and patience.

However "unusual" weapons, like the staves, and explosives, I'm having a tough time assigning values to as well.

Perhaps you and I should see if we can't work out a method.

[TheBSZombie]

The thing with staffs is that if you are skillful, q staff can kill more than 24 zombies. So you would have to figure out the time that each bursts last/killing speed/ammo count/damage output and there are probably a few other smaller variables that need to be added before you can find the absolute favorite.

Oh and my favorite staff member? Would either be grill, flammen, chooper, or way. All great contributors :lol:

[MysteryMachineX]

Exactly MMX. It's not tough to chart most of the "regular" weapons with some time and patience.

However "unusual" weapons, like the staves, and explosives, I'm having a tough time assigning values to as well.

Perhaps you and I should see if we can't work out a method.

Well I know exactly the method, it is just difficult to pull off.

You have to be at an incredibly high round. You have to have full ammo in all of the staffs. Then you run circles and gets kills solely with one of the staffs. If you're doing co-op, each person can have a staff. You can use your kill-counter to keep track of how many kills you get it. Then you tally up how many kills you get, and you can compare them. It would be best if this was done with the upgraded versions, as that statistic matters more. Also it would be best if the results were repeated to phase out user error. Also, Panzer Soldats would have to be killed with a separate weapon, like a Mark II.

The hardest part about it though, is that you have to be at a round that is so high that you are able to go through all of the ammo without ending the round, for the comparison only works if the zombies' health is a constant, not another variable.

Perhaps you can ask ChopperNator to test it.

[MegaAfroMan]

Would that method be viable though?

You'd have to ensure that every shot was used to it's max potential.

I suppose though, it'd essentially just be collecting enough data to phase out most error.

I mean, you could (probably with a higher degree of inaccuracy) figure out the same thing by doing that method, with only one clip's worth of shots and then multiplying your aquired kills by the number of available clips.

Has the upperbounds for Wind and Ice even been found yet?

Because if one staff's charged shot had infinite damage, it would throw off things.

[MysteryMachineX]

Would that method be viable though?

You'd have to ensure that every shot was used to it's max potential.

I suppose though, it'd essentially just be collecting enough data to phase out most error.

I mean, you could (probably with a higher degree of inaccuracy) figure out the same thing by doing that method, with only one clip's worth of shots and then multiplying your aquired kills by the number of available clips.

These are not regular bullets. It doesn't work the same. Especially because it isn't insta-kill. Every shot, every damage, every reload. You have decimal points. One magazine might get you 13.84395 kills. Correct data would need all the ammo.

And missing isn't a problem. If you have the same guys get the data, the statistical error will be similar throughout the data, making it comparable. i.e. You miss 2% of the shots with fire, you also miss 2% with ice. Especially when you are running circles at high rounds, it is easy to make every shot hit.

Trust me, the method works. It has been done before with the Ray Gun.

As for the charged shots, there'd have to be separate tests for each one. One with charged shots only. One with none at all. Sadly though, that is even more of a reason why no one will test it.

[MegaAfroMan]

I agree with most, but I still question the stastical averaging between the charged shots, as they all seem to apply damage with different ranges. Missing with the fire (which will create your lava puddles upon contact), is different than missing with the lightning (which will still arc out to zombies in it's range as it floats by).

Yes there are decimals, but I was right, I did say there would be a higher degree of inaccuracy by just extrapolating from a smaller test.

[MysteryMachineX]

I understand what you are saying, but I still believe those things to be statistically negligible. We don't judge weapons in zombies by accuracy. You wanna choose an RPD over a HAMR? Go ahead. The HAMR is the better weapon by damage, but if you don't like the accuracy, you can choose a weapon capable of less damage. That is your choice. But when choosing the BETTER weapon, i.e. the weapon capable of more damage, 100% accuracy should be employed. Obviously one cannot actually get 100%, but the ideal test would get as close as it could. Any misses I think would be negligible, as long as the tester(s) were capable.