What is GGG's stance on "stat sticks"?

In case somebody doesn't know, a "stat stick" is a one handed weapon that you choose to hold in your off-hand to gain its global modifiers, but without actually attacking with it.

I'm curious about what GGG thinks about stat sticks and if the way we currently use them is intended/expected.

My curiosity is because using an off-hand weapon, which is usually a low level one with some kind of unique mod, without actually attacking with it seems a little bit "out of flavor".

GGG has taken some decisions purely based on flavor before - Sweep used to be for Staves and Maces only, the same currently with Glacial Hammer, and pretty much any skill with other weapon restrictions have those restrictions mostly because of flavor.

I personally don't mind the existence of stat sticks and I actually like building around them sometimes, but I'm asking just out of curiosity and also to figure out whether they are planning any change for this in the future that might make me have to rethink a few builds.

A developer reply would be great but any addition to the discussion is appreciated.

I am going to assume this will continue to be a thing in the future.

It's been around for a very long time now without ever posing a real issue balance wise.(trading defense for offense)

Can't really offer much beyond that, picking up a shield for some stats or a weapon instead, i see nothing wrong with either. They just add some attributes.

Maybe if it ever became an issue to balance/create new unique's? But i can't come up with any legitimate reason to not allow it in the current version of the game.

Peace,

-Boem-

As it's pretty clear that some items are designed to be "stat sticks", I don't think they are going anywhere.

Shit design imho, perfect viperstrike weapon, cannot be used with viperstrike

i hate the idea of a weapon that is only meant to be a stat stick

give full potency and give us the option to disable 2nd hand on skill that allow it

"

Sexcalibure wrote:

Shit design imho, perfect viperstrike weapon, cannot be used with viperstrike

i hate the idea of a weapon that is only meant to be a stat stick

give full potency and give us the option to disable 2nd hand on skill that allow it

Sorry, don't think you know to use the weapon well, then. Yes, it *can* be a stat stick, for sure. But it's also an outstanding weapon for using Abyssal Cry (and poison in general) in a physical attack build.


I've got a Cyclone + Abyssal Cry character dual-wielding Breaths. Even though I haven't specced for Abyssal Cry in the tree, the Breaths' increased chaos damage and increased duration of chaos skills (which carries over to poison with Abyssal) has made my Abyssal Cry able to deal over 100% of a target's health between the initial hit and the poison. The increased AoE has been great for the range my Abyssal Cry and helps my Cyclone a bit, while also helping out the Warchief and EQ I carry in 4Ls. And finally the chaos damage significantly helps the poison I cause with all my attacks, too. Honestly, it's probably one of the most enjoyable builds I've made and it's made possible thanks to Breath having the stats it has.


I'm not denying that it has lots of stat stick potential, but it clearly was not made to be one (otherwise it wouldn't have more pdps than most 1hand uniques, which is irrelevant to stat sticks). It strikes me more as a hybrid phys/chaos weapon, using Abyssal Cry and attacks as I've used it, or using something like a hybrid shadow and making use of those phys-chaos starting nodes and the phys/chaos wheel to scale both attacks and poison/chaos spells. I'm considering using it in this manner next league, trying ED-Contagion and then using some attack with poison while ED ticks down.

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Advancing_Fortress


Great Stat-Stick for dual wield block (30% block with the property).


Allows you to gain the dual wield bonuses on a gladiator build, while still being able to cap block fairly easily. When combo-ed with an earthquake/sunder/groundslam/lacerate build, it enables whirling blades as well.