Vine Staff

Overview

Lore

Dialogue

Gallery

Skins

Vine Staff
"Nature prevails!"
Class	Support
Faction	Thieves' Den
Statistics
Health	100
Shield	75
Other
Version added	V0.6.0
Chat color	#FF5877

Vine Staff is a support Phighter. She was released on 15 July 2023 with V0.6.0 and the Ice Cream vs. Popsicle Phestival.

Overview

Vine Staff is a healing support Phighter that specializes in giving regeneration to her allies. Her primary, A Thousand Petals outputs slow but consistent damages from close to mid range. The basis of Vine Staff's healing is focused around her passive, Death Brings Life, so she has charges for her secondary, Beginning Anew. Her five sprout charge limit fills up quickly by racking up assists in projectiles or healing. Preservation lets her to leech off damage in forms of healing through high DPS teammates, producing more sprouts. Root of the Oak is ideal for rooting enemies in an AOE as well as exploding sprouts for burst healing. Lotus of the Den turn the tides of battle if used correctly as long as teammates are around to trigger sprouts at their locations. The sheer amount of sprouts that grow can sustain a team's health and can make them unstoppable. By herself, Vine Staff will fall due to her poor mobility and slow damage compared to other Phighters. But when she is given the chance with her team, she can quickly become a nuisance with consistent, widespread healing and damage.

Abilities

Type Passive	Death Brings Life
	Eliminations and hitting an enemy 12 times grants you a charge to Beginning Anew. You earn haste for each sprout you are nearby. Max charges: 5 Sprout Haste range: 50 studs Haste: 5% per sprout (to self only) There's nothing here yet... File:Demonstration VineStaffPassive.webm

Type Primary	A Thousand Petals
	Shoot fast, low damaging petals. Damage: 3 Fire rate: 0.11 seconds Projectile speed: --- Range: 250 studs Ammo: 50 Projectile spawn area: -3.5 studs to 3.5 studs Reload time: 1 second Vine Staff's projectile spawn area is centered on her. File:Demonstration VineStaffM1.webm

Type Secondary

Beginning Anew

Use a seed and plant a healing sprout. When Death Brings Life activates, it advances to the next stage and heals all allies around it. At its fourth stage, it explodes and roots enemies. 'Healing: Stage 1: 10 Regeneration Stage 2: 5 + 10 Regeneration Stage 3: 5 + 15 Regeneration Explosion: 10 + 5 Regeneration * no. of sprout stage Sprout health: Stage 1: 30 Stage 2: 35 Stage 3: 40 Healing hitbox size: 60x25x60 Max. sprout duration: 30 seconds Cooldown: 0.75 seconds Sprouts can be placed on the sides or ceilings of terrain. Hitscans will pierce through sprouts. Damaging a sprout grants Phinisher points. A destroyed sprout will not provide its healing, root, or explosion damage. Sprouts destroyed by expiring will provide their effects as normal. Hyperlaser's Eviscerating Ray will pierce and destroy the sprout as well as grant Hyperlaser another shot. Beginning Anew has no endlag. File:Demonstration VineStaffM2.webm

Type Q Ability

Preservation

Heal a targeted ally. For the next 8 seconds, 40% of the damage they deal is turned into healing for both you and the ally. for every 50 damage they deal, you gain a seed. Healing: 10 (on cast) Projectile speed: --- Heal cap: 50 Life steal: 40% Duration: 9 seconds Cooldown: 17 seconds Preservation's effects will not occur until the projectile reaches the targeted ally. File:Demonstration VineStaffQ.webm

Type E Ability

Root of the Oak

Fire three branches which root enemies when hit. Hitting a sprout causes it to activate instantly and create an explosion which roots. Hitting an enemy gives you a seed. Damage: 9 (direct) + 6 (splash) Root duration: 1 second (direct) + 0.4 seconds (splash) Projectile speed: --- Projectiles: 3 Hitbox size: 20x20x20 (splash) Cooldown: 12 seconds Root of the Oak has no endlag. File:Demonstration VineStaffE.webm

Type Phinisher

Lotus of the Den

Summon a lotus which heals and grants allies regeneration three times before disappearing. All allies in radius of the lotus will activate stage 1 Beginning Anew at their position and your seeds now plant level 2 sprouts. Healing: 20 + 30 Regeneration per wave Waves: 3 Time between waves: 6 seconds AoE hitbox: 150x50x150 Phinisher points: 150 Phinisher points cannot be gained while Lotus of the Den is active. If Vine Staff dies, Lotus of the Den's effects are cancelled. File:Demonstration VineStaffUlt.webm

Strategy

Pros	Excellent group healing with sprouts and Phinisher. Large range, mag size and fast fire rate on A Thousand Petals. Great self sustain with access to Preservation and sprout regain. Versatile, able to heal any Phighter. Can fight consistently at longer ranges compared to other supports. Not difficult to use for beginners, but requires patience to get the full value.
Cons	No mobility, allows her to get caught out easily by other Phighters if not positioned well. Relies on teammates to perform to her fullest. Vine Staff's healing is not as effective when used as an immediate response to enemy actions. Slow damage, doesn't have bursts of damage besides E, can be difficult to finish off Phighters. Vulnerable at close ranges.

When playing as Vine Staff, it is important to have good awareness and ability management. When a Vine Staff pushes too far up, she will quickly get picked off by the opposing team due to her poor mobility and defense on her own. It is best to stay in the midline to backline of the team to allow for her to best support her team. It is ideal to push up when tanks such as Ban Hammer or Katana pushes up. Staying with tanks allows for a mutual benefit for both Phighters — the tank can receive healing while you receive defense. Even if you push up more, Vine Staff should not play in the frontline of the battle. Do not come face to face with opposing melee Phighters. Sticking behind the tank a bit will be most beneficial, allowing you to stay safer yet still being able to heal the tank.

Vine Staff's ability to passively heal large groups at any distance with her sprouts and Phinisher make her a valuable target. Preservation is one of her best abilities for healing large groups due to its leeching capabilities. Use Preservation on high DPS Phighters such as Ban Hammer, Katana Sword, and Biograft to gain sprouts as well as heal both Phighters. Preservation's ability to grant you sprouts is key for quickly setting up mass amounts of sprouts for both regeneration and haste. Using Preservation on Phighters other than these should be reserved for certain scenarios. If Phighters such as Hyperlaser, Rocket, Shuriken or Slingshot have their Phinisher, using Preservation on them will be good for gaining sprouts as well as regeneration. If a teammate urgently needs healing, it is best to use Beginning Anew rather than Preservation. Beginning Anew allows her to both heal the teammate along with any other Phighters in its AOE. In addition, the sprout created by Beginning Anew can be burst with Root of the Oak, granting more regeneration.

Her hitpoint split being 100 health, 75 shield allows her to absorb a decent amount of damage. Having shield gives her the ability to self-sustain outside of her abilities or a Medkit. Vine Staff falls quickly to melee Phighters with a much higher consistent DPS than her. Because of this, it is important you keep track of the battlefield, keeping appropriate distances between you and your opponents yet being in a position to properly heal your teammates. Using Root of the Oak to both stall any Phighters that may be chasing you is effective as it gives you a small window of time to get back to your team, as well as gaining sprouts that can be used for haste. Using Root of the Oak to hit both sprouts and an enemy is highly effective.

Ability usage

• Death Brings Life
  • Know the ways that you gain sprouts in order to best use this ability to your benefit.
    • Every time you hit any enemy 12 times with A Thousand Petals.
    • For every 50 damage your teammate does with Preservation active on them.
    • For every hit on Root of the Oak.
    • Every time you get an assist.
  • Each of these can be more ideal depending on the situation, and you can quickly accumulate assists with sprout regeneration applied to teammates.
• A Thousand Petals
  • You should always be doing damage or planting sprouts whenever possible.
  • Use on Phighters with large hitboxes and slow speed to quickly gain sprouts, such as Ban Hammer or Katana.
  • Be wary of sniping from long distances on moving targets, as her projectile speed is too slow to reliably hit. Phighters such as Skateboard when he is skating are typically too fast for your projectiles. Do not waste your time on Phighters that quickly die when faced with your whole team. You are not a one man army.
  • A common misconception is that Vine Staff's primary deals too little damage to kill people. While it is true she lacks quick burst damage to finish off low health enemies, her slow but high damage whittles away health. Do not be afraid to engage in 1v1's or take high ground to rain petals from above.
    • Use your sprouts beforehand to sustain yourself and move closer to ensure all of your projectiles hit. Your sprouts will continue to heal you with every 12 shots hit.
    • If needed, Preservation can also provide additional healing.
    • Be aware that other opponents may dive in to support their teammate, so always have an escape plan and use natural cover.
• Beginning Anew
  • The most important part of her kit. It is important to set up as many sprouts beforehand so all of your damage is contributing to levelling up sprouts and providing healing.
    • Consider placing them behind cover so teammates who move forward will also be healed.
  • Never have more than the max amount of charges (5) at a time, you will be missing out on potential sprouts.
  • Sprouts have an almost infinite range of where they can be placed, use them to help teammates across the map.
  • When in danger, spam them where you're retreating to and hit any nearby Phighters. You should be able to hit the required 12 shots to level up the sprout and heal you again.
• Preservation
  • Keep in mind you can use this on Phighters that are near maximum health, they also provide value to you in the form of sprouts or healing.
  • Use your Preservation on high DPS or tank teammates such as Ban Hammer, Biograft, Katana or Sword. It will sustain their damage and give you more sprouts and healing.
  • Don't hold onto it for too long, it lasts for 8 seconds and the healing is slower than you may think.
  • Use Preservation when a teammate is using a Phinisher. Many Phighters have a Phinisher that deals large amounts of damage. Use Preservation to both sustain them in their Phinisher as well as gain sprouts. Biograft's and Katana's Phinisher are both excellent examples of Phighters to use Preservation on when their Phinisher is active.
  • Be careful to not use it on a low health teammate, as it is far more likely they will die before they can take advantage of its effects. Consider using Beginning Anew instead.
• Root of the Oak
  • It is advised against using this to hit enemies from a distance, it travels too slow to hit reliably. Instead, use it close range or on a sprout for an instant explosion. It can be used for hitting enemies and rooting them as well as exploding sprouts to give regeneration to yourself and teammates.
  • Be wary of immediately initating with it, save it for when you're being chased or need to secure a kill.
  • Root of the Oak is able to hit enemies and explode sprouts at the same time.
• Lotus of the Den
  • Use proactively and don't hold onto it for the whole game. With consistent sprout placement and damage it charges quickly. It shines in Conquer where she can place it on the point where most of her teammates will be.
    • Be very careful where you place it and when you use it, you immediately become a target for a shutdown.
  • Consider saving sprouts until you use your Phinisher, as when it is active your sprouts grow at level two instead of level one.
  • Do not rely on it to save you and your team instantly. Regeneration is not ideal as an immediate response to high damage. Use it to sustain mid to low health teammates with both 50 regeneration and regeneration from the sprouts that grow.
  • Keep in mind delay between bursts. You are not immortal because you used your Phinisher. The most important thing is to stay alive so your Phinisher stays active.

Counterplay against Vine Staff

• Destroy her sprouts whenever you can to deny her regeneration. She is very vunerable without them.
• Try to bait out her abilities and attack when she is isolated.
• Beside Root of the Oak, Vine Staff has no other way to create space between her and attackers, keep this in mind when engaging and consider committing to an attack only after the ability is on cooldown.
  • If hit by Root of the Oak, consider retreating and approaching at a different angle or after waiting a bit, as a prolonged chase makes it incredibly easy for Vine Staff to plant and use sprouts, making her even harder to catch.
• Vine Staff has difficulty out-manuvering attackers if stuck in a wide open area, use moves such as Thread Tow or Lunge to move her into unfavourable positions.

Badge

Name	Icon	Description	Reward
vine staff badge		N/A	N/A

Trivia

General:

• Vine Staff is based on the Vine Staff gear.
• Vine Staff is the first Phighter with she/her pronouns.
• During April Fools' 2024, Vine Staff was renamed to aang, and remodeled to reference Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Development:

Skins:

• Valleystaff is a community contributed skin created by TRYN4F1ND.
  • The skin was one of three winners of the August 2023 Skin Contest.
• Vine Splash is the first skin to replace a body part from the original model.
  • The skin was made in a day.

Version history

26 November 2022 Vine Staff was revealed to the public. An unobtainable badge titled 'vine staff badge' was added to the game.

References

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Phighters