1H Cursed Staff Open World PvP Build

Overview

Weapon: Cursed Staff

Focus: Range DPS

Mode: Open World, Corrupt Dungeon and Mist (Solo)

Strengths

• High Burst Damage
• Nice Defenses
• Easy to Play

Weaknesses

• Low Mobility

This build is up to date for the November 6, 2024 Horizons Patch #1.

Overview

The 1H Cursed Staff remains one of the strongest Range DPS weapons through its versatility and the ability to blow up targets with minimum setup. This build focuses on open world PvP roaming while using one of the most popular weapons in Albion Online that remained strong for many years. The build is easy to pull off once you've learned the basics and even the newest players can play it with ease.

Equipment

Main Hand Weapon

Elder's Cursed Staff

Off Hand Weapon

Elder's Shield

Alternatives ⇅

Head

Elder's Hunter Hood

Alternatives ⇅

Cape

Elder's Caerleon Cape

Armor

Elder's Cleric Robe

Shoes

Elder's Soldier Boots

Potion

Major Gigantify Potion

Food

Beef Stew

Keep in mind: Gear shown in this build is meant as a reference. Choosing the correct tier of gear is very tricky as there are many variables. Some of them being your budget, your spec and minimum Item Power requirements of your guild if used for ZvZ.

You should always check prices based on IP of the items. For example, a masterpiece quality 4.3 Elder's Cryptcandle could be cheaper while providing roughly the same IP as an 8.0.

Usage

Elder's Cursed Staff

Vile Curse — A single target curse bolt that applies a charge on the target every time it hits. While the dot damage is significant and it stacks to 4 times, the main purpose of this spell is to increase the damage done by your Death Curse.

Desecrate — This is your main CC ability and the way you can lock down a target and keep kiting. It creates an AOE explosion and roots targets while also applying a charge of Vile Curse.

Death Curse — Your main damage ability and one of the most feared abilities in the game. It applies a special curse that explodes after 5 minutes and deals damage based on the amount of Vile Curse stacks active on a target. While it rarely oneshots, it can deal more than 60% of an enemy's HP.

Bane — Perfect for your constant auto-attacking between casts of Vile Curse

Elder's Cleric Robe

Everlasting Spirit — While it takes good timing, Everlasting Spirit is a great defensive ability to help you mitigate a lot of burst damage. Use this against auto-attacks or dot damage in order to activate the shield granting you immunity for a few seconds. It takes a bit of time to get used to as the shield doesn't activate instantly and it can be countered if your enemy isn't attacking you while you have the pre-buff active but it is still a very strong ability.

Aggression — This is your only relevant choice as it increases your flat damage and is perfect for the high damage when using Death Curse.

Elder's Hunter Hood

Retaliate — Another defensive option, Retaliate increases your damage resistance for a short duration while also reflecting 85% of incoming damage back to the attacker. Use this in order to reflect high damaging spells like Spinning Blades, Death Curse or Pyroblast

Balanced Mind — You want to choose this passive for the raw damage increase.

Elder's Soldier Boots

Wanderlust — While it takes a while for this run to stack up, once it does it can take you very far and outperforms other runs and allows you to kite easier while constantly applying Vile Curse stacks.

Toughness — This defensive option is preferred over Authority as the 5% CC duration increase doesn't do much for this build and the extra defense is great for this low mobility weapon.

Elder's Caerleon Cape

Opportunist — While the Caerleon Cape doesn't see much use in other builds, it works perfectly with the 1h Cursed Staff due to it's high reliance on the first ability. It will automatically reset your Vile Curse whenever it is off cooldown allowing you to cast the ability twice.

Rotations

Fighting + Explosion ↴

• The ease of use coming with this build is what makes it shine for new players. You should always start every fight by casting Vile Curse twice with the help of Opportunist while you move to keep out of enemy's damage. Try to use Desecrate whenever you have the opportunity and particularly if your opponent tries to run. If you manage to land the Desecrate, cast another Vile Curse before using Death Curse. Continue following up by spamming Vile Curse and use Wanderlust to keep up with your enemy.

Consumables

File:Major Gifantify Potion.webpMajor Gifantify Potion — This comes in use whenever you want to soak up enemy burst damage. Normally used after you've already casted a Death Curse with max Vile Curse stacks. You want to burn enemy cooldowns while using the duration of the potion to apply more Vile Curse.

Beef Stew — This is the best food to use as it improves your overall damage. Always try to use an 8.2 or 8.1 version as it as it offers great value for minimum price.