You might be interested in lemmy.wtf/post/2408545

While I do not agree with your binary choice in the slightest, I did give it a test. 25 Might with rifle is no issue (not using Abstraction), Might with staff requires more than facerolling. 20+ WITH facerolling. Rifle gets smoother with Mirror Images, staff uses Mantra of Pain. Both use Mantra of Recovery for heal and clone generation. Rifle only uses one stack on recharge, staff spams the entire skill on cooldown.

I’d say that Rifle/Staff is probably going to be the support monster of choice. With staff you can trait Feedback for easy long-range rezzes and chill faceroll healspam, with rifle being your oh shit button for additional burst heal, ranged portal, extra CC. No focus then, but there’s always something.

Problem with rife is the spam of all skills on cooldown, that leaves very little room for a ranged portal or anything else. Also, much of rifle’s healing comes from 3, and that’s either boons OR burst heal.

Rifle has 0 damage potential, staff is condi. Rifle leaves two free utility slots, maybe three. Staff two. Maybe staff & mainhand/offhand. No ranged portal, but next to everything else. Even boon strip via Null Field or Disenchanter.

If one can live without focus, staff/rifle is probably the full package.