Good afternoon gentlemen I'm returning to the game after a while (last played around the Carnival level release). I'm gonna be spamming Aurics to learn and max Psyker weps before pushing whatever Havoc is so with that in mind I have some questions:

Blaze Force Greatsword - looks cool but is it worth using over the DS? Is it more Fun?
Staves: I ended up settling on Trauma back then, I've tried the lightning staff but it still feels like dogshit, flamer staff seems kind of bad on Auric, and I've still never tried Voidstrike. Should I grind out flamer staff anyway for future havoc use or will I be able to stick with Trauma?
Have there been any balance changes to headpop/assail/smite? I ended up acquiring a taste for Smite purely to be able to save crusher/mauler rushes, which seemed to be the most common failure point in Damnation pugs, but very quickly dropped it when I started auric/maelstrom.
Should I just be a metafag and play Robocop class if I want speed + pug saving ability?
Lastly I'm running pic related for aurics atm, anything retarded in there? I think I'll end up swapping the stam regen on the curios but idk to what