Elemental Staffs and debuffs

[Jonnyram]

LOL, I feel stupid now
Better start joining in the Aspil fun in my levelling parties!

[Laehn]

The staves help dramatically with bard resists, so i would imagine it would be the same with enfeebling spells. Another thing to consider is the elemental staves also reduce MP cost of spells. Not that i care much about MP cost.

[Apple Pie]

Sounds good. I was waiting for someone other than RDM commenting on this thread. I think it's about time to buy Earth and Wind.

By the way, most websites don't seem to mention this but these staves are very useful for SMN, too.

[AtraposBLM]

Without Dark Staff, I was getting aspirs on steelshells in Boyahda for 70-80 mp. With Dark Staff, I was getting 100+ (and more consistently than I was getting the 70-80 without).

Not only that, I borrowed a friends earth staff, and found that it *dramatically* reduced the resist rate on my stone series of spells. So much so that I didn't even notice the 10 elemental magic skill I was missing from not using an ice staff...

My friend reports similar results using fire staff with the fire line of spells.

In addition, using a dark staff, I've yet to have a sleep II resisted on any mob that I'd target for EXP. I've had quite a few at inoppurtune moments when I switch to my mythic wand.

[Laehn]

Originally posted by Apple Pie
Sounds good. I was waiting for someone other than RDM commenting on this thread. I think it's about time to buy Earth and Wind.

By the way, most websites don't seem to mention this but these staves are very useful for SMN, too.

Yep, the best of the best smns have one of each staff. They help tremendously with perpetuation cost and also increase avatar power and reduce blood pact cost too i think. Who knows, these staves could even effect synthesis results.

[Laehn]

Originally posted by Patchinko
I have heard also that Light Staff helps with Requiem and Earth Staff helps with Prelude and so forth, which suggests they might help with any spell based on the element of the staff.

I didnt see this before, but i do have to correct one thing. The elemental staves dont effect bard buffs, only debuffs (unfortunately). Most people who test this forget to take into account the +stats the staves themselves give.

Eg.
Bard casts minuet and gets 100+ attack without fire staff.
Bard then does the same thing and gets +110 attack with the fire staff.

In a case like this, the bard might forget that the fire staff gives +10 attack to begin with, so there is actually no change. Ive tried and tested multiple buffs with my light and earth staff, it didnt show any hard numbers.

[tnt118]

While I can't speak for RDM enfeebles, as a bard I just bought a Light Staff last night. This info is far from conclusive, but I am *sold* on the concept.

Over the past 20 levels, having nearly maxed out CHR, Requiem would be resisted fairly often. From 40-50 I'd say it was resisted 1 in 3 times, and from 50-60 around half the time. This is against normal IT EXP mobs. (Bohyada Tree, Cape Terrigan, Valley of Sorrows, and into Onzozo). Last night using Light Staff I landed around 30 successful Requiems without a single resist. Again .. take it for what you will ... but I'm sold on it.

Originally posted by Patchinko

Doesn't mean they do anything to enfeebling spells, but I'd say it's a possibility. I have heard also that Light Staff helps with Requiem and Earth Staff helps with Prelude and so forth, which suggests they might help with any spell based on the element of the staff.

[Patchinko]

Laehn:

Originally posted by Patchinko
Doesn't mean they do anything to enfeebling spells, but I'd say it's a possibility. I have heard also that Light Staff helps with Requiem and Earth Staff helps with Prelude and so forth, which suggests they might help with any spell based on the element of the staff.

I meant Elegy, not Prelude. Sorry, I am kind of new at BRD.

Johnnyram

Originally posted by Jonnyram
Excuse me if this seems like a stupid question, but why cast Aspir on Robber Crabs? I've been chastised many times for casting Aspil on monsters that don't actually use magic, and sure enough, when I checked, I was only gaining a couple of MP, which isn't worth the casting time, I think. Likewise, casting Drain on bats is a waste of time.

If you were only getting a few MP from crabs, it's not because Aspil is useless but because you were getting resisted.

The Dark Staff changes the rules when using Drain and Aspil, thankfully! Even bats can be drained effectively with it. RDM Dark skill is kind of pathetic, so even maxxed, these spells are resisted quite often by mobs with relatively strong Dark resistance. In contrast, wearing the staff you'll often Aspil 50 or more MP from a Robber Crab.

Edit:
I got Ice Staff (for 105,000G \^.^/) last night and Blizzard II got resisted about 5 times in 13,000xp fighting Robber Crabs and Knight Crawlers using two Blizzard renkeis per mob. By contrast, Thunder got resisted about 25% of the time when we used a Fragmentation renkei at first, meaning only that the elemental skill +10 is nothing compared to the boost created by the staff's element. Therefore, I'd say the Wind Staff is going to be very important for the Maat fight~

[Viev]

Last night I was having a hard time landing Paralyze on Faust when I was equipped with mythic wand. I got fed up and equipped my Ice staff and my paralyze success rate increased.

[Mylek]

Another thing to consider is the elemental staves also reduce MP cost of spells.

I tried casting cure, refresh, erase, protect and the MP cost was the same with and without the light staff. The ice staff also had no effect on the MP cost of enblizzard.

Could you clarify how it reduces MP cost. I think I might have misunderstood what you were trying to say.

Edit: After reading some other threads it would seem the reduction is to the cost sustaining avatars for smn.

[AtraposBLM]

I bought a thunder staff - resist rate on Thunder III and Thunder II was 0-1 time per hour in a 4 hour exp party. Fairly good

Used my friend's Water staff. Resist rate on Water IV was 0-1 time per 2 hours. Same exp party.

That pretty much settles the arguement for me. The staves have an additional effect of greatly increasing the accuracy of nukes, in ADDITION to the +10% damage increase they give. I'd imagine that they do the same for the corresponding debuffs.

[Laehn]

Originally posted by Mylek
I tried casting cure, refresh, erase, protect and the MP cost was the same with and without the light staff. The ice staff also had no effect on the MP cost of enblizzard.

Could you clarify how it reduces MP cost. I think I might have misunderstood what you were trying to say.

Edit: After reading some other threads it would seem the reduction is to the cost sustaining avatars for smn.

It doesnt help with curative or buff spell costs. It will reduce MP on spells like banish series and holy. I dont use offensive spells like that often since my bard is the only character that can use the staves, but i remember a few different blms tell me that their ice staff reduce spell cost on top of conserve mp.

[Patchinko]

Is there a way to tell that the staff is responsible instead of Conserve MP being responsible?

A RDM/WHM could confirm or deny it, though as I understand it, it's well established that the staves reduce the MP cost of corresponding avatars, not of spells. Perhaps it increases the effectiveness of Conserve MP on the corresponding spells though. Or maybe we'll never know.

[AtraposBLM]

Originally posted by Patchinko
Is there a way to tell that the staff is responsible instead of Conserve MP being responsible?

A RDM/WHM could confirm or deny it, though as I understand it, it's well established that the staves reduce the MP cost of corresponding avatars, not of spells. Perhaps it increases the effectiveness of Conserve MP on the corresponding spells though. Or maybe we'll never know.

I'm about 100% positive that the elemental staves do nothing about the MP cost of spells. They do reduce the perpetuation cost of avatars though.

[Laehn]

Oh well, theyre still good investments.