Purpose of Wands Post 50

[Rubicon Scarlet]

The only problem I see with this is shields. If I buy an Astral Shield, I have no time to wear it. I may just not get one then, if I would rather my debuffs to stick. :p

[Icemage]

Originally posted by Rubicon Scarlet
The only problem I see with this is shields. If I buy an Astral Shield, I have no time to wear it. I may just not get one then, if I would rather my debuffs to stick. :p

If you're talking about the Astral Aspis (25HP->MP +3INT and some other goodies), that item is Rare/EX. You can't buy it, only get it as a drop from Pelican (NM) in Kuftal Tunnel.


Icemage

[sekaran]

There's an Astral Shield as well.. I believe either +30 or +25 MP for the cost of equivalent HP.

[Raineer]

Originally posted by Patchinko
Actually, Ice Staff causes reduction in Aero accuracy, not Fire. Given that you can't afford the proper elemental staff, Ice Staff's +elemental will help you avoid elemental spell resists more than a wand on all except Aero spells.^^

This is sort of a misconception, one that I've seen posted quite often. The Ice Staff provides two main benefits:

+10 Elemental Skill: This is a LARGE piece of defense against resists for any mage, on ANY Elemental spell. The element or type of spell has nothing to do with this boost. This is the main benefit of the Ice staff. +10 Elemental skill does not make your nukes stronger, it just makes them resist less.

+10% Ice / -10% Wind "Hidden" Effect: This deals with damage/spell potency ONLY. If you are fighting something highly magic resistant (or something quite a few levels above you) and using an Aero chain, you may very well be better off with still using the Ice Staff. Reason being, would you rather have 90% of a nuke unresisted or would you rather have 50% or 75% resists without the Ice Staff.

Having all the staves is a great benefit, to be able to add 10% damage to any spell you wish... However, uIce Staff is the only one that helps your nukes NOT resist, which until 65 seems to be the biggest battle the RDM faces.

[Prefect]

Originally posted by Icemage
If you're talking about the Astral Aspis (25HP->MP +3INT and some other goodies), that item is Rare/EX. You can't buy it, only get it as a drop from Pelican (NM) in Kuftal Tunnel.


Icemage

Killed Pelican last night while XPing. Had the 2nd highest lot. So close.

[Apple Pie]

+10% Ice / -10% Wind "Hidden" Effect: This deals with damage/spell potency ONLY.

Well, according to the guy here (Japanese) who did some experiments on AA Tarutaru, elemental staves seem to help corresponding elemental magic spells to be less resisted.

He, Taru BLM73/WHM36, casted Fire 80 - 81 times against AATT with each weapon.

1) Fire Staff
2) Mythic Wand
3) No weapon

Here's the sammary.

Fire Staff 80/80
Full Damage: 75 (93.8%)
Half Resisted: 5 (6.2%)
Quarter Resisted: 0
Completely Resisted: 0

Mythic Wand 81/81
Full Damage: 63 (77.8%)
Half Resisted: 16 (19.8%)
Quarter Resisted: 2 (2.5%)
Completely Resisted: 0

No weapon 81/81
Full Damage: 59 (72.8%)
Half Resisted: 16 (18.5%)
Quarter Resisted: 6 (7.4%)
Completely Resisted: 1 (1.2%)

80 - 81 samples may not be enough to prove this but then, think of why many of us here like to use elemental staves for enfeebling spells like Wind Staff for Gravity and Silence?

[bonovoxpsu]

yay for dropping over 1mil on the elemental stave set!

[AtraposBLM]

Originally posted by bonovoxpsu
yay for dropping over 1mil on the elemental stave set!

yay for spending over a million gil on just 2 staves months ago...m(_ _)m

[bonovoxpsu]

hey, i've already bought two of them - dark and ice.

i bought them way back when - dark wast 500k. ice was 350k-400k, can't remember.

so don't try and play that song at me, jack! :spin:

[sekaran]

I spent 800k on my Dark Staff.. months ago >.<

Recently [as in the last month].. I bought an Auster's Staff for 990k.. it's dropped to 500k in 3 weeks ;_;

[Raineer]

Originally posted by Apple Pie
Well, according to the guy here (Japanese) who did some experiments on AA Tarutaru, elemental staves seem to help corresponding elemental magic spells to be less resisted.

He, Taru BLM73/WHM36, casted Fire 80 - 81 times against AATT with each weapon.

80 - 81 samples may not be enough to prove this but then, think of why many of us here like to use elemental staves for enfeebling spells like Wind Staff for Gravity and Silence?

Hmmm, I hadn't seen that test.. That looks pretty good. So I'll refine my statement ^_^

Ice staff help guard *more* against resists than the other's. I wish he would have tested also casting Fire with the Ice staff. I have a feeling the resist % would be even less... I only posted my first post because I see many RDM's forget the +10 skill on the Ice staff.

As for why we use the matching staff for our debuffs, it's because there is no +10 Enfeebling Staff. I think I'll change my statement this way:

Ice Staves help resists alot, helps damage a little.
The "Matching" Staff helps damage alot, and resists a little.

I still think this is true, mainly due to the +10 skill on the Ice Staff.

[Fuuko]

Elemental staves help just landing the enfeeble and not in the effectiveness (as in the monster will be paralyzed more times)?

I have Crimson Mask (enfeeble+10), Enfeeble torque, AF body, etc... and then at lvl 74 there's that enfeeble dagger.

Having the Crimson Mask, would be more useful to just use a wand for +MND and +INT ?

I'm so confused about mythic wand +1, staves or the enfeeble dagger :/

[AtraposBLM]

Originally posted by Raineer
Hmmm, I hadn't seen that test.. That looks pretty good. So I'll refine my statement ^_^

Ice staff help guard *more* against resists than the other's. I wish he would have tested also casting Fire with the Ice staff. I have a feeling the resist % would be even less... I only posted my first post because I see many RDM's forget the +10 skill on the Ice staff.

As for why we use the matching staff for our debuffs, it's because there is no +10 Enfeebling Staff. I think I'll change my statement this way:

Ice Staves help resists alot, helps damage a little.
The "Matching" Staff helps damage alot, and resists a little.

I still think this is true, mainly due to the +10 skill on the Ice Staff.

You're still not quite getting it, lol. There's a hidden effect on all staves that *greatly* reduces the amount of resists that you get. SO:

If you have no staves yet, first, get a Dark Staff. It greatly reduces the time you have to spend resting, and for RDM/BLM's out there, it will also mean that when you convert, you have a much better drain to depend on to get some more of your health back at a cheaper price. Also, right when it becomes available, you start exping on crabs, and a little Aspiring never hurt anyone (except when you're getting <10 mp ; ; )

After dark staff, I'd get the Ice Staff, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. Over using just a +INT wand, an Ice staff will provide a 10% boost to ice damage, a great reduction in Ice resists, and a medium reduction in overall resists (this was as a blm, so maybe having lower elemental skill as a RDM, the +10 elemental skill will make a bigger difference on non-ice spells than it did for me). Even though there is only a medium reduction, keep in mind, this is a reduction of resists over using just a +INT wand.

From there, the buying of staves depends on whether you heal a lot or enfeeble/nuke a lot. Oh, and I'd advise buying the ice staff before getting the other staves simply because it's so cheap that to improve all your nukes with one staff is very economical. Anyways, I'd go on to buy Wind Staff (Gravity gets resisted a lot from what I can tell of partying with RDM's at upper levels), then an Earth Staff (slow), then you could go on to buy all of them, or just leave it at dark/ice/wind/earth.



The staves greatly reduce the resists of Enfeebling line of spells, as well. They go by corresponding elements. So, when you're having trouble *landing* an enfeebling-type spell, use the corresponding staff. When you can land the spell reliably, use the +MND boosting club. So once again, it's more gear to lug around:sweat:

[Raineer]

Originally posted by AtraposBLM
You're still not quite getting it, lol. There's a hidden effect on all staves that *greatly* reduces the amount of resists that you get. SO:

If you have no staves yet, first, get a Dark Staff.

The reason for my post is that there is more than the "hidden" effects that help the staves, people keep forgetting the +skill on the Ice. I have 6, my only +1 is Pluto's, I DO know how much they help.

My post was explaining to people that the +10 Elemental Skill on the Ice Staff *MAY* be more important in certain cases than using the matching staff.

If you are using the Thunder Staff to cast Thunder spells and are seeing a lot of resists, which happens to me when I go somewhere a bit early (Processionaires at 61 in a 65-hi party, for example.) You can swap to the Ice Staff to get the +10 Elemental Skill instead of the hidden boost and you will land more spells fully, just not with the +10% (or +15%) damage of the matching staff.

The above example STILL holds true for Aero spells, even tho their damage is dropped by 10%, they are still less likely to resist than with the Wind staff equipped.

If you are, for example, level 65 and xp'ing on Processionaires then you would be using the matching staff for the 10 or 15% boost in damage. You wouldn't need the +10 skill in that slot because your natural skill (plus Wizard's earring and elemental torque if you have them) will be high enough to land.

Keep in mind post-60, just equipping the Ice Staff put you FIVE levels above where you are for Elemental skill. At this level I get a wonderful 2 points of skill per level, then I cap again.

[Blowy]

The above example STILL holds true for Aero spells, even tho their damage is dropped by 10%, they are still less likely to resist than with the Wind staff equipped.

Actually casting Aero with an Ice Staff results in a high resist rate. After getting Aero III recently, I plugged it into my MB macro (without even thinking about the macro using an Ice Staff).

After five half resisted MBs in a row (MBing a Light Skillchain on Catoplebas), I swapped my wand into the macro, and only saw another two resists in the rest of the party.

It seems that the negative effects of casting a Wind spell were greater than the positive effects of the +10 Elemental Skill as far as resistences were concerned...