The Black Mage & Elemental Staves

I have them all, and 4 or 5 HQ (cant find my Apollo's Staff), and I will admit they make a huge difference. But to be honest..... Ice staff and dark staff will get you to 60 since 9/10 SC will be [Distortion]. Its nice to get the others, but you've got ice and dark, so you are set on the bare minimum. Anything less than that and people will be muttering bad things about you.
 
Zaxxon said:
Can you swap staff after you start casting to get effect, or do you have to have it pre-cast equipped?
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The effect of the staff will be added so long as it is equiped before the spell "leaves your hands." In other words, yes, you can swap it in as you are casting, but it has to be there before the spell actually casts. I tested this with my staves a while back.
 
Zaxxon said:
Can you swap staff after you start casting to get effect, or do you have to have it pre-cast equipped?
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you can swap after you start casting as long as you have it equiped before it lands, which is like 60-70% done casting (depending on fast cast and stuff)

on a side note I made it to 60 blm with only my trusty dark and ice staffs no problem, I just sort of avoided other elements cause I was poor at the time and at those lvls I almost always was in distortion SC so wasn't a big deal. Then I got fire and lightning which lasted me till like lvl 65 and then I slowly collected the other elements which I barely use one by one till 70 when I finally had them all. go ahead call me gimp if you want, I even still don't have a penitent's rope but I don't care I do enough damage to get me killed time and again.

If you have the gil which you should cause elemental staves are pretty darn cheap these days elemental staves help a ton. they cost like the same as they did a year ago but due to inflation that's like 1/4 the price or less. unfortinately HQ are still very expensive

NQ Elemental staves give +10% to their element and -10% for spells weak to that element
HQ give +15% and -15% respectively I don't know stuff about smn perpetuation costs but I know smns love their HQ staves.
 
Jakey touches on a good point. The one case you would not want to use your ice staff for is casting wind magic. The 10 Elemental skill is not as potent as the -10% from using the staff opposing the element. If you choose to go with only ice and dark, equip the dark when you cast a wind spell. It will be as though you were equiping a willow wand, but thats better than negative effects.
 
I see many people do agree on the +10-15% damage increase and yes that's true and all, however they forgot to mention this bonus also applies backwards, they take 10-15% damage from spells of the opposite element, i.e. you cast a wind spell with ice staff your spell will be weakened by 10-15% depending if you have NQ or HQ staff.

For the record, even tho elemental staves give a little bit of accuracy to that element, +10 elemental skill goes through "Shell" and similar moves, I found out this with Sahagins in Sea Serpent Grotto, whenever I used Ice spells they would connect for full damage while Thunder spells with Thunder staff would get a little bit nerfed.
 
Kensou said:
For the record, even tho elemental staves give a little bit of accuracy to that element, +10 elemental skill goes through "Shell" and similar moves, I found out this with Sahagins in Sea Serpent Grotto, whenever I used Ice spells they would connect for full damage while Thunder spells with Thunder staff would get a little bit nerfed.
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That might also have something to do with the Sahagins being weak to ice...
 
Kensou said:
Sahagin are weak to Thunder btw.
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Not weak to ice too like most water based critters? o .o
 
that would easiest be explained by just saying that Ice spells have the highest accuracy of all spells (as it have the bonus from the hidden effect *and* the bonus from Elemental Magic +10), and the sahagins perhaps being slightly higher lvl than you.

Whenever I fight something slightly too high for my BLM, my main nuke is Blizzard to avoid getting resisted.

Another thing that annoys me is that most people believe almost all mobs are weak to ice for this single reason, even thougn most mobs are neutral to it <.<;
 
HQ's don't start to show their true colors (except for DoT calculations, and I'm talking more about Impact Damage like burst) on Tier III/IV spells and Tier III Ga spells. As well as AM.

Because it's a proportioned percentage increase, it's practicly worthless to buy an Aquillo's Staff over an Ice staff (other than astetic value and bragging rights) if your strongest (logical, ie: not AM) Ice spell is Blizzard II.

All of this can be explained best in the various damage formulas which litter the internet.

I own all 8 staves, but I've had two years to collect them all. 5 are HQ, but it wasn't really my BLM that forced me into it. It just sort of happened while I was SMN and BRD. The HQ's are worth it if you got BNS (Big Number Syndrome) like I do. But you need to work your way up to the big spells for it to really start paying off.

Although, I'm one to say such things. My sorry ass still has a Thunder Staff instead of a Jupiters and I'm putting merits into Thunder Potency. I could get 5% extra if I'd just get off my rear and upgrade. /laugh
 
Get all 8 elemental staves period if you want to maximize your nuking abilities.

HQ staves are a bonus but at today's prices, it's insane. The order I'd recommend would be
Pluto
Aquillo
Jupiter
others.

Mainly because at least your dark is HQ'd for the sleep, drain, aspir. And your Aquillo's and Jupiter's will cover your bursts when you do the light/dark s/c. However, at this time, I have a Pluto, Aquillo, and terra staff. Need to work on getting the other five.
 
Screw the damn math and percentages.

Though the comment about avatar perpetuation down with the staves was enlightening, I didnt know about that.

Point: Elemental staves good. Everything else sucks!
 
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