Dark Staff

[LakshmiBane]

Pssh Vermillion~

I wouldn't trade my Fast Cast bonus for Vermillion XD

The Dark Staff is a very good staff, especially for a Red Mage. When you look at the WHM and BLM who use it, they have Clear Mind 5..... and it still helps them out.

Red Mage get Clear Mind 1, period. A RDM/BLM gets Clear Mind 2 at RDM60/BLM30, but that's still extremely weak compared to a WHM or a BLM's MP regeneration. In other words, RDM need all the help they can get ^^

Dark Staff is probably the best investment you can make on your Red Mage, because your job is basically MP perpetuation, and Dark Staff directly enhances your performance in that field. If you have the money, definitely buy it, and if not save up for it. Even a Master Caster staff (Windurst BAH) is not as good as the Dark Staff.. it's the kind of thing you'll carry with you the entire game.

[Toilet]

I seen an elvaan blm use AF, adn some white tunic for nuking, then when resting would change to vermillions cloak, and dark staff, then when almost at full would switch to AF (i assume he did this cuase when he did he got about 50 more mp), He probably had over 4mil in equips but he out damaged the hume blm, and had almost 100 more mp and hp then her at the same lvl..... I probalby will get the cloak and the dark staff... so I will be at lvl 60 for about another month =\

[riceburner4540]

if an elvaan rdm outnuked me, i think i'd cry. happened in my 30s when a taru rdm out-damaged me by a couple points per spell, though he had some really nice stuff. since then, only taru blms of the same level can beat me in a nuke-off, and even then its VERY close (i.e. 1-3 points difference on thunder II).

decision between vermillion and dark staff is pretty difficult for rdm. on one hand, as a rdm, you don't rest much, so vermillion might work better but at the cost of your AFs, since you need to keep it on. if you plan to switch to vermillion only for healing, then dark staff is by far better, especially considering the costs.

[Zania]

If you have a brd / rdm / blm for back line, you wont be needing the dark staff. However if you are missing the bard, you will pretty much be forced to sit to regain mp, and thats when the staff proves useful.

I personally play with a brd friend, which means that not just I get 1 extra mp per second (3 per tick) but also a backup healer. Most of my times is spent doing debuffs (Paralyze / slow / gravity + blind if no paladin) and buffs (haste / refresh), also throw in a MB on the chains nad healing when needed (its amazing how little personal attention tanks need at higher levels IMO. Ninjas take little to no damage, and paladins most of the time end up healing themselves for aggro anyways). I literally get no time to sit down to regain mp. All my mp comes from refresh + ballads. So for me buying a staff which will net me about oooh....20 extra mp every convert cycle...nah. I'll definately get it when my blm or whm is high enough to use it though.

Zania

[EtRNaL168]

w00t I have both Dark and Ice Staffs now ^^

Btw Dark Staff is a must have! As for the Ice Staff, I do 30-40 more damage with my elemental magic.

[AtraposBLM]

I gained a good 60 or so damage with ice spells, 15-40 with the others.

Dark staff is truly amazing...you get almost DOUBLE the amount of mp intially...(first tick regularly +12...with darkstaff, that's +22...with food, that's +24), and I usually have anywhere from 2-300 more mp than mages that started resting at the same time as me. Without refresh (rdm was afk when mine wore), I kept up with the mp of a blm resting with refresh (he still had his). I would've beaten him, but he had about 100 more mp when he started resting, and he got his first tick already when I sat.

[riceburner4540]

I gained a good 60 or so damage with ice spells, 15-40 with the others

i gained about 10% more power with blizzard based spells. all other spells remained the same, except slightly more powerful due to the int on the staff. i wasn't aware of the ice staff's ability to boost any other elemental spell damage other than blizzard based spells. also, my aero spells are slightly weaker, by about 10% as well. especially noticeable whenever i cast tornado using an ice staff....doesn't happen too often though.

[Tulerin]

In my exp parties I usually chain +5, keep full debuff's on, and nuke here and there w/o needing to /heal. By the time I get low mp, Convert is ready. Regular /heal is just fine when im the only one doing refresh and haste and debuffing. Would it help to have one? Why sure it would....but could you do w/o one? Of course.

[Alcueid]

I hope you switch off ice staff when you are casting Aero spells.

[EtRNaL168]

yup ^^ Ice staff only boost the damage of ice spells by roughly 10% while the damage of other spells remains the same.

[AtraposBLM]

true, the damage is only effected by 10%, but:

First off, explain this:
Without Ice Staff equipped, my blizzard III caps out at 505 damage. With Ice Staff equipped, my Blizzard III maxs out at 570 damage. That's about a 12% increase in damage.

Without Ice Staff equipped, my Fire III caps out at about 415 damage. With it, it lands for 430-450 damage.

My explanation:
Yes, as a hidden bonus, ice staff only adds 10% damage to ice spells. However, you're forgetting that it also adds +10 elemental magic skill, and +4 int. First off, the +4 int adds 4-8 damage (minimal, but there). Second off, elemental magic skill has a few things that it'll do. One, it lets your spells hit for their TRUE max value. Ever notice that your damage cap on mobs lower than you is much higher than your exp mobs (assuming you're using your top spells on both. Right now, my blizzard II hits for the same damage whether IT or TW, but my thunder III hits for 630 or so on TW and 550 on IT)? Also, ever notice that with your more powerful spells, immediately after you level, they gain more damage? Well, +10 elemental magic skill is about 2-3 levels worth of elemental magic skill. So that's good for additional damage to all other spells as well as the fact that +10 skill means fewer resists, and it also brings you closer to your "true" damage cap.


As for switching equips while casting aero:
First of all, I *rarely* cast Aero as it is. The only time I do with any regularity is on Titan. The first time I used Aero consistently was when I Exp'd in Den of Rancor for the first time the other night. And yes, on my A3 macro, instead of equipping Ice Staff, I equip my Mythic Wand. However, I so rarely cast Aero that there's really not much of a point to even considering it.

Think about it...what mobs do you exp on that are weak to air? Crawlers? I always found my ice/thunder spells did better no matter what I was exping on (excluding torama and lizards and their strength against thunder), so I never really bothered casting Aero more than when I initially got it so I could see what it looked like.


So no, the damage of other spells does not remain the same.