HQ Staves

[Auremir]

I tried digging through some material via search, but had little luck finding an answer.

I'm at level 54 RDM, Taru, and noticed a good number of resists on my Shock/slow/para/blind/gravity debuffs when EXP'ing. I have enough money saved to buy about three or possibly four high quality staves, or an enfeebling earring, or something in that price range. Should I focus on High Quality staves? Is the enfeebling earring statistically a better investment than the staves? Is there other gear I should be worried about saving that money for? (I macro in about +28-30 for mnd and int on each spell, in addition to the staves)

If I should focus on staves first, what order should I buy them in? Which ones are most useful?

Thanks in advance,

Auremir

[Jei]

Re: HQ Staves

HQ are definitely good to have but I would say they are not your top priority at this point. Not yet ^^ Wait until you get 58, you will get a omgwtf +15 enfeebling skill from your AF body. It will help you land your enfeebles at an amazing success rate. Then get yourself the enfeeble torque at 65. Another amazing piece of enfeeble boost.

As HQ staves go, Ice, Wind and Earth are all worth to have the HQ version. Dark is also good for landing sleep, you won't need sleep so often tho so it's up to you.

HQ Light, Fire and Water don't really do much for pure Rdm, I have them all for my SMN and BLM however.

I won't get the ear ring yet. It's more expensive than torque and only gives +3.

[Fynlar]

Re: HQ Staves

The 50s sucks for RDM until 58 because this is where the VT-IT level ranges start to expand, and suddenly the IT mob you're fighting is more levels above you than it was at previous levels. Even with HQ staves and uber gear most people will still notice difficulties with enfeebling until they get the Tabard. Just stick it out. Most of what you fight in the 50s will be crabs, so people will still be loving you if you Dispel them appropriately.

Ice, Wind, Dark, and Earth (in around that order) are the most important staves to HQ, the rest is more situational use and not really important for EXP play.

[Aksannyi]

Re: HQ Staves

When I looked at the stats of the HQ staves in comparison to my the NQ ones that I currently own, I didn't think that the added boosts - some of which were extra resistance to an element or a bit more MND or something - it didn't seem worth it to spend more than twice the amount of a NQ. I'm at 62 RDM now and I've not noticed any serious issues with enfeebs landing with my NQ staves as opposed to my HQs.

[Jei]

Re: HQ Staves

NQ gives 10% boost to elemental damage and resist rate. HQ gives 15%. 5% is not a lot I agree. But it's still better ^^

[eva00r]

Re: HQ Staves

Just live with it until you get body part AF. I played RDM to 70ish without any staves because the staves were not even released at that time (a few years ago). Landing all of your enfeebing spells are not required until many later levels.

You should focus on your HP/MP rather than HQ elemental staves. Spend that 1Mish money elsewhere to maximize your gil power.

[Auremir]

Re: HQ Staves

Just live with it until you get body part AF. I played RDM to 70ish without any staves because the staves were not even released at that time (a few years ago). Landing all of your enfeebing spells are not required until many later levels.

You should focus on your HP/MP rather than HQ elemental staves. Spend that 1Mish money elsewhere to maximize your gil power.

I'm not sure I can agree with this. Being a taru, HP/MP gear is useful for exactly one thing to me, and that is converting, which I can get a 1:1 ratio on with a pair of electrum rings. I do realize that with the body piece, and then the enfeebling torque at 65, spells will be landing with much more certainty. But saying that landing all of your enfeebling spells is not required, at any given level, seems kind of like saying that doing good damage isnt required for DD's at any given level.

Thanks to those who offered me the advice I was asking for. I went ahead and picked up an Aquilo's, Auster's and Terra's staff, and was resisted significantly less.

Auremir

[tdh]

Re: HQ Staves

HQ Staves won't hurt, and I plan to "collect them all" some day. However if you're Lv.54 and having difficulty landing your Enfeebles, I'm not sure HQ Staves will really fix your problem. That extra 5% won't be such a determining factor in landing your spells at this range. Make sure you have your Torques first, and then start collecting Staves.

Seems that all RDMs have different times when their Enfeebles start to get resisted. For me that hit around Lv.62, and out of nowhere I just could not land Wind based Enfeebles and Paralyze/Slow had more resists than previously. Others have told me they had the worst time in the late 50's, even with AF Body.

As far as HQ Staves to pick up first, I would say go with Wind Staff first. Wind based Enfeebles are often difficult to stick, and last thing you want is have Silence resisted several times, and having a "more reliable" Gravity is quite nice.

Somebody already mentioned that Ice, Wind, Earth, and Dark are the HQ Staves for RDM. Fire, Water, Thunder, and Light are really just for "collecting them all." If you're a big Magic Burster like I am, having the HQ Thunder Staff would be nice for MBs on Light at Lv.75.

Don't bother with that Enfeebling Earring. It's just not worth the gil. At one point it was 15M on my server, and I can't understand why anybody would spend that much gil for just 3 extra Skill. AF Body, and Enfeebling Torque will do you quite well.

[Jei]

Re: HQ Staves

15M? Wow. I can't quite remember how it was on my server when everything were so expensive. I think I picked up my enfeeble torque when it was 6M or something. It's now 900k :O

My enfeebling experience seem a lot different... I had problem landing enfeebles during 40+.... And the problem seemed to be solved after I got my NQ staves and AF body. And even better with toruq. Literally, I had a really good time enfeebling post 58.

[tdh]

Re: HQ Staves

15M? Wow. I can't quite remember how it was on my server when everything were so expensive. I think I picked up my enfeeble torque when it was 6M or something. It's now 900k :O

My enfeebling experience seem a lot different... I had problem landing enfeebles during 40+.... And the problem seemed to be solved after I got my NQ staves and AF body. And even better with toruq. Literally, I had a really good time enfeebling post 58.

I spent 3.8M for my Enfeebling Torque, 3.5M for my Elemental Torque, and 2.5M for my Spider Torque. I think now, I could buy all three for ~4M now. I was farming my Elvaan butt off trying to make sure I had the items I needed for when I leveled, and now those items are "cheap." /cry

During the 50's I had the random resist. The every-now-and-again when Paralyze was resisted. I'd cast it immediately afterwards and it landed. No difference in gear at all. But that was the extent of it for me. I was working with about MND+25~30 at the time, and I had all of my Staves when I hit Lv.51.

Then it came to the early 60s and I just couldn't stick a lot of my spells. I had no idea what I was doing wrong. I switched up my foods, experimented with various equips, and still had problems. Hit Lv.64 and the Spider Torque helped, and Lv.65 I was home free with the Enfeebling Torque. Wind based spells were the worst for me though.

Other RDMs I've heard from said they had problems in the mid to late 50s. One RDM tied me down for like 3 hours asking me for gear suggestions because he was having problems landing spells at Lv.61. Seems everybody had a different experience, which is odd since we generally EXP against the same mobs.

[Fynlar]

Re: HQ Staves

I had problems at 60 but that's only because we were trying to fight Processionaires.

Hint: 60 is low for them

[Karinya]

Re: HQ Staves

The specific monster makes a big difference too; the person who had trouble with resists on wind spells might have been fighting Perytons, which have high wind resistance. Having trouble getting gravity to land on them is just normal (same with paralyzing skeletons and raptors, slowing cockatrices, silencing ahrimans, and the biggest example, blinding bats which is just about impossible outside of Flash).

Overall I'd say get to 58 and get your tabard before you spend millions on anything. Especially until then, beware of parties where you are at the low end of the party in levels; level has a powerful effect on resist rates and it really helps RDMs a lot to be at or near the party's top level. If you're still having trouble, HQ Wind, Ice and Earth might help (and Dark for situations where you need to sleep mobs frequently, like Dynamis; but you can wait on that until after you have enfeebling torque).

Master caster's bracelets are also very useful if you can get them, but they only work while you have Signet (not Sanction) and are in a non-TAU area outside your nation's control (including the unconquerable areas of Dynamis, Limbus and Promyvion).

For the most part things like HQ staves and enfeebling earring are mainly for endgame content like HNMs, KS99s, uncapped ENMs and high level mission/quest fights (Divine Might, Apocalypse Nigh etc.) Despite the low level requirement on the earring, its availability makes it impractical for most people still leveling up, unless it is your 3rd or 4th job or you just get lucky on an ENM run and then decide not to sell it to buy 10 other pieces of gear. (On the other hand once you are 75 it looks even less impressive because 2 merits will have a bigger effect, take up no inventory or equipment slots and are much much easier to get. Unless you're already capped on enfeebling magic or the magic skills category.)

[Icemage]

Re: HQ Staves

Small correction:

Sanction will activate Master Caster's Bracelets (just as it will for any other conquest-specific gear, such as Republic Circlet or Republic Gold Medal), as long as you fulfil the other conditions - in this case, your nation must not control the zone in Conquest.

It still won't make those pieces of gear work in areas where no conquest items work though (any Aht Urghan zone).


Icemage

[Jei]

Re: HQ Staves

I guess that saves a little time if you're teleporting straight from ToAU to hunt HNM in the old zones... >.>

[Auremir]

Re: HQ Staves

I'm a little confused on some of the advice I am getting, so I want to clarify to make sure I have my bases covered.

Yes, I was in the low range for the party. I also understand the importance of the AF body and enfeebling torque skill boosts I will get.

However, I have already purchased in advance my Enfeebling, Elemental and Dark skill torques. I have sets of +4 int and mnd rings, and bought a pentinents rope. With the gil I had left, the gear I imagined would be most useful for the money was High Quality Staves, and that was the first part of my question, followed by what order. Was I wrong? I could have saved for some Mahatma gear later on, or +1 Wise gear I suppose, but my reasoning was that of the higher priced items, HQ staves were the most useful and could help me not only immediately, but also late game as well, moreso than an extra mnd or int from HQ armors. Is there any other gear that I have missed, that I would benefit more from before the staves, outside of what's been mentioned?

My apologies if this is getting redundant. I'm just trying to get things right.

Auremir