Staves - a question re Night Mistress & Staff of Cosmos

[Medea Fleecestealer]

Hi guys. I'm looking for advice. I'm playing a Magician and am following Fozzie's Bladefinger Magician guide. I've got most of the equipment I need but I'm wondering, on the staff side, if using a Night Mistresses' Clutch or a Staff of Cosmos would be better than what I have at the moment. Being Rogue/Earth I'm using fire staves to spread the love.

I have a Venomous Night Mistress, a Night Mistress of Brimstone and a Dire Night Mistress of Harrowing in his storage plus a Staff of the Cosmos. He's using an Eye of Osiris and a Ker's Fetish of Trickery at present, but I could also equip a Savant's Willow Stygian Staff of Harrowing and a Diamondwood Incubean Staff of Harrowing.

I believe staves like the Night Mistress and Cosmos don't show the damage/DPS stats properly ingame so I really don't know if they would be better to use. I've yet to find a Heka Staff so these choices might be the ones to last me to end game. He's L45 in Epic Sais at the moment.

[Irma2]

Bladeflinger suggests Throwing Knives. Staff will have no effect on that other than universal +% bonuses. Are you attacking much with staff? Even if you are, I think a Fire staff will be much better than something which does random 1/3 chance each for Lightning, Cold, Fire.

For Storm, spreading your base damage around a bit is OK because Wisp's Eye of the Storm boosts Cold/Lightning/Fire equally. But Earth gets nothing to boost Cold or Lightning so 2 out of every 3 attacks with Cosmos or Night Mistress will be doing sub-par damage. The +skills on Night Mistress also count for nothing as you don't have Dream.

Cosmos might be a better bet because at least it has -% energy cost and +% casting speed. But if you want the staff to actually do damage, I'd go for Ker's Fetish or Staff of the Magi. Those are the best Earth staves, maybe Heka Staff if -recharge is your main priority.

[Medea Fleecestealer]

Yes, Fozzie recommends the Heka for its -20% recharge as well as its other stuff. I haven't found one yet, and as Night Mistress and Cosmos don't seem to show their true damage/DPS abilities I wasn't sure if it was worth using them. From the sounds of it I'll be better sticking with the other true fire staves and leave the Night Mistress/Cosmos for another caster toon to use.

The Bladefinger is mostly knives with staff as support and for single foes where knives would be wasted really. At the moment knives are available to throw almost instantly so keeping up the -recharge is essential.

Thanks, Irma2. Your knowledge of the game is indeed Olympian and you are a God for all the help you give others.

[Fozzie]

I agree, as far as green staves go, Staff of the Magi with it's fire boost and -recharge is probably your best bet before Heka is available. Cosmos doesn't fit the Bladeflinger that well - it's absolutely perfect for a Sharder, though

[Medea Fleecestealer]

Oh good. I've got an Ice Shard Stormcaller in early Normal so I can pass it on to her later in the game.