What is the best staff?

[Diskordea]

Hi,

Wondering what is considered the best lvl 70 and 90 staff. Thanks!


Edit: After looking on the market board, they are all labeled lvl 50. Am I missing something?.. I was talking to a guy about being able to equip things lvl 70 and 90 if you're level 50. He said his astrolabe was lvl 70, on the board they are 50. I hope I'm not just gullible and he got a good laugh at a newbie.

[Niwashi]

There are both a "Level" and "Item Level" listed on equipment. "Level" refers to what level you have to be in order to equip it, and 50 is as high as that goes, but "Item Level" is a better gauge of how good the item is, as that adds extra points for more powerful equipment (usually dungeon drops). Item Levels can go up to 90. It sounds as though the guy you were talking to was talking about its item level.

(Item Level shows up on a grey bar of the tooltip, right below defense for armour or attack strength for weapons, and above the section that shows what classes can use it, its equippable level, and so on.)

[Diskordea]

There are both a "Level" and "Item Level" listed on equipment. "Level" refers to what level you have to be in order to equip it, and 50 is as high as that goes, but "Item Level" is a better gauge of how good the item is, as that adds extra points for more powerful equipment (usually dungeon drops). Item Levels can go up to 90. It sounds as though the guy you were talking to was talking about its item level.

(Item Level shows up on a grey bar of the tooltip, right below defense for armour or attack strength for weapons, and above the section that shows what classes can use it, its equippable level, and so on.)

Thank you for clearing that up.

[Anova]

I am assuming your main class is a THM/BLM. Your best staff depends on the rest of your gear. Generally, you will want to focus on the following stats:

MATK: The magic attack value of your weapon. It gets multiplied by Intelligence and potency to determine damage.
Intelligence: Your main damage stat.
Critical Rate: Increases chance of critical.
Accuracy: Increases your chance to hit the target
Determination: A catch-all stat that improves damage and healing by a small percentage.
Spellspeed: Increases how fast you cast.


Generally, accuracy is not a problem for casters until you are running endgame Coil of Bahamut. At that point, the minimum is 430 acc and up to 450 for T5. This will ensure all of your attacks hit.
Assuming you are hitting and don't have to change accuracy, you will want to raise crit rate and determination. Improvements caused by spellspeed are relatively minor.

So with this in mind, ILvl70 is "Maleficient Mogstaff". The "Giantsgall longstaff" and "Astrolabe" are actually interchangeable since you can always slot in materia to make up for the missing accuracy, crit, or spellspeed.

Ilvl90 is a toss-up between "Stardust Zenith" (spellspeed), "Allagan Scepter" (accuracy), and "Elder Staff" (crit). Pick one depending on what the rest of your gear is like. Just remember to have your accuracy in the 430-450 range at the end.

[Urthdigger]

In general, two items of the same item level will be equally matched when it comes to the things that matter (Intelligence and weapon damage for you). They differ on the minor details.

For level 70, your options are the Astrolabe (Crafted using ingredients bought with tomestones of Philosophy. As with all crafted items, it needs to be HQ to match dungeon drops) and Garuda's Van (Chance to drop from Garuda hard mode).

For level 75, you have the Maleficient Mogstaff (dropped from Good King Moggle Mog XII)

For level 80, you have the Stardust Rod (Relic weapon, and something you should begin working on once you enter endgame) and the Cudgel of Crags (Drop from Titan (hard)... but if you can beat him, you're capable of getting a relic anyway...)

For level 90, you have the Stardust Rod Zenith (Upgraded from the Stardust Rod with 900 tomestones of Mythology) and the Elder Staff (Obtainable by beating all three Extreme mode primals. Can choose reward, and do it once a week)

For level 95, you have the Allagan Scepter (Drop from turn 5 of the Binding Coil of Bahamut... currently the hardest dungeon in the game)

Assuming BLM is your first level 50, your likely route is to start with an item level 55 staff (Like from your grand company, or the crafted one), start working on your relic weapon, try and get Ifrit or Garuda's weapons, and once you do use them to tackle Titan. Then upgrade your relic weapon to the Zenith version and work on clearing Binding Coil.

The main advantage of things like the Cudgel of Crags or Elder Staff is they're decent ways to get a weapon for a class you haven't done the relic weapon quest for yet, or don't want to spend mythology tomestones on.

[Diskordea]

Assuming BLM is your first level 50, your likely route is to start with an item level 55 staff (Like from your grand company, or the crafted one), start working on your relic weapon, try and get Ifrit or Garuda's weapons, and once you do use them to tackle Titan. Then upgrade your relic weapon to the Zenith version and work on clearing Binding Coil.

Thank you for the info. I am curious as to why I would start with a lvl 55 staff instead of a 70 or above? Unless gil was the issue. However, I would rather save for something better than take from what I'm saving to get something lesser just because I don't have enough at the time. Also, I had heard that weapons above 70 have to be purchased with a certain end-game currency?

[Urthdigger]

Thank you for the info. I am curious as to why I would start with a lvl 55 staff instead of a 70 or above? Unless gil was the issue. However, I would rather save for something better than take from what I'm saving to get something lesser just because I don't have enough at the time. Also, I had heard that weapons above 70 have to be purchased with a certain end-game currency?

That concept is actually quite flawed, for many reasons, and it'd take a few pages to go into full detail so I'll try to be brief. The very short version is that if you try to just get the level 70 crafted gear to start with (And that is quite literally the highest level stuff you can buy, and thing like extreme mode primals and binding coil will be impossible in AF gear and a level 40 weapon), you will actually take LONGER than if you bite the bullet, get the VERY CHEAP level 55 gear, and start doing your endgame progression. Also, all that super expensive level 70 gear? Yeah, you're gonna wind up replacing it when you get level 80 and 90 gear.

I should add that while I only mentioned the weapons, you need to upgrade your gear as well as you climb up those tiers. You need to throw away the thought of "Why get this if I'll replace it later?" and get the stuff in-between. If you don't upgrade your gear as you go, I doubt you'll ever even get past Garuda hard mode, and that's barely into endgame. Not saying you need a full set of level 60 gear before getting level 70, but at least make a solid effort. And since all the level 55 stuff is cheap and buyable, no reason not to get it.

Also, I notice you're only level 19. Worry about endgame when you're actually there. You'll have a better grasp of how the game plays by then.

[Ed_N_Ants]

All items have levels on them this will show you the location of the level this one is an I55 for example...



Most people have an issue with buying items so they buy lower levels or they buy something that will get them past the current part... Most drops are the best weapons until you get your relic weapon and then of course there are better ones about that after you get to extreme primals and then drops from coil turn five...