Elemental Staff

Version 0.14: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This powerful staff used to belong to the leader of the Guild of Five Elements.

A black staff

+3, +3 staff

Inflicts bonus damage as though it were a randomly selected elemental staff with each hit (chance and power determined by Evocations)
+5 AC
rF++
rC++
rElec
+80 magic resistance

Desirability

The elemental staff offers an unbelievable array of defensive bonuses, giving the wielder significantly more freedom when it comes to armour and jewellery slots. With a modest skill investment in Staves (12 for min speed) and significant training in Evocations, it also serves as a fairly powerful, moderately fast one-handed melee weapon, though not having control over the element you evoke is unfortunate.

For casters, coupling this with a robe of the Archmagi and possibly other spellpower enhancers can leave you with a well-rounded defense and an overwhelming offense. For melee characters, particularly ones who can fill their suddenly-available equipment slots with slaying bonuses, it's an excellent way to gain exceptional amounts of durability while still being a force to reckon with. Don't expect it to be of much use in melee with monsters resistant to all elemental damage, however.

History

Prior to 0.14, the elemental staff was a +3, +1 quarterstaff making it a marginally better source of physical damage. However, it lacked any elemental brand effects, offered no rElec, made noise while wielded, and significantly increased your hunger.