Staff of Wucad Mu

Version 0.25: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Magical staves
Name	staff of Wucad Mu
Icon

A crystal staff overflowing with magical energies. It can be evoked to restore large amounts of magical energy, but at the risk of damaging the user's mind. Its power depends on the wielder's Evocations skill.

The staff of Wucad Mu is a rare magical staff which can be used to channel MP like an improved staff of energy (though it does not negate your spell hunger costs).

The staff can be used in combat, functioning as a +9 staff. It can also be evoked to restore a large amount of MP, but successfully doing so comes with an unavoidable chance of backfiring. These effects are, at best, nothing, and at worst: 5-24 MP drain, temporary 1-5 Intelligence loss, or confusion for 2-5 turns. Even a "nothing" effect, however, will prevent you from gaining MP.

Success Rate: 4% + (Evocations × 4%) — 100% at 24 Evocations
MP Gained: 3-7MP + (Evocations/3) — 3-7MP at 0 Evocations, 12-16MP at 27 Evocations
Negative Effect Rate: 25% after a successful evocation
Cost: 50 food

You can improve your melee performance with this staff by training Fighting and Staves.

Strategy

While the odds of negative effects occurring are intimidatingly high, not every effect is a severe one. The amount of MP you can channel in a single turn is truly impressive when you get your Evocations skill into the double digits. You can avoid the confusion by having clarity, but over-reliance on this staff can rapidly drain your intelligence, forcing you to regain it as you gain experience much like any other stat loss. Zin's Vitalisation protects from both the confusion and intelligence damage, but not the MP drain.

This weapon is primarily useful for its channeling effects, as it fares rather poorly as a bludgeoning tool despite its high enchantment. It does work better as a melee weapon than most magical staves, however, and it can finish off weakened, lightly armoured opponents. This may allow a hard-pressed mage to save MP for more dangerous threats, or to avoid an unnecessary mid-fight channel.

As tempting as this item might be, magic users may just choose to stick with Sublimation of Blood or a staff of energy, which give comparable benefits with fewer and more predictable liabilities.

History

• Prior to 0.20, the staff's negative effects were based on Divinations miscast effects.
• Prior to 0.12, the enchantments on this weapon depended on intelligence and were capable of reaching up to +22/+13.
• Prior to 0.11, this item appeared as an ephemeral quarterstaff when unidentified.
• Prior to 0.8, this staff would occasionally cause miscast effects simply by attacking with it.