As a passionately dedicated mage across my multiple playthroughs of Dark Souls 3, I am always seeking to optimize my spell-casting destruction. And a huge part of magnifying mystical demolishment lies in your equipped sorcerer staff. But finding the right staff has always been an arcane challenge for me.
Between murky item descriptions, obscure locations, and nuanced stat scaling – unearthing the DS3 best staff is a formidable task. To spare fellow wizards from my torment, I‘ve distilled down my hard-fought findings into this comprehensive staff guide.
Let‘s illuminate the path to equipping the optimal arcane armament!
What Makes a Superior Sorcerer Staff
Before evaluating specific staffs, it‘s important to understand what factors make one more adept at assisting sorceries than another:
- Spell Buff: This crucial stat determines the strength of your sorceries. Higher buff means more magic damage!
- Scaling: This grades how much your staff‘s spell buff grows based on stats. For mages, Intelligence scaling is vital.
- Skills: Some staffs have special skills that can be activated for unique effects.
- Acquisition Difficulty: The mighty staffs are hidden and guarded…if you can find them at all.
Now let‘s channel our focus onto the prime staff contenders available in Lothric:
Heretic‘s Staff – The Stalwart Starter
Pros:
🔸Available very early in Road of Sacrifices
🔸Low stat requirements
🔸Decent starter Intelligence scaling
Cons:
🔸Surpassed in late game by specialized staffs
🔸Higher stamina usage than some staffs
This unassuming staff can be snatched early from the mouldering ruins along the Road of Sacrifices. As an eager sorcerer, I was overjoyed to discover an arcane armament so soon that wasn‘t reliant on high mental stats.
With only 12 Intelligence required to wield (and a bit of strength), the Heretic‘s Staff is accessible for early mage builds to start amplifying their sorceries. It even has a Signature Skill called Steady Chant for a brief damage boost – something basic staffs lack.
The Heretic‘s boasts notable B rank Intelligence scaling as well. This means as you feed it upgrade points into Intelligence, it steadily returns the favor with an increasing spell buff…to a point.
Sadly, I eventually realized midway through the game that other staff‘s with higher scaling had overtaken the Heretic‘s potency. It still holds sentimental value for carrying many a new sorcerer through early days (myself included). But when I could wield mightier magic staffs, it was time to let my starter rest.
Crystal Sage‘s Staff – A Tempting Triple Threat
Pros:
🔸Solid starting damage across three schools
🔸Versatile and lightweight
Cons:
🔸Outpaced by specialized staffs
🔸No special Skill
This mesmerizing magical tricorn staff can be transposed from the Crystal Sage‘s soul. Offering slightly higher base damage than the Heretic Staff, with comparable Intelligence scaling, it was an alluring option on paper to diversify my sorceries.
I could now sprinkle some pyromancies and even miracles between traditional sorceries. Unlike mundane catalysts, the Crystal Sage‘s Staff actually scales these other schools to Intelligence as well. This synergized perfectly with my sorcerer build…or so I believed initially.
The reality I learned is that while the Crystal Sage‘s Staff seems like a jack-of-all-trades on the surface, it gets significantly outpowered end-game by more focused staffs boosting specific magic schools. Its major advantage is low weight and somewhat evenly distributed base damage types – making it a versatile backup option if your playstyle tends to vary.
But pure sorcerers are better off specializing once they amass mighty end-game staffs. Of course, we can revisit old tools for nostalgia…and I still occasionally dust off my Crystal Sage‘s Staff now and again!
Court Sorcerer‘s Staff – The Royal Road to True Sorcery Supremacy
Pros:
🔹Extremely high spell buff
🔹S-rank Intelligence scaling
Cons:
🔹Acquired late game in Profaned Capital
🔹Higher stat requirements
This ornate staff is the undisputed champion catalyzer of sorcerous annihilation for high Intelligence builds. Locked away in the Profaned Capital and guarded by a devious treasure-impersonating mimic, the Court Sorcerer‘s is not obtained easily.
But for pure sorcerers able to amass 60 Intelligence, claiming this elite staff makes the struggle to find it deeply rewarding. Almost doubling my spell buff from the Heretic Staff, and boosting it substantially further as I poured levels into Intelligence, truly made me feel unleashed as a master sorcerer.
What specific arcane secrets imbue its dark wood core to siphon such tremendous magic might? I cannot say, but the Court Sorcerer‘s Staff never fails to unleash voluminous, volatile sorceries befitting its prestigious namesake. No mythic mage should leave their arcana ascendance incomplete without it!
Conclusion: Choose Your Staff Wisely to Seize Sorcerous Supremacy
And there concludes my deep dive into distinguishing Dark Soul 3‘s forefront staffs for aspiring sorcerers. While many found me early like Heretic‘s and Crystal Sage, only the elite Court Sorcerer‘s Staff became my forever ally.
I hope illuminating my journey aids fellow wizards in equipping their optimal arcane amplifier based on their playstyle. We all have unique builds and preferences – but now that obscuring information fog around stat scaling, skills, and locating these sly staffs is lifted, sorcery superiority awaits!
Now if only I could lift the fog surrounding my true origins in Lothric as an Unkindled One…but that is an adventure for another day! May the cosmos guide your spells to obliterate enemies and uncover secrets of the universe, my comrades in magic and mystery!
