Staff Heads

For my ele i was on my way to building a set of staves with insightful staff heads

i was curious whether the 20HCT is worth the loss of 5 energy.

i think it is but i would like your opinions, as 5 energy is not really worth anything if you can't get your spells off.

thanks
Dark

5 energy is worthless, I'd go with health +30, but I don't really care about casting time. The only thing it really matters on is fire, and I find that glyph of sacrifice is generally better, unless it has a shorter recharge (rodgort's, fireball).

Ya, up until recently I never bothered with staves at all.

I went wand/artifact:

+5>50 wand and +1 element +30HP artifact. I figured the 20% chance of +1 boost to my elemental attribute would be nice, add some extra HP and +17 mana.

But now I'm starting to feel the need for more HP, to help increase my survivability in PvE. So I'm lookin to put together some +60HP 20/20 staves for my Elementalist (one for each element), and see how I do with -17 mana from the wand/artifact set.

I figure I wouldn't miss the 17 mana, and the extra HP will help me last longer while exploring; if anything it'll come in handy when the heavy DP sets in...

I see no reason to run a staff unless you plan on actually using it to hit stuff. I can't think of too many spells in the ele line that I absolutely need to cast faster, and even if there are a couple longer cast-time spells on my bar (rodgort's, fireball), I don't like hoping that 1/5 times I cast I'll hit it. What I do care about is the cooldown so I can cast it again. The same goes for +1 for my attribute; I've already hit my breakpoint, so I don't really care if I do an extra 9 damage with an orb or whatever.

Agreed, for the Elementalist I think the only important mods are the Hale and Fortitude ones... but then again >_> a +5 sword/axe with a fortitude mod could work even better. Then I could rock a +1 element +30 HP artifact xD or a +45 HP while enchanted for an even bigger boost...

Oh and for cooldown; if it really matters to my build I just go secondary ranger and bring along serpent's quickness. Or I echo or glyph or renewal etc... I don't really rely on 20/20 mods to hit it when I need it the most... it is a nice bonus tho with the occasional insta-casted fireball.

Hmm... I think this depends very highly on what kinda element you're using..

A Geomancer/Hydromancer with all the Armor bonus' and Wards wouldn't need the Health as badly as the ability to maintain his defenses . .

An Aeromancer/Pyromancer would (IMO) need a balance between max health and max energy, concentrating more on the HP if you wanna play the tank and more Energy if you wanna play support . .

Also, If you don't have a particular staff wrapping in mind (+1 (20%) | 20% Longer etc) then you could use an Insightful Staff Head and get the Staff Wrapping of Devotion (+45 /w Enchanted) as it gives you a slightly better HP bonus coz.. Well virtually every ele I've met uses Aura of Restoration and/or Attunement . .


As for the possible +17 off a Wand/Artifact, compare it to the +20energy WITHOUT and the spare staff wrapping slot you still have (+30/+45HP enchanted etc)

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Edit:
I also have a Wand/Artifact set which I use for the dual +20% HSR bonus (+32% + 4% as it works out)

Dragon's Breath Wand of Memory | Flame Artifact of Devotion

11-22
HSR Fire 20%
Inscription - "Have Faith" +5 / enchanted

Energy 12
HP + 45 (enchanted)
Inscription - "Foeget Me Not" HSR Fire 20%