Upgrades and Inscriptions

if i buy a Norn Fire Staff, it has 20% half skill recharge ( i assume it is on fire spells) and i add a forget me not inscription max (20%) will i then get 40% of half recharge time?

In reality I think it's around 36% I think I saw some guy using math to figure it out somewhow.... might have been somewhere else :x
but yeah it doesnt cap at 20% and that's why people have 40/40 sets (20% HCT and HSR wand and focus

In specific, it's a 36% chance of one of the mods triggering, halving the recharge time, since each mod can trigger individually.

64% chance of neither mod tiggering.
36% chance of one mod triggering.
4% chance of both mods triggering. (1/4 recharge)

Is how I believe it would breakdown.

ok thanks for the help

another question (might be stupid) what are the advatages to having a wand/off-hand vs staff (and the other way around) i'm mostly PvEing or is it mainly for looks?

More energy would be your answer. a staff comes with only +10 energy while a wand/ offhand comes with +12 energy. this is of course without mods. when energy is extremely vital many people use staffs for the +15 always energy rather then the +12 energy and +5 energy conditionals. Plus staffs are cheaper then wands and offhands since you only pay for one and the difference is minimal.

Actually, for half recharge, it is this:
64% no change
36% half recharge*

*The 4% where both mods trigger is placed into the half recharge category as you cannot have better than half recharge except through a source which improves it by more than half (such as Ritual Lord).

Otherwise (such as for half cast), it is this:
64% no change
32% half cast
4% quarter cast