QUOTE(diegodiego13 @ Jan 22 2016, 02:30)

why do you even bother with ethreal staff? no burden and interference? void? youre not really arcane blow every enemies are you?
im a low level mage myself so im not being sarcastic, seriously asking here.
also, ive read about elemental+destruct (fiery+destruct) or matching name (fiery+surtr) would be much better.
Because it dropped and had both better stats than my old staff a surter suffix, and it looks cool IMO. It's lacking some elemental damage, but honestly, there isn't exactly much of a chance you'll get a low-level staff with the right prefix, from what I can tell. I figured it'd be good enough to last until Lv.300 or so if it was soulfused, as long as nothing better came up (so far, nothing has).
So, basically, not having a better choice, and personal preference; if I probably won't get a good elemental staff until Lv.300 or so, I'd rather level in style. [For comparison, the second-best staff I got so far was good, but tempestuous (wind) & elementalist. Not exactly a viable replacement. xD]
(And no, I don't rely on physical attacks. xD I use them to trigger ether tap (which I tend to prioritise), and on enemies with sky-high resistances to everything (once to see if their resistances are so high that bonking them does more damage, and until they're dead or my spike shield gives 'em deep burns if there's a significant difference). The latter case is
very rare, I believe I've seen it happen 5 or less times from Lv.15 to Lv.204 (my current level).
QUOTE(jacquelope @ Jan 22 2016, 03:10)

IMHO zero interference/zero burden trumps every other competing option. That becomes instantly apparent the moment you have to cast regen and heartseeker/arcane focus without the benefit of channeling. The greatly reduced pots usage alone is invaluable.
Also, this.
Sorry for the late reply.