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Between those two, the Water staff. If you're carrying a wand, that'll be even better to use.

The only things that affect Stoneskin are Enhancing skill, MND, and the Stone Gorget (adds a flat +30, including over cap). Per-point, the most effective modifier for it is MND.

You can use the handy calculator here http://nullvector.com/enhancing.php (or there are others) to see.

Earth staff has no direct effect on Stoneskin at all.

That being said...

-At 75- it's not hard at all to cap out Stoneskin for RDM. With no +Enhancing, it takes 95MND. That's not too hard to get really, figure what, around 20-30 MND for most? When full-on stat builds are +60-70 or more, that's really not a lot.

So in that respect, you can easily get the needed MND to cap SS out from other slots, and macro in the Earth staff with the assumption that it will help if you're casting Stoneskin when being attacked. There are some people who do macro an Earth staff in for that reason.

Depending on your MND and skill level, it adds up to 3 HP per point of MND.

X = ([Enhancing Magic Skill] / 3) + MND

F is the the amount of damage reduced.
F = X (if X < 80)
F = X * 2 - 60 (if 80 <= X <= 130)
F = X * 3 - 190 (if X > 130)

Caps at 350 damage. Stone Gorget as Isiolia said, adds 30 and breaks this cap, raising it to 380.

(Taken from FFXIclopedia.org's Stoneskin page)

The FAQ is pretty clear on this, there's no need to re-invent the wheel. Besides the listed benefits, elemental staves increase the accuracy of co-aligned, offensive spells (anything that does direct damage also gets a damage bonus).

Offensive is not the same thing as PC-targetted, or other-targetted, or whatever else you want to use. You can cast enhancing spells on mobs, that doesn't mean that elemental staves suddenly apply where they didn't before. It is, very simply, offensive spells, aka the kind of stuff that can be fully or partially resisted without outside help. It makes sense when you think about it, since anything with procs 100% of the time will clearly gain no benefit from an accuracy improvement.

IDC what anyone says, i will always equip my wind staff for sneak/invis LOL

Earth Staff is only useful for Stoneskin in the sense that it reduces damage you take, which might help you cast Stoneskin without an interruption. For instance, if you have an existing Stoneskin and you're casting a new one, the staff may mean the difference between you taking the next hit for 0 and you getting Stoneskin broken by the mob plus damage, which can interrupt you.

In terms of actual Stoneskin power though, the best thing to equip is +MND wand (and shield). However, if you're already high level, you probably can get enough MND to get the 350 HP without having to go out and buy new equipment just for Stoneskin.



It is placebo and doesn't do anything (due to Sneak/Invis being buffs and not offensive spells), but feel free to keep doing it, it isn't like it's harming anyone.

Now if you want something that actually helps the spells, get a Skulker's Cape.



As a semi-related note, many people are surprised to find out that the Dark Staff doesn't actually reduce your Cure potency in most cases. If used as an offensive spell against undead though, it DOES reduce the damage done. Coincidence?

Edited, Jul 24th 2007 3:27pm by Fynlar

Yep; just to clarify what you're saying here to others, it means when Cure is used as a nuke against undead, it will do more damage with an Apollo's Staff than a Light Staff, despite the "Cure potency +10%" on both staves. Reason for this is veiled but yet quite simple. When Cure is used as a nuke, the Cure potency mod is NOT in effect, but the staff's hidden effect on offensive spells is. The spell basically becomes an entirely different spell.

The "Cure potency +%" mod is not only NOT a hidden effect, it only applies when it's used to actually heal something. The reason the game has to actually come out and say "Cure potency +10%" is because SE wanted the staff to be able to enhance Cures, but the hidden effect on the staff doesn't typically enhance Cures (because they are not offensive spells).

This has nothing to do with the topic really, but I do think it's neat that using an Earth Staff for the staff WSs Rock/Earth Crusher will actually enhance its damage. (I mean, it makes sense that it does, I still just think it's neat. Terra's Staff would undoubtedly do more, but I didn't have that kind of money back then.) Back in my WHM days, I used to get a big kick out of training weak stuff with my Earth Staff on (as in, really weak stuff, stuff that would be REALLY SUPER DUPER weak to my RDM), gradually building up to 300 TP just from being hit for single digits, and unload the boosted Earth Crusher on all those mobs. Inefficient I know, but I didn't care because I think Earth Crusher looks badass.