Staves

Introduction

Staves, though they can provide nice bonuses to spells, are very little used in Diablo II, since they make carrying a shield impossible. A shield is mandatory for a high-level Sorceress, for the blocking, and usually the huge three-diamond socketed resistance. In the Expansion shields are much less useful for blocking, doing virtually nothing if you don't add Dexterity. A Clvl 50+ Sorceress who hasn't added a lot of Dexterity will have just 5% blocking, which is just 5% more than the same Sorc carrying a staff.

So the biggest trade off are the +skills on a staff vs the big +resistance or other mods you can get from a shield. There would be a much bigger debate if not for Orbs, which can give the same bonus skills and other nice mods, and still be used with a shield. Still, a very good staff, or one of the excellent Unique staves is not a bad choice for a Sorceress, if she can make up the resistance she'd usually have on a shield.

Constructed of wood with some leather or metal bindings for added strength, are not especially useful melee weapons. They do poor damage, and are not effective for dealing damage through any sort of quality armor. Their greatest attribute is their ability to carry bonus spell levels for the Sorceress, and she can turn them to use as a bashing weapon, but her Attack Rating will usually prevent her from making contact a sufficient percent of the time, and her damage will be low in any event.

Also, staves with good skill level bonuses on them tend to be very expensive, and the enormous repair costs for these weapons is another reason to not damage it on the hard skulls of monsters.

Inherent bonuses: Staves can have +1-3 points to up to three skills from any of her skill trees. Bonus skills greatly increase the repair price of a staff though, so resist the urge to do any melee with a good staff.