White Staves w/ No Spells

[.Plaid]

Thanks to LennyLen for linking to JG online (for some reason I haven't gotten around to downloading it from this site). It answers some of the questions I have about staves, but raises more.

My char is currently a naked mage, but I've decided to equip him with a staff to increase the 'cool' factor. I found a white short staff of Heal Other and promptly dropped it to 0/0 charges, but I'd like to find one that JG refers to as "plain." DPsyche's Item Rarity finder doesn't offer this option, nor a Useless War Staff (which would be a nifty substitute).

JG states that plain white staves are available, but all the information I've seen mentions either a blue staff or one with a spell.

With Elixirs and shrines .Barnaby's strength is 17 so I've got some time, but I'd like to know where to look. The IR Finder points to NM dlvl 5 for Dull War Staves, so I'll focus my searches there, but any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks for your time,
.

//edit for less atrocious spelling & included the difficulty.

[.Plaid]

Quick update:

I've so far found a white War Staff of Res (NM dlvl5) & a Plentiful Quarter Staff of TK (H dlvl2) - the latter seems more ludicrous to carry around since there are no charges available, but I sure do like the look of the former. Aesthetics are fairly important to me: when playing a rogue I prefer the Short War Bow above all others....

I've discovered that, with this mostly-naked mage, item recovery becomes an issue again. Kinda interesting.

Best regards,
.

[LemmingofGlory]

My char is currently a naked mage, but I've decided to equip him with a staff to increase the 'cool' factor. I found a white short staff of Heal Other and promptly dropped it to 0/0 charges, but I'd like to find one that JG refers to as "plain." DPsyche's Item Rarity finder doesn't offer this option, nor a Useless War Staff (which would be a nifty substitute).

JG states that plain white staves are available, but all the information I've seen mentions either a blue staff or one with a spell.

Without checking JG, I can tell you that plain white staves are very rare in my experience. As memory serves, when found they were typically generated by the dungeon itself -- on the floor in a room with other random treasure (especially in Church and Cats). I do believe the frequency is a good bit more common in Hellfire, and it's entirely possible that these whisps of memory are from there.

Section JG 3.8.2 lists the probability of an on-the-ground item being magical as 100%, but a footnote remarks "On the ground only refers to equipable items found, often in special rooms, in the dungeon. It is quite possible that the probability of those items being magical is less than 100% outside of Hell." This, in conjunction with this statement from the same section "Staves are always magical if they have no spell, see chapter 3.8.3 under Staff for more information." as well as a seemingly contradictory remark from 3.8.3 "Staves can either have a spell or be normal magical items (of course, they can also be plain staves but that is very rare)." leads me to suspect that, if nonspell plain white staves exist in D1, the place to look is treasure rooms in Church and Cats.

-Lem

[.Plaid]

Thanks, LemmingofGlory, you're always a wealth of information...when you're not throwing yourself on a Fire Wall, that is.

Best regards,
.

[LemmingofGlory]

Thanks, LemmingofGlory, you're always a wealth of information...when you're not throwing yourself on a Fire Wall, that is.

I do birthdays, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and funerals!

-Lem, whose entire life once revolved around D1's rarest-of-rare novelty items

[the Langolier]

I'd like to find one that JG refers to as "plain." DPsyche's Item Rarity finder doesn't offer this option, nor a Useless War Staff (which would be a nifty substitute).

JG states that plain white staves are available, but all the information I've seen mentions either a blue staff or one with a spell.

It's true plain white staves can be found in normal diablo - I have only found two myself. The reason they are not in the calculator is because they are technically not supposed to occur. They are somewhat of an anomaly. I believe they originate with a game mechanic where if a valid affix combination is not picked within a certain number of tries, the game simply exits the routine and moves on to prevent freezing the game.

Your best bet to find such a staff is on dlvl 1. This will minimize the number of spells and affixes that can spawn on the staff. In normal mode only a short staff can drop on this level, but overall you should find more of them because so few base items can drop. In nightmare all staff types can drop, but with so many other base items that can drop, there is less of a chance it will be a staff type. Beyond that there is no real way to estimate your chances of finding one.

Edit: heh.

[GhastMaster]

[quote name='the Langolier' date='Aug 16 2007, 07:42 PM' post='135276'
Your best bet to find such a staff is on dlvl . This will...
[/quote]

You did not specify a dlvl :o Very intersting bit on the white staff. Good question Plaid. I have never noticed until you mentioned it.

[.Plaid]

Your best bet to find such a staff is on dlvl 1.

Thankee; and that's where I'll search.

I lost my WS of Rez to a Windows-Update-Unexpected-Reboot, and am currently wielding a Dull Quarter Staff of Heal Other. I was a bit worried about durability until I tapped a Magical Shrine. Whew.

I can't call him a [NM] technically, I guess. Off to see if Wandering Mage has been used before. In my mind, this little magely fellow reminds me of David Carradine from "Kung Fu" - dunno why.

Best regards,
.