What skills do you focus on when using a staff?

[Protonic Flux]

So, for the magic staff. I see advancing block, but anything else? Blunt weapons or are magic staves only really useful for the casting (Lightning, fire, paralyze, etc)?

Thanks in advance for any input.

[Supi18122]

(joke post) fatigue, magika, endurance, speed, need all the energy i can get when playing with the staff~

(serious answer) staffs are just casting tools that dont consume magicka, they also dont really give you experience in your skills either but its an if you want to have two spells on hand at the same time

[PocketYoda]

I occasionally use staves on my thief lol

[Brady4444]

If staves were lighter, I wouldn't mind them. But ten pounds for a spell is a bit steep. But I'm playing a caster and I'm using light armor and blades. Blades are lighter than blunt generally so that's how I do it.

[Ommamar]

I recall a mod for the original game that made it so they would raise the spell school when used, they are actually pretty overpowered as is but that took it to a whole knew level as it was damage or magical effect with no magic cost attached. Although you did have to pay to keep them charged as I don't think you can use filled soul gems like you can in Skyrim you actually have to go pay to get them recharged.

As is they are still pretty powerful back up if you are getting swarmed as a pure caster. I was doing the quest to find the Dwarven artifacts for the lady at the Arcane University. I didn't realize I was out of sorcery potions so it was nice to have means to fall back on for damage when I was out of magic.

[Supernautilus]

Staffs are not affected by any skill. Not blunt. Nor any magic school. They are only affected by what whatever spell is on the staff. That’s why they are good for any character to use.

[Daret]

staves are basically like spell scrolls that you can use multiple times and you can recharge them with (filled) soul gems

[Elazul]

Originally posted by Brady4444:

If staves were lighter, I wouldn't mind them. But ten pounds for a spell is a bit steep. But I'm playing a caster and I'm using light armor and blades. Blades are lighter than blunt generally so that's how I do it.

Umbra has 0 weight :)

To answer your question OP I don't use staves I use spells. Having to recharge a staff is annoying. Umbra paired with Azura's Star is good enough.

This custom spell from the UESP works great:

Drain Health 100 pts in 10 ft for 1 sec on Target
Weakness to Magic 100% in 10 ft for 3 secs on Target

[PocketYoda]

Originally posted by Elazul:

Originally posted by Brady4444:

If staves were lighter, I wouldn't mind them. But ten pounds for a spell is a bit steep. But I'm playing a caster and I'm using light armor and blades. Blades are lighter than blunt generally so that's how I do it.

Umbra has 0 weight :)

To answer your question OP I don't use staves I use spells. Having to recharge a staff is annoying. Umbra paired with Azura's Star is good enough.

This custom spell from the UESP works great:

Drain Health 100 pts in 10 ft for 1 sec on Target
Weakness to Magic 100% in 10 ft for 3 secs on Target

How is recharging a staff any more annoying than refilling magicka.

[gadfly6363]

I liked Morrowind treating staves as blunt weapons. I wish they didn't change that. Even mages sometimes run out of mana and need to thump something with a stick.
If you can use it as a stat stick, plus cast, plus thump things on the head, it's much more worthwhile to carry the weight.