If you’re going for a Sorcery build inElden Ringyou’re going to need a good Glintstone Staff to serve as a catalyst for your spells. Although you may eventually become an effective spellcaster even with the starter staff, you’ll find that there are many advantages to using a more powerful catalyst.
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In addition to boosting your overall damage output, a lot of mid and late-game staves also provide useful passive bonuses. In some cases, Glintstone Staves can even help builds that don’t rely primarily on Sorceries, such as those focused on Blood Loss or Incantations. With that in mind, we put together a list of the best Glintstone Staves in Elden Ring:Shadow of the Erdtreethat takes all those aspects into consideration, along with other things like scaling and versatility. Check it out down below.
10Albinauric Staff
TheAlbinauric Staffis an old favorite of players using INT/ARC builds and continues to hold up pretty well in Shadow of the Erdtree. The staff even got a small buff prior to the release of the DLC, so it’s now better than ever, if only ever so slightly. This is one of only two Arcane-scaling Glintstone Staves in the entire game, with the other being the next entry on this list.
The Albinauric Staff has incredible scaling potential, but it does require a hefty investment of points into both Intelligence and Arcane in order to reach its full potential. On New Game Plus, this thing is a beast, however, you may find it a bit disappointing on your first playthrough. That, combined with the fact that it lacks a passive effect, means that the Albinauric Staff has to sit at the bottom of our list for now. It’s still a good staff, but there are plenty of better ones out there.
9Maternal Staff
TheMaternal Staffis a new Glintstone Staff introduced in Shadow of the Erdtree that surpasses the Albinauric Staff in almost every regard. The weapon has higher requirements than its counterpart but also offers better scaling. Unlike the Albinauric Staff, which heavily favors Arcane over Intelligence, the Maternal Staff scales evenly with both stats. That makes the weapon overall more practical, but it is worth noting that this is another Glintstone Staff that doesn’t perform well unless you have high enough stats.
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As far as the passive effect is concerned, it’s a bit hit or miss. Finger Sorceries are pretty good for the most part, but they don’t require Arcane. That means it’s often better to stick to an INT-only staff when casting Sorceries likeFleeting Microcosmor Cherished Fingers since you might get more benefits out of it. It’s honestly a bit of a missed opportunity to have a school of magic that works well with INT/ARC builds. As it stands, the usefulness of these builds is still very limited, as are catalysts like the Albinauric Staff or the Maternal Staff.
8Prince of Death’s Staff
If you’re looking for the best staff in the game in terms of scaling, you’ve just found it. At max INT/FTH, thePrince of Death’s Staffis an absolute monster and manages to surpass every other staff in the game in terms of damage output. However, getting to that stage is no walk in the park and won’t happen until NG+ or even NG++. Realistically, most players won’t even get to that point. So even though the Prince of Death’s Staff is the best Glintstone Staff in the game once you max out those two stats, the average player will benefit more from using other staves.
Having said all that, there is one major benefit to using the Prince of Death’s Staff regardless of your stats, and that’s the fact that this weapon can be used as a catalyst for both Sorceries and Incantations. If you find yourself switching between the two types of spells often, you can use the Prince of Death’s Staff to make your life a bit easier. In addition, this staff also boosts Death Sorceries likeAncient Death RancorandExplosive Ghostflame. Unfortunately, it doesn’t boost any of thenew Sorceries added in the DLC.
7Staff of the Great Beyond
TheStaff of the Great Beyondis the only other new Glintstone Staff added to Elden Ring by the DLC and it’s designed for the same type of builds as the Prince of Death’s Staff. You’ll need higher Intelligence and Faith to use this catalyst, but you can expect it to offer better scaling up until you dump around 60 points into each stat. After that, the Prince of Death’s Staff starts becoming progressively better.
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The Staff of the Great Beyond is the perfect solution for players who always wanted a powerful INT/FTH scaling catalyst, but didn’t have the stats needed to justify using the Prince of Death’s Staff. If you start using it on your first playthrough, the Staff of the Great Beyond will serve you well for a very long time. On the flip side, this staff doesn’t come with a passive effect, so I’m afraid you’ll need to make do without one.
6Academy Glintstone Staff
Now that we have taken a look at some of the best Glintstone Staves in Elden Ring for hybrid builds, it’s time to start delving into staves that scale predominantly with Intelligence. After all, most players who use staves are only interested in INT scaling. The first such staff on our list is the humbleAcademy Glintstone Staff, a surprisingly powerful catalyst considering you can get your hands on it very early on in the game.
The Academy Glintstone Staff offers the best scaling in the game for characters with around 60 points invested into Intelligence. Coincidentally, you can cast almost every Sorcery in the game with that amount of INT. If you want to become Sorcerer Supreme, there are better options out there, but for the average caster, the Academy Glintstone Staff is a fine choice indeed.
5Carian Glintblade Staff
TheCarian Glintblade Staffis slightly weaker than the Academy Glintstone Staff, but it more than makes up for it with its passive effect that boosts Carian Glintblade Sorceries by 15%. These shouldn’t be confused with the Carian Sword Sorceries, which are boosted by the Carian Glintstone Staff. I know, it’s all a bit confusing, but suffice it to say that this is a great catalyst that increases the damage of several important spells.
Among other things, Carian Glintblade Sorceries include theGlintblade Phalanxand theGreatblade Phalanx, two excellent spells for stance-breaking and defending against ambushers. These spells can serve you faithfully throughout the expansion and into the late game. Is it worth hanging onto a staff just to boost one or two spells? Maybe. Maybe not. But until you get your hands on one of the next staves on our list, you definitely shouldn’t sleep on the Carian Glintblade Staff.
4Carian Glintstone Staff
TheCarian Glintstone Staffis another powerful catalyst for Sorcerers, especially those who love spellblade builds. Typically, spellblades carry a melee weapon in one hand and a staff in the other, but Elden Ring puts an interesting twist on the classic archetype with the Carian Sword Sorcery school of magic. Players can use these Sorceries to conjure magical blades out of thin air, thus removing the need to wield a physical weapon. And, as it happens, this is the only staff in the game that boosts those Sorceries.
While the Carian Glintstone Staff offers very good scaling with low stat requirements, the main highlight here is the passive effect. Carian Sword Sorceries are very powerful and they get boosted by 15% while using this catalyst. Among other things, the Carian Glintstone Staff boostsAdula’s Moonblade, arguably one of the best Sorceries in the game that can make quick work of bosses even in the DLC. Of course, there are plenty of other powerful spells in the game, and other powerful Glintstone Staves, such as the ones below.
3Carian Regal Scepter
TheCarian Regal Scepteris a late-gate staff designed for players with very high Intelligence. This weapon has the highest INT requirement of any staff in the game at no less than 60. However, the weapon seems designed for players who don’t like relying on magic alone judging by its unique skill. The Carian Regal Scepter comes equipped with a special version of theSpinning Weapon Skillthat has more range and deals more damage. In a pinch, this can be very useful when you run out of FP and don’t have a backup weapon.
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Otherwise, the Carian Regal Scepter is comparable to some of the previous staves on our list in terms of scaling, but starts to surpass them at around 70 INT. The only spells in the game that require that much Intelligence are Full Moon Sorceries likeRanni’s Dark Moon,Rennala’s Full Moon, andRellana’s Twin Moons. That last one can only be found in the Elden Ring DLC. Incidentally, all these devastating Sorceries are even stronger while wielding the Carian Regal Scepter thanks to its passive effect.
2Azur’s Glintstone Staff
One of the main problems with powerful spells in Elden Ring is that they take ages to cast. That’s not a huge issue when you’re catching your enemies off guard, but it becomes extremely frustrating when you’re the one being ambushed and you can’t cast a single spell because you’re constantly being stunlocked.Azur’s Glintstone Staffdoesn’t completely solve that problem, but it does help to some extent by reducing the cast time of all spells in exchange for having them be 20% more expensive.
Azur’s Glintstone Staff reduces cast times by about 10% and works with both Sorceries and Incantations. Pair this with theRadagon Iconto guarantee maximum cast speeds at all times. With the two items combined, you’ll see an increase in your casting speeds of about 17%. Not too shabby. Of course, the tradeoff is also worth taking into account as using this Glintstone Staff will deplete your FP at a faster rate and can potentially leave you vulnerable at the worst possible times. Make sure you have plenty of points invested into your Mind stat if you plan on using this staff.
1Lusat’s Glintstone Staff
Lusat’s Glintstone Staffcontinues to be the best staff in Elden Ring even after the release of Shadow of the Erdtree. This staff has the highest Sorcery scaling of any INT-only staff in the game thanks to its passive effect, allowing your spells to deal significantly more damage. While using this staff you can expect to deal around 10% more damage with spells compared to the Carian Regal Scepter. That may not sound like much, but this is Elden Ring, and every little bit counts.
Lusat’s Glintstone Staff comes with a similar drawback as Azur’s Glintstone Staff, however, but in this case the FP increase is a whopping 50%. Unless you have a significant FP pool, it can be hard to justify using Lusat’s Glintstone Staff over other staves. But if youcanhandle the increased FP consumption, this bad boy can burst down opponents both big and small quicker than any other staff in the game. Just ensure you have plenty of Flasks of Cerulean Tears on hand because you’ll burn through them like sodas once you start casting.
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