Elden Ring's Best Staffs

Longtime fans of Dark Souls will remember that staffs and sorceries in the first Dark Souls game were rather weak and underwhelming. Luckily, these memories stay in the past with Elden Ring. Sorceries and magic have come back in a big way with Elden Ring and players will find an abundance of different spells and staffs to use. Each staff comes with something a little different which helps separate them from each other.

Some staffs buff certain spells while others have incredible scaling. There are even staffs that induce blood loss and scarlet rot effects on foes. With so many staffs to choose from and so many builds that incorporate magic, it can be intimidating to choose the right one. These are some of the best staffs in Elden Ring for builds primarily focused around sorcery.

Updated June 27, 2024 by Joe Grantham: Elden Ring is one of the most successful games in recent years, and interest in the Game of the Year winner has surged once again with the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

Along with an entirely new map, dozens of complex bosses, and plenty of gear, players also have two new glintstone staffs to try out, and one of them even lets players cast incantations, as well as sorceries.

20 Glintstone Staff

Starting Staff Of The Prisoner

The basic starting staff for the Prisoner class is actually pretty powerful for the early game. This staff can be easily upgraded with regular smithing stones, and its scaling with Intelligence can increase via upgrading.

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Though the Glintstone Staff doesn't have any unique weapon skills or buffs associated with it, it's a good all-around option for players experimenting with sorcery in Elden Ring. The staff comes by default with the Prisoner class but can also be picked up later in the game by the Noble Sorcerer enemies in the Caria Manor.

19 The Astrologer's Staff

Starting Staff Of The Astrologer

Of the starting class staffs, the Astrologer's Staff is the best for players looking to make a pure magic build early on. It has a slightly better scaling score with Intelligence than the Glintstone Staff and improves more with each smithing stone upgrade. The Glintstone Staff is better suited for flex builds while the Astrologer's Staff is better for full magic builds.

Players struggling to find staffs shouldn't give up on the Astrologer's Staff too early either. It can work effectively for a good chunk of the intro and its decent Intelligence scaling can certainly be felt against many of the early mobs of Elden Ring's dungeons.

18 The Demi-Human Queen's Staff

A Decent Early-Game Staff

This staff will likely act as the first major staff upgrade for most sorcerers in Elden Ring. The Demi-Human Queen's Staff can be obtained in the Demi-Human Forest Ruins which can be found on the Weeping Peninsula. Players will have to defeat a small mini-boss to get the staff, but it offers a decent upgrade to some early-game staff options.

This staff does have rather weak scaling though, so players dedicating their entire build to magic would be better off sticking with the Astrologer's Staff during the early game. This staff's low Intelligence requirement makes it a great starting option for flex builds or players just trying to splash a bit of sorcery into their current builds.

17 Crystal Staff

Boosts Crystalian Sorceries

In the Academy Crystal Cave, players can find the staff behind a fake illusory wall located right before the boss door, in a room off to the right. It may only provide a ten percent boost to Crystalian Sorceries, but that extra boost can mean all the difference in the heat of combat.

Unlike the Rotten Crystal Staff, the baseline Crystal Staff doesn't cause any build-up when used as a melee weapon. As an all-sapphire blue staff, it does manage to provide some usefulness outside of pure aesthetics, but potential wielders will need eight Strength and a staggering forty-eight Intelligence to handle it effectively.

16 Gelmir Glintstone Staff

Good For Hybrid Intelligence & Faith Builds

Like most aspects of Elden Ring, the game lets players build their character in a specified way to reflect the style in which they want to approach combat. Focusing on Faith and Intelligence traits isn't the most common path for FromSoftware veterans, but it is viable in its own way.

For every magic-wielder that walks down this road, they'll find the Gelmir Glintstone Staff to be a solid weapon in their hands. To acquire it the Man-Serpent Sorcerer in Volcano Manor will need to drop it when fought in the throne room. Its most redeeming bonus is that it makes magma-centric spells fifteen percent more effective.

15 Staff Of Loss

Boosts Invisibility Sorceries

What's more effective? A powerful attack that enemies can see coming and avoid, or a slightly less damaging attack that's impossible to predict? The Staff of Loss happens to boost spells that fall in the latter part of that question and it does so to great effect. Elden Ring has two specific Invisibility Sorceries called Night Shard and Night Comet, so in a way, the Staff of Loss is tied to these two spells specifically.

The Staff of Loss can be found on a dead body located in Sellia, Town of Sorcery, specifically on the rooftops. Its thirty percent boost to those two spells is rather impressive, but it's the dual-wielding New Game+ build that doubles it to sixty percent that makes this staff truly shine.

14 Carian Glintstone Staff

Boosts Carian Sword Sorcery

Staff users are often seen as more passive combatants who would rather face foes from a comfortable distance. Some might shame magic-wielders in Elden Ring for this approach, but there's nothing wrong with playing FromSoftware games in whatever way is most fun and engaging.

The Carian Glintstone Staff breaks the mold in terms of passivity and its fifteen percent boost to Carian sword sorceries lets its wielder unleash ethereal blades at anyone in its path. Those who are approaching the second lift in Liurnia of the Lakes in the Carian Study Hall can find this staff in the possession of a corpse, so it's not too hard to acquire if one knows where to look.

13 Carian Regal Scepter

Boosts Full Moon Sorcery

Sometimes people don't want to specialize and would like to operate as a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none type staff user and the Carian Regal Scepter is the perfect fit for them. To acquire it, the Remembrance of The Full Moon Queen must be given to Enia in Roundtable Hold.

This item is obtained by defeating the boss Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, found at the top of the Raya Lucaria Academy inside of the library. The Carian Regal Scepter is upgraded with the use of Somber Smithing Stones, and any character with sixty-nine intelligence or higher will wield it as the second-most powerful staff in all of Elden Ring.

12 Albinauric Staff

A Staff That Scales Best With Arcane

Many people feel as though Glintstone staffs are far and away the best in all of Elden Ring, and the Albinauric Staff falls right in line with that belief. Though it scales with both Intelligence and Arcane, the latter is the focal point where this staff truly shines.

If the player is willing and able to use sorceries they'll find that their Arcane-focused build will flourish using this particular staff. It can be upgraded to a point in which the Arcane scaling is an S level, which occurs when the staff reaches plus twenty-five. The Albinauric Staff is rather easy to find as it sits inside the Volcano Manor, just near the Guest Hall site of grace.

11 Carian Glintblade Staff

Boosts Glintblade Sorceries

In eastern Liurnia players will come across a building called the Highway Lookout Tower. On the top floor of this building sits a powerful Intelligence-scaling staff called the Carian Glintblade Staff. What makes this staff particularly special is that the power of any Glintblade Sorceries the player uses is boosted by fifteen percent.

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Another interesting tidbit is that it shares the same handle as the Staff of Loss, leading to the idea that the two staffs share a history with one another.