Elden Ring: 10 Best Staffs, Ranked

Elden Ring offers a seemingly endless supply of swords, axes, spears, bows, and various other armaments. However, there are comparatively few staffs available in the game, especially in the starting zone. The lack of variety makes playing a magic-focused build a bit of a bummer early on when there are only a couple of options to choose from. On the bright side, magic enthusiasts do get access to some excellent staffs further down the road.

Related: The Best Intelligence Builds In Elden Ring

The power of your sorceries scales with the power of your staff, hence why it’s imperative to have a decent magic stick at your side if you’re planning on relying on spells in Elden Ring. Unlike other types of weapons, staffs don’t come with special skills and most of them can’t be infused with Ashes of War either. The power of a staff is primarily dictated by its scaling and passive effects.

10/10 Albinauric Staff

The Albinauric Staff is the only staff in Elden Ring that scales with Arcane as well as Intelligence, making it suitable for hybrid builds. The scaling is titled more towards Arcane and doesn’t perform as well as other staffs as a result. Its main advantage is that it has a very low Intelligence requirement that allows Arcane-focused players to use the versatile Glintstone Pebble with minimum secondary stat investment.

The Albinauric Staff pairs well with Aberrant sorceries like Briars of Punishment and Briars of Sin as it allows those spells to build up Blood Loss faster. Aside from that, this staff should mainly be used to boost incantations rather than sorceries, though you can do both upon reaching very high levels of Arcane and Intelligence. All in all, this can be a good staff for certain builds, but it’s too niche to recommend over all the other ones found on this list.

9/10 Demi-Human Queen’s Staff

This is surprisingly solid staff to use during the early-to-mid game. The Demi-Human’s Queen Staff is suitable up until around 40 Intelligence, after which it starts being surpassed by a variety of other staffs. The fact that it can be acquired very early on is a big advantage as it allows players to clear the first couple of areas with relative ease.

The Demi-Human Queen’s Staff doesn’t come with any special skills or passive effects, but it can be infused with the Spinning Weapon Ashes of War. Spinning Weapon can come in handy from time to time, but it’s not exactly one of the best Ashes of War in Elden Ring. Unless you’re dual-wielding staffs, you’re generally better off with a shield in the off-hand when playing a pure Intelligence build, especially at lower levels.

8/10 Meteorite Staff

The Meteorite Staff absolutely shines when you’re just starting out and is easily one of the best staffs in Elden Ring for low-level players. That said, unlike most weapons in Elden Ring, this staff cannot be upgraded, which makes its utility mostly limited to the early game. Another downside is that it’s the heaviest staff on this list, although that is somewhat offset by its slightly higher-than-average defensive stats.

Related: Elden Ring: Best Arcane Scaling Weapons

The staff comes with a passive effect that can make it useful even later on, but only in very specific builds. The Meteorite Staff boosts the power of Gravity sorceries by a flat 30%, an effect that applies even when using it as an off-hand weapon. There are only a few Gravity sorceries in the game, however, all of them are quite powerful. Some examples include Gravity Well, Collapsing Stars, and Meteorite of Astel.

7/10 Gelmir Glintstone Staff

The Gelmir Glintstone Staff is an Intelligence and Faith scaling staff that works really well with hybrid builds. Acquiring it can be a bit difficult since it can only drop from one enemy found in Volcano Manor. The drop chance isn’t particularly high either. Most players will need to do several runs of the place before they can get their hands on the staff, but the hassle is well worth it. Usually.

The Gelmir Glintstone Staff comes with a passive effect that boosts Magma Sorceries by 15%. Magma sorceries include spells like Gelmir’s Fury, Magma Shot, Rykard’s Rancor, and Roiling Magma. In essence, the Gelmir Glintstone Staff does for Magma sorceries what the Meteorite Staff does for Gravity ones. The effect is half as powerful, but the staff can be upgraded and doesn’t become obsolete in the late game. It does require a hefty investment in both Intelligence and Faith, though.

6/10 Academy Glintstone Staff

This is one of the best staffs in Elden Ring that doesn’t come with any passive effects. The Academy Glintstone Staff is simply a solid magic stick with good scaling and essentially no drawbacks. This is the perfect staff to use once the Demi-Human Queen’s Staff and the Meteorite Staff have stopped serving their purpose. The Academy Glintstone Staff can be imbued with the Spinning Weapon Ashes of War.

Considering how good it is, the Academy Glintstone Staff is stupidly easy to obtain. Players can get it as soon as they start the game by going around Stormveil Castle and killing Thops. Granted, doing so prevents players from completing Thops’s quest and gaining the Erudition gesture, so it’s not exactly ideal. But getting this staff so early on in the game is almost worth the drawbacks.

5/10 Carian Glintstone Staff

The Carian Glintstone Staff is a bit weaker than the Academy Glintstone Staff in terms of scaling but comes with a very useful passive effect that boosts Carian sword sorceries by 15%. This includes spells like Carian Slicer, Carian Piercer, Carian Greatsword, and Adula’s Moonblade. All of these sorceries are amazing for pure mage builds that don’t incorporate any armaments. Needless to say, the staff loses some of its usefulness in builds that focus on other types of sorceries.

Related: Elden Ring: Best Intelligence Scaling Weapons

Although it wasn’t given its own entry on this list, the Carian Glintblade Staff is worth mentioning as well since it’s very similar to the Glintstone variant. The main difference is that this one boosts Glintblade sorceries like Carian Phalanx and Carian Retaliation by 15%. Players who want to go all in on the Carian school of sorcery should consider equipping both staffs at once.

4/10 Azur’s Glintstone Staff

Azur’s Glintstone Staff is the perfect weapon for mages who want to pump out spells faster. The staff’s passive effect increases spellcasting speed by anywhere between 8 and 10% at the cost of 20% more FP. At first glance, that may seem like a bad tradeoff but, generally speaking, being able to cast faster is more important than having extra FP. Of course, this varies from situation to situation.

The reason why the speed increase is variable is because the passive effect doesn’t shorten cast times per se. Instead, it provides 40 virtual Dexterity, which then translates to faster spellcasting. Similar to the Radagon Icon, the effect applies to both sorceries and incantations but can differ from spell to spell depending on its animation. However, Azur’s Glintstone Staff is better in that regard since the talisman only provides 30 virtual Dexterity.

3/10 Prince of Death’s Staff

The Prince of Death’s Staff is basically a better version of the Gelmir Glintstone Staff. This is also an Intelligence/Faith scaling staff, but it has the potential to become way more powerful. In fact, this is the best staff in Elden Ring in terms of raw damage output, however, it requires heavy investment into both Intelligence and Faith before it can reach its full potential. We’re talking 80 Intelligence and 80 Faith, so this is clearly more of an NG+ staff.

As far as its passive effect is concerned, the Prince of Death’s Staff boosts Death sorceries by 10%. The boost isn’t very impressive when compared to those of other staffs, but in Elden Ring every little bit counts. Besides, Death sorceries are already quite powerful so the staff’s passive effect is just the cherry on top. Death sorceries include Ancient Death Rancor, Explosive Ghostflame, Fia’s Mist, Rancorcall, and Tibia’s Summons.

2/10 Carian Regal Scepter

The Carian Regal Scepter is a fantastic Glinstone staff that comes with both a passive effect and a (sort of) unique skill. The skill is the good old Spinning Weapon, however, this staff has a unique version of it that causes the weapon to inflict magic damage instead of physical. The weapon also spins further away in front of the player and has a slightly different animation with unique particle effects. Meanwhile, the passive effect boosts Full Moon sorceries like Ranni’s Dark Moon and Rennala’s Full Moon by 10%.

Related: Elden Ring: Best Faith Scaling Weapons

The damage potential of the Carian Regal Scepter is immense, but the staff’s Intelligence requirement is pretty insane. At no less than 60, the Carian Regal Scepter has the highest Intelligence requirement out of any staff in the game. Furthermore, it doesn’t actually become better than some of the other staffs on this list until at around 70 Intelligence. That’s quite a lot but, as the description itself puts it, “only those of the highest intelligence may wield this, the finest of all glintstone staves.” That said, there is one staff that’s even finer.

1/10 Lusat’s Glintstone Staff

Even though it has its drawbacks, Lusat’s Glinstone Staff continues to be the best staff in Elden Ring, albeit not by a huge margin. The weapon’s passive effect grants additional sorcery scaling, which translates to about 10-11% more damage than the Carian Regal Scepter. The downside is that every cast consumes 50% more FP. Players who don’t want to run out of FP after only a handful of casts are encouraged to invest heavily in Mind as well as Intelligence.

Having to spend significantly more FP in exchange for a relatively minor damage boost sounds like a bad investment, but as it’s often the case with these things, it all depends on your build. If you’re mostly focusing on low FP spells you’re going to get a ton of mileage out of Lusat’s Glintstone Staff while still being able to cast a fair amount before you need to reach for a Flask of Cerulean Tears. As far as high FP spells are concerned, you can use the Primal Glintstone Blade to mitigate their FP cost or even cast them for free for a limited time when using a Flask of Wonderous Physick that contains a Cerulean Hidden Tear.

Next: Elden Ring: Best Sorceries, Ranked