Magicka Staff List

Guide to Active & Passive Abilities and the Special Powers' Uses

This Staff List will be useful to players searching for a particular staff. I'll tell you to the first chapter where you can find it, and describe its powers and how it can help your Wizard. You get many opportunities to pick up some of the staffs. Locations of these staves will not be listed in this guide, instead use the navigation and go to the chapter I've linked. You'll find in the walkthroughs that I put all of the findables for a Chapter in bold so it's really easy to skim and find them!

Note that I've left out the Staff + 1 and Basic Staff. They are pointless and you'll want to upgrade to something better as soon as you can -- this list will help you make that call.

Passive Abilities are always there while your wizard is using that particular staff. Pretty much all staves have one of these powers. Some grant elemental immunity while others provide bizarre and tactically situational abilities.

Active Abilities are activated when you do not have any elements ready. People often wonder how to use these specials. Simply press the middle mouse button to instant cast them. Some of these abilities are quite powerful, and some are spells you already have but can be cast nearly instantly.

Chapter 1, 7 � Staff of the White Wizard
Passive: Increased Light Radius
Active Ability: Casts Fear
Info: The Passive power here is pretty much pointless, but the Fear ability can be a life-saver. Cast it when you're surrouned and you'll force all enemies around to run in fear. This also works on powerful creatures. Use the special, and then heal up or cast spells while they're scared. You have a few seconds.

Chapter 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 � Staff of Life
Passive: Regeneration
Active Ability: Revive
Info: Helpful in Multiplayer, as you can easily revive a friend without bothering with putting in the element combo. The aura will heal enemies, but it is still very nice to have. This will probably get more mileage (from the healing) than the White Wizard Staff. Some would call it one of the best staves in Magicka. It's my third favorite.

Chapter 2 � Rod of Emergency Teleport
Passive: None
Active Ability: Random Teleport
Info: A single press of this and your Wizard will be teleported somewhere else on the screen. This is only going to help if you're surrounded or a big enemy is coming really close, otherwise, the Fear from Staff of the White Wizard is a more useful and controllable option. In Chapter 7, you'll receive a Teleport spell of your own, which lets you dictate where you materialize

Chapter 2 � Frost Staff
Passive: Frost Immunity
Active Ability: None
Info: Skip this junky staff. It's not like you're getting chilled by enemies all the time. There is maybe one and only one chapter this could be useful in, and that's all the way in 11.

Chapter 3, 6 � Gnarled Staff
Passive: Poison Immunity
Active Ability: Summon Treant
Info: This stave's passive is nearly useless. Poison isn't that prevalent in this game, and it's cured by casting a single life element on yourself or a friend. The Treant it summons can be pretty useful for soaking up damage. It won't dish much at all, but it can be helpful for a second entity to be on the screen. This staff will let you summon plenty of these guys, as the recharge is not that long.

Chapter 4 � Shield Staff
Passive: Shields Boost Faster
Active Ability: Casts a shield on self
Info: Shields can be boosted with life mines, and you're not even going to need them that often. The active is not very useful either, as you can do the same thing with only one more button press.

Chapter 4, 5, 6 � Staff of War
Passive: Double Life, Physical Damage Reduced
Active Ability: Arcane Blast
Info: My second favorite staff in Magicka. This will turn your Wizard into a Battlemage. It'll double our life, and all physical attacks like Melee will do much much less damage. You're still vulnerable to spells, but double life means you're in a way protected from 50% of the damage. The special power is also very helpful, as it's an instant arcane blast that deals a good bit of damage. Cast your regular spell (like a projectile) and follow up with this immediately to do a combo.

Chapter 5 � Scythe of Malevolence
Passive: Resist Heals
Active Ability: Poison Spray
Info: Ugh, reduced healing from life just to get a crappy poison spray that's only useful against very weak enemies (you get all kinds of mileage out of the Conflagration magick for this very purpose). The range is very short as well. Skip this horrible staff.

Chapter 5 � Tesla Staff
Passive: Increase rang of Lightning Spells
Active Ability: Lightning Bolt
Info: This is pretty good, as it'll increase the range you can shock enemies. I'm pretty fond of A-A-A-A-R for crowd control, and this will increase the number of enemies that can get hit, and allows you to slow them from a greater distance. Please note that the instant-cast spell here is Lightning Bolt, not Thunder Bolt, which does 5,000 damage. This spell is nowhere near as powerful, but instant-cast damage is still useful.

Chapter 6 � Staff of Deflection
Passive: None
Active Ability: Deflecion Aura
Info: This Staff will create a shield that deflects projectiles. It is interesting, and helpful in Multiplayer for protecting the team. There's one more use of that ability. Fire your own projectiles while it's active and they'll gain a speed boost from the bouncing effect, making them do as much damage as if they were charged. Rapid-fire is possible � use something like R-Q-S (arcane shards) or D + Anything for elementally charged rocks that can be fired rapidly. This one is worth checking out!

Chapter 6 � Demon's Arm Staff
Passive: Beam Duration Infinite
Active Ability: None
Info: This is rather pointless. You don't need unlimited beam duration. In fact, most of the time beams will outlast the enemies. After all, how hard is it to cast a second beam?

Chapter 6, 8 � Goblin Staff
Passive: Physical Resistance
Active Ability: Brief Immunity
Info: If you have a Staff of War, it's better than this, hands down. The Physical resist is exactly the same but the Staff of War has more health and a better instant-cast special. Although this comes up in Chapter 6, it's much easier to get in Chapter 8.

Chapter 6, 9� Staff of the Dead
Passive: Resurrection Aura
Active Ability: None
Info: Resurrects players and friendly undead when they are killed nearby. Can be helpful along with the Raise Dead spell. Like above, this is easier to get in Chapter 9 as the battle in 6 is quite hectic.

Chapter 6, 11 � Righteous Rod of Runes
Passive: Lightning Immune
Active Ability: Lightning Damage Aura
Info: This is the only piece of gear I'd cast the Thunder Storm spell with. Lightning Immunity is helpful, as it'll reduce damage from any spell that contains lightning, whill out-right resisting lightning-only effects. The aura is not all that useful, I'm sorry to say. The range is far too limited. Once again, better to get in Chapter 11 if you're interested in this.

Chapter 8 - Staff of Fire
Passive: Fire Resistance
Active Ability: Fire Immunity Aura
Info: Helpful in both single and multiplayer in a variety of chapters that have fire-wielding enemies, including Chapter 8 and 11. But it's not worth giving up for the Staff of Life or War.

Chapter 8 � Staff of Invisibility
Passive: None
Active Ability: Cast Invisibility
Info: You get the Invisibility spell in Chapter 11. Until then, this spell could let you use that powerful magick. You can skip an awful lot of battles with it.. There aren't many staves to choose from after this one, so choose wisely. Skipping battles isn't a great idea anyway, as it'll leave you soft when it comes time for a boss.

Chapter 8 � Aristo-Staff
Passive: Resist all 75%
Active Ability: Teleport
Info: This is, in my opinion, the best stave in Magicka. It will make a one-shot kill merely an inconvenience. It is a bit annoying to heal with this as the heal is reduced to 44, but you can still spam it or use healing mines (E+W Shift-Rightclick). The active power is incredible, giving you an isntant teleport for escaping danger. It's not like teleport takes that long to cast, but this can save your life by shaving off that second.

Chapter 9 � Scepter of the Troll King
Passive: Reduces Threat on Wielder
Active Ability: Charm
Info: Insta-casting the Charm spell is great, but this will not come in handy unless your playing in Multiplayer or use a lot of Raise Dead.

Chapter 10 � Vlad's Gauntlet
Passive: Life heals you
Active Ability: Steal Life from Enemy
Info: While it's cool to damage enemies and absorb their life, this staff will really annoy you. I wouldn't even pick it up, as a bug might cause it to stay that way until you reload the game.