hey guys im about to make my first battle mage and have a question about magic staves.
what i was wanting to know is.

1,i know that the charges of my magic staves go up with my skills. but by how much do thay go up. (i dont want to put gold into them if its not much)

2.if i find a magic stave of flames (as well as any others) at say level 5. and my destruction gos from 20 to 50 or more.
does it still increase the charges or do i need a new one to get th increase,

3.do magic staves all look the same (ie. can i find a fireball stave that looks dragon-ish & dwemer) or varied.

1. i never use staves so i dont know if theres a set number of charges you gain per # skill

2. keeps changing depending on skill as far as i know, no need to get new ones to get the improved charges when your skill goes up

3. theres different stock looks for different schools, and some unique staves aswel

3-theres not many different looking staves and from my experience all the destruction staves are dragon shaped.
enjoy using them early, at higher levels they become almost useless as 50 damage per blast is weak and only tickles the strong foes. Even with max destruction skill, the damage only goes up by 10 so the strongest destruction staff is only 60 damage (another blow against.mages)

I have no magic skills to speak of on my characters. That's why they use Staves. If you are going to use these things, get the Enchanting Perks that reduce Soul usage and trap a bit of soul from your kills.

Also, when recharging enchanted items, use the lowest charge gems first. Each time you recharge it, you get a skill up, it does not matter how much you apply when recharging it.

Staves are only useful at low levels where you run out of magicka otherwise just sell them. Keep rare ones or summoning ones so you don't have to use magicka to summon a creature every time.

I don't know the specifics to answer your questions but I can say that I always carry three unique staves and keep them fully charged. They are the most powerful I acquire and quest-related. The other staves I give to my follower and keep changing and charging them as necessary. The Reanimation staff and Conjure Familiar at early levels are a lot of fun. I also make a soul-trap axe for my follower and give them soul gems so we have plenty of soul gems for recharging. I can't imagine playing without them. At higher levels, you want to be careful if the enemy is using Disarm on you. Your follower could be disarmed so you want to check their inventory and look around for staves they may have lost before you leave the area.

The staff's total charge does not change, but as your magic skill goes up in the school governing the staff, you will use less charge per use, so the effect is that you get more uses out of a staff without having to recharge as your skill increases.


if your destruction goes from 20 to 50, you will get more uses out of a destruction staff. You do not need to get a new staff for this effect to occur. You make more efficient use of all destruction staves (as well as all other weapons with a destruction enchant) when your destruction skill increases.


Except for unique staves, the staves from a particular school tend to look the same. btu a destruction staff looks different from an Alteration staff.

A couple of other things you might want to know about staves. If you take the Elemental Potency perk in Conjuration, you won't be able to use a summoning staff. Its a bug.

Also, if you use a necromancy staff to raise an undead body, it won't turn into an ash pile. So, unlike necromancy spells, with a staff, you can repeatedly raise the same body.

While were on the topic of staves is there any way to block with them witthout using a shield?

The staff of incineration, although rare, does 90 damage. Not 60.

I disagree with this, use the least amount of gems you can to refill the item, then you can use the low grade gems to enchant weapons, this will improve your skill a hell of a lot more.

For example the banish enchantment (the best one for item value) difference between grand and petty is only a few hundred, petty gems will still grant you a weapon with a value of ~1500. Damage stamina, banish, absorb magic, absorb stamina, absorb magicka and paralyse are all high value weapon enchantments. Granting high value weapons even with petty gems.

To the OP, the staves mostly look the same (dragon style) with the exception of a few unique staves. The charges left works the same as spell cost pretty much, as you level that skill (or use fortify magic school enchantments) the spell cost goes down, as does the charge cost of the staff.

Therefore the better the skill the more charges you get out of the staff, this will happen to your staves as you level, you don't need to keep getting new ones.

When you use a low level Soul Gem, the Enchantment is nerfed.

Is that something new with the 1.5 patch?

He meant just for training the skill.

WAIT. Do different gems only affect the charge? I seriously can't remmber now...

For Destruction staffs: Fireballs, Ice Storm, Chain Lightning, etc.

- Check out the "[#] points of [fire/frost/shock] damage" of the staff in the description

- Make or buy a good powerful Fortify Destruction potion, & drink it

- Watch how the damage points effect of the staff goes up

I've 2- or 3-hit dragons with a fireball staff in one hand and chain lightning in the other. Good stuff!


p.s. I just realized what I wrote had absolutely nothing to do with your questions.... oh well! Still, they are fun, I never leave home without them.

No, it has always been that way. The Enchant has a "Theoretical Magnitude" that can only be reached if the Soul is strong enough, in other words a Grand Soul trapped in a Grand Soul Gem (or a grand soul in Azura's) will give the full amount of magnitude.


Different Souls effect the recharge, it is just usually smaller gems have smaller souls. However, I have lots of Petty and Lessor Souls in Grand Gems. I don't mind using up lots of Soul Gems to recharge, it is not like they are rare in this game. In past games, Soul Gems were more scarce.

Note, if you want to empty a Soul Gem, but not use it, then drop it on the ground and pick it up, the trapped soul should be gone.

I once found two staffs and gave them to Lydia to carry.

Next battle I'm in, I suddenly see firebalss and lightning go by me. Thinking an enemy mage was coming up behind me, I turned and was ready to fire off a strong spell.

Instead, there stood Lydia, staff in each hand, going crazy on the enemy NPCs. Dual-wielding staffs, never thought I'd see that from a follower.

Quite a sight to see.

The value of the item (weapon enchantments) barely changes with low level gems, it's more effective to enchant 5 weapons with petty gems then 1 greater to recharge your weapon than the reverse.

I'm talking in terms of item value and enchantment skill progress, if you're enchanting an item for use then always use a grand soul.