Greater runic staff



The greater runic staff is a reward from Runespan. It costs 25k points and requires 75 Magic and 90 Runecrafting to wield. It can hold spell charges and absorb hostile spells. The greater runic staff currently provides the highest Magic Defence held in the weapon slot at +22. The staff can absorb all elemental spells, as well as all Ancient Magicks other than Miasmic spells, which require a Zuriel's staff to cast. The staff can only be charged with one type of spell at a time, and must be emptied of its current charges in order to switch spells. Emptying the staff will return all the runes to your inventory.

When the staff is charged with a spell, it casts the spell as if you have the Runes in your inventory. It is also possible to manually charge the staff with up to 1,000 casts of the chosen spell. The staff can save the inventory space taken up by runes if you are willing to sacrifice the better stats, especially Magic Damage, of alternatives like the staff of light or chaotic staff.

The staff can also be manually charged with skilling spells and teleports, so it is potentially useful in certain situations in which inventory space is at a premium. The usefulness of this, however, is limited by the fact that the staff must be equipped to cast the spell it is charged with unless you also have the runes for it in your inventory, and you must be on the correct spellbook to cast this spell.

It should also be noted that upon death, if you do not keep the staff, it WILL NOT appear under your gravestone.

Note: You must be on the correct spellbook to cast the spell that the staff is charged with.

There has been much contemplation over the rate of absorption of the staff. As of right now, the rate is currently unknown; however, many players with 99 runecrafting do not see a high occurrence of spell absorption. According to Mod Pi, the chances of absorption happening increases with higher runecrafting levels. The staff will only absorb spells that are currently aligned to the staff.

When the staff absorbs a spell, the message "Your runic staff absorbs the spell, charging it slightly." appears in the chatbox.

Potential Uses
Potential uses for the greater runic staff exceeds that of the regular runic staff. The staff could be used to store multiple charges of high level spells which would normally take up multiple inventory slots such as Vengeance. The staff could be brought onto long Slayer tasks in which the user may choose to cast Spiritualise Food in order to prolong their familiars' timer without wasting 3 slots for the required runes. Furthermore, it could be taken on long pvm trips as a way to High Alch drops.

The greater runic staff could potentially allow the users to utilize it as a 1-slot healing item by charging the staff with Blood Barrage or Bones to Peaches runes should the need arise to heal during a Slayer task similiar to a Guthan's set but taking up only 1 inventory space rather than 4.

The staff could also potentially be charged up with a (albeit expensive) practically endless method of curing poison with the spell Cure Me. This does not provide immunity, however, and the Anti-poison totem may be a better choice if the shield slot is not needed for anything else.

The staff can also be used in skilling such as Remote Farm or Fertile Soil spells when doing a farm run or the Repair Rune Pouch spell when Runecrafting. It can prove useful for those playing Castle Wars as it has the highest Magic Defence and can be charged with spells such as Ice Barrage, which may cause someone to become frozen when they're running to get a flag.

Trivia

 * There is currently a glitch where if you try to cast Vengeance Group, you will get a message stating: "You do not have enough Astral Runes to cast this spell."
 * There is currently a glitch where if you try to cast Remote Farm, you will get a messsage stating: "You do not have enough earth runes to cast this spell" and the spell will not cast.
 * There is currently a glitch where if you try to put the runes for the spell Air Bolt, you get a message stating: "you do not have the correct runes for any type of spell" but it will still work.