Staves or orbs : Pro and con

[zeskelnec]

Totally new to the world of sorceress characters, I just started a Lightchain FOrb sorc and a meteorb sorc because I found rares with + 3orb +3 cold or +3 light mastery.
However, most of the time I see "get your OCULUS or occy" or "eschuta" but nearly no reference to staves or rune word on staves. Good, but i only mule what I found and I don't have an occy.

I wonder what is better : Staves or orbs ?
- Orbs allow you to wear a shield. Such a fragile character may appreciate that.
- Staves can get very nice mods, some uniques are great but you have no shield and little strength to get decent melee damages.

So, what do you use, prefer, advise, recommend ?
Thanks in advance.

[GotFriana]

As you said, staves can get very nice mods but personally I dont think a staff can beat the combination of shield+orb.
The reason is with a good orb (or a 1 hand weapon) and a shield you can get the same mods you get from a staff and more. Not to mention the chance to block using a shield.
Satves being two handed weapons take one slot in your equip that you could otherwise be using to get more resistances, +skills, etc.

[jonw]

I've sometimes used a Leaf (TirRal runeword) staff in normal, for the nice fire skills boost during early-mid levels, but when you get to higher levels there are too many nice orbs (plus HoTO in a flail) and great shields (Stormshield, Spirit) too pass up. Eschutas is a level 72 requirement, and it's my current favorite. But there are tons of rare orbs that give +2 skills and other nice mods that can be used much earlier.

The key to being a great sorceress is survivability combined with killing power in all situations (immunes, different settings, etc.), and shields are indispensible for staying alive - either for blocking, or for resists, damage reduction, etc.

I believe the only great staff is the Mang Song (sp?), which gives +5 skills. But honestly I've never seen a high level sorceress use that on ladder. Even Ondals Wisdom (+4 skills), which I have in my stash for Baal runs when I'm not doing the teleporting (due to the 5% xp bonus), really hurts my resists and eliminates blocking.

[AnimeCraze]

The best staff can add at most 5 skills, and Occy + spirit can do pretty much the same thing. Therefore, there is no use for staffs for the most part, whether you are going block OR vita. There is 1 big exception: Ribcracker. I have yet to see an orb that can kill like that thing.

[dkay]

orb + shield all the time.

esp if your lightning build.