Staff of the Archmage

Unique Item, discussed in this topic on UBB

Must be charged before each use. Charging does not remove mana from the user.

Just to confirm, it charges in 8 turns, regardless of what you're doing during those turns. It seems to do about 1 million to 2 million dmg to one stack. Hard to tell because of resistances and not being sure what attack type is being used. Seems to have a better than usual chance of bypassing barriers/resistance.

So as far as strategy, not really viable on defense assignment as you'll only get one use. On offense, you'll need to attack, do something for 8 turns (build, mana charge, etc) and then you can use it again. Not sure if it scales with spell level, etc.

In the grand scheme, Figurine of the Ice Queen, Javellin of Lightning, etc., can potentially do nearly as much dmg if they are used against 10 stack armies. But IF the Staff has better penetration, that's at least one big positive. But the potential for overkill also exists (stackwiping a minor stack and thus not doing full dmg).

(via DukeRustfield 2008)