General

[quote=iluona]If you're extremely rich, get the Empress and go godlike. If not, then do whatever.

I believe JusticeAura on Bera has the full Empress Set godly scrolled+cubed. Pretty scary damage IMO. Empress set scrolled and cubed to best potential will beat out best non-Empress gear scrolled and cubed to best potential, because higher tier potential and better MA and +STATS.[/quote]

Didn't you read anything that was said?

1) 5 piece empress gear + Elemental staff is overall better on regular mobs than with 6 pieces (with the staff). Mainly because of the fast speed. Empress staff mainly wins out VS bosses, but by a measly few %'s. Besides, the slow speed is just horrible imho, and you drain slower.
2) Empress gear is not higher lvl tier, under you're using lvl 70 - gear. There is only 3 potential tiers in the game : Lvl 1-30, 31-70 and 71+.

I don't argue with you that empress gear is better than non empress gear. I'm arguing about the fact that the Ele staff + 5 pieces is, in my opinion, the best option.

Besides, if the mass dupe didn't happen, extremely rich would still apply to people using Elemental staff, and not all random people who could gather a measly 40K. And i believe a BaM can still have godly damage regardless of the fact that he's using an Empress staff or not.

[quote=iluona]The full Empress set gives you +30 MA and 30% BOSS. And everything else before it too (the 2-5 set bonuses also).

So if you have just clean items, the Empress set would be better. If scrolled only, the Empress set would win out. If you have everything empress (hat included), why not get the staff also? You'll get +30 MA and 30% BOSS just for having it.

Unless your E.Staff is godly (meaning at least 250+ MA) and you have very good INT% equipment already.

If you are just starting to get your final equipment (or ridiculously rich) and don't have any high INT%, you should do empress set.
If you are getting your final equip, not too rich, but have good INT% already (say, 80%+), then it might not be worthwhile to try for the empress set.
If your budget is limited, then you can do empress set and not aim too high with potential INT%, or you can do anything goes (non-set items).[/quote]

Here's a few reasons why not to get the empress staff :

1) Read the above post. With an equal matk staff and potential (I'm assuming, since Cthulhusama is known for his accurate posts), the Empress staff would only win out on boss, and by a measly few %. The Ele staff would still be best for all around training.
2) Another reason would be just the fast speed. Fast speed = faster drain. Drain helps alot on bosses that potlock.
3) Fast speed also helps pummel and corner monsters with high hp.

That's not to stop you to get a DTM staff, but imho, i'd think twice about it. Especially since it's so easy to get a gm scrolled ele (from massive dupes, if you want to take the chance), compared to getting a DTM staff.

[quote=Abysseon]I read that there's little difference between the two for bossing but the 163 staff is much better for training.

Should stick with the 163 staff for both areas if that's the case.[/quote]

If I remember my math correctly it was something like a 2-3% better DPM at bossing for the Empress and around 11% better DPM at non-bosses for the Ele. I think that was assuming you had 40% boss on each weapon and the 10% boss linked skill. And Aura stacking. And Decent SI. And the other 5 pieces for either set-up.

DT full set for bossing
DT 5 set and ES 5/6/7/8 for training.

Or if you have such godly %Int (250%+) that you can hit damage cap on bosses with either staff, go with ES 5/6/7/8 for speed.