Initial look- Looks more like a wand than a staff. Seeing how Illusen IS a faerie and not some sort of WoW mage that would make infinitely more sense...

Offensive Power- 3/5- In the past the offense of this "staff" was considered to be VERY elite and either on par with, or surpassing, most of the weapons when it was released. Even in modern days its offense is nothing to be ashamed of. I will say that since the release of the rest of the Anagram swords, more specifically the Sword of Thare, it leaves much to be desired in terms of brute strength. What it does have going for it is the decent amount of Earth icons it produces. But, if massive earth damage is what you're seeking, not only is the before-mentioned Sword of Thare a better option but the Super Attack Pea would give you quite a bigger bang for your neo-buck.

Defensive Power- 4/5- Since Illusens greatest arch-rival is the diabolical Jhudora, its not surprising she'd formulate her "staff" to combat Jhuoras greatest elemental power: Darkness. In fact, it is this ability which actually gives it a wide margin of victory when going toe to toe with the strongest weapon of PURE EVIL in Neopia: The Wand of the Dark Faerie. Outside of the wand, Illusens ultimate weapon will do a number on other Dark heavy weapons such as Sword of Skardsen and Jhudoras Potion. Another interesting note: Illusen must of also known how treacherous King Skarl can be because she added in properties to reflect 75% of all light damage; making his ever so powerful Skarls Sword effectively useless against this.

Counters- It is a fact of either great irony, or the product of Illusens genius, that her Illusens Silver Shield would be able to block almost all of her very own "staff". She must have been hedging against a premonition that her most powerful weapon would eventually fall into the wrong hands...or she just completely forgot how much of a tree hugger she is. Either way, besides her own shield, Greater Staff of the Earth Faerie, Pirate Captains Cutlass, Shield of Pion Troect and...Earth Scarab (?) will virtually extinguish the offensive usefulness of Illusens most prized possession. For partial block you can't go wrong with Hubrid Nox Memorial Shield or Faerie Tabard. Hey, even a Patched Magic Hat will give this some offensive woes.

Alternatives- Out shined by her sworn nemesis yet again, the Wand of the Dark Faerie is simply superior to the staff in every area but icon type. That said, having both in your set isn't too bad of an idea if I do say so myself..

Bonus- 1/1- You know how I said that certain weapons would "virtually extinguish" the offensive portion of this "staff"? Well that may be true but, on the flip side, its a good thing Illusen made this thing to be the Swiss Army Knife of the battledome. Being one of extremely few quadruple duty weapons makes it a valuable item to tote irrespective of whether or not your opponent can stop it offensively.

Overall Rating- 9/10- When Illusen denoted this as her "ultimate weapon", she meant it. While not packing in as much of a punch as it used to offensively, it has none the less stood the Neopian Test of Time as a worthy weapon of wield in the battledome. Overall, while far from perfect, this "staff" can definitely serve as a good back-up to something with a little more firepower. From a defensive standpoint, although it is limited to combating only light and dark weapons, it defends enough of both to be useful. Lastly, healing wise, the 20% multi-heal when you're on the brink of being K.O.'d means that if this isn't in your set, a Wand of the Dark Faerie should be.

Rated on October 1, 2017

Illusens Staff is an absolutely superb weapon, one of the best in the game. As the reward for completing the Illusens Quest line, Illusens Staff is more readily available and obtainable than the Wand of the Dark Faerie, but this of course is speaking in relative terms. Questing for an Illusens Staff is still an exceptionally difficult task, and as a result Illusens Staff has a high price thanks to both usefulness and rarity.

Like its evil counterpart Wand of the Dark Faerie, Illusens Staff possesses many qualities. Let's examine these effects:

1) Illusens Staff provides 13.6 to 19 icons of offense, with an average of 16.3 icons. 13 of these icons are Earth icons and the rest of the icon assortment is composed of two sets of 0.3 to 3 Physical icons. The independent sets of Physical icons result in Illusens Staff delivering a more consistent blow than if it only utilized a single set of Physical icons. The attack of Illusens Staff is best thought of as a watered-down Sword of Thare. Although Illusens Staff's attack is not very impressive for an elite-caliber weapon, the attack is still fairly formidable and the attack has plenty of surrounding effects that make Illusens Staff worthwhile.

2) Illusens Staff also heals the user 20% when his or her HP is below 20% remaining. Multi-heals are quite nice as well as rare; these facts are made even better considering Illusens Staff does not take up the healer slot. Multi-healing is essential for 1-Player endurance battles, the only other real options for multi-healing are Wand of the Dark Faerie and Sword of Lameness. Illusens Staff may heal slightly less than Wand of the Dark Faerie and also be slightly more restrictive about when it will heal, but Illusens Staff is considerably cheaper than Wand of the Dark Faerie. Either quest weapon can be paired with Sword of Lameness as well!

3) Illusens Staff will also block all Dark icons received. This effect may not be the most interesting effect Illusens Staff has to offer, considering that Hanso Charisma Charm is incredibly affordable for most players. Despite the commonness of full Dark defense, defense added onto an already powerful weapon can never hurt. Although no one looks at the upgrade for Hanso Charisma Charm or Ring of the Lost as being Illusens Staff, the staff does hold the title of strongest full Dark-blocking Dual Duty.

4) Easily the weirdest effect Illusens Staff has to offer, in the event that the Illusens Staff user blocks Dark icons, and the opponent is using Light icons in addition to those Dark icons, then the Light icons will make a copy of themselves into Dark icons. These 'cloned' Dark icons will not be covered by Illusens Staff's Dark protection, but 75% of these cloned Dark icons will be reflected back at the opponent. In effect, when the Illusens Staff user is attacked with both Dark and Light icons, the Illusens Staff user will take 25% more Light damage than normal, but the Illusens Staff user will also reflect damage back at the opponent equal to 75% of the Light! Although the idea of taking more damage than 'normal' may not be appealing to all users, if you consider that the original copy of the Light icons to be inevitable, than this odd scheme is pretty beneficial to the Illusens Staff user.

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How does Illusens Staff compare to other high-level weapons? Illusens Staff averages slightly fewer icons than the Anagram Swords despite its high price, but Illusens Staff will practically nullify Sword of Skardsen. If the Light reflection is triggered, than Illusens Staff will also beat out Sword of Thigl thanks to the reflected damage. At a higher level, Illusens Staff will defeat Wand of the Dark Faerie head-to-head by a wide margin. Also, Illusens Staff will actually come out ahead against Skarls Sword more times than not! Unfortunately, Illusens Staff lacks offensive firepower, meaning when its defense does not come out to play, the staff will lost the track meet against other elite weapons like Grapes of Wrath and Super Attack Pea by a wide margin. However, the fact that Illusens Staff can offer multiple heals makes it difficult to hold this fact against Illusens Staff. The healing value of this weapon makes the staff valuable no matter what its other effects can bring to the table.

Overall, Illusens Staff is a brilliant weapon. Multi-healing doesn't come cheap, but effects like the ones Illusens Staff possesses put it at the top of the battling world.

Rated on August 22, 2013

Power: 4/5
Here comes the cheaper alternative to Wand of the Dark Faerie.
Packing up to 19 icons with an average of ~16 is certainly nothing to laugh at, yet it may be a little underpowered for the level of play where you'll use this. However as it's using earth instead of dark this has far better pairing capabilities with many high-end weapons like Grapes of Wrath or any of the attack peas.

The reflection is the part I really don't like about this item as it's not a normal reflection, but rather a self-damaging one like the one of Jhudoras Wand or A Shovel. That means you'll always block all incoming dark, however instead of simply reflecting light you'll *copy* all the light damage to dark and reflect that. That means you'll actually take more damage from mono-light weapons than you'd normally take.

Alright, now to the reason you most likely came here, the 20% multi-heal (if you have less than 20%) and just like for WoDF it doesn't take your healer slot.

Counters: 3/3
Unfortunately earth is a very common icon type in high end battling and said pairing capabilities make you quite vulnerable if you actually use them. Few things are as scary as the opponent using Ultra Dual Shovel while you pair this with one of the icons stated above.
However pairing this with an anagram sword or such can yield a very nice and hard to block combination.

And again healing cannot be prevented, so your opponent will still have to outdamage or multi-freeze you to get you down making this perfect for boss fights.

Uniqueness: 1/1
The combination of a self-damaging reflector with a mutli-healer and nice attack is nothing you'll find anywhere else. This is certainly a great investment.

Bonus: 1/1
The "cheap" way to win a boss fight with a big pet.

Rated on August 21, 2013