the ballingest sigil staff there ever was

[Merzbow]

After some discussion on Discord recently about the benefits of a T5 sigil staff I thought it would be fun to conduct a little thought experiment. How far can we whale up a sigil staff? Let's see:

T5 sigil staff, 6 spell capacity, 10x acuity, rotflares, 10x enchant, T5 ensorcell

So how do we get there, and how much does it cost? Let's start at just the Sigil Shop (assuming you're one of the lucky few with a fast enough script to buy a T5 cert in the first few seconds of Duskruin):

a sigil-carved orase walking stick: starts out at T1 and 4x enchant, 1k BS
a pale sigil certificate: T2, 10k BS
a bright sigil certificate: T3, 50k BS
a vibrant sigil certificate: T4, 100k BS
a glowing sigil certificate: T5, 250k BS
a sigil-covered ticket x 5: spell capacity of 6, 5x5=25k BS

Running total: 436k BS

Now let's go to the HESS. As we've learned from Estild, sigil staves do not take up the flare slot, not even T5 staves, so let's add a flare! But not just any flare, only 10x Acuity will do it for us:

a puce flat acuity ticket: 6x acuity, 30k BS
a brown open acuity ticket x 4: 10x acuity, 4x40=160k BS

Running total: 626k BS

Of course we have to add rotflares (which do not take up the flare slot as we all know by now):

a yellowed rotflare contract: rotflares, 400k BS

Running total: 1026k BS

We still need to enchant and ensorcell it up. Enchant is a little tricky. I'll assume a player wizard will take it to 7x but not beyond (either because it's impossible or too hard). For 8x, 9x, and 10x I'll assume the use of enchant certs from the HESS (or pee pee points for an equivalent cost):

uber wizard fees for 4x to 7x enchant: 50m, or 40k BS
a shiny enchant document x 3: 10x enchant, 3x100=300k BS

Running total: 1366k BS

As for ensorcelling, I'll assume a player sorcerer can bring it to 3x, but 4x and 5x might be too hard. Let's assume the use of the new ensorcell-assist pots at Spellbound:

uber sorc fees for T0 to T5 ensorcell: 30m, or 24k BS
dark swirling draught x 2: 60x2=120k BS

Final total: 1,510,000 BS, or $7,550

Actually that's not horrible compared to what non-pures have been known to spend on ebows, splitters, lances, and so on.