There are a lot more than just 9 magicians on p99 that have just the Earth Staff left. Tellin, I think your quote is actually telling us the staff is too rare. If the typical number of mages who have done the whole epic, excepting the Earth staff should balance out to just nine it should be dropping more often.
Rare/uncommon typically means 25%, whereas very rare usually meant 5%. His opinion tells me the staff should be a 25% drop rate.
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