Ok, that calms my concerns then, I thought I was gonna have to start sniping any bards I saw when hunting to keep myself safe. I'm going to go edit that wiki page later unless someone beats me to it.... it's really not clear at all for those that aren't used to using spellsongs.

Starchitin

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.

As I tried to clarify in the "what's what with BardSongs" section of the Bard article recently, there are several kinds of Songs:
- Ones that have a one-off effect (Lullabye/1005, VibChant/1002, Banshee's Wail/1008);
- Ones that have an ongoing effect and count in medley (Fortitude/1003, LuckSong/1006, Mirrors/1019);
- Ones that have an ongoing effect that require manual renewal and END when the medley renews (Depression/1013, Disruption/1030);
- Ones that have an ongoing effect and require individual starts & renewals and have their own end times (Unravel/1013, Rage/1016);
* Neither of those last two count in the medley cost/MSP calculation.

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Here's how the Song works.

You cast Disruption. Either you hit the whole room (30 mana; can NOT get runestaff flares) or you "cast at orc" and hit only one target (15 mana; can get runestaff flares).

Then you can "renew disrupt". If you previously hit the whole room, you again hit the whole room (20 mana), OR if you previously hit a single target you again target that same target (10 mana).
The verb "renew" does not, under any particular, trigger runestaff flares; even when you are in single-target mode. I feel this to be a bug, and have submitted "bug magic" as such.

The reason I feel that way is, if you "prep disrupt\r cast at orc\r" again, that single cast version of spell... will be treated as a renew and cost you only 10 mana, but--because you are using the "cast" verb--it can get runestaff flares.

Likewise with Unravel. The "prep unravel\rcast troll\r" can flare... but since there is no option to re-cast, you MUST use "renew".
Those renewals should be able to flare, but the entire verb is buggy.
I have raised this here on the Boards multiple times, several times immediately after Estild posted about something else, so I know he's around and reading.

By: GS4-ESTILD
Re: Runestaff Updates
On: 10/10/2011
At: 12:04 PM EDT
##: 6

In order to make runestaves more attractive, we've made a few updates which will go live later this evening.

First, a runestaff's enchantment bonus will add directly to a player's defense in all stances.

Second, we now have a few merchant services for runestaves. All of the services are flares which can trigger when casting a spell.

1.) Crit flares: heat, cold, electric, acid, impact, etc.

2.) Acuity flares: these are flares which trigger to provide a bonus to the caster's AS/CS for a single attack. The amount is a static attribute of the runestaff which can be further increased as a scalable service. For example, you could have a 4x/2x acuity runestaff, which provides +20 DS in all stances and has a chance to flare +10 AS/+6 CS (the CS value is always 3/5 of the AS). Acuity enchant ranges from 1 to 10x, with 1x being fairly common and 10x be extremely rare.

3.) Mana flares: these are flares which trigger after a spell is cast to return mana to the caster. The amount of mana is a static attribute of the runestaff which can be further increased as a scalable service. It ranges from 1 to 5, with 1 being fairly common and 5 being extremely rare.

Mana flares can trigger when casting any spell. The other flare types only work on single target, war spells. All current runestaves with flares will see their flares become functional with spells once this goes live. Past that, this service will debut at this year’s Ebon Gate, then be available at other special events, through the treasure system, Premium Points, the Adventure’s Guild, and from many other places.

Lastly, holy water flares from Bless Item (304) will work on runestaves. Each time a player casts a spell that can trigger the flare, it will deplete a charge from the runestaff.

GameMaster Estild
Cleric/Empath Team

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At some point, there was a follow-up notice that Sonic Runestaves would have their rate-of-flare turned down, because casting happens at 3s compared to weapon-swing based at 5s.

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At around 55th or 56th level, I just about pegged 8 magical ranks per level (I was down a bit on MC:Elemental, but over in Harness Power and Spell Research). So that made me a "bare minimum" pure Spellcaster...
...with the capability to get into (Sonic) AsG15/augmented chain, learn a whole stack of Dodging, and use a (Sonic) tower shield with the hindrance of a Medium.
While using a (Sonic) runestaff--that cannot possibly be Disarmed, the frequent bane of Spellcasters--with the best flares in the game, and enough EL:Air ranks to get a really good chance for a second shot at the best flares in the game.

(Note that I do not yet actually have all of those skills, but with a Bard's training point costs, I'm a hell of a lot closer to them than any Pure would be.)

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Given that I am not yet in an area that disarms--I'm looking at you, capped hunting areas!--I am not bothering to use the Sonic runestaff right now. Instead I'm using the blinged out T1 Ensorcel 7x with 3x mana flares. Because with Moar Mana (from the Ensorcel flare OR the casting flare), I can stay out in the field longer.