I'm of the opinion that you're never going to find everything in a game like this. I went and got that staff and spell as well after reading about it.
I found both organically <cough>
My character is now almost lvl 60 and I've explored a lot without looking up stuff on the internet. I've only found one staff ( and a crap one at that ) in all that time. Plenty of melee weapons, however. Some really good ones. Still wondering if I've done the right thing rolling with an Astrologer.