well, here is what i do with staffs. First, i carry 2 if its something that could save my life (destruct). Then, I also make sure I go through the walls or *know* what enemies are coming up. If it could burn my staffs, then i will probably double resist (if i have the spell) and lure it so that it will only see me once we are in mele. That way, it will not breath fire on me. Now when stuff HITS to burn, i do stuff a little different... Then I'll probably banish it, unless its a dragon or demon, since both of these are great to farm if their is a pit of them (unless you are too low a lvl for them, which you probably are unless you are i'd say at least lvl 42). But yeah, the important thing is to always *know* what is just out of esp range, where stuff is that is not detected by esp, and what is just off screen. To work with this final problem, i usually stone to mud walls so that I can get to the next screan or, if i feel like being an ass that gets stuff done faster, i destruct and walk through the destructed aria to see whats ahead.
Once I'm higher lvl, I *always* either enlighten staff or pot the lvl, so i know what is where. That is very important to do with the strategy i just mentioned, otherwise you will not know if going around a corner, or tunneling one more square will result in you being in LOS of the enemy.
Wow, I just realized how much I have learned about later game...My early game still needs *work* though...I should be getting better at it though. Each weekend, i'm trying to lvl a bookless, half-troll mage to lvl 15. I stop after I had a good go, but died and lost my stuff.
Seriously though, the more you play with staffs, the more resources you have to keep you out of danger. You just need to know what that danger is (stuff that burns and stuff that burns, mostly, and stuff that can kill you in just a few rounds (see spoilers. Most things cannot once you get to the higher 30s if you have good con...unless you are a mage with bad HP rolls...) and also ANYTHING you do not resist (don't fight a dracolich near a graveyard unless you have resist nexus, thats how Groquick died(learn what breaths what, and what the effects of breath attacks are(look at the spoilers pages at
http://www.juti.nl/hugo/Angband/Spoiler/ (Some people don't like looking at spoilers, but personally, i think mangband requires them)))), and how to get rid of the danger with what you have (destruction, banish, teleport, antisummon corradors, a finger on the *heal* macro, exc...)
Also, something I would reccomend if you are serious about wanting to learn to play better. Play angband with *reasonable* (imo) saves. I beat angband saveing after i gained 5 lvls. I died at lvl 12 and lvl 22(I know this is technically cheating, but I believe that you shouldn't try to beat a game like angband your first time without *reasonably* saving like i did, unless you want to go crazy(This is a problem I find with most roguelikes. The fact that you 100% start over each time you die makes you unable to grow as much as a player). I think now, because of me playing with those saves, I became a better player then i would have without them). Its a good substitute for the ghosts in mangband, and the not-real-time allows you to figure stuff out better. Heh...I hope this helps!