I bought the Dolphin Staff last night as a lvl 30whm/15smn. Frankly I needed something as my previous staff had a smaller HP and MP addition. Being a WHM i'm hardly going to be swinging my staff and the price tag isn't ridiculous.
Judging by its past history it's a popular item and you should be able to sell it back for roughly the same amount you paid for it. So for me to use it for a couple levels and get my money back...a fair deal in my opinion
Staff usually isn't a viable choice for Red Mage, as they cannot raise their skill, and your staff skill will be capped at your sub-job's level. Red Mage should stick to sword, dagger, and club.
That's not to say a Red Mage shouldn't pick up a Dark Staff later on. Dark Staff is really nice for anyone with MP.
I was actually lead to the area where the Slash Pines were. It's a pretty weird route. I remember going up, then falling in a hole to ugly Malboro type monsters and if you pass them, you'll have some beetles to take care of and you'll find the place with the Slash Pines...along with other goblins around. I was a lvl 36 white mage with my lvl 44 paladin. He was looking for his key for his RSE quest.
Yeah, it's back there where people camp Stroper Chyme and Napalm. (Well I doubt they really camp Napalm.. Just convenient.) In the waterfall room which is the scene for the 2nd paladin flag quest there is a ledge up which one cannot go. One has to go alllll the way back around the 'front' (closest to West Ronfaure) entrance and down the other way, drop through the correct hole to get another elevated area that has a stairway up.. It's confusing, and a total pain in the butt should one attempt to do their RSE questing here. (Effectively you've got a loop that you can run only one way and chests spawn on both sides of that one way drop.) All the maps I have seen have not made it clear at all how the differen't level maps interconnect. Once you do an RSE or two you'll get a handle on it.