Wands

[Zarathustra]

I've been messing around with a Warlock while friends of mine catch up a bit in preparation for some instances, and have come up to something of a curiosity with wands.

Just what influences them? They're a weapon, but enemies can resist the damage as if it were a spell. More importantly, though, I've scored critical hits with wands. The decision of whether it's a spell or attack would - in my mind - designate either intellect or agility, respectively, as the stat that increases crit % with them.

Any thoughts?

[playingtokrush]

I've been messing around with a Warlock while friends of mine catch up a bit in preparation for some instances, and have come up to something of a curiosity with wands.

Just what influences them?  They're a weapon, but enemies can resist the damage as if it were a spell.  More importantly, though, I've scored critical hits with wands.  The decision of whether it's a spell or attack would - in my mind - designate either intellect or agility, respectively, as the stat that increases crit % with them.

Any thoughts?

As far as the game mechanics behind them, wands seem to function more like spells than ranged attacks. However, I don't know if intelligence has any bearing on the crit rate of wands or not. I wouldn't really be surprised if no stat increased the crit rate, though.

[Skandranon]

I've been messing around with a Warlock while friends of mine catch up a bit in preparation for some instances, and have come up to something of a curiosity with wands.

Just what influences them?  They're a weapon, but enemies can resist the damage as if it were a spell.  More importantly, though, I've scored critical hits with wands.  The decision of whether it's a spell or attack would - in my mind - designate either intellect or agility, respectively, as the stat that increases crit % with them.

Any thoughts?
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"Resist" is simply wand-speak for "miss". In that respect, they function much like weapons. The odd part is that on some occasions they are spells, and on others, they aren't. You can use a wand while silenced, but if you've been hit with a Spell Bomb (does 300 damage to you whenever you cast a spell) a wand will set it off.

[Concillian]

Another odd thing about wands is that they can be considered melee.

The Undead Priest skill "Touch of Weakness" is descibed:

The caster's next damaging melee attack will cause 15 additional Shadow damage and reduce the damage caused by that target by 2 for 2 min.

But it will be activated a "wanding", provided the enemy is close enough.

[ehertlein]

"Resist" is simply wand-speak for "miss".  In that respect, they function much like weapons.  The odd part is that on some occasions they are spells, and on others, they aren't.  You can use a wand while silenced, but if you've been hit with a Spell Bomb (does 300 damage to you whenever you cast a spell) a wand will set it off.
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You know I'm not so sure that isn't a bug. I have heard of hunters complaining that their AutoShoot sets off spell bombs.

[playingtokrush]

"Resist" is simply wand-speak for "miss".

Well, I'd say "Resist" is simply wand-speak for spell "Resist." Wand resistance works like spells instead of weapons.

[Concillian]

Well, I'd say "Resist" is simply wand-speak for spell "Resist."  Wand resistance works like spells instead of weapons.
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That, and you don't get 'Resist' with wands 15-20% of the time like you do 'Miss' when you're melee. ;)

[playingtokrush]

That, and you don't get 'Resist' with wands 15-20% of the time like you do 'Miss' when you're melee. ;)
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I do. But that's because Blizzard made the wand skill level up much too slowly.

[Taeme]

Wands are damn weird. They're very useful, but they're very weird.

Even if you don't plan on using a wand (or gun/bow) don't be one of those morons who never goes to the AH and looks them up. At 36+ (or so, I think it's different for each item) you can start getting stat bonuses on them.

Stat bonuses are good :>

I do.  But that's because Blizzard made the wand skill level up much too slowly.
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No, it's in line with what it should be. Weapon skill ups make perfect sense and reward people for putting time in. Just like leveling up.

[playingtokrush]

No, it's in line with what it should be. Weapon skill ups make perfect sense and reward people for putting time in. Just like leveling up.

Except wands are used nothing like most other weapons for other classes. The "time vs. reward" paradigm implies that the reward is actually worth the time investment. With wands, it really isn't.

[Treesh]

Except wands are used nothing like most other weapons for other classes.  The "time vs. reward" paradigm implies that the reward is actually worth the time investment.  With wands, it really isn't.
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That's your personal opinion, but Aleri uses her wand all the time and very, very infrequently gets resists/misses. She's so often the only healer in the group, I feel the need to conserve as much mana as I can. The wand helps me with that. Throw on SW:P, throw a renew on the tank, wand for a bit. Mana starts to regen, slowly, but it does regen. I'm also doing damage without spending mana that I may need later to keep the entire group alive if things go horribly wrong. Now, if there's a secondary healer in the group, I can actually throw out some damage spells if I choose and not have to worry so much about saving almost all my mana for heals so the wand gets used less. If only I could get more groups with a secondary healer, I'd be more used to it and not be quite so quick on the desperate prayer button when I know there's a harder fight coming up within 30 minutes. ;)

Edit: Ok, I can spell "throw" properly at the beginning of the sentence, but not 3 words later? Sheesh. Fixed.

[MongoJerry]

But it will be activated a "wanding", provided the enemy is close enough.

There's no range requirement. You can "throw" Touch of Weakness with your wand at your wand's maximum range. It's nice. It's obviously a bug -- either with the spell description or with how ToW can be used with wands -- but I hope they don't change it. It's a very useful feature.

You know I'm not so sure that isn't a bug. I have heard of hunters complaining that their AutoShoot sets off spell bombs.

Any special ability sets off spell bombs -- taunt, backstab, whatever -- and auto-shoot is considered a special ability. All you should do with it on is attack with your normal attack and wait for your priest (or paladin if you play the evil alliance) to dispell magic on his or herself and then dispell the spell bomb off you.

[Malakar]

Perhaps he plays a mage. My highest character is a mage, and I've had similar feelings on wands. Our job is to nuke with our spells, only when we run out of mana are wands useful. So the amount of time it takes to keep your skill up throughout the course of leveling your character is not worth it for us. Maybe when I get 60 I'll train wands/staves up.

[playingtokrush]

Perhaps he plays a mage. My highest character is a mage, and I've had similar feelings on wands. Our job is to nuke with our spells, only when we run out of mana are wands useful. So the amount of time it takes to keep your skill up throughout the course of leveling your character is not worth it for us. Maybe when I get 60 I'll train wands/staves up.

Yeah, this is correct. But it still applies to all other casters. Shadow spec'd priests play more like mages, and are all about offloading damage to quickly bring mobs down. Some warlock builds and playstyles are focused on pretty much constant casting as well. My warlock is almost always in the process of casting a DoT or some sort of channeled spell.

None of the above play styles allow for the massive amount of wand usage required to keep the wand skill leveled up.

She's so often the only healer in the group, I feel the need to conserve as much mana as I can.

There's the difference. If you're in groups a lot of the time, you're going to be afforded a lot more opportunities to use wands than if you solo most of the time.

So, rather than a matter of personal opinion, it's a matter of how your character is played as to whether or not wands are really worth the effort.

The fact is that casters have a harder time leveling up weapon skills than any other class in the game -- (edit) well, except for warriors and rogues trying to build up ranged weapon skills. But that's a different problem than the wand one.

[Magicbag]

I've had success using a fire based wand on Monsters that are normally highly resistant or immune to fire.
-MB

[playingtokrush]

I've had success using a fire based wand on Monsters that are normally highly resistant or immune to fire.
-MB

So have I, which leads me to believe that the damage type on wands is just a facade for some sort of typeless damage. I could be wrong, but I have yet to see any evidence to the contrary.

[MongoJerry]

Yeah, this is correct.  But it still applies to all other casters.  Shadow spec'd priests play more like mages, and are all about offloading damage to quickly bring mobs down.

Eh, not quite. You run out of mana too fast going pure nuke-style as a shadow priest. Or at least, you'll go bankrupt buying all the drinks you'll need to regen all the mana. Even shadow priests use a lot of staff attacks when soloing. When grouped, then they'll still probably the primary healer, so wands become a useful mana conservation way to deliver damage.

[Malakar]

Actually there's a situation that you may as well use to train your staves/wands skill. If you're running some lower level friends through a low level instance, you can use your staff/wand with low skill and still do normal damage with it along with throwing in instant casts. You don't do much damage, but it conserves a lot of mana which makes the group's downtime a lot less, so it works out well.

[playingtokrush]

Eh, not quite.  You run out of mana too fast going pure nuke-style as a shadow priest.  Or at least, you'll go bankrupt buying all the drinks you'll need to regen all the mana.  Even shadow priests use a lot of staff attacks when soloing.  When grouped, then they'll still probably the primary healer, so wands become a useful mana conservation way to deliver damage.

Some people don't mind drinking after every two or three kills -- this includes both mages and shadow priests. And it's possible to get cheap drinks from friendly mages. As a frequent supplier for a shadow priest who knows quite well what he's doing, I can tell you that there are shadow priests out there who use wands rarely, if at all.

Again, casters have the worst situation for building up "combat" skills.

[Ruvanal]

Some people don't mind drinking after every two or three kills -- this includes both mages and shadow priests.  And it's possible to get cheap drinks from friendly mages.  As a frequent supplier for a shadow priest who knows quite well what he's doing, I can tell you that there are shadow priests out there who use wands rarely, if at all.

Again, casters have the worst situation for building up "combat" skills.
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Stopping and drinking every two or three kills is not what my mage does as it is something that I do mind having to do. By starting the practice of mana efficient fighting early, it possible to get into a routine where you only need to stop every 8-10 kills to drink for mana recovery while soloing the more normal monsters. Then when you group with others, you can more readily keep up a pace of play that the does not come off as so annoying to do them of having to stop constantly to recover. Learing to use the wand at good skill is part of this technique. For example in my mages last run through Gnomeregan my mage only used about 12-14 water for the entire run. And most of that was from each time I had to do a massive iAE set of attacks to clear large normal group pulls.