A Guide to Mages comment thread

[playingtokrush]

I definitely agree that wands, as currently constituted, are generally junk for mages, and probably should have said that much.  In the next revision, I've split off a section for wands under Equipment, instead of discussing wands in general under Wand Specialization.  The only reason I gave a little hope was that my statement is true - wands outdamage all other ranged weapons - and I can't think but that there's some potential there.  No other class has a +5% to damage per point talent (imagine if warriors had a +5% per point damage talent for swords!) and so I think Wand Specialization will deserve careful study in light of any possible wand change.

Skandranon, you obviously know the ins and outs of the mage class quite well, and I agree with basically everything you've stated, except this.

In practice, wands don't outdamage other ranged weapons at all. Their apparent higher DPS is negated by the fact that other weapons have increased DPS from ammunition as well as ranged attack power. Ranged attack power has absolutely no effect on wand damage. It is a common misonception as wands appear to be treated as ranged weapons, but it is not the case.

Here's another tidbit of my vast knowledge of wand mechanics that I'll impart upon the lounge: the wand damage type stat is purely cosmetic. Don't believe me? Try using a wand that does fire damage on any fire elemental. It does standard damage, despite fire elementals being immune to fire spells.

That said, I think they're fine for priests - a good, mana-free source of ranged damage for specific use in instances. We may have to resign ourselves to wands' uselessness for mages, simply because any change that makes a mage notice might prove far too powerful in the hands of a warlock or priest.

Of course, this only applies to priests who do a large amount of grouping while functioning as the primary healer.

Actually, if you'll note in my wand thread in the Blizzard forums, I made a perfectly balanced suggestion to fix the primary problem of wands for all three caster classes: make the wand skill auto-ranking. It would take a quite the perusing of the thread, but one can see that I have shown that there is no possible way that this change would be unbalancing. No one has been able to prove otherwise (good luck trying; it's impossible).

I also think it's fairly clear how that change would improve the overall gameplay experience for casters as well.

By the way, you've written a great mage guide so far.