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Stabbey Offline OP
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Don't get me wrong, wands are great... but I have a hard time seeing any reason at all why a magic user would use a staff in the EE.

Wands
  • + Have a lower AP cost per basic attack
  • + Have a ranged attack by default
  • + Have a longer range than Staff of Magus (16.0 meters)
  • + Can be dual-wielded
  • + Dual-wielding lets you get the benefits of two weapons instead of one
  • + Come with three charges of an extra spell



Staves
  • + Do very slightly more damage than a single wand
  • + Staff of Magus now does more damage than the basic staff attack
  • + Staff of Magus now costs 3 AP to use
  • - Staff of Magus now has a 1 turn cooldown instead of 0



It seems to me that in their eagerness to promote the use of their brand new weapon type, they gave all the advantages to it and left the old magic-user weapon in the "old and busted" category. They even nerfed Staff of Magus further by adding a cooldown to it.


I don't think Larian will be eager to do a lot more balancing of it, either, but I have some thoughts.

- Somewhere I read something like wands are supposed to have a lower range than staves until you put points into them. That might have been an interesting downside. For example, with 0 Wand ability, wands have a range of 5.0 meters. Each point in the Wand skill boosts the maximum range by 2.0 meters, up to a max of 15 meters.

- Or maybe since wands get offensive spells attached to them, Staves could get defensive spells attached to them, with twice as many charges (because you can't dual-wield).

Your thoughts on Wands vs. Staves? Should there be a benefit for using Staves? Does it matter at all?

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Not to forget Wands seem to have 100% chance to hit and ignore smoke. I don't see a reason to use a staff or even a bow ( okay, there are skills related to bows ) anymore unless Wands scale really bad mid to late game. =)


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Originally Posted by Dr Koin
Not to forget Wands seem to have 100% chance to hit and ignore smoke. I don't see a reason to use a staff or even a bow ( okay, there are skills related to bows ) anymore unless Wands scale really bad mid to late game. =)

Does staff allow you to do ranged and melee or just one or the other? Also, do staff attacks not automatically hit the target? If not what does attack hitting depend on?

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I think wands are a mistake, in the sense they seem to work like staves were intented.
With 100% hit and some "bugs" on top of it (hybrid dual wield), plus dual wield might be compatible with wand spec.

But I will be using them and not be using staves.

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Originally Posted by Crine
Does staff allow you to do ranged and melee or just one or the other? Also, do staff attacks not automatically hit the target? If not what does attack hitting depend on?


Staves allow you to do unlimited melee for 4 AP, Ranged for 3 AP once a turn. Wands work at any range up to 16 meters.

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Ya wands range needs to be nerfed to around 10 meters.

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Wands aren't Op though, its just that staves are shit.

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The ranged is the thing. The AP cost on the item spells is almost prohibitive at the start of the game, all I have found require 3 in the relevant magic school and have a hefty AP penalty. I'll see how I feel about that later. Saves are still not great. I'm finding anything as a "stat stick" and grenades may be nicer, no usage penalty on them.

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But they are 2Hander so a 2hander specc'd fighter could switch to them to do elemental damage? (whereas normally they are only limited to mostly physical damage)

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Originally Posted by Kanasuke
But they are 2Hander so a 2hander specc'd fighter could switch to them to do elemental damage? (whereas normally they are only limited to mostly physical damage)


Realistically speaking, that'll never happen.

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So do i understand correctly that dual wield wand is the way to go? Is there any reason to go with one wand? Other question: do i need to put points in wand?

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I did my comparison between a single wand and a single staff, and even then the single wand's damage was nearly as much as the staff's.

Dual-Wield Wand benefits from points into Wand as well, which costs more points if you want to max wand damage output.

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Wands aren't overpowered, just staves are underpowered.

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As I've got only 1 caster, I've got no time for wands.. Although I've not got enough skills points to max out all my spells! frown

But I'm 110% with you in that the balancing is wrong

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I dont think staves were ever useful.. Not in the original, and even less so here.. Theyre LESS than useful.. Staff of Magnus will only be used until you get a 2nd or 3rd rank into your Ability points, and even then, its so weak its laughable... I htink the only time i used the staff, was to bash a door, or chest, to avoiid losing Durability on my melee characters weapon.. Even in D:OS..

That said, the people that complain about anything being "OP" tend to be the people who min/max the party for optimum dmg output, and combat efficiency.. Putting all points into combat skills, weapons, and defenses.. Everytime i saw a "build" it was told to ignore all the RP skills/abilities/traits.. I personally dont enjoy steamrolling enemies, and like having Charisma, Lucky Find, Telekenesis, Sneak, Lockpicking, Pickpocketting, Bartering, Leadership... If you wanted a combat sim, you picked a rather slow game for combat... I dont think i even get into my 1st fight until im lvl 5 in Divinity (except the opening scenes)..

Last edited by Rizilliant; 31/10/15 08:14 PM.
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well correct me if i'm wrong, but wands don't have stats on them and staves do. so using wands at a begining of a game is better, because you have too few spells and long cooldowns, and pew-pew is a way to go. as for staff i would use them at mid-late game, cause of +intellect and other stats on them, and you basically don't have time for pew-pew anymore = alot of spells and low cooldowns smile

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Yeah, I can't see how double wands are worth the necessary skill points for a mage, given how late game, a mage will have a massive amount of available spells to cast. You'll never have the AP for them.

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Originally Posted by AGuy
Yeah, I can't see how double wands are worth the necessary skill points for a mage, given how late game, a mage will have a massive amount of available spells to cast. You'll never have the AP for them.


In particular with the massive glass-cannon nerf!

Last edited by Vometia; 01/11/15 02:21 PM. Reason: formatting
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Originally Posted by Konung82
well correct me if i'm wrong, but wands don't have stats on them and staves do. so using wands at a begining of a game is better, because you have too few spells and long cooldowns, and pew-pew is a way to go. as for staff i would use them at mid-late game, cause of +intellect and other stats on them, and you basically don't have time for pew-pew anymore = alot of spells and low cooldowns smile


If that is true, then yes, that will be a reason to pick staves over wands. I'm not far enough into the game yet to know if that's definitely the case, though.

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So far I've found +1 Leadership Wand and +1 Perception Wand.
I'm not sure if there's +1 Int yet, but I'm definitely ditching Jahan's +1 INT staff if I found any.

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