Sapphidia

I sincerely hoped this hasnt been asked here before, but it's been something really nagging at me that I've found quite difficult to test.

In short, I'm wondering of the -exact- mechanics of Wand DPS and precisely what additional stats, if any, will increase that (via crit/hit/penetration etc). Now, noone will be making any raid-specced Wanders anytime in the near future (unless I'm really bored...) but the lack of information around on what actually affects wands is staggering, so hoping some of you guys know.

It's well known that Spelldamage does -not- boost wand dps.

Most people assume that DPS of a wand is simply the listed DPS on the wand, multiplied by 125% if a mage/priest has Wand Spec, with the weapon skill (levelx5) of the wander being used to work out Hit and Crit. Wands can be resisted, they can Crit, they can be partially resisted, so the mechanics are in there somehow.

But... i've heard all sorts of weird rumors about wanding. Some say that they count as a ranged attack and as such -agility- of all things will increase the crit rate. Some say they count as pure spells and +Crit and +hit on your items will also affect wands (so someone wanting to churn out the most dps possible would wear a pure hit/crit setup with zero spelldamage, if such a thing exists). And spell penetration? Would that affect it. I think the major crux is whether wanding is counted as a ranged attack like a bow or has some elements of being a spell.

Curious thread, but it's annoying me. When I tested it at 60 it -seemed- to imply that Spell Hit and Spell Crit -did- affect the calculations of your wand, but the gear available to test was quite limited (we did some tests with cloth with +agility on and that seemed to boost wand crit too...) Anyone know what the calculation runs off?

 

Bendyr

Hmm, another interesting question is: can a wand proc "on-attack" trinkets?

I'm also very curious. I may roll my ultimate wand priest, yet!

 

Liryn

I'm curious as well. I am pretty sure I've heard it said that things like Shadow Weaving increase wand damage, assuming a shadow wand of course.

Seems like an easy way to test the agility thing is grab a shaman and test with and without Grace of Air totem. My husband is a shaman, so I just might try that, but I'm not much of a theorycrafter...

 

◊ Merple

I'm one of those weirdos that always drooled over the highest DPS wand I could find and always loved wand spec.

I would love to find out exactly how to get the maximum DPS out of my wand. I DE'd my spellcrit/smite suit, but I might be able to do something with agility and RAP tonight.


EDIT:

If I could derail this for a moment.

You don't just wand things, you wand in conjunction with SW:P, if you're a priest.

SW:P can't crit and uses spell damage
Wands can crit and don't use spell damage

Assuming (until we verify) that wand and spell crit are linked, the two work against each other.

Additionally, you probably open with a Holy Fire - Can crit, and uses spell damage.

Is "wand damage gear", assuming such a thing even exists, worthwhile when compared to stacking raw spell damage for SW:P and Holy Fire?

 

Grimmlokk

Shadow Weaving and other debuffs that go on the mob will increase damage. Self buffs have no effect I have seen. Not sure about hit/crit gear. Fairly positive it goes by your normal spell crit rate, so would make sense for hit to be the same.

 

Solstice

Agility and RAP wont affect wand DPS. For awhile after release it did indeed scale with RAP but this turned out to be an oversight by the devs and was fixed in some patch around 18 months ago. Perhaps it could partly explain why there are still some low level cloth items with int and agility etc on them.

 

Medeia

A druid's Leader of the Pack aura increases wand crit rate, at least on the character screen, I did not feel compelled enough to parse a combatlog. Also, a wand crit will proc an Improved LotP heal.

 

doogless

I saw this once but thought I was just imagining things. I'm glad someone else has seen it and that I'm not crazy.

 

Jenos

One thing I've just found out: Wanding will use up Furious Howl, which is a buff given by certain hunter pets to increase damage on your next attack, can be applied to wands. I haven't tested it to see if it actually increases the damage, however.

 

Thelyna

Could wands possibly be considered elemental melee damage? I've seen iLotP procs off wand crits as well.

 

◊ Acustar

I'm not sure if this qualifies, but my wand procs

Pendant of the Violet Eye
Use: Each spell cast within 20 seconds will grant a stacking bonus of 14 mana regen per 5 sec. Expires after 20 seconds.

Last I tried it anyway, I havn't tested on the PTR.

Honor farming is the "easy" way to get pvp gear:

 

Bendyr

Weird about the pendant. I'm almost positive that shadow damage from a shadow wand does not heal on a target with

Vampiric Embrace
Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be healed for 15% of any Shadow spell damage you deal for 60 sec.

I'll have to test it tonight to make sure...

 

alienangel

Do haste effects increase wand fire rate? I'll finally have to start killing my guildmates if the shadow priests also want dragonspine trophies...

 

Cel

Bribe them with haste potions. :]]]]]]]]

To further the testing ideas: Test wanding with Judgement of Light. If it procs, then it must be elemental melee damage, as suggested above. :o

"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell

Alpha is recruiting... go go.

 

• frmorrison

Wanding can be limited by the GCD but it is not affected by Bloodlust.

Shadow weaving and imp Shadow bolt both affect Shadow wands' damage.

Wanding affects judgment of wisdom.

Agility used to give more crit to wands about 2 years ago, but it has been fixed since then.

 

alienangel

Hmm. So it certainly sounds like wands work off the same mechanics as Arcane Shot (uses physical ranged crit/hit stats, procs JoW, Imp LotP, does magical damage and is hence affected by CoS/Misery, but not spell power to caster/target). But their base damage is calculated off purely weapon damage.

I wonder if wanding builds up Hunter's Mark stacks on the PTR.

 

Bendyr

Is there any update on if Haste Rating affects wand damage? Right now I'm leveling an enchanting shadowpriest, and can't find a good glove enchant at 290 enchanting. I was wondering if Enchant Gloves - Minor Haste would work on my wand dps...

 

tetracycloide

I noticed that wanding procs my [Darkmoon Card: Crusade] so I thought I could use it has a fast way to reset the stack without using any mana. Then I noticed I had two aura of the crusade buffs on me and realized that it does not proc the +spell damage, it procs the +AP. Interesting indeed.

My vanity is justified.

Multiple classes using the same gear is an excellent idea. Just the other day I was thinking to myself 'Not enough toons look identical with arena and tier sets looking the same, we need more appearance homogenization.'

 

Crowley155

I hate to hijack your thread but for some reason it's not letting me post new ones. What is the critical damage bonus for spells? Is it 150% damage?

 

tetracycloide

Yes, spell crits are 150% base.

My vanity is justified.

Multiple classes using the same gear is an excellent idea. Just the other day I was thinking to myself 'Not enough toons look identical with arena and tier sets looking the same, we need more appearance homogenization.'

 

Wednesday

Just a note as a destro lock who is tasked with keeping ISB procs up during raids. Please for the love of god don't use a shadow wand when you go OOM, you're most likely decreasing raid dps by doing so. If you must wand, get one of the fire arena wands.

kthxbai

 

Towneh

Perhaps an oversight on Blizzard's part then, as most (if not all) of the Wands that have been available so far from TBC raiding/quests have been of the shadow damage variety.

 

Brakar

It's almost all of them. Every epic wand and all but one rare wand of ilvl 100 or higher (except arena ones) is shadow. WoWhead wands It's really not practical to say don't use a shadow wand when every single one is a shadow wand. Having a special wand that's not shadow that I only switch in when I need to wand (which is very rare) just isn't worth the hassle.

 

tetracycloide

You never 'need to wand' so if you go OOM and you have no other DPS options just sit there and wait for mana. It's really not practical to waste ISB charges on wanding when they could be used on SW: D and SB.

My vanity is justified.

Multiple classes using the same gear is an excellent idea. Just the other day I was thinking to myself 'Not enough toons look identical with arena and tier sets looking the same, we need more appearance homogenization.'

 

Brakar

Judgement of Wisdom for mana is a pretty good reason to wand when OOM.