Wand DPS Modifiers?
 

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?

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!

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...

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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...

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

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

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.