The G-Meister
Giga Slime
The Intro 
This has been on my mind for a while, ever since 2H wands were introduced. Now don't get me wrong, I love 2H wands. Especially with the wand projectiles that were also added, meaning all the time I spent learning to shield cancel 2H weapons has paid off nicely.
However, the point of this post is to explain how I think the game could benefit from a wider variety of both 1H and 2H wands, in an attempt to give pure mages better choice over their projectiles, and hybrid mage builds a better choice of a staff or a weapon.
Pure Mages
Pure mages generally want to prioritise the best +MATK – at least I do most of the time. It’s the main stat that regulates your damage output, and when you can’t get +EP regen on weapons as far as I can remember, +MATK does just fine. However, having done multiple pure mage runs since the introduction of 2H wands (the most recent having beat the Mimic today) I've noticed there's been a lot of hand-switching. It seems I go Toy Wand (1H), Apprentice Staff (2H), Flower Whip (1H) and finally Magic Mushroom (2H), likely with a Magician's Rod (1H) slap bang in the middle if I remember it exists.
As I don’t make builds focusing on the wand projectile, the hand switching was mainly just an inconvenience in the moment of the switching – such as me expecting to hit a season orb with my Apprentice Staff when I find out the Flower Whip I just switched to doesn’t quite have the range (yes, that actually happened). Occasionally I did use the weapon itself in my attacking though, mainly to finish off almost-dead enemies, and for that, the 2H shield cancelling shines. This is likely just personal preference, but still, switching between wand styles definitely felt uncomfortable.
I’ll cover the use of wand projectiles and a couple other things that are relevant to any mage a little later.
Hybrid Mages
Hybrid mages are a little different in that, due to the 1H or 2H skills they have picked, their weapon hand is obligatory, the stats provided by those weapons coming second. They have greater choice in the sense that they also have all of the +ATK weapons at their disposal, however that also means compensation in the form of different pieces of gear for the shifted stat balance after switching from a weapon to a wand or vice versa. This gear may cost money or grinding time if they don’t happen to have it already.
Again, I’d mainly see this as an inconvenience, but there is a much more significant problem if the player happens to rely on the wand projectile. As normal weapons don’t have a projectile, the player is locked into the (fairly small) selection of wands with the hand they use. This is likely the worst case of the lot.
Talking of projectiles, it might be time to move onto them.
Wand Projectiles and Useful Mage Talents
There are two talents associated with the projectiles – Soul Eater, 3 levels, each giving 1 EP recovery per enemy hit with the projectile, and Wand Master, 3 levels, each giving +15% projectile damage. After brief testing, Soul Eater feels a lot more useful with 1H wands at long range on a single enemy, due to the short attack range and quick attack speed of the wand. Wand Master feels more useful with 2H wands against many individual enemies due to the penetrative nature of the projectile. As a result, these projectiles have quite different uses depending on the hand of the wand producing them.
Another significant talent a mage might like to use (especially hybrid mages or those who use the weapon a lot) is Second Wind, 5 levels, each giving 1 EP per 2H basic attack or every other 1H basic attack. Again, as 2H and 1H weapons are better at dealing with different scenarios of enemies, switching wand hand may mean this talent becomes used more/less often, even though its relative effectiveness between 1H and 2H has now become more balanced out than previously with the change to every other 1H hit.
It All Comes Together
It’s certainly nowhere near as bad as it would be if 1H and 2H weapons were mutually exclusive in most areas. They are bound to a hand by their skills just like a hybrid mage would be, except hybrid mages also have their equivalent wands too.
Still, I think the multiple inconveniences here definitely add up. I’ve been talking about this being the guy with over a thousand hours in the game. If I had to put myself in a beginner’s shoes I reckon the hand switching would be jarring and counterproductive for a pure mage, especially with the jump from the Toy Wand to the Apprentice Staff quite early on. For a committed player they get to learn both hands quite early on, but sadly not everyone’s committed. If they then also have to adjust to a new projectile they were using that’s an added inconvenience.
Solutions?
I’m not too bothered about solutions, I’d just like to see a wider variety of both 2H and 1H wands, hopefully making the choice of sticking with a single hand a lot more bearable. I’d pick a 2H wand over a 1H wand every time if I had the choice.
If I had to make a stab in the dark, every time the player is presented all types of weapon at the same time (usually 1H, 2H and a wand, the situation being the starting weapons, at the arena, or the starting Arcade perks for instance), I’d love both a 1H and 2H wand being available. Add back in all the previous 1H wands that were replaced with 2H equivalents, then add in a few more 2H wands to compensate.
The Roundup
I think I'm not the only one who'd like this. I was having a chat with @xEleaa and she seemed to agree, but prefers 1H wands over 2H if I recall correctly, in the sense that it gives nice grouping of enemies to land a spell on after hitting them a little.
It was nice to get a full, structured post out after all the nitty bitty points I’ve been making on the Discord ever since I joined. It’s rare I have time either to play the game, be around there or write things like this now I’m at Uni but hey, I took the opportunity while I had it.
Now I guess I best be off to write an update in the Mainframe thread I’ve neglected since last summer
~G
This has been on my mind for a while, ever since 2H wands were introduced. Now don't get me wrong, I love 2H wands. Especially with the wand projectiles that were also added, meaning all the time I spent learning to shield cancel 2H weapons has paid off nicely.
However, the point of this post is to explain how I think the game could benefit from a wider variety of both 1H and 2H wands, in an attempt to give pure mages better choice over their projectiles, and hybrid mage builds a better choice of a staff or a weapon.
Pure Mages
Pure mages generally want to prioritise the best +MATK – at least I do most of the time. It’s the main stat that regulates your damage output, and when you can’t get +EP regen on weapons as far as I can remember, +MATK does just fine. However, having done multiple pure mage runs since the introduction of 2H wands (the most recent having beat the Mimic today) I've noticed there's been a lot of hand-switching. It seems I go Toy Wand (1H), Apprentice Staff (2H), Flower Whip (1H) and finally Magic Mushroom (2H), likely with a Magician's Rod (1H) slap bang in the middle if I remember it exists.
As I don’t make builds focusing on the wand projectile, the hand switching was mainly just an inconvenience in the moment of the switching – such as me expecting to hit a season orb with my Apprentice Staff when I find out the Flower Whip I just switched to doesn’t quite have the range (yes, that actually happened). Occasionally I did use the weapon itself in my attacking though, mainly to finish off almost-dead enemies, and for that, the 2H shield cancelling shines. This is likely just personal preference, but still, switching between wand styles definitely felt uncomfortable.
I’ll cover the use of wand projectiles and a couple other things that are relevant to any mage a little later.
Hybrid Mages
Hybrid mages are a little different in that, due to the 1H or 2H skills they have picked, their weapon hand is obligatory, the stats provided by those weapons coming second. They have greater choice in the sense that they also have all of the +ATK weapons at their disposal, however that also means compensation in the form of different pieces of gear for the shifted stat balance after switching from a weapon to a wand or vice versa. This gear may cost money or grinding time if they don’t happen to have it already.
Again, I’d mainly see this as an inconvenience, but there is a much more significant problem if the player happens to rely on the wand projectile. As normal weapons don’t have a projectile, the player is locked into the (fairly small) selection of wands with the hand they use. This is likely the worst case of the lot.
Talking of projectiles, it might be time to move onto them.
Wand Projectiles and Useful Mage Talents
There are two talents associated with the projectiles – Soul Eater, 3 levels, each giving 1 EP recovery per enemy hit with the projectile, and Wand Master, 3 levels, each giving +15% projectile damage. After brief testing, Soul Eater feels a lot more useful with 1H wands at long range on a single enemy, due to the short attack range and quick attack speed of the wand. Wand Master feels more useful with 2H wands against many individual enemies due to the penetrative nature of the projectile. As a result, these projectiles have quite different uses depending on the hand of the wand producing them.
Another significant talent a mage might like to use (especially hybrid mages or those who use the weapon a lot) is Second Wind, 5 levels, each giving 1 EP per 2H basic attack or every other 1H basic attack. Again, as 2H and 1H weapons are better at dealing with different scenarios of enemies, switching wand hand may mean this talent becomes used more/less often, even though its relative effectiveness between 1H and 2H has now become more balanced out than previously with the change to every other 1H hit.
It All Comes Together
It’s certainly nowhere near as bad as it would be if 1H and 2H weapons were mutually exclusive in most areas. They are bound to a hand by their skills just like a hybrid mage would be, except hybrid mages also have their equivalent wands too.
Still, I think the multiple inconveniences here definitely add up. I’ve been talking about this being the guy with over a thousand hours in the game. If I had to put myself in a beginner’s shoes I reckon the hand switching would be jarring and counterproductive for a pure mage, especially with the jump from the Toy Wand to the Apprentice Staff quite early on. For a committed player they get to learn both hands quite early on, but sadly not everyone’s committed. If they then also have to adjust to a new projectile they were using that’s an added inconvenience.
Solutions?
I’m not too bothered about solutions, I’d just like to see a wider variety of both 2H and 1H wands, hopefully making the choice of sticking with a single hand a lot more bearable. I’d pick a 2H wand over a 1H wand every time if I had the choice.
If I had to make a stab in the dark, every time the player is presented all types of weapon at the same time (usually 1H, 2H and a wand, the situation being the starting weapons, at the arena, or the starting Arcade perks for instance), I’d love both a 1H and 2H wand being available. Add back in all the previous 1H wands that were replaced with 2H equivalents, then add in a few more 2H wands to compensate.
The Roundup
I think I'm not the only one who'd like this. I was having a chat with @xEleaa and she seemed to agree, but prefers 1H wands over 2H if I recall correctly, in the sense that it gives nice grouping of enemies to land a spell on after hitting them a little.
It was nice to get a full, structured post out after all the nitty bitty points I’ve been making on the Discord ever since I joined. It’s rare I have time either to play the game, be around there or write things like this now I’m at Uni but hey, I took the opportunity while I had it.
Now I guess I best be off to write an update in the Mainframe thread I’ve neglected since last summer
~G