Remember Wands...

Over the years of fighting easy-mode classes and non-mana users I have found that some times when you’re fighting a redo/do-over AKA second try class (ohh the fight is going bad let me just heal and try it again) like a healing druid (unlike true/pure classes who do one thing and take skill...and are out dated) you have to deal with a thing called mana.

I have noticed that most classes get white damage or free dps that they don’t have to spend a resource on. I thought to myself mages had that at one time ...what was it?OH it was our wands, so I went down to the old test dummies and relearned to shoot my wand...It was useless low damage, you have to skillcast it and you can’t cast abilities over it.

And out of the corner of my mind I remembered it even had a skill in the tree for it,"wand specialization" back before easy/instant leveling (way back in the day). I guess blizzard thought it was a good idea to weave using a non-auto cast weapon between your skillcasting to conserve mana.

After putting my wand back in my dusty weapon box I thought; you know wands are actually kind of cool. Old school magicians would use the black and white ones, and there are movie series dedicated to there use. Why can’t mine be useful?

Well after a fue changes we could have a colorful range of fireworks whizzing by making our wands useful and interesting again.

My Idea to make wands cool is to have them shoot automatically even while you cast your other spells, giving mages white damage like other classes and helping with mana.But the most interesting thing about wands is that they can shoot anything crackly fire, shadowy arcane bolts, or even golden holy damage. You could make all kinds of them or even let mages customize them any way they like. Hell, Dk’s get their own weapon enchants.

Yea they are useless, yea I pay a points premium in there item level for something’s I don’t use, so really you should take their shooting ability away and raise my stats in my wand anyhow. But if you can make a whole bunch of useless vanity pets, why not give mages some cool options besides seeing the same old spec-spells rotations.

Just a rant but I think it’s a halfcocked Idea that could be very fun.

Wands were part of the game when Blizz expected players to enjoy the experience, rather than just the end result. So use of wands added variety to attacks, conserved mana, finished mobs, was essential in phase 1 of Onyxia to take her to phase 2 to lift off, etc..

Blizz has been trying, with little success, to return this immersiveness into the game, which players routinely reject. Instead, everyone is trying to minimax for the quickest kill for the fastest loot. Then they get the loot and stand around in Org saying "bored". You cannot win with the ADD generation, its all about "I want my loot now!". Anything that stands in the way is discarded.

Blizz had no idea that greed would drive the entire game design and no matter what they do to change it and move us into a virtual world/community, they have little success against a player base who focus on the outcome rather than the process. But thats the disease of Western civlization and WOW just reflects it. There is more to a game than getting loot and more to life than getting stuff. But on this player base, and many other games, its lost.

So much for a decent creative idea.
My Western Civilization is the epitome of perfection. You would do well to curb your tongue, outlander.
^^^^

I strongly believe this. I REALLY liked the cutscene in wrath for Wrathgate. I want questing to be actually fun so that leveling isn't such a pain in the ass.
I agree that it's sad that wands have become just a 'stat stick' but I don't see what can be done about it now.

I'm puzzled by the comment, however, that Blizzard wants to return immersiveness to the game. That's the exact opposite of what they are trying to do. They have said many times, ever after cata, that they want to make the game more accessible. Expecting newbies to figure out how and when to wand would just be another barrier to that accessibility.

And I reject the idea that it's a 'generational' problem. It's basically about money. How do you attract people to the game who are just not that into MMOs or RPGs. I think the fate that Blizzard wants to avoid more than anything else is the Ultima fate. It's an MMO that has lasted more than a decade, has an dedicated fan base, is profitable and yet which has no one actually plays.

Personally, I think it has more to do with Blizzard employees needing to be 'rock stars' and 'industry leaders' than anything else. Being satisfied with being a niche player is just not in their psyche.