What's wrong with wands and staffs? Ideas for improvement.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Doctor, Sep 21, 2016.

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  1. Doctor

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    I am very curious about what on Potter's name is going on with wands?

    I am a mage of healing and I've noticed that the wands I have used in the past would shoot out magical balls which made any avatar feel slightly like a wizard from Harry Potter.

    But for quite a few releases now, the wand and staff have lost power. I desperately tried to understand why this came to be.

    [​IMG]

    Whacking zombies and skeletons with a stick (wand) was more useful as a tooth pick, to remove the maggots between their teeth.

    So I went to speak to Stanley. He listened to what I had to say. At first he was cheerful when he saw me.
    But then he saw what was troubling me.

    [​IMG]

    He was startled and didn't know what to say. Mumbling a little to himself and making sure no other outlanders would see that wands are indeed broken.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Stanley suggested that I should speak to Edvard the Wanderer. I looked at him for a moment and questioned "why him?". He replied, "because wand is in wanderer, he must be an expert".

    I shook my head and went to have a quick drink down at the local tavern.
    I met a cat there. It meowed at me several times and walked off. I followed, soon finding myself in Solace Bridge.

    [​IMG]

    "Edvard the Wanderer!" I shout out his name. "Not you again Shroud... don't you see I'm busy pretending to be busy?".

    I explained the whole story to him. He told me that the game masters apparently stopped all wands and staffs from having projectiles simply because it was complicated. It needed ammo. Similar to the bow and arrow, where ammunition is needed for it to work.

    So I wandered around trying to come up with ways this problem could be resolved.

    Eureka!!!

    After meditating long and hard, I believe I may have found a useful way of making wands and staffs fun to play with again, instead of using it as a hand to hand bludgeon weapon which is irritating to say the least.

    [​IMG]

    Why not give the opportunity for avatars to enchant the wand. To have a certain amount of charge on the wand, which once depleted, must be recharged. The more you use it, the durability will go down. Resources will be needed to enchant the weapon, and enchanting will work similarly to how normal enchanting works at the moment.

    So what about effects? We have Sun, Moon, Earth, Water, Air, Fire Death, Life and... Chaos.
    We have gems for each magic tree as well as fragments (400 needed to make a gem).

    Why not use a gem to help enchant the wand/staff to have a particular effect depending on the gem?
    Why not make use of the gem fragments and use them for ammunition for the wand?

    For example:

    Craft a wand, have the ability to masterwork it. Then enchant it to be able to act as a ranged weapon and further socket it to add elemental/magic effects.

    So if we look at the life tree, we can enchant the wand/staff and use 1 diamond to socket (max 100). This will slowly degrade depending on how much you use it. I will have the ability to recharge it with the fragments. So if I have 60/100, I can add 40 diamond fragments and whatever else it requires to recharge the weapon back to max. The durability will go down like the bow does.

    (Yes finding fragments will be a grind and prove to be harder to work on compared to archery. IT'S A WAND THOUGH!) Pew pew pewww!

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    With this, there could be endless ways of having unique combo/effects. To name a few:
    • This can either add a % chance to heal your avatar a certain amount based on damage dealt.
    • Target and shoot party members to heal a certain % of their health.
    Each magic tree can have it's own unique effect or work with an already existing skill.
    • Earth attuned wand could have a % chance to root enemies.
    • Air attuned wand could have a % chance to gust the enemy or shock them.
    • Fire attuned wand could have a % chance to cause burn damage over time.
    • Water attuned wand could have a % chance to slow down enemies.
    • Death attuned wand could have a % chance to life drain enemies.
    • Moon attuned wand could have a % chance to mesmerise enemies.
    I hope you can see where I'm getting at. This will allow gems/fragments to be more in demand, left over fragments can be used instead of constantly trying to get 100.

    Duel wielding wands might be a bit chaotic and over powered but it would still be pretty funky to duel wield a life and death wand. (Maybe there can be a bigger penalty for using two).

    Maybe 100 obsidian chips can be forged into something to act as an item for enchanting a wand/staff to give a % chance of poly-morphing enemies into small animals for a short period of time.

    These are just ideas. I do strongly wish for wands/staffs to work again. If ammunition is the problem, then I don't see why this wouldn't work. Maybe a few areas need to be tidied up, but it is still possible considering all the mechanics for it are already in game.

    Tell me what you think. Do you want wands/staffs to work as intended? Or do you prefer to "stick em up"? Share your ideas and let's hope they are heard!
     
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2016
  2. Curt

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    When casting a ranged spell and wielding a weapon it could auto cast a weaker version of that spell for N seconds (your spell empowers it for a couple of seconds that is)

    Instead of as now reduced chance of reagent use. Could have so you could socket a wand with 1 reagent
    Using a such wand you would not use up reagents of that type when casting.
     
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  3. Womby

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    I love it Doctor. Bravo!
     
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  4. majoria70

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    Lovely story as always Doctor. I was so entertained :). I love your ideas. :)
     
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  5. Stryker Sparhawk

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    Bravo, Doctor!

    What if the wand's handle was swaddled with rich Corinthian leather?

    Perhaps a charm of silver and gold?

    Perhaps engraved.
     
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  6. Sophi

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    that is a wonderful story and really AWESOME ideas about how to have wands work like wands again!!
     
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  7. Doctor

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    If it came to that, I don't think I could ever use such a splendid looking wand. I would display it for all to see and possibly use it to stir the alcohol in my tea.
     
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  8. Balec Fares deCani

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    I don't know which I like better; your ideas or your presentation - love 'em both! Simply marvelous!
     
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  9. Ravicus Domdred

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    I wonder if there could be a spell gem made by alchemists that could be placed on wands or staves. The spell gems woujld have "charges" and needed to be replaced or recharged, bringing repair work to alchemists? No COTA recharges please.
     
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  10. Doctor

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    That sounds like a good idea! But I think Portalarium are trying to remove most of the power from NPC's and allow the avatars themselves to craft and sell mostly. For example, the teleport/recall scrolls were once sold by the merchant found in random encounters, they stripped that off him and made it crafting only. Yes NO CotA!
     
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  11. Razimus

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    The plural for staff is staves.
     
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  12. Nadomir

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    The way wands currently work is indeed... well, what would be a proper word for it... erm... maybe... interesting... and truely need some attention. I think darkstarr already confirmed so much in the latest post mortem to R33. My first idea would be to remove them from the bludgeon-weaponlist and sponsor their own weapon-skill for wands and staves used by casters. But leaving staves as melee-weapon in the bludgeon-tree... This way you could add caster-effects to both staves and wands and allow for normal staves to be used as melee-weapons, too. (Or maybe move melee-staves to the polearm-skill-tree)
    I also like the gem-idea, giving the wands and staves more caster-features. Great idea!
     
  13. Swan

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    Richard Garriot in early interviews told something like this about enchanting
    (no i cannot remember word to word what he sayd somewhere in 2013)
    he dont want generic gem socketing like other game "+1 strenght"
    Hed like, there would be crafter that would socket gem, and anoter crafter that could charge gems
    -.(see already economy thinked there :p )
    Gems woulda been like Fireball,Healing, etc.. with charges that you could used in any weapon.

    at that time i was thinking i could use tesla-staff with healing gem in it
    then i heard community lynched whole teslapunk thing and i was kinda sad :(
    Why gemming idea wasnt used or was forgot? i dont know
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2016
  14. Vyrin

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    @DarkStarr really needs to consider this... more uses for materials = good thing.
     
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  15. Acred

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    Excellent suggestion that might even tempt me to make one of my avatars a pure mage!

    I should think there also could be a graphic difference in the style of the weapon, or at least in its colour depending on the wood that the staff or wand is made from.

    This should also include the inherent buff from the different wood properties, as we now have enabled in bows, etc.
     
  16. Doctor

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    That is a great idea. Having it's own weapon tree would be more desirable. Considering most of the skills in the bludgeon tree wouldn't work for a wand user. Skills like knock down and ground pound would look odd for a wand. Ground pound with a stave would be awesome if it had a Gandalf style pound creating a shock wave. So I can see staves working in bludgeon.
     
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  17. Zader

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    Just want to add a +1 to these ideas with a focus on wand ammo. From the telethon it was pretty clear that ammunition was the Dev's main concern. If we can socket or "charge" pew pews into our wands and staves in a 'cost/work investment' that is equivalent to arrows...dang I'd be tickled.

    Opens up another recipe for the player economy...Magic wand BBs ;)
     
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  18. Headquake

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    Using a wand or staff with enchant, masterwork and gem .Already give you better bonus to ''magical'' than wearing a sword or other weapon for what i have seen. More spell crit , more focus,less regeant cost ... wich is great imo. Im playing as pure caster with no skill pts in any weapon skill.

    It kinda reward you for being more ''dedicate'' to magery.
     
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  19. Net

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    I wish I could use staff (or wand) as the Elven Mage in Rise, casting fireballs on me which follwo me through walls and crit for 100+ damage. If I have to pay ammo, I am in it. Archers buy arrows for their awesome bow skills, give us ability to use sulphurus ash to recharge staves. For cost/damage reasons I think the chance fo consuming reagent by staff should be much lower than bow using arrow, though possibly bit higher price as few reagents are lighter than bunch of arrows. i do not like wand/staff as melee weapon.
     
  20. Lord Dreamo

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    Yeah, I have gone back and forth between shortsworf and dagger and two wands on my character as the wands do tend to be a bit a lame. I can be a battle mags instead :p
     
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