Wands, staves and pure mage builds? Or just go archery?

Hi all,

I just bought a second character slot, and since my main is a plate-wearing meleer, I thought I'd try the opposite: a cloth or leather wearing mage.

I've never really looked into staves and wands up to this point, and I'm a bit confused. Are they both merely bludgeon weapons with caster bonsues on them? I assumed wands would at least have a ranged autoattack but that doesn't seem to be the case. And if I'm trying to build a ranged mage character why would I be interested in the close-quarters bludgeon tree at all?

In other words, is it just expected that any ranged mage build would use, well, the Ranged/Archery tree as the weapon in hand?

I'm starting to think that my Mage build should be melee/close quarters and not ranged at all...UNLESS I wanted to go with a hybrid Archery/Mage build.

TIA for your thoughts.

 

I don't know any mage that uses a wand or staff as a bludgeoning weapon. Wands are way more powerful than staves, unfotunately, so, you will want to go with them, unless you don't mind the power loss of going with a staff. There are no ranged auto-attacks on wands. If anything, a staff should have a further range. If you are talking about ranged attacks, thats where things like Fire/Ice/Stone arrow,etc., come in. There are also spells that can be used in close-quarters; Ice/Fire/Stone Fist, Gust,etc.

 

Bludgeon comes with a strength boost innate skill, useful when holding on to your wand and using earth magic! Otherwise, being bludgeon doesn't do a lot for the wand, unless you like to try to stun with it randomly?

 

I would turn the fighter into a mage, why because a mage needs all the str he can get. No reason to have two characters where you can have 1. Being higher level makes it easier to kill mobs also. So when you start ur mage the easy mobs which you will have to kill are green and will die much faster than a red or yellow mob. You can auto attack like a mace with your wand and even use bludgeon skills. A stun for a mage goes a long way.

 

As a mage who dabbles in bludgeon attacks, I actually find some of the utility bludgeon skills quite useful.

I for one use staves. They are cooler. Wands suck. They might be better numerically, but by the time someone maths up the bonuses on their wands I have hit them with my staff and look cooler while doing so.

TBH though the only real bonus to using a staff is that you get access to higher damage from bludgeon skills. The bludgeon tree has some useful skills for mages, particularly knockbacks, knockdown, and stuns. But I may be biased as I tend to go for a build that is more RP than trying for OP. I play a druid type character who doesn't mind going toe to toe with foes in leather armor and a couple of bludgeon attacks in my rotation.

I find the playstyle quite rewarding. Though I do recommend a gap closer on lock if you do go for a mix of bludgeon and magic. Blink or Engage Opponent come to mind.

 

Unless you play in a group almost all of the time, don't go Light Armor/Ranged, you'll just be disappointed.

 

It depends really what you want your primary damage source to be. If you want to dabble with melee and magic as a more or less equal hybrid, melee weapon mainhand / wand offhand works well, or, a 2h staff for the utility of bludgeon skills but also caster bonuses to boost your magic / attunement, with the appropriate enchants. You'll never hit as hard - with either magic or melee - as someone who is purely specialized for 1 or the other, but its a very satisfying solo build for beating on things and will get the job done in most T5s.