Why did we remove magic wands from the game?

Dont tell me a stick i smack something with is a wand -- it isn't.
i can understand if you removed all the magic types and just made one imbued wand for some cast-on-the-run stuff.. but why get rid of them altogether? Those things were very useful to my people...

I think not enough people said they were useful.

I did say that I thought they had uses up to about T4 and asked that one type be retained.

Since the new wands can proc on spell casting I think they will be more useful for T4 upwards.

I know I keep on one hand being a monk my raid utility is questionable (If there are AoE's flying especially) so if need be I can go completely ranged and cast Fireballs between throwing knives I Even have that Shield of the magi.

It would have to be a Pick-up raid however.

Given the insanely long cast times of the clicky the old wands were very limited in practical use. New wands are a far better choice, the proc is always there, instead of giving up the imbued proc for a clicky that was used very seldomly by most players.
Re Magic.. the Magic is in your spell book, not the stick.

The people who bought wands from me were more concerned with how pretty the clicky effect was, it was just too long a cast. The new Blessed imbue looks like a good one for casters.

Pfffft, pvp I used the clicky wands quite often. Chasing is the most often used time for them. 1v1 comes in 2nd - OOP FTL.
There's lots on the tip of my tongue, but pffft won't get censored.

Zabjade wrote:

The delay on a throwing weapon is generally less than 2 seconds. If I am remembering correctly, the casting time on a wand was like 6 seconds. With no haste effect, your still loosing at least 3 throws per click. I think using your clicky wand is costing you DPS, not increasing it.
The only use I ever found for these wands was as an opening nuke. Every class I've played has a better opening shot (like oh say root or a debfuff) so I stopped using wands all together.
Maybe having one wand returned would be good though.

I can see the arguement on a "free" nuke, meaning it didn't cost you power and it didn't cost you coin to maintain stacks of whatever throwing item. But seriously I am more then glad they went away cause like alot of folks are posting they are just not used alot except for maybe some corner cases. NOW what we have is much more desireable and actually useful. For the PvP concern I guess you need to start stocking up on throwing items now. /shrug they still work just fine.

Bozidar wrote:

I guess I can think of two or three times I used the nuke off of a wand. All involved lower level characters who had ran out of ammo, didn't really have another way to do a long range pull, and thus I used the wand to do the ranged pull. Mind you, I don't play many casters but that's the only time I ever used it.
As for "a stick you smack something with", well if you put a blessed imbue on a wand, you're not using it as a "stick to smack things with" for it's proc to work. The blessed proc works off of spells cast, not hitting someone. So, although it's your spells activating the wand, and the proc is a bonus to spell damage and healing, not a nuke, you still aren't smacking something to get a blessed imbue wand or any other item with the blessing imbue to proc.
As for PvP, I can't comment since I don't have any characters on a PvP server, past saying given how long it took to cast something from one of the wands, the only thing I could see it being useful for is a single sniper shot..but maybe that shows exactly what I just said, I don't play PvP and thus don't know the possible uses for the wand's nuke in a PvP setting.

Ohiv wrote:

Being as you are a Fury (my new PvP main is a Warden), maybe you could give me some suggestions on which throwing weapons work best for Druids?
Actually several of my PvP toons favorite piece of equipment and the first I buy at lvl x2 is an imbued wand. Many battles come down to POWER ...and it is nice to have a free nuke when both you and your enemy is out of power. My coercer, my Necro, my warlock, my Warden, even my Bruiser who has great throwing weapons all have imbued wands and use them excessively in PvP. The other great PvP use for them is they can be cast when running, giving casters and healers the ability to do some damage on the move. This is the first "I" hear of them being removed from the game? In my humble opinion, this will be a large advantage given to the scouts who like to run away if they can't kill you in 3 seconds. If this is correct information, it makes me sad.
Morris of Venekor
Apfro of Nagafen

Meirril wrote:

Nah, they used to get useful for illusionists back before the first expansion: mezz, nuke, mezz, and you got better DPS than with your regular spells at the time

Ive always thought wands were a dissapointment in the game, archetypically they ought to be a big thing for mages and theyve never really been the weapon of choice in any meaningful sense here.. its dagger or staff to be frank.
The new stuff just makes them the equivalent of a secondary/ranged slot item, stats and proc stuff. Primary weapon slot items should, really, be intended to actively USE.
Wands, surely, should be based on casting something from them. Are cast effects so very hard to balance?

I try to keep up with what is going on and upcoming changes and such from reading the forums .....this one I totally MISSED. Of course it was only discussed in about 5 posts in the middle of a 30 page thread. Can we PLEASE have 1 clicky wand for each tier on PvP servers? I don't think many if any PvPers know about this change yet, but as soon as I can get home from work and buy up all the "old wands" that I can afford off the broker, I will post in the PvP forums to get some support on this issue. These wands really are a very valuable and very useful item on PvP servers. With the CC immunities in effect for PvP, the wands are a caster/healer's only means to deal with runners. As I mentioned in my earlier post, removing the clicky wands will hinder those who have no bows/throwing weapons and greatly benefit the hit and run scouts who already seem to have a big advantage.
Morris of Venekor
Apfro of Nagafen

McDade wrote:

My whole point was to use a throwing weapon not really to rate them trying to sway one or the other. Probably the throwing axes would be good /shrug. It's also an awkard movement for me to do a throwing action, I guess i could remap it. Actually I take that back probably the throwing daggers would be better, since it gives you a +10% to hit, and well you probably need all of the +tohit you can get with them. I would stay away from the throwing hammers since they have a penality on the range.

Ohiv wrote:

My issue is I can't seem to find any throwing weapons or any ranged weapon for that matter that can be used by any of my healer or caster toons? The only thing I could ever find that I could do ranged damage on the run was the clicky wands? I was hoping that maybe I was missing something when you suggested throwing weapons and that maybe you knew of one that Druids could equip.
Morris of Venekor
Apfro of Nagafen

exactly.
casters have no ranged weapons to use, free of power use. this was all we had.
In pvp the wands were great. If you were chasing someone down you could just wand them all day till they died or they turned to fight.

Is there any chance we can get these guys back? Dont give us all 12, but can we at least get ONE?

???
I'm confused. Did they remove the recipe for these?
I only ask because my Necro still had his wand as of last night.

Ekuth@Befallen wrote:

They did, there was a whole crafted weapon revamp. But it was this-point-forward, the old items have not been removed from the game but are no longer craftable.

The clicky wands were useful at low levels before classes get their full range of spells.
My fury used one until she got her second nuke (32).
The effects were to weak for the casting time at higher tiers, but they were not completely useless.

McDade wrote:

Well I guess you guys are 1000% correct. I just tried today to see what was up. INORDER to do a ranged attack with any throwing item you have to have the appropriate weapon in place in your range slot (I figured ok basicallyyour trading a wand for a bandolier, pouch, whatever no biggie), BUT only some classes can equip these things!! Hense the problem.
Why are the Sheath's, Bandoliers, and pouchs even restricted in use? I mean seriously if a caster wishs to use it, they are taking a gear hit to do it, and the damage from them from a caster would be so small it's silly but it would alievate this partiqular issue that this thread is spawning.