Dagger/Wand

[MrEvil]

Hello
I would like to ask if playing with the dagger/wand build makes sense. I would like to be able to heal but also be able to play open world and farm solo. Does this build have the right to be a useful healer for the team?

[NZTrooper74]

I've not used dagger so can't speak to that combo... wand will give you the heals, but for open world and farming solo then something like staff/wand or bow/wand work well.
I'm using Wand/staff and enjoying it, solo , open world , farm solo , solo carefully in dungeons as well and you can do the co-op dungeons as well fine , haven't had any issues with not being welcome in party as wand/staff.
Are you just starting ? or just changing to new weapon choice?

[Wendrig]

yes, its an viable Build, and even great in PVP as sleep Bomber.

[MrEvil]

Will I be able to play the role of a full healer in coop dungeon? I would like to play dagger/wand but I am afraid that I will be useless in party pve

[Tensu]

Originally posted by MrEvil:

Will I be able to play the role of a full healer in coop dungeon? I would like to play dagger/wand but I am afraid that I will be useless in party pve

It is viable but if your plan is pure PvE there are better combos like wand/bow. If you wanna pvp it is good and still viable for pve. The current pve content is more or less a joke so any group with ok gear can do them.

[Quiet]

just make a preset for open world and coop. i think there might be some mana issue in coop tho cuz dagger and wand burns mana pretty fast . then again depends on your build.most of the time if your team mechanics sucks u would be healing most of the time too instead of dps-ing.Just play whatever u like tho.Can always opt for dps role and be a secondary healer.

[Ronaldinio]

It's top 3-4 pvp classes in the game, solo pve u can do fine but in coop dungeons, a lot of people don't accept you either as a healer or as a dps. I was playing it for 70 hours before swapping to something else.
The class is good but a lot of people don't understand how the build works and think it's troll.

[MrEvil]

and will bow/wand do better than dagger/wand in farm aoe or are they comparable in solo?

[Tirthak]

Dagger/wand player reporting in, can confirm/elaborate above points.

1) Solo farm (AoE) is perfectly fine, just requires a bit getting used to - pull the largest stack you can manage, spread curses and poison, boom curse explosion (everything wiped in +-5s). Right now i have 18s cd on curse explosion, so it's 12s of pulling/kiting the fattest stack i can get in that time, doing 2 rotations (5s cd) of dagger cleave to apply poison, the rest of curses in between and finaly deleting the stack with grand finale curse explosion.

2) Group play - you will experience some meta prejudice when trying to apply for party, as you are neither healer nor dps. That is balanced by other occasions, where you can be seen as both healer and dps. I use another setup for "true healer" where i use mostly wand skills, but dagger poison-thunderbligt and poison armor pierce passive - where bow buffs party, dagger debuffs target.

3) PvP - this thing rocks, you're mobile, elusive, can stack dagger invis and lequirus tome invis, turn useless mana into precious hp, sing lullabies all day. The only con is you don't get to wield a greatsword. The pro is if you can pop blessed barrier on yourself before they start their dumb combo, you WILL survive it, you WILL instaheal to full and then you get to enjoy what that did to their psyche.

4) Mana - dagger wand is mana hungry as all hell, you will have to deal with it. Thankfully there are some options:
Solo play - perfect dagger block
Group play - healing circle with mana restore spec + selfless soul passive; if you know the fight, can also stand next to tank for aoe fury attacks to get perfect blocks
Prolonged PvP - abuse invis to get a second to chug milk
I don't reccomend sacrificing trait/gear/food slot for mana regen, it seems ramping up regen does nearly nothing compared to above methods, go hard for crit+critdmg and get healing numbers bow and staff healers can only dream about.

[MrEvil]

Thank you for your comprehensive answers. You helped me a lot. I wonder why people play this set so rarely. I'm most afraid that I won't find a party for coop dungeon because I don't play wand/bow/staf

[Coplann]

Originally posted by Tirthak:

Dagger/wand player reporting in, can confirm/elaborate above points.

1) Solo farm (AoE) is perfectly fine, just requires a bit getting used to - pull the largest stack you can manage, spread curses and poison, boom curse explosion (everything wiped in +-5s). Right now i have 18s cd on curse explosion, so it's 12s of pulling/kiting the fattest stack i can get in that time, doing 2 rotations (5s cd) of dagger cleave to apply poison, the rest of curses in between and finaly deleting the stack with grand finale curse explosion.

2) Group play - you will experience some meta prejudice when trying to apply for party, as you are neither healer nor dps. That is balanced by other occasions, where you can be seen as both healer and dps. I use another setup for "true healer" where i use mostly wand skills, but dagger poison-thunderbligt and poison armor pierce passive - where bow buffs party, dagger debuffs target.

3) PvP - this thing rocks, you're mobile, elusive, can stack dagger invis and lequirus tome invis, turn useless mana into precious hp, sing lullabies all day. The only con is you don't get to wield a greatsword. The pro is if you can pop blessed barrier on yourself before they start their dumb combo, you WILL survive it, you WILL instaheal to full and then you get to enjoy what that did to their psyche.

4) Mana - dagger wand is mana hungry as all hell, you will have to deal with it. Thankfully there are some options:
Solo play - perfect dagger block
Group play - healing circle with mana restore spec + selfless soul passive; if you know the fight, can also stand next to tank for aoe fury attacks to get perfect blocks
Prolonged PvP - abuse invis to get a second to chug milk
I don't reccomend sacrificing trait/gear/food slot for mana regen, it seems ramping up regen does nearly nothing compared to above methods, go hard for crit+critdmg and get healing numbers bow and staff healers can only dream about.

pretty much. also stigma is a 2nd way for aoe bombing and from my experience hits harder than curse bomb. also instant cooldown refresh on kill. :)

groups who know the pros of dagger/wand know you bring great damage to the table while also increasing the damage of everyone else (Curses and but also thounderclouds and passives that remove defence from enemies you crit). Having a heal and/or barrier and/or smoke screen can also help in tight situations in coop-dungeons. People are so busy with their cooldowns and mechanics they probably never notice. Thats the bad part about not having a combat log. My favourite passive is actually from Wand that makes damaging cursed opponents heal by a percentage of the damage. Its basically a flexible heal over time and beats regeneration imho. Especially in PvP when poison stops regeneration completely.

[Coplann]

Originally posted by Coplann:

Originally posted by Tirthak:

Dagger/wand player reporting in, can confirm/elaborate above points.

1) Solo farm (AoE) is perfectly fine, just requires a bit getting used to - pull the largest stack you can manage, spread curses and poison, boom curse explosion (everything wiped in +-5s). Right now i have 18s cd on curse explosion, so it's 12s of pulling/kiting the fattest stack i can get in that time, doing 2 rotations (5s cd) of dagger cleave to apply poison, the rest of curses in between and finaly deleting the stack with grand finale curse explosion.

2) Group play - you will experience some meta prejudice when trying to apply for party, as you are neither healer nor dps. That is balanced by other occasions, where you can be seen as both healer and dps. I use another setup for "true healer" where i use mostly wand skills, but dagger poison-thunderbligt and poison armor pierce passive - where bow buffs party, dagger debuffs target.

3) PvP - this thing rocks, you're mobile, elusive, can stack dagger invis and lequirus tome invis, turn useless mana into precious hp, sing lullabies all day. The only con is you don't get to wield a greatsword. The pro is if you can pop blessed barrier on yourself before they start their dumb combo, you WILL survive it, you WILL instaheal to full and then you get to enjoy what that did to their psyche.

4) Mana - dagger wand is mana hungry as all hell, you will have to deal with it. Thankfully there are some options:
Solo play - perfect dagger block
Group play - healing circle with mana restore spec + selfless soul passive; if you know the fight, can also stand next to tank for aoe fury attacks to get perfect blocks
Prolonged PvP - abuse invis to get a second to chug milk
I don't reccomend sacrificing trait/gear/food slot for mana regen, it seems ramping up regen does nearly nothing compared to above methods, go hard for crit+critdmg and get healing numbers bow and staff healers can only dream about.

pretty much. also stigma is a 2nd way for aoe bombing and from my experience hits harder than curse bomb. also instant cooldown refresh on kill. :)

groups who know the pros of dagger/wand know you bring great damage to the table while also increasing the damage of everyone else (Curses and but also thounderclouds and passives that remove defence from enemies you crit). Having a heal and/or barrier and/or smoke screen can also help in tight situations in coop-dungeons. People are so busy with their cooldowns and mechanics they probably never notice. Thats the bad part about not having a combat log. My favourite passive is actually from Wand that makes damaging cursed opponents heal by a percentage of the damage. Its basically a flexible heal over time and beats regeneration imho. Especially in PvP when poison stops regeneration completely.

edit: one more thing

I actually use Wand defensive skill over dagger, because it is easier to use (longer def-window), spreads curses to enemies and if perfectly timed allows to heal yourself and the group for free basically because it on tops regenerates endurance and increases mana regeneration. dagger returns mana and if perfectly timed you can throw poisoned daggers or turn invisible for 3 seconds. try both and decide for yourself

[[LZ]Icy]

Try staff and wand , unlimited mana , full ranged , faster cooldown speeds

[MrEvil]

in the dagger/wand combination I like the mobility and the ability to disappear when it gets hot. Staff is probably faster to farm solo but it doesn't have such mobility

[Sunblade]

its simple: you want to be unkillable -> paladin build sword shield + wand
you want to do range dps and have insane dmg, heals and mana regen -> longbow + staff
you want pvp -> greatsword and whatever

yes you can take wand but dont go fullhealer, since its useless as heal if you play offheal dps

[Frankelot]

Originally posted by MrEvil:

Hello
I would like to ask if playing with the dagger/wand build makes sense. I would like to be able to heal but also be able to play open world and farm solo. Does this build have the right to be a useful healer for the team?

I've been a daggers+wand user since the start, and for me it's what I like.
Both weapons synergize with each other due to the damage over time effects (curses from wands and poison from daggers), you can aoe with both weapons (very useful for grinding contracts at lv 50) and you have excellent survival due to the healing from wand. The passive vampiric contract from wand is nuts with daggers, because when you curse a target and have vampiric contract you (or a party member near the cursed target) heal a % of the damage you do on that cursed target, and daggers hit really fast so you see constant mini heals if you keep the curse up.
While you won't see the "big damage" numbers full dps classes do, you still deal fair enough damage (and actually do damage on bosses when everyone else can't for a moment, because they have to evade boss mechanics, due to your dots still dealing damage on the boss during that time). And with experienced people you can still support your party with your healing (if you've upgraded your heals).

[edit] I forgot to mention that with the daggers' defense skill you recover mana when you block a fury attack, so mana is not a big issue for this combo either.