Best Weapon for a Mage?

[Syrax314]

Playing a mage right now on Lonewolf. Really enjoying it too.

Curious on what would be a good weapon for him. Not really expecting to use the weapon directly, but I imagine that the stats would be important.

1) Staff - Seems like it gets some of the best buffs (Int, Skills, and Spells). Also looks really cool on a human mage (very bad a**)

2) Shield & Wand - Better defense, though I need to add points to Con to use (not a big deal on lone wolf). Since I don't plan to use my weapon too often, not sure if a Wand would be worthwhile or not.

3) Dual Wands - Again, not sure I would use a weapon attack, but there would probably be a good bonus from having to mage based weapons (dual stats)

4) Another idea I didn't mention?


Any opinions from the forums on the 4 choices above? Are there any really good, game changing mage weapons that would help me make this choice?

FYI: Right now I am still in Fort Joy and rocking a really awesome EPIC staff with Int, Geo, and Dodge bonuses. :)

[Carnasid]

Shield and wand. Get enough warfare to make use of deflection and shield throw for some added defense and offense. Shield throw is stupidly powerful once you get to the late game shields, and deflection is good for keeping your mage armored up along with Shields Up.

[Thelolsx o Depravado]

.50

[Ashera]

Once you have enough spells, you will never or very very rarely use the attacks.

Shield+wand is best due to this.

Staff is amazing on a pyro mage, sparking swings and flaming tongues can make for an interesting battlemage, take warfare for skills like whirlwind, blitz etc etc.

Dual wands.... I love dual wands. But theres something odd with them.
Some poison wands leave poison pools where they hit. Some dont.
Some water wands are ice wands, some are water.
These things make wands a hit/miss weapon.

But, poison wand in mainhand + firewand in offhand = 4 sets of numbers per basic attack.
The hit, the poison pool created under them, the fire wand hit, the explosion that results with the poison puddle.

I find dual wands to be the most fun, but on occasion you get an amazing weapon upgrade only to find it shoots ice not water (can't stun with air wand, water you can) or that its poison doesn't leave a puddle.

Wand+shield is the most safe.
I wouldn't ever use a staff unless I were building a pyro battle mage niche build, revolving around things like sparking swings, poison weapon, flaming tongues etc

Another good way to use weapons on your mage, is to give them a weapon with the element that they are not proficient in. You will come across enemies that will make your mage pretty ineffective, e.g. 150% fire resist + 100% poison resist + 80% earth resist.
Well, doesn't that just cuck a pyro/geo mage pretty harshly. Water/air, wand/staff to make use of their -20% water/air resist.

[Corona]

After Runenslot nerf, two Wands, just keep a Shield in your Inventory for a switch. Look for Wands with crit chance, high Int and a Runenslot

[Eddo]

Dual wands can be quite an easy way to apply status effect.

It is especially powerful with air, stunning in 2 hits, which is basically how I got Grog the moment I stepped foot in Reapers Coast. I'm niot sure if water does it with freeze (presume it does). Is useful because of the lack of cooldowns.

I found staves kinda wanting. Mainly because when you need it, it only have 1 cast per turn. When you don't need it, well, a shield is better anyway.

[corisai]

Dual wands for +20% crit and +6 Int from runes.

It's all that you need. Any other combination is inferior.

Originally posted by Ashera:

I find dual wands to be the most fun, but on occasion you get an amazing weapon upgrade only to find it shoots ice not water (can't stun with air wand, water you can) or that its poison doesn't leave a puddle.

Past Fort Joy I never used wands (on mages with 13 memory ) aside from breaking pillars in posessed prisons on Bloodmoon Island.

[Czernobog wants to Rage]

Beware with trying to go a warfare staff user. Knockdowns still only trigger on physical armor shred and you'll only be doing magic damage with your skills including warfare ones.