Complaint About The Wand

26 replies [Last post]
Kenpachi-Espada

So I just saw The Wand in action and was pretty excited. Until I realized it is WORSE than Nova Driver. It has infinite ammo and roots you in place. I compared it side by side to nova driver, and nova was both faster and allowed you to move around. What's the deal with this? Grey Havens please fix it.

Bamzalot's picture
Bamzalot
The Wand definitely has some draw backs.

A friend of mine was able to acquire one. While I have not used it myself I got to see it in action a little and I have to say it is really disappointing. Maybe that is a good thing though what with it being an exclusive promo weapon. But still, the gimmicks of the wand render it totally pointless when compared with the standard Nova Driver.

+You never need to reload the weapon.
-Standard attacks root you in place.
-The attack speed seems more like that of a Brandish, being slower than the Nova Driver.
-Charge attack swing is significantly slower than simply firing the charge blast of a Nova Driver.

There might be more things that I can't confirm since I have only seen it used and have not personally used it.

I feel like the weapon was designed with the belief that players can not switch shoot. If switch shooting wasn't a thing, then yes. This wand would be a fine alternative for those who value the standard attack and want a more consistent way to fire it. But since we can switch shoot this is instead an exclusive yet slower and less mobile version of a weapon that anyone can get. Again, maybe this is a good thing. But it is still a bummer to those who got the wand.

PS. Everything else in this promo is absolutely glorious. All hail Owlites. And shield costumes bring a tear to my eye. All hail Grey Havens.

EDIT: So just a thought I had, what if this weapon let you do a bit of melee damage to compensate for the loss of mobility and speed? It would make sense with the swinging animation. And the wand certainly looks large enough to be used as a smacking stick if the need were to arise. Maybe this wouldn't make it on par with the Nova Driver but it would at least offer it something unique without rendering the Nova Driver moot in the process.

Rekkusu's picture
Rekkusu
yeah....

I just bought a cool owlite wand and it's kinda disappointing I'd love it if I could strafe while shooting but the locking in place animation makes it really unwieldy in combat which is a shame I really wanted to use it I even bought the matching outfit and shield :c

Tpen-Five-Fun's picture
Tpen-Five-Fun
Is there a chance for the wand to get buffed?

Owlite wand is basically a reskined brandish/calibur that shoots nova driver projectiles. These are its cons:

1.) Its attackspeed is just comparable to brandish swords. A wand with maximum attackspeed is nowhere near as fast as "single-switching" alchemers.

2.) It roots you in place while you are shooting, just like how normal attacks work on MOBA games. You need mobility to redirect the ricochets and immobility means you're more susceptible to get hit.

3.) Its very bland.
- Shooting has no sound effect, Its like the wand is literally augmented with silencer.
- Its projectiles is the same with nova driver. A projectile with different looks would be more fitting.

4.) Long animation before spawning the projectile. Especially its charge attack, it takes like 1 to 1.5 second before spawning the bullet... unlike the alchemers, its almost instantaneous.

These are some options I suggest to improve the wand:

1.) Simplest buff is to allow mobility while shooting, and increase its attackspeed... similar to alchemers.

2.) Or retain the "rooting feature" but add a feature that will back-up its weakness, like...
- Small AoE dmg, Bullets will explode upon impact.
- Chance to inflict random statuses, similar to sealed sword charge, maybe curse status would be good :)
- The wand would shoot random elemental alchemer projectiles (magma, storm, nova, hail)
- Projectiles would travel as fast as antigua shots and ricochets would automatically target the nearest enemy.
- Increase its dmg by 100% to 200%
- The wand would shoot into "burst pattern", like it would shoot 2 or 3 at once.

3.) Or Change the way completely on how the gun works, something that is new and unique (Just like mixmaster and tortofists), instead of 50% nova driver reskin...

Cronus's picture
Cronus
Game Master
We're reviewing the bug

We're reviewing the bug reports related to the wand. Thanks!

Fehzors-Forum-Alt's picture
Fehzors-Forum-Alt

F2
Lol the wand is real bad
Enter

Flowchart's picture
Flowchart

I'd say keep it the way it is, if they're going to keep paywalling new weapons they might as well be bad ones so there isn't another backlash like mixmaster.

Fehzors-Forum-Alt's picture
Fehzors-Forum-Alt

I think that would be a bad decision. They need to make more rare promo weapons.

Bamzalot's picture
Bamzalot
Huzzah!

Praise be to Grey Havens for taking a closer look at the wands. Hopefully bug fixes include gameplay improvements as well. Ideally if the bad functionality isn't a bug to be squashed something will be added to compensate for the low power.

And personally I don't want to see pay walled weapons be more powerful then readily accessible weapons, but I also don't want them to be under powered either. Like all weapons, they should be balanced. Fun, usable, but not something that renders other weapons obsolete.

Holy-Nightmare's picture
Holy-Nightmare
Actually....

I'm still upset about this..... even bad weapons can be fun and there are always chances for changes in the future (Look at the Catalyzers)
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Putting NEW CONTENT behind a paywall is a quick way to make cash but not a good way to keep people playing for the long term
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Everytime I see a Prizebox exclusive weapon, armor, shield it makes me not like this game a little more..... and being honest here.... I love SK and hate seeing it do stuff like this...
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Make the prizebox items reskins of items that are going to be released later to the rest of the playerbase.... the people buying them have access to cool new stuff before everyone else... and once the item is released to the public they STILL have a special skin for it

Fangel's picture
Fangel
got my hands on one

Got my hands on a wand. I want to say that, for a promotional weapon, I think it's fair where it stands. As an owner of an orbitgun, I would much prefer quirky sidegrades to weapons instead of fully fleshed out weapons that put others to shame.

I can't say I'll ever seriously use the wand, however essentially being a turret doesn't feel bad. The only parts that feel weird is the lack of shield canceling and how ASI doesn't seem to affect the wand properly. If players could shield cancel the wand like a brandish and attack speed increases had a more significant effect to the weapon, then I think it would be fair as is without crossing into "exclusive content" territory.

Zero-Chill's picture
Zero-Chill
meow

I didn't really see much wand in action but I did see someone using it in LD as a recon, I thought it was an ASD max blazebrand at first when they were releasing its charge. Honestly the charge takes waaay too long for what it does I suggest changing it to something like the barbarous thorn blade's but instead of thorns it's bullets that can bounce off monsters and walls. It would be cool to add some sound to it as well like some woosh sound or a magical sound.

That said, I actually have no experiences with it myself but I wanna know what Fangel means by saying that it doesn't interact properly with ASI or shield-cancelling. How about its damage? Does it have the same damage as nova driver?

Also, when I heard about a new promo-exclusive weapon coming out the thing I thought first was what Holy-Nightmare said "Make the prizebox items reskins of items that are going to be released later to the rest of the playerbase.... the people buying them have access to cool new stuff before everyone else... and once the item is released to the public they STILL have a special skin for it" I mean it is a FTP game after all, which means that nothing that affects gameplay should be locked behind a paywall, cosmetics already go for ridiculous prices anyway. I'm still waiting for my MSI trinket, celestial vortex, orbitgun and mixer too...

I feel like this could be a reskin to winmillion's 5* maybe we're actually gonna get what we've been asking for for years... Please make it shadow though cause we already have many elemental swords and having a pure shadow sword would be awesome.

Zero-Chill's picture
Zero-Chill
meow

Can someone post a video showing how it exactly works please?

Tpen-Five-Fun's picture
Tpen-Five-Fun
1

I'm sure I'm the recon using the wand there lol, it's so impractical to use that I can mostly get only 2-4k dmg on LD. I might make a video about it later... not sure...maybe....idk...O_O

Bamzalot's picture
Bamzalot
Here's a video demonstration for those interested.

@Zero-Chill

You were not the only one asking for this, so I figured I would go ahead and make a short video to demonstrate the wand in a guild training hall. Nothing professionally made or super in depth of course, but hopefully this gives people a good idea of what the wands are like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtPdeZRRLkw&t

Sir-Pandabear's picture
Sir-Pandabear

Did you check if it's affected by sword bonuses, seeing as gun bonuses don't work? That'd give the wand sort of a use as a swordsman's sidearm.

Bamzalot's picture
Bamzalot
Yes I did

Checked it out with both swords and bombs to see if for some reason the bonuses were taken from those instead of guns. That was not the case however. Only universal bonuses affect the wands.

Tpen-Five-Fun's picture
Tpen-Five-Fun
Hi, is there still a chance

Hi, is there still a chance for improvement?

I really think that wand is already ok on the eyes of the devs after those fixes, but its still not that worth to sub nova driver (Even if the user can't single switch)
The only advantage of the wand over nova is its faster charge time, but the draw-back is there's a short pause (will root you in place) before throwing the projectile which just made it worse in my opinion.

Also, I compared the old wand and the patched ASI H wand's attackspeed... there's no difference. Both of them still did 14 shots in 10 seconds.
For now, the wand is really not worth it... that even a sidearm handgun Argent Peacemaker would do the sweepings better than the DPSer wand.

When compared to nova:

+ Faster charge time
- Short pause and roots you in place, doesn't even allow you to adjust your aim. (charge attack)
- You can't pull out shield immediately while shooting, this would make you vulnerable while...unlike nova.
- Its normal attack's attackspeed is slow, a nova without single-switching could be better... and single-switching nova would easily beat it in both offense and defense.
- Shielding during single-switching on nova provides some sort of minor defense, and you can't do this with the wand.

My last suggestion for the wand is to allow the user to move and aim freely during the short pause of its charge attack.

Or maybe change its charge attack similar to Sealed Sword's charge attack, but with larger AoE ... magic circles would fit for its theme. And would be a good support weapon.

Tpen-Five-Fun's picture
Tpen-Five-Fun
Not losing hope, also for illuminating ward and piggy banker.

Necro'ed... Still not losing hope for a slight wand buff :)

For the illuminating ward

When not in use on haven, it should be held just like power mitt and teddy buckler. I spent 7ke on this, and I felt that it's wasted. o_o

Piggy banker improvement? please

I don't have one but I might buy someday(if improved)...
From what I heard from other ppls... This is one of the worst reskins.

My suggestion is: It might be better if it produce an "oink" sound when it denotates, just like the pig drakon reskin.

Fehzors-Forum-Alt's picture
Fehzors-Forum-Alt

To be honest I'd really like it if the piggy banker was just swapped to a different bomb.

Ash of Agni already has great reskins- you've got the mugs and pot of crowns. But look at the bombs that lack a reskin- Nitronome, Dark Briar, Dark Retribution, 5/6 shard bombs, stagger storm, torpor tantrum, irontech destroyer... that's a lot of great options to choose from, since the model doesn't really indicate any particular type of explosive.

Tpen-Five-Fun's picture
Tpen-Five-Fun
Blasters and alchemer reskins

Blasters and alchemer reskins would be nice though, also wintergrave, pepperbox, and plague needle... and winmillion

Tpen-Five-Fun's picture
Tpen-Five-Fun
bump :3

bump :3

Still have hopes...

Fehzors-Forum-Alt's picture
Fehzors-Forum-Alt

For the wand or for piggy banker?

Tpen-Five-Fun's picture
Tpen-Five-Fun
^ both, also... illuminating

^ both, also... illuminating ward

Tpen-Five-Fun's picture
Tpen-Five-Fun
Srry for necro, not losing hope.

About the patch, "owlite wand's firing speed increase"

https://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/121603
The last patch for the wand firing speed buff was a fail and never got fixed again . when I counted how much shots it can do in 10 sec, there's no difference... I have a video as a proof btw.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWmfn9pH2Iw (Both with ASI High did only 14 shots/10 sec)

The patch was meant to improve the wand but the fix for the firing speed is a fail, I think it might have something to do with wand's "sword swing-like" animation.

What if instead of improving firing speed, how about change it's almost useless charge attack similar to sealed sword's charge attack (magic circle)? But ofcourse larger AoE.

P.S. Is there a reason on "D25 "King of Ashes", D25, the room on the left side where there's 2 trojans... The slags have massive defense and attack dmg.

Thats-Rough-Buddy's picture
Thats-Rough-Buddy
I used the owlite wand, it

I used the owlite wand, it actually seems pretty balanced. The firing speed is just fine when coupled with the comparably fast movement speed during the firing animation (compared to other guns). The charge attack is fine as well, since it charges catalyer-speed, and the pre-shot delay isn't too bad (though I understand you have relatively ping, so it may be a different story on your end). Strangely though, the wand doesn't seem to scale too well with ASI UVs, but the lack of reloading is quite a decent buff.

The nova driver is still the superior weapon if you can single switch and don't lag, but as far as reskins go, the wand is quite competent and doesn't really need improvement.

Tpen-Five-Fun's picture
Tpen-Five-Fun
Almost forgot about this post

Almost forgot about this post lol....
Ok tbh since from the start, I'm slightly against firing speed buff for improving wand... ok I give up on dmg and firing speed buff.

I just have another idea for improving wand, to atleast make it a better utility gun.
Nova Driver's pure dmg is sometimes less useful imo.

1.) Using pickable vials or barriers while wielding the wand would change it's dmg type/status.

Fire vial/barrier = magma driver bullets.
Curse vial = umbra driver bullets.
Shock vial/barrier = storm driver bullets.
Freeze vial/barrier = hail driver bullets.
poison vial/barrier = weaker umbra driver bullets but can inflict poison.
stun vial = nova driver bullets

2.) What if it's charge attack is similar to 3* sealed sword charge.