staff better than wand?

[Felio]

I like being able to shoot with the wand, but it seems like with so many skills basing damage partially off of your weapon, you'd be better off with a big, slow staff with a high per-hit damage. Am I right?

[Tark]

Wands let you use shields and attack from range. Extra armor, extra block, extra stats. Oh, and you can attack from range. You could have a staff as a secondary weapon to switch to when you use said skills but mroe often then not it really isn't necessary.

[intense]

Tark is right. You have two weapon sets so why not use both. You basically can fit it to your play style.

I am dual wielding wants as one helps out with some aoe, so for large groups I can spam my wands and ember lighting (also for barrels). But when these one big guy I sometimes find it faster to beat him with a staff.

Thats just how I am doing it. I am not 100% familiar with how each stat contributes to magic and defense, so I might revise my stragety once i have more familiarity in that area.

[mistwolf]

i suggest using a wand + a shield, it boosts up your survivability, very applicable if you're playing VH

[konfeta]

I agree with the Wand/Shield combo, archers and dashing melee becomes much easier to deal with. Plus, if you get a nice shield with 2 sockets, you can make into a pretty good damage booster with two +4% crit gems.

[Felio]

I don't know, it seems like I cast skills an awful lot. Anything that boosts that is a pretty big deal. And for an Arcane Alchemist, attacking from range isn't exactly a weakness.

I guess you could do both and just switch when you wanted to wand, but it sounds a bit tedious in such a fast-paced game.