So my most recent character had wand lore maxed early. With the skill most wands would use up only 5 entropy every cast , and I was also able to reset any wand I find to 0 entropy. I planned to abuse this thoroughly if it weren't for the fact MY WANDS KEEP FIZZLING OUT AT 5 ENTROPY. Every shiny new wand I found gave me newfound hope that just maybe things will be different this time, and every single time that hope was crushed after two measly casts. After the 5th time I was about to ragedelete my character but a voice of reason convinced me not to. Now my character is doing fine with his other skills but I'm still bitter about my terrible luck with wands. Please share your own experiences so I can feel better about myself.
Yeah, wand affinity seems to be not so useful -- even with only 5 entropy per use you can't rely on a wand to be there when you need it. Right now wand lore seems mostly useful for occasional shots -- recharge the wand down to 0 each time you use it. At least with that they won't ever burn out. It might be interesting to give Wand Lore a buff spell later in the tree that reduces entropy buildup to zero for a limited time (or a fixed number of uses). Basically "Okay, you've invested several skillpoints in this tree, so clearly wands are important to you."
Only wands I keep are Stony, Coral, Zodiacal and Tentacular. Tesla's okay, but not great, Handy is handy if you have no pushback or snare spells, Arcane, Fiery, Rock and Laser are meh, I've used them to save my ass at early levels when I was out of tricks, but past Floor 3 they're not very effective. I get more from vendoring Bling than I would by using it, and Bony is just, "Yay, a Zomby! Aww, he got one-shotted..." Wand Lore is great for healing/debuffing in between rooms, and the Tentacular Wand is an elite-killer (unless you have Necro, in which case you can do it yourself). You can use Stony Wands to great effect to knock items off of islands and create choke-points, but in a combat situation it'll probably burn out before you've created your wall (also made redundant by Golemancy). As the damaging factor of the DPS wands are based on Magic Power, they might be more useful to a caster, but why set one square on fire when you can kill the whole room with higher-tier spells? A few of the wands seem to duplicate utility powers from other skill trees (Tesla=Power of Magic Steel, Stony=Unliving Wall, Tentacular=Eldritch Inhabitation, etc), and that's a great niche for them to fill. I'd like to see a Psionic Healing Crystal wand, a Meatshield wand (if its fixed), a Blinding Flash wand, maybe even a Zenzizenzizenzic or Mark of Cthon or Syzygy wand. Eh, maybe then Wand Lore would be the new OP skill. Just a thought. <3~Fake Edit***: Right after I posted this, I was boxed in by an elite and his six cronies, I ran out of tricks and MP, and killed the leader with a Fiery Wand, which gave me enough mana for a Pact, with which I spanked the rest of them, ending at full health and half mana. So I'll just go put my foot in my mouth. >.<
Wand lore is one of those "great to have, but pointless to level" skill, kinna like astrology. Since lowering the burnout rate does not mean you can afford using the same wand multiple times (unless you got backups) , there are no point of leveling wand lore at all.
Well, one reason is Wand Hack (the wand transmogrification skill). Not really worth 2 points, but it depends on the build. For example, I once had Alchemy 3, Wand Lore 3 and Smithing 5 which gave me easy access to every ingredient for the Flail of Pleiades. Ended up with 10 Flails with various bonuses (some providing resistances that I swapped out as needed).
I was sad to see the BoMD recipe changed for 1.0.5 to use a fiery wand. It's fair... just sad. I used to crank them out like mad. Now I can craft maybe one or two per game. It also gives you a tiny bit of incentive to level up to that skill in wand lore. A good balance, I think.
BoMD is really pretty disappointing. Its ability to tear down the dungeon is nifty, but it doesn't seem to do all that much damage; certainly squidbolts are better for actually dealing damage. Maybe the BoMD should lay down a radiation field or something? Debuff: Radiation Sickness (10 turns, stack up to 4 times). 1 righteous damage/round. Someone forgot to wear their hazmat suit on this dungeon crawl! Icon could be Mr. Eyebrows in Gordon Freeman's environment suit.
Yeah, BoMD are quite underwhelming. I pick and use Bolts of Squid with much more excitement. But that said, what is the measly human capacity for harnessing nuclear power, when compared to the the unfathomable power of the eldritch, tentacled gods which inhabit the void that binds the woldspheres together? Ia, Ia, Ia! Cthugha Ftaghn!
Maybe it's not spitting in my face, but I had to chuckle when the RNG threw this one at me: Valchooie, The Word of Legs This uncomfortable (and rusty) square iron ring is made for beings more angular than yourself. Possibly robots. It is studded with cracked frozen sunlight. Gotta say, that's quite the trick.
I used squid bolts on zoos and BoMD's on random clustered enemies and Dredmor. It was satisfying, at least!
You know what might be cool, if you could craft a new wand using a burnt wand and a gemstone/potion. Arcane = Saphire Bony = ? Coral = Amber Firey = Ruby Handy = ? Rock = ? Stony = Emerald Tentacular = Black Pearl Bling = Solution of Gold Tesla = Voltaic Potion Lazer = Diamond Zodiak = Pyrite Sun But that would give some incentive to have a wand/alchemist character.
Pak = as in Pak Protectors? Chooie = as in Chewbacca?? Did I get you right or am I making everything up????
Ooh! That's the very first Larry Niven/Known Space reference I've seen in decades. People just don't read the classics anymore...
Did you follow the link? It asks the hard questions, like "Are there stairs in your house?" Seriously, though, if you haven't seen the video there, you missed one of the earliest Internet memes.
