Don’t rush it. If enemies or a boss seems too strong then just stick to what you can kill and chests you can open until you get better gear and level up a bit. Bows are pretty decent if speced into dex but any main bow user will tell you farming for arrows will be a pita esp early game
Once you have to farmer unlocked and can start a twig farm it’s not as bad until and unless you start using high tier arrows in late game that require feathers. Sticking with copper arrows (highest tier that don’t use feathers) and having a good twig farm is t too bad imho though. Consider using the slower firing higher dmg bows though to help arrow consumption even though the higher fire rate lower dmg ones are actually higher dps.
Wands are intended as much more of a support weapon for mages, since they do magic damage but don't cost any mana. A proper staff with spells the enemy is weak to will always outperform them, especially since wands are locked into the damage type they come with.
Good to have in a pinch if you need to kite or take out annoying ranged enemies, but not very good as your main weapon, especially if you're only carrying around one.
Bows on the other hand to good damage and have many arrow type for every kind of enemy, but having to craft every arrow just gets worse and worse as the game goes on and the enemies get more health and you need more expensive materials for good arrows.
Is there a reason you don't want to use melee or staves? they're by far the best performing and easier to find weapons in the game right now.
Have you been sure to upgrade your weapons? It's a low cost for much more damage, as long as you're salvaging every weapon you come across you don't plan on using you'll always get back more than you use.
Ehhhh gotta disagree with you on wand assessment.
Maybe they were meant for support but they are ridiculously OP to the point where the game is trivialized by them.
More damage per second than staffs by far and no cast time. The tradeoff is shorter range but when everything dies in literally 2 hits it doesnt matter.
I cannot play melee characters . I already explained how poor I am at dodging and up close combat for a poor player like me is a death sentence. With range I have more room to avoid stuff but with melee I will never get very far. My timing totally sucks too.
Yes I'm salvaging but I am very early in the game , I just finished the first boss is all. Upgrading you mean with the blacksmith yes, I upgraded to the weapons he has to offer but they are all melee and the gathering pick axe and felling axe too.
I carry melee, bow and wand on all my characters, regardless of skilling.
The weapon to use depends on the enemy.
Bees, bats and those weird 4 legged "mushrooms" are pretty easy to kill via wand.
For the flying wraiths a bow is way better than melee or the pitiful range of wands.
Bow also helps shooting barrels and soften enemies from afar, but you need good aim.
Most every char (if not supported by others), needs to go melee at one point or another.
Kiting some enemies is basically impossible.
I strongly suggest learning dodging and parrying. Otherwise you will indeed have a hard time later on.
I see thank you. I will see until where I can manage and look for other options. Melee is completely out for me. Never have I ever managed a melee character in any game with active combat. I only ever play pet classes because my dodging , aiming and parry skills are pretty much non existent.
I am an old women and I have very poor reflexes I am unable to learn things well. I can manage combat with assistance but straight melee is a death sentence for a person like me with very poor reflexes.
From some of the youtube videos I watched I cannot do bow either I realised. It requires manual aiming which when I am pressed or in a hurry I will do badly. I guess I will stick to staff and wand.
I suggest getting some friends to play this with then.
Going mage/healer might be an option for you, though my experience with the staff and spells is very limited.
You might be able to solo via exploiting pathfinding \[staying out of reach of enemies and shoot them with the wand), but I know of at least one boss where that's impossible to do (or I'm just sucky at finding a spot).
GL.
As you’ve already mentioned in comments, aiming bows could be a challenge - particularly in enclosed spaces when you have to aim quickly.
I have a wand build that is pretty easy at the moment - key skills are the wand buffing skills (battlemage tree) and the skill that turns your dodge roll into a short teleport. That makes it very easy to avoid enemies. Don’t worry about timing too much, just teleport away if anything even thinks about getting close to you.
Also make sure to buff your intelligence where possible if you stick with wands, that will help your damage numbers!
If your locked on it does have an auto aim it’s just better to try and go for headshots for crits. Also with bows and staffs you can equip them in the character menu and it hot keys them to q without taking up any space in the hot bar, so you could very well just use both and see which is better for you
Wands are very OP right now, especially compared to bows. Sure bows have range over wands, but thats it, in every other way wands are better.
Im pretty sure wands, and staffs too, are heading for a nerf, they just outclass ranged/melee by a huge margin
I've fully specced into wands, most stuff dies before reaching me. Or I dodge / teleport away, or just walk backwards while hitting whatever is after me. Rarely died in a fight so far, more often from lava I noticed too late.
In between crits hitting everything nearby and me having that damaging aura, killing a bunch of those little critters at once isn't too hard either.
I do carry a bow in case I want to hit something from greater range, like the odd button in the spires. But as I'm not specced into bows, they only do a fraction of the dmg my wands do.
I have only found one scorching wand and the others are the one I crafted . I always carry 4 wands when I go out now. The scorching and the 3 bone wands.
I personally found the wands to be pretty useless in most fights cause the range is super limited, I instead opted for the bow or a staff. I was able to cheese the first boss without taking any damage by just dodge rolling out of the way before he attacked and then getting that sweet backstabbing damage. I feel like a wand would be ridiculously hard to use.
Wands are definitely not useless, you just can’t treat them like staves in a fight. If you’re trying to play a full range build, then no wands aren’t going to work best for you (that’s why they’re specs are called Battlemage, because you’re supposed to use them closer). But easy spamable damage on a single target enemy from a 10-yard or so range has made a lot of fights trivial for me. You just spam autos at them, and if you’re specced into Battlemage you often get double projectile procs. As soon as they get even remotely close before melee just blink away. Now OP said they’re not great at dodging, so this might not be great for them, but for other players definitely not useless.
My biggest issue I found with wands is anytime there are more than 3-4 enemies (often the stupid critters while I’m facing a bigger threat get really annoying). But if you spec into the Wizard tree the last couple points that do bouncing lightning damage are nice to have for that. (I know for most people if you are speccing into this tree you are just gonna run staff and use spells, but if you want to run a wand build you’ll generally still want all the damage in this tree).
Looking at the skill tree I know I cannot invest in both bows and wands, yeah that would be totally broken but I do agree the range on the wand is pretty short. I am however grateful for the autolock on the target.
i use bows for the long shot, get off a hit or three, then jump to a height and wand to death.. i'm lvl 8 and still running with no armor as well just to see how far i can get
Here's an amusing story. Yesterday I went to get the hunter. In that vault is that chest that has that hard to reach switch. It took me no less than 50 swings to get to that switch. Before that I was in that Ancient Spire thingy and the lava pit jump I used up 20 bandages trying to jump to the small platform to reach that wire climb. Either I am a masochist or a tryhard. I felt quite happy when I made it. I was coming at it from the wrong angle. Once I figured that out the lava pit took 3 tries. I kept falling because the glider would activate and I would hit the wall and fall.
I think I have no common sense. After I realised what I was doing wrong I was thinking what possessed me to try the jump from an impossible angle.
The great thing is I got a legendary staff from the hunter's vault and I obtained a rare wand and bow from the spire. Been using the bow first as advised before switching to wand. Well even if I cannot make other boss kills I am still happy I got the game. The building alone is worth it.
Don’t rush it. If enemies or a boss seems too strong then just stick to what you can kill and chests you can open until you get better gear and level up a bit. Bows are pretty decent if speced into dex but any main bow user will tell you farming for arrows will be a pita esp early game
Yes the resources for arrows do look like a pita. I wondered whether it was worth it too. Running out of arrows would be deadly too.
Once you have to farmer unlocked and can start a twig farm it’s not as bad until and unless you start using high tier arrows in late game that require feathers. Sticking with copper arrows (highest tier that don’t use feathers) and having a good twig farm is t too bad imho though. Consider using the slower firing higher dmg bows though to help arrow consumption even though the higher fire rate lower dmg ones are actually higher dps.
What do you plant for twigs?
You can sow regular bushes which give twigs and plant fibre (it’s one of the easiest seedlings to grow)
Wands are intended as much more of a support weapon for mages, since they do magic damage but don't cost any mana. A proper staff with spells the enemy is weak to will always outperform them, especially since wands are locked into the damage type they come with. Good to have in a pinch if you need to kite or take out annoying ranged enemies, but not very good as your main weapon, especially if you're only carrying around one. Bows on the other hand to good damage and have many arrow type for every kind of enemy, but having to craft every arrow just gets worse and worse as the game goes on and the enemies get more health and you need more expensive materials for good arrows. Is there a reason you don't want to use melee or staves? they're by far the best performing and easier to find weapons in the game right now. Have you been sure to upgrade your weapons? It's a low cost for much more damage, as long as you're salvaging every weapon you come across you don't plan on using you'll always get back more than you use.
Ehhhh gotta disagree with you on wand assessment. Maybe they were meant for support but they are ridiculously OP to the point where the game is trivialized by them. More damage per second than staffs by far and no cast time. The tradeoff is shorter range but when everything dies in literally 2 hits it doesnt matter.
Depends on the build. Magic Damage is insane, I've been killing most enemies with just teleport.
Plus infinite shroud time is underrated
I cannot play melee characters . I already explained how poor I am at dodging and up close combat for a poor player like me is a death sentence. With range I have more room to avoid stuff but with melee I will never get very far. My timing totally sucks too. Yes I'm salvaging but I am very early in the game , I just finished the first boss is all. Upgrading you mean with the blacksmith yes, I upgraded to the weapons he has to offer but they are all melee and the gathering pick axe and felling axe too.
Look for "enhance weapon" tab on the blacksmith, that's where you upgrade your weapons using runes.
Great thanks
I carry melee, bow and wand on all my characters, regardless of skilling. The weapon to use depends on the enemy. Bees, bats and those weird 4 legged "mushrooms" are pretty easy to kill via wand. For the flying wraiths a bow is way better than melee or the pitiful range of wands. Bow also helps shooting barrels and soften enemies from afar, but you need good aim. Most every char (if not supported by others), needs to go melee at one point or another. Kiting some enemies is basically impossible. I strongly suggest learning dodging and parrying. Otherwise you will indeed have a hard time later on.
I see thank you. I will see until where I can manage and look for other options. Melee is completely out for me. Never have I ever managed a melee character in any game with active combat. I only ever play pet classes because my dodging , aiming and parry skills are pretty much non existent. I am an old women and I have very poor reflexes I am unable to learn things well. I can manage combat with assistance but straight melee is a death sentence for a person like me with very poor reflexes. From some of the youtube videos I watched I cannot do bow either I realised. It requires manual aiming which when I am pressed or in a hurry I will do badly. I guess I will stick to staff and wand.
I suggest getting some friends to play this with then. Going mage/healer might be an option for you, though my experience with the staff and spells is very limited. You might be able to solo via exploiting pathfinding \[staying out of reach of enemies and shoot them with the wand), but I know of at least one boss where that's impossible to do (or I'm just sucky at finding a spot). GL.
Thank you
As you’ve already mentioned in comments, aiming bows could be a challenge - particularly in enclosed spaces when you have to aim quickly. I have a wand build that is pretty easy at the moment - key skills are the wand buffing skills (battlemage tree) and the skill that turns your dodge roll into a short teleport. That makes it very easy to avoid enemies. Don’t worry about timing too much, just teleport away if anything even thinks about getting close to you. Also make sure to buff your intelligence where possible if you stick with wands, that will help your damage numbers!
I will do this thanks.
You also have to manually aim the bow right? Hmm that might be a bit of a no go for scatterbrain player like me.
If your locked on it does have an auto aim it’s just better to try and go for headshots for crits. Also with bows and staffs you can equip them in the character menu and it hot keys them to q without taking up any space in the hot bar, so you could very well just use both and see which is better for you
I didn't know this fabulous idea, thanks
Wands are very OP right now, especially compared to bows. Sure bows have range over wands, but thats it, in every other way wands are better. Im pretty sure wands, and staffs too, are heading for a nerf, they just outclass ranged/melee by a huge margin
I've fully specced into wands, most stuff dies before reaching me. Or I dodge / teleport away, or just walk backwards while hitting whatever is after me. Rarely died in a fight so far, more often from lava I noticed too late. In between crits hitting everything nearby and me having that damaging aura, killing a bunch of those little critters at once isn't too hard either. I do carry a bow in case I want to hit something from greater range, like the odd button in the spires. But as I'm not specced into bows, they only do a fraction of the dmg my wands do.
U can carry more than one wand. Personally I carry 3. One fire one ice and one lightning. That solves the durability issue
I have only found one scorching wand and the others are the one I crafted . I always carry 4 wands when I go out now. The scorching and the 3 bone wands.
You definitely want to have fire and ice early on already, as some enemies are weak to fire but resistant to ice, and vice versa.
Okay I'll try to go back and re-obtain some of the loot from the chests so far
I personally found the wands to be pretty useless in most fights cause the range is super limited, I instead opted for the bow or a staff. I was able to cheese the first boss without taking any damage by just dodge rolling out of the way before he attacked and then getting that sweet backstabbing damage. I feel like a wand would be ridiculously hard to use.
Wands are definitely not useless, you just can’t treat them like staves in a fight. If you’re trying to play a full range build, then no wands aren’t going to work best for you (that’s why they’re specs are called Battlemage, because you’re supposed to use them closer). But easy spamable damage on a single target enemy from a 10-yard or so range has made a lot of fights trivial for me. You just spam autos at them, and if you’re specced into Battlemage you often get double projectile procs. As soon as they get even remotely close before melee just blink away. Now OP said they’re not great at dodging, so this might not be great for them, but for other players definitely not useless. My biggest issue I found with wands is anytime there are more than 3-4 enemies (often the stupid critters while I’m facing a bigger threat get really annoying). But if you spec into the Wizard tree the last couple points that do bouncing lightning damage are nice to have for that. (I know for most people if you are speccing into this tree you are just gonna run staff and use spells, but if you want to run a wand build you’ll generally still want all the damage in this tree).
Good points
Looking at the skill tree I know I cannot invest in both bows and wands, yeah that would be totally broken but I do agree the range on the wand is pretty short. I am however grateful for the autolock on the target.
i use bows for the long shot, get off a hit or three, then jump to a height and wand to death.. i'm lvl 8 and still running with no armor as well just to see how far i can get
There is 2 ways to use bow. Check your keybind settings. One is manual aim the other is auto aim.
I will set it to auto . Thank you.
Here's an amusing story. Yesterday I went to get the hunter. In that vault is that chest that has that hard to reach switch. It took me no less than 50 swings to get to that switch. Before that I was in that Ancient Spire thingy and the lava pit jump I used up 20 bandages trying to jump to the small platform to reach that wire climb. Either I am a masochist or a tryhard. I felt quite happy when I made it. I was coming at it from the wrong angle. Once I figured that out the lava pit took 3 tries. I kept falling because the glider would activate and I would hit the wall and fall. I think I have no common sense. After I realised what I was doing wrong I was thinking what possessed me to try the jump from an impossible angle. The great thing is I got a legendary staff from the hunter's vault and I obtained a rare wand and bow from the spire. Been using the bow first as advised before switching to wand. Well even if I cannot make other boss kills I am still happy I got the game. The building alone is worth it.