For a pure spell caster what type of runestaff would you recommend?

[muyakslayer]

I have a Wiz that starting out. Right now is lvl12 halfling and blasts away.

Right now i own a 4X plus mana flares. I like that but i can tell that once i gain a few more levels that extra mana really won't be useful.

The idea of Acuity flares but are they better than damage flares?

I would think VOID flares or Disintegration would fit my character that likes to blow things up...even Fire or Lightning.

I am sure there are some strong opinions on this subject.....

[Whirlin]

Mathematically, damage flares are better than acuity flares about 90% of the time.

Damage:

Lets look at it this way. We know the damage factors on the spells: We'll use .15 for 901, and .666 for 906.
With a 4x Acuity Flare, we're adding +20 to the endroll... we can directly calculate damage for this through mathsing.
.15 * 20 = 3 damage with 901.
.666*20 = 13.33 damage with 906.

Versus a 20-30 straight damage flare with an elemental/void/distintigration/etc flare.

It becomes a bit more complex if:
A) You're not guaranteed to hit
B) We take into account death crits and crit tiering.

Crits
It is possible for an acuity flare to tier up your attack to put it into death crit territory, but with crit randomization, it's a rabbit hole based on a variety of variables. Paired this with the slight potential for a death crit to occur on a normal elemental flare, and I would guess the end result would be relatively negligible.

Flare Chance
Ok... this is a weird one... Per documentation available, all flares have a 1/8 chance of occurring. However, they will occur more frequently with acuity flares. This is due to the order of operations of flares.

Acuity Flares occur before the hit is initiated. As a result, the displayed AS/DS rolls are with the acuity flare.
Whereas Damage flares occur after the hit has been resolved. If the critter is not dead, the flare has potential to occur.

Why does any of it really matter?
Honestly, flares are better than no flares, and beyond that, take what you can get. Regardless of whether you choose acuity, elemental, or any other type of flare, you need to consider "Will flares decrease the casts it take to kill a creature from N to N-1?"

The best way to maximize this is to utilize the flares for your hunting ground. Use a fire flaring runestaff if you're hunting Trolls, or mana flaring runestaff if you're 515/901 spamming.

[Buckwheet]

I like grapple flares as a spell caster.

[masterdtwin]

It becomes a bit more complex if:
A) You're not guaranteed to hit
B) We take into account death crits and crit tiering.


Also note, rune flares will flare off many spells you might not think of. Any form of attack, to include - elemental saturation, mana leech, sleep, etc. On those spells, that's free damage (although on sleep it would be counterproductive)

[muyakslayer]

Thanks for all the info. I just saw a lot of people talking about Acuity flares. It seemed i really never have trouble hitting things. Even up hunting but it takes me to long to kill stuff. I run out of mana quickly. I know that is more of an issue with younger wizards. I was just trying to help with it.

I noticed that i am hitting but unless i have a decent end roll i am not hitting very hard. I have been using 903 or 904. Then if they are stunned or on the ground hit them with 901. Using 901 gives me a better chance of getting my mana flare to go off.

I was thinking that 20-30 points of damage would be better than 1 mana or +20AS.

What is the cost difference of a Acuity rune staff that can get me +20AS or a VOID/Disingration/grapple

I guess i need to put a wanted ad but not sure what i want. I just know i want something else!

[Methais]

At your level, damage flares will almost always be better.

That said, flares in general are overrated, and the difference between damage flares and acuity flares is probably too little to make a real difference most of the time.

If you're having mans problems, stock up on gold and aqua wands and I'll charge a bunch up for you sometime. That's how I got by at low levels, and it was painful and I'd wish that annoyance on nobody. Except maybe Whirlin.

[muyakslayer]

I have been looking for wands but for what ever reason I am the king of Silver and twisted wands.

I have a couple of my buddy's looking for them. I almost thought about putting a post to buy some.....

Are gold and aqua the only ones i should worry about?

[Methais]

Twisted are sorcerer wands and your CS will probably be too low to hit stuff with them.

Silver/iron wands aren't necessarily bad, but 901 is so weak without rapid fire that they're not exactly good either.

Aqua wands cast 903, gold casts 906. Those are all you should need until you don't need wands anymore.

Check the pawnshop they usually have some. You can buy them from the alchemy shop too but they're way overpriced.

[Methais]

11-15-2013 04:42 PM
Thread: For a pure spell caster what type of runestaff would you recommend?
umadbrah?


Yes, I am quite angry over your weak 25 point rep, as you can tell by my other posts in this thread.

[Moonwitch]

I agree with Buckwheat. Grapple flares are great because they knock down the target a lot of the time. Once you get yourself a little older, you can ask a sorcerer to ensorcell your permanent runestaff and then you can get mana, health etc...back through the ensorcelling of the item.

Wands are your friend, dupe and charge them up if Methais is offering to do it. I used to spend a lot of time at the reach charging my wands. I swear my wizard was so encumbered, she used to carry more wands than treasure.

[kutter]

If hunting undead get the the aqua wands blessed, helps tremendously and do not rule out crystal and coral, my wizzie likes those as well. If not hunting undead metal works real well too.

Having said all that, my wizard is 33 trains and still uses an e-bladed runestaff, it works out pretty well actually and it is cheap. He has a 5X that he will eventually raise to 6 and probably get fire flares added to that one.

[Whirlin]

I like grapple flares as a spell caster.

Never used grapple myself... what are they like? Better knockdown rate than unbalance?

[Danical]

Never used grapple myself... what are they like? Better knockdown rate than unbalance?

I know that against non-corp targets, Grapple will transition to the non-corp crit table, but unbalance simply fails to work. I hope they are considering updating Unbalance to transition to the non-corp crit table when attacking non-corp.

[masterdtwin]

Are gold and aqua the only ones i should worry about?

Iron
Silver
Aqua
Golden
Coral
Metal
Crystal
...

I think I'm forgetting one - but you should be trying to collect all of the above. Also note, Those are roughly in order of difficulty to use.

It is handy to keep an Oaken wand around in the event you ever hunt with a partner.

~Athias

[Methais]

Iron
Silver
Aqua
Golden
Coral
Metal
Crystal
...

I think I'm forgetting one - but you should be trying to collect all of the above. Also note, Those are roughly in order of difficulty to use.

It is handy to keep an Oaken wand around in the event you ever hunt with a partner.

~Athias

Blue.

At some point in time, blue and crystal wands only cost 10 mana per charge now, instead of 26 and 28 like they used to.

I have no idea when this happened, but I approve.