Gem wand question?

[WhoIsThis]

@ Vanced:

Have you compared the shard and the stone? Which one do you think is better? I'd say that the net damage ought to better with the stone due to the higher damage and armor debuff.

I haven't tested the staff yet; I prefer wands. Still, I'd like to know if the stone staff or the blast one is better.

[Xymorg]

I tried asking on one of the combo threads but it got buried. The gemstone's darkness combos with mages debuff skill for "drained" with the same visual effect as the mage/bear " terror!" combo. Is this item combo unique to this particular darkness weapon? Does this factor into the proc choice at all?

[WhoIsThis]

I think that the gemstone staff also has the effect.

Precisely how much armor is debuffed though and whether the same level staff debuffs more is a mystery to me.

[Royce]

There's some misinformation going on here.
Gemstone wand procs partial weakness, reducing target damage and can combo with hellscream for terror (just like the Mage skill weakness can)
Gem Star wand has identical damage to the Gemstone wand but no proc (lightning weapons have no proc)
Gem Shard wand has the lowest damage but a burn proc that does additional damage and can combo with frostbite or icestorm
Gem Blast staff is a fireblaster with AOE damage and a burn proc (like the keeper staff)
Gemstone staff as a lightning staff (like the mirage staff) has no proc and no AOE but (unlike the mirage staff) has good single target damage

[WhoIsThis]

Thanks for clearing that up Royce.

- Gemstone has the weakness proc (So bring Gemstone Wand with bear) - hopefully there will be a good price for one soon.
- Gemshard and gem blast are both fireblasters with burn procs, but only the staff has AOE
- Gem star is probably the least attractive, as it only does as much as gemstone, but no procs

For the burn and weakness procs though, any idea how strong they are?

[Royce]

The damage of burn proc is underwhelming on it's own, but when used on a frozen target it causes very nice damage on top of the wands damage. The gemstone wand drops target damage by 10 and stacks.

[Xymorg]

I solo quite a bit and get the " Drained" combo without any bear around so I don't think it's a "Terror" combo. Though it has the same animation.

I was just using my flusher's gemstone wand to see and I believe the drain is actually a mana drain since it makes blue numbers over my head.

If you look for the words, it definitely says "Drained". Royce might just kill the target too quickly to let the buffer roll to the combo name

[Royce]

Huh, I'll have to test that out in PvP. Mana draining might be hard to spot though. Anyway, it does proc weakness, so if it also drains mana that's in addition

[WhoIsThis]

All the more reason it seems to buy the gemstone.

I suppose that you'll have to get a volunteer (someone that trusts you), promise not to kill them, set up a private game, and test. Fire a few shots at them and see if they report mana drain. I could volunteer if you'd like.

[Xymorg]

Yeah, I'll volunteer too, I mostly play Xymian anymore. The Part of the drain that I see is the positive transfer of between 0 & 6 mana to my character for BS trash mobs. It's repeatable and easy to spot, unless theres another reason for non negative blue numbers over my head. So its like a combo proc the raises effective m/s.

[Royce]

Ok I just tested buy definitely need to test more. This is the first dark wand ever to not proc weakness, but does have a Drained combo with the weakness skill (and presumably other dark procs if working with another mage in tandem). I tested it out for a while in PvP, but my target dummy saw nothing over the usual weakness effects. He also had 0 M/s and did not see his mana decrease. All my more reliable dummys were busy though and I'm not 100% confident about the findings. Definitely needs more testing.

[Xymorg]

Ok this is interesting, I'm specifically talking about a Flusher's Gemstone Wand that I use for this combo (I always thought Drained was a pun for flushing) & I only see Scapers & Scubbers in CS. Gonna go buy the other ones to see if they combo, too.

[Royce]

Yeah I tested with Mega Mage and it definitely combos, we just could detect any actual effect :/

[Xymorg]

Yeah they all do. It is hard to tell what the combo does, though. The mana gain I see is strange in that it can be multiple hits for a while after the combo, so like for a while after a Drained combo, the wand procs a mana drain on some hits in addition to (or instead of? ) armor debuff. You do see the blue numbers for the wand user, right?

[Vanced]

Hummm... interesting development on procs... I have also noticed the blue mana regen numbers during play and to sound like an idiot it didn't dawn on me what was going on... since the most part I have been using the shard due to grinding and quick max single target dmg needed for some of the bs boss mobs like chests for goldie and totem for gobo king ... I am going to have to play more with the stone as well... mine were the mega mage wands btw so it is not just the flushers..

Keep us in the loop for what ya find Royce...

And to answer "WhoIsThis"... there isn't a clear winner between the stone and the shard in my opinion right now... may change my opinion if proc stuff gets more interesting...

My advice is be true to your build or what you are tryin to do or need... the wands are so close...

The shard is a better deal right now if price is a concern for you.... the burn dmg is significant so without heavy testing imho that is your highest dps wand... so if you are " I blow stuff up" build and need to pile on dmg as fast as possible go with it... for quantity mob killing grinding the debuff wouldn't really matter...

If you are more of a cleric build with buff and debuff being your bread and butter go with the stone... long boss battles or high dmg bosses the debuff procs really matter... or when we get the proc sorted out and if ya are a retro int bear with crafted robes any extra m/s would be nice...

[Royce]

I'm not sure about that vanced. The burn proc only seems to go off about one out of ten attacks, so you basically get like a 10% increase over the weapon's listed damage. In addition it seems like goblins in the sewers may have some sort of fire immunity so it may not even work on them (they as hard to Hot Flash as ice restistant LE mobs, and wouldn't make sense for them to have ice immunity so I' guessing fire resistance). The Stone and Star wands also give you higher skill damage than the shard, so I would say they are more for the blow stuff up type of mage. What the fire wand gives you more than anything is a ranged combo with frostbite (Steam), so I'd say the Shard is really more for the support type since your lower weapon and skill damage draws less aggro and you can combo from afar.

[King Richie]

All procs imo need to be looked at and made a bit beefyer and better visuals for the procs as of now in the middle of a pve fight you would never know if your wand was proc'ing or if a mage beside you was hitting debuffs .... ( i love visuals ) =)

[Vanced]

Royce...
I will be the first to admit and think I did that I haven't done any hard core number crunching testing... (That is your job, I am Engineer for a living and know the value and difference.. That is why I started thread...lol) and when I was doing my quick gut feel tests I was doing solo keeper runs... my proc rate cetainly seemed higher than that and wasn't comparing dmg on mummy and shadows vs gobos or slime but seemed signifficant enough in AO3 to overide the skill bonus difference... so i just ran with it, but mob resistance may and would change that, and to King's point.. when in a full blown run in sewers hard to tell... hard to see with all the normal casting and fire traps going off... and I wasn't really paying close attention at that point...

So as usual, Royce you are probably right... lol

[Royce]

Well all this stuff needs more testing (particularly that drained combo), and thanks for starting this thread, it has been a kickstart to get this stuff figured out. Now please start one about the staffs too

[Vanced]

Agreed drained combo has my interest as well... got my stone equiped right now...lol just need some time...

Staffs... lol... is that really a question... IF ya already made the call to go staff... there is only one question, and to butcher Shakespeare ... "To AOE or not to AOE, that is the question"