Warcraft Rookie: Get a Wand ASAP
by David Nelson 
Sep 14th 2006 at 4:30PM
[This is the first in a regular series of posts dedicated to the new WoW player.]If there is one thing I see over and over again in the sub-20 zones, it is casters beating on a nearly dead mob with their melee weapon. They either ran out of mana or want to conserve their mana supply to eliminate downtime, so they have stopped casting spells and were looking for a mana-free form of DPS.
A mage pounding on a mob with his staff is not the best way to deal damage. What would be better? Get a wand. Wands provide casters with better DPS and will allow you to deal with runners more effectively. Mages, warlocks and priests can equip a wand.
There are three ways to get a wand early on...
1. Take enchanting as a profession. Enchanters can make a low level wand with very little effort, and it will be just fine to get you started until you can afford something better. However, enchanting can be one of the more expensive and confusing professions for a new player, so this might not be the way to go. Finally, if one of your friends is an enchanter, they could hook you up very cheaply.
2. Head to the Auction House. If you are a caster, this should be your first auction house purchase,with the possible exception of bags. The low level wands come very cheap, usually no more than a couple silver. The Auction House method is probably the easiest way to aquire your first wand.
3. Hope for a drop. This is pretty ineffective, but sometimes you will get lucky. If you do, equip it immediately and start leveling up your wand skill.
The moral of the story...get a wand equipped ASAP and use it to finish off mobs or to contribute to DPS in instances when you run low on mana. Good luck on your quest to leave the newbie zone!
New Terms For Rookies:
DPS
Mob
Runner
Filed under: Mage, Priest, Warlock, Tips, WoW Rookie
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Promis Sep 14th 2006 5:10PM
First reading the title I thought - who earned to be posted here (it's about new player). Then I realized. P.S. Potter is funny :)
Jason Sep 14th 2006 5:14PM
I just started a Alt Mage and found a wand is one of the best ways to conserve your mana and health. All you have to do is hit a mob with an ice bolt to reduse its speed, and as it is slowly making its way towards you use your wand to hit it (sometimes your mana will even regenerate in that time). Once the mob gets to you, freeze it in place, back up and either continue using your wand or finish it off with a few spells.
jpc Sep 14th 2006 5:37PM
Before the priest talent review (1.10 I think) priests melee actually made sense at low levels. Inner-fire actually gave a decent melee buff and it didn't blow your spell coodown.
HankD Sep 14th 2006 5:43PM
I just leveled a Holy/Disc priest from 1 to 60 recently (partly 'cause people told me how *hard* it was)... and wands were part of what made it easy. They're cheap to stay current with in the AH, and my normal solo mob pull was "holy fire, shadow: pain, renew, then wand"... renew and shadow:pain would wear off at the same time, and throughout (level 1 to 60), an equal mob would be about about 35-40% health by then (wand dmg and shadow:pain dmg and holy fire dmg), I'd be at 100% health and mana, I'd hit renew and shadow:pain again and wand it to death... I'd finish fights at 100% health and mana, heading to the next mob, and it took about 25 secs per mob. Not too horrible... no downtime... and very safe (extra mobs just meant dmg outstripping the renew, which at WORST meant a bubble or a heal once in a while)...
Wands rock, all the way to the end, when soloing a holy priest.
Unkle Sep 14th 2006 5:47PM
This was totally me on my froob account when I first tried the game.
Got a priest to level 14 without ever knowing what a wand was.
They should start you out with one FFS.
Bodah Sep 14th 2006 8:38PM
Absolutely agree. A wand, especially in the early stages, has a dps that other classes would kill for, consumes no mana, (so you're regenerating mana as you use it), and is available as early as level 5 - the lesser and greater magic wands are great, craftable, easily obtained early greens - and cheap as hell in most situations. Also, unlike other ranged weapons, they don't have a minimum distance, so you can stand toe to toe with mobs and wand them to death.
On more than one occasion, I've quickly crafted or bought one for casters I was teaming up in RFC with, as they hadn't picked one up yet. A couple silver for a priest that doesn't run out of mana casting smite before he can heal me is worth every copper.
Maggot Sep 15th 2006 7:57AM
These are great tips, keep this kind of content up
Thayden Sep 15th 2006 12:47PM
I agree, great new feature!
And yes, whenever I come across a Mage or Priest of that level, I tend to drop Wands on 'em. ;) Always good to spread the positive karma.