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What's that? You can't hear because you're wanding? That's a good thing, young caster, a very good thing – because doing damage from afar is the savvy caster's modus operandi. At higher levels, wands are usually reserved for backup duty when you've run out of mana. For a leveling player, however, a wand is an effective method of killing mobs while reserving your limited mana pool for crowd control or healing.

As a caster, resist the temptation to tough it out and let mobs (monsters) get up in your face. Wands put out fairly healthy DPS (damage per second), and you'll do more damage wanding than you will whacking things with your melee weapon. Besides, using your wand helps you get used to keeping your distance; you're wearing cloth armor and should avoid taking direct hits whenever possible. Wands also give you an efficient, effective finish for fights. You can finish off runners without having to physically chase them down, and polishing off that last bit of damage without using mana gives you a head start on regenerating for the next encounter.

Higher level players may scoff at your interest in wands – but remember, they have more talents, stats, gear and spells at their disposal. At their level, wands are valued more for their juicy, mana-boosting stats, resistances and spellpower. As you gain spellpower and mana regeneration through leveling, wands will become relatively less effective. For now, make the most of them!

Let's review the basics of using wands.

• Mages, Priests and Warlocks can equip and use wands.
• Different wands do different types of damage (Arcane, Fire, Frost, Nature, Shadow, Holy or Physical damage), but you are not limited to using wands of the same type as damage your class can otherwise do. If you enjoy managing your gear, you may want to carry more than one type of wand to use on monsters with different vulnerabilities (Holy wands are especially valuable because Holy damage is not subject to many resistances).
• You do not need to train in order to use a wand.
• Although you must equip your wand in your ranged item slot, you may use your wand on monsters in melee distance, too.
• Wands use no ammo and no mana. Since shooting a wand is not considered a spell cast, you'll regenerate mana at normal rates when using your wand.
• You cannot be interrupted or disarmed when using a wand (although some stun effects may kill your autofire).
  

Figuring out how to use the autoshoot function for your wand can be tricky at first.

• Equip a wand in your ranged weapon slot.
• Click and drag the Shoot ability from the General Abilities tab of your Spellbook to a button on your button bar.
• Target an enemy and press the Shoot button. Your wand will continue to fire.
• Important: You must stop shooting your wand before you can cast a spell.
• To stop shooting your wand, take a few steps in any direction (or jump); hit the Escape key; click the Shoot button again; or right-click the mob (which puts you into melee mode).
  

There are three ways to get wands. Enchanters can make wands, so you can buy from another player or make your own. You can buy both player-made and looted wands in the Auction House. Or you can pick up a nice wand as a quest reward or loot drop. Wowwiki has a nice list of player-made, quested and lootable wands (scroll about halfway down the page).

Good luck and good wanding!

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Filed under: Mage, Priest, Warlock, Enchanting, Tips, How-tos, Features, Leveling, WoW Rookie