This guide will provide you some insight on which Wand(s) to choose to expand your school. The main factor is combat mechanics (mainly damage and defense, not speed), and some minor factors as well, like task capability, ritual/building requirement, etc. Disclaimer, this is purely based on my opinion.
Contents
Tier List Guide
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S-Tier – Air Wand I
Literally the best wand you can get right now, with combination of high multi-damage and good defense skill.
Multistrike II skill deals triple damage on a single turn, even more if combine with The Shattered and Raven Cult race bonus damage +15 and +20, respectively.
On the other hand, Shield of Wind I can nullify any single attack from enemy, no matter how high the damage is, also it can be given to your ally as well, the only downside is it can only nullify one attack, so if enemy deals multi-attack only the first attack nullified (also, it can’t be stacked).
Regardless, it already good-quality wand for early game, I even did 1vs3 solo with just this wand student to get his/her medallion. Also, for the task, Air Wand can do hauling task (which a bit annoying later in-game) much efficient than others.
A-Tier – Earth Wand I
Similar to Air Wand I, Earth Wand I provide combination of medium burst damage and best defense skill (also low mana consumption), which is good for front row tanker.
Smash II deals single damage to enemy, which is pretty basic.
Meanwhile, Earth Armor I is the best defense skill in the entire Tier I, you gain 60 Armor in single turn, and can be stacked for the next turn, also it gives Taunt to your enemy so they will only attack you leaving your allies harmless, for only 20 mana!! The downsides was: (1) it can only be applied to wand user, (2) can’t nullify damage like Shield of Wind I so if the damage passed 60 for example 70 (usually from Underschool bosses) he/she will take 10 damage, (3) the wand user usually have low HP (I never met The Vivified race base HP +150 with Earth Wand) so be careful for mana consumption especially while fighting 3 room waves bossfight, (4) also you relatively can’t solo with him/her unless using flare potions, just graduate them if they have impossible solo trial.
For building requirement, you will need Earth Wand user to do Croneburg Pen work (very important building later in-game for making Frost Glass for Large Windows).
Note: Combine Air Wand and Earth Wand users, you can clear any stages easily, just make sure Earth Wand user has higher speed to cast Earth Armor first.
B-Tier – Water Wand I
This wand only has two attack skills with no defense skills.
Soak I do single attack to the enemy, lower their attack damage and speed, but with horrendous 40 mana, which is a lot (also it don’t affect much in the battle).
Torrent II also do single attack to the enemy, but with bonus damage +40 when user placed in the back row. However, the base damage is usually very low so it will still lower than Multistrike II and Smash II total damage, and it can only do the effect in the back row thus you can’t solo with Water Wand user (solo front row only), the only upside is it only consume 10 mana.
For task capability, Water Wand user do the Clean work better than others.
C-Tier – Lightning Wand I
This wand has one spell skill and one attack skill.
Recharge I is a spell skill which refills a user mana, good for bossfight. The downsides was, it can only applied to ally only, so you’ll need two Lightning Wand users to refills each other mana which is quite pointless. Also, the early battles is usually short, thus this Tier I skill is rarely used too. Pretty much can’t do solo either except using potions.
Bolt II do single attack to single enemy, which is very similar to Smash II, the difference is in the animation only, it does yellow lighting, kachaw.
The reason I put this in C-Tier rather than Dark Wand I is because you’ll need 2 Lightning Wand users (which is have Lightning 3 in early game) to summon Gifted Students, yeah that’s it.
D-Tier – Dark Wand I
Similar to Lighting Wand I, it has one spell skill and one attack skill. Also, for the entire game, you can only get this wand for The Vivified and The Shattered race only (based on my walkthrough).
Shadow Cloak I grants 20% Dodge to single ally for 2 turns (can be used to itself). Good for The Shattered whom have lowest base HP, but pretty much useless for The Vivified whom have highest base HP in the game. This skill usually used to amplify its attack skill (or for other Dark Wand user). Also, don’t rely too much on its Dodge effect, because it only 1 out of 5 (20%) at a time.
The tentacle skill – I forgot the name (IFTN) – is an attack skill with 30 base damage (The Vivified usually has 0 bonus damage so it stays the same for most of the time). But, when the user has Shadow Cloak effect, it increase +40 to 70 total damage. The worst part is, you’ll need 2 turns OR 2 Dark Wand users just to get this 70 damage, which only do 35 dmg/turn, which is lower than other wands dmg/turn relatively.
There’s also no crucial ritual or building which need Dark Wand to operate, thus crafting this wand is quite useless (meanwhile I got many of this wand from clearing quest, that’s why I have many Dark Wand I users apparently :v). Also, there’s still a bug to tentacle skill, which is not showing execution animation after killing an enemy.
E-Tier – Nature Wand I
This wand has one spell skill and one lowest damage attack skill. One of the worst wand in the game rn.
The spell thing IFTN, (I rarely used this wand thus I have vague memory about this skill but I’m pretty sure it’s not heal) it does multi-target to the one row and it increase speed?? there you go, it should be increase hp, literally there is no healing skill in the entire game other than potions, thanks Multiverse of Madness.
The attack thing IFTN what I remember is it has “Growth” in its name, attack one enemy and applied Thorns effect on it, which prevent them from moving??? what? The enemy literally aren’t moving, what’s the point then… (I only play on Relaxed, so I didn’t know for hard difficulty IFTN mechanics), and it has only 15 base damage? The average enemy HP is 100+ so you’ll need 7-10 turns to attack them solo 1vs1. I literally has Nature Wand I student which has solo trial, and guess what I can’t complete it (because it’s impossible even with early game amount of potions, you’ll get killed first also you can’t use Revival Flask if solo), then I straight send her to graduate – she’s the only student I graduated without full honors/medallions in the entire game so far.
The ONLY reason I didn’t put this wand on rock bottom is, that you’ll need Nature Wand user to operate Croneburg Pen in mid-game. Thus eventually, I require to summon Nature Wand II student to do this. So far, I only have 2-3 Nature Wand user in the entire game, 1 from pre-game teacher (I’m not sure about this), 1 Nature Wand I student which I graduated, and 1 Nature Wand II student to operate Croneburg Pen.
F-Tier – Fire Wand I
This wand has one spell skill and one attack skill. As a fire wizard fans, I feel bad to put this on F-Tier tbh.
Vengeance I is a spell skill which grants two front row users Retaliate effect – it will deals 20 damage to enemy who got attack them. The worst part is, what’s the point of 20 damage if the enemy deals 40-60 damags? (yes, it don’t nullify damage) and it only has 2 counters/stacks, so 40 vs 80-120, you’ll dead first.
Fireball II is an attack skill very similar to Smash II and Bolt II, yeah the difference is once again on the animation only, like its name – ball of fire. Also, it only has 30-40 damage (if i’m not wrong), thus still lower than enemy average damage of 40-60, which is not worth it.
The reason I put Fire Wand I in one of the worst wand is, because of it only better in doing the Destroy task – which the USELESS task in the entire game. Unless you don’t spamming storage, doing Destroy with no reward/reagents is just wasting time (especially when to pursue a medallion).
In the entire game so far, I only have 1 Fire Wand user (the one pre-game Wolfkin teacher), I didn’t even researched Recipe for Fire Wand II, and still didn’t planned to do so in near future, and yet the game running just doing fine. There’s nothing you can’t do without Fire Wand that other wands can do, so its existence itself is meaningless. Unless the devs buffed this wand in the next patch, just don’t craft it.
Vengeance is not nearly as bad of a spell as you think, it applies to an entire row so can proc twice on an aoe attack or it will proc more if the enemy performs a multi attack which can allow you to stack a bunch of damage for free either on the same target or split especially if put on a taunter. The only problem is as you said in the non-combat portion of the game, fire is not very good.
Combine Earth and Fire and you have a thorns tank, Vengeance and Earth Armor (which also taunts 2).
So fire isnt F rank at all, best dps and combine it with a lightning in the back and you get alot of mana regen also
The author will change his impression of the fire wand when he scrafts it 2 tira. For a skill that deals damage he maximum amount of mana, can just vanshot boss 2 stars. Yes, and Dark Magic is needed from 4 tira that would craft things on the loom, and without them will not be full automation of the game. Therefore, to make conclusions about the rating of wands on 1 tiru absolutely stupid
Note: Air wands are only useful if the mage has some source of bonus Power. If you summon a Human for your Air wand, and they don’t have +Power medallions and don’t have the +Power ritual font yet, they’re gonna be pretty bad. (Even relying on a Nature mage to buff their power doesn’t make it worthwhile, IMO; you’ll get about the same net damage from a Fire/Lightning/Dark user with much less setupo.)
However, if you can get a Raven (or maybe a Shattered) with an Air wand, they’re excellent, yeah.
I would like to add that Nature skill Surging Strength is really good to do combo with Multistrike
+1 in defence of fire mages. The spell form 2 lvl fire wand is awesome if you get high mana student. 200+ dmg alpha-strike is just impressive. Also you need fire mage with high skill to cook more complex meals.
Same with nature – you can’t get runewoods without 4 lvl nature skill. By the way – growth spell apply damage at the end of each enemy round for several rounds but it’s a crap anyway.
As for air – it main attack skill only useful for wizards with high power because the base damage (3) is terribly low. But applying 20 personal power three times revert the situation. And you can easily get 50! 150 damage for tiny ammount of 10 mana – just wow!
Don’t agree with fire wand either. I don’t exactly know why but my fireball crits in 90% of the time and does double damage, it’s been the strongest fighting skill so far of all wands.
Also, the air wand seemed really underwhelming so far. The shield is alright, but the triple attack normally does 3 dmg times 3 = 9 damage which is worse than any other attack with any other wand.
I don’t agree about the firewand. If you have a character with high mana, the second spell to do damage equal to your current mana and costs half your current mana. Is a spectacular nova spell. It does way more damage in one turn, and if you have mana regeneration potions it dumps damage like nobodies business. But if you run out of mana, ya it goes really weak.