So... rods or wands?

[Weakness]

All right, I made a little Newman girlie that is gonna go ForteTecher. But now I am confused on what weapon should I really be focusing on.

I have been using rods for the most part, but someone told me that the damage over time from wands are better. I really kind of like the idea of being able to tag enemies with a gun and then go on killing, healing, buffing... but I have also been told that if I am going to focus on mainly casting I should use rods.

http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_dead.gif I just don't know what to use.

On a side note, any spells I should be focusing on? I have just been using Foie/Diga and neglecting Barta and Zonda. Will it make that big of a difference if I don't level them as much as the others?

[-Shimarisu-]

OK, I'll start off this impending trainwreck with...

"Wands are better."

Now go, go, go nerds! Work your magic on this thread!

[Yuicihi]

Your playing style.
If you're going to solo (Why?), or just want faster attacks, go Wand.
If you want more TP and more linkable PAs, at the cost of power and cast speed, go Staff.

O noes, typo.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Yuicihi on 2007-01-11 17:31 ]</font>

[Eliash]

Bows!

Wands cast faster allowing for more damage, but run out of PP quicker...
Rods cast slower dealing less damage, but have much more PP and ability to keep 4 spells instead of 2...

I believe the above is all true, however, lacking much experience with force type chars I can't be of much help.

[MayLee]

Wands cast faster but rods have more PP and you can hold up to 4 TECHS on it.

Bows are worth it too.

What I do is I have two bows, 3 wands and about 4 Rods that I carry.

[Kent]

Use both. They both have their ups and downs.

Wands:
Faster casting speed
One-handed
Two techniques per Wand
Rods:
Higher TP
More PP
Four Techniques per rod - Allows for higher elemental bonus

The number of each, is, of course, up to you. I'd recommend not ignoring any of the four Force weapons, though.

[Dj_SkyEpic]

I'm a wand user only because They are single handed and faster at casting.

You may go rod due to more PP at your disposal.

At least have 1 bow with you at all time.~ http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

[Sychosis]

On 2007-01-11 17:30, -Shimarisu- wrote:
OK, I'll start off this impending trainwreck with...

"Wands are better."

Now go, go, go nerds! Work your magic on this thread!



Rods are clearly superior as you see by my damage calculations:

((((15+TP*CAST_SPEED)/3)(10*%_DAMAGE_BONUS))-2)/3)-((4*ENEMY_ELEMENT_BONUS)/2)+((ENEMY_MST+100)(15/ENEMY_RANK))

As you can see Rods CLEARLY have the advantage in damage...

This isn't a real damage calculation...

[SolomonGrundy]

of course no one mentions that Rods can get an 8% damage bonus over wands...*sigh*

Rods are better for a pure caster: more TP/PP, and hold more techs, either for damage or versitility.

[Weakness]

So what I have gather is...

Carry everything for the given situation, everything comes out equal in the end.

http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif Great, get to spend more money on having ten different weapons like on FighGunner.

[Kent]

On 2007-01-11 17:41, SolomonGrundy wrote:
of course no one mentions that Rods can get an 8% damage bonus over wands...*sigh*



On 2007-01-11 17:39, Kent wrote:
Rods:
Higher TP
More PP
Four Techniques per rod - Allows for higher elemental bonus

[Dj_SkyEpic]

On 2007-01-11 17:42, Weakness wrote:
So what I have gather is...

Carry everything for the given situation, everything comes out equal in the end.

http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif Great, get to spend more money on having ten different weapons like on FighGunner.


If you want less weapons to carry, just bring rods. They have more PP to dispose of (Like saying 2x the pp of 1 wand of the same rarity.)

[Gamemako]

On 2007-01-11 17:42, Weakness wrote:
So what I have gather is...

Carry everything for the given situation, everything comes out equal in the end.

http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif Great, get to spend more money on having ten different weapons like on FighGunner.



Posh! At least you don't have to have a set of good elemental melee weapons, wands, guns, cards, and bows! Consider yourself lucky! Wartechers have to have anything and everything!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Gamemako on 2007-01-11 17:44 ]</font>

[Weakness]

On 2007-01-11 17:44, Gamemako wrote:

On 2007-01-11 17:42, Weakness wrote:
So what I have gather is...

Carry everything for the given situation, everything comes out equal in the end.

http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif Great, get to spend more money on having ten different weapons like on FighGunner.



Posh! At least you don't have to have a set of good elemental melee weapons, wands, guns, cards, and bows! Consider yourself lucky! Wartechers have to have anything and everything!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Gamemako on 2007-01-11 17:44 ]</font>


http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_dead.gif I carry two different elemental double sabers, a pair of elemental twin daggers, a pair or two of twin handguns, a single dagger, a single saber, and a couple of handguns.

;;>.> That doesn't even include traps.

Being the best takes too much money http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_cry.gif.

[Gamemako]

On 2007-01-11 17:48, Weakness wrote:

On 2007-01-11 17:44, Gamemako wrote:

On 2007-01-11 17:42, Weakness wrote:
So what I have gather is...

Carry everything for the given situation, everything comes out equal in the end.

http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif Great, get to spend more money on having ten different weapons like on FighGunner.



Posh! At least you don't have to have a set of good elemental melee weapons, wands, guns, cards, and bows! Consider yourself lucky! Wartechers have to have anything and everything!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Gamemako on 2007-01-11 17:44 ]</font>


http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_dead.gif I carry two different elemental double sabers, a pair of elemental twin daggers, a pair or two of twin handguns, a single dagger, a single saber, and a couple of handguns.

;;>.> That doesn't even include traps.

Being the best takes too much money http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_cry.gif.



I carry 7 elemental weapons, three wands, a bow, and 3 guns. And that's just what I walk around with.

[Garnet_Moon]

Newmans and Newearls get to play with Wands and just blow stuff away.

Everybody else, stick to rods please. You need the extra TP.

Also, in before "If you're not using Halarod you're a gimp" and other elitism.

[MayLee]

Who can afford a Halarod? O.o

I can't even afford some freaking shoes. <_<

[BlueFire2k5]

(Not trying to flame or anything, just posing a question.)

I wonder, will the Wands > Rods view of many Newman forces remain the same after the Damu techs are released tomorrow? Mind, I haven't had first hand experiences with them, but from what I've heard, they rely less on casting speed to do DPS, and take a good deal of PP to spam.

Anyone that has more experience (from JP or something similar) care to enlighten us?

[PJ]

Yeah, with those techs, I don't see how ANYONE could argue that Wands > Rod for those.

I'd still argue Rods > Wands anyways, that's just the best case, probably.

[Dj_SkyEpic]

On 2007-01-11 18:16, BlueFire2k5 wrote:
(Not trying to flame or anything, just posing a question.)

I wonder, will the Wands > Rods view of many Newman forces remain the same after the Damu techs are released tomorrow? Mind, I haven't had first hand experiences with them, but from what I've heard, they rely less on casting speed to do DPS, and take a good deal of PP to spam.

Anyone that has more experience (from JP or something similar) care to enlighten us?



Yea. I would probably be using rods mainly for Dam-techs.

[Remedy]

Rods > Wands for 90% of the time

Wands > Rods for the rest of it

*shrug*

Wands are good for Diga spam for bosses and for quickly leveling technics. They're also good to use in tandem with a card for Technic-resistant enemies, a la Jarbas and the like.

[Kupi]

I was waiting for an opportunity to bring this up, so...

I bought a 1* Rod and a Wand and loaded them both with one and only one tech, my level 14 Gifoie. I turned the music off and made a sound recording of what both weapons sounded like from the "ping" to the explosion sound when my Force wasn't going "AIIIIYAAH". Then, I went into a sound mixer and put both waveforms next to one another. The amount of time from the ping to the explosion was exactly the same in both cases. It's worth noting that once you hear the ping, the spell will always go off, regardless of whether you evade something or get knocked halfway across the room.

My conclusion? Wands and Rods do have a difference in cast time; however, it's mostly in the amount of time from pressing the button to the ping, which isn't all that long for either weapon. It isn't necessarily an appreciable advantage so far as I'm concerned. Of course, I could always be wrong (it's been known to happen), but I feel fairly confident in saying that the weapon type does not affect the delay between casting the spell and it going off.

[AlieNxxxxxxxx]

Use both.

Have a rod specifically for buff techs. Starting tommorow have a wand that has Resta, Reverser, Shifta, and Deband.
Then maybe another "backup" rod with foie and diga and resta and reverser.

But use wands for main battles, have one wand for foie + resta and another for diga + resta

I would not waste my time with zonde or barta, they suck...

But just to fill another weapon spot, buy a powerful bow for bosses and when you run out of PP for wands and rods.

[Jools]

Rods are good for the damu techs. The start up animation is just a small part a full use of a 21+ damu. And for the record, 21+ damubarta is an incredibly strong tech, I couldnt reccoment it higher.

-Jools

[Sychosis]

I planned on going mainly Dam tech from the start. After seeing Dammegid I was in love. Good to know they complement rods quite nicely.

[Soukosa]

Good grief, you people make it seem like the casting animation on rods is 5 hours longer than that of wands. When I first changed to rods from wands I barely noticed any difference and compared to the actual casting time of some techs, it seems like that's the least of your worries. But don't get me wrong, wands do have their uses but they aren't vastly superior to rods in any way. Plus, if you don't mind giving up the damage boost you can stick your supportive techs with the offensive ones so you can nuke and support much more easily in parties http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[mananas]

I prefer rods. The only wand I regularly use is for resta/reverser or unless I run out of PP for all the other weapons I have. This might change when I can finally use my fan though...

[PLURSprout]

Honestly, as you get up to A ranks it's a matter of preference. The difference in damage is only like 30 per hit for some of the advanced technics. So it's more about, do you need to deal damage quickly, or do you need a weapon that can deal damage efficiently and last longer without switching. Personally I find myself using both on S Missions. But I've found it reliable to just go with Rods = Missions, Wands = Bosses. It's up to you though, they're both fine.
Oh, and while I love the idea of chaining techs, I've found having the ability to heal is WAY more productive than chaining techs of the same element, the second (or 10) you spend switching weapons CAN get you or someone else killed.

[Mio]

Wands, and carry many

[Gen2000]

Wands, I carry multiple Wands so PP isn't a problem. When in a party with other Rod using FOs I'm outcasting them on offensive and tech support via Resta/Reverser which makes for some slight tension in the party since they noticed I'm always like 1 second ahead of them.."stealing" their Resta/Reveser exp and still dealing mass AoE damage. I used to think the difference was small too and only use Rods but getting out FO'ed by a Wand user...the comparison made it seem like they were wearing Haru/Quick compared to me. I switched to Wands to be more useful to the party (imo).

Plus with Wands you can get the Card + Wand combo which makes for even better support than just a Rod carrying FO.

With the update, I'm thinking about using the Rod for Dambarta (and any other useful Dam/Nosu-spell) because of what's already mentioned earlier in the thread and Buff/Debuffs but not sure yet, Dambarta at lv.21 only uses 12PP as a drain rate so it probably wouldn't be too bad on a Wand (if anything I'll use Rod for the greater bonuses to buff up Dambarta's damage) plus while all the Buffs seem useful in some way to me I don't think I'll really be using all the Debuffs. It will be interesting to mess around with the new spells via Wand usage.

[isahn80]

I'm all about the wands, although I switch back and forth with wild abandon as the situation demands.

[Tra]

rod for damu- techs and buffs


wands for everything else

[Ogni-XR21]

There is no "better", it's mainly about your style of play.
I use 6 rods, and each one has resta and reverser on it - I could not play any other way, I just need instant access these techs.

[Alisha]

i like to cast gidiga with rods. even though the cast time is longer i think its almost impossible to get stunned out of a rod cast. once the rod is vertical the spell still goes off reguardless of if you get hit wich makes me even more sad that wartechers cant use rods.

[Knight_of_MIA]

I´m playing Fortetecher, using and carrying 4 rods with elemental-based offensive technics each (8% Bonus), one rod with resta and reverser and one longbow (ice).

So far I was always more than confident going that way. I never felt the need to use wands. Attacking mobs and healing myself and others by switching weps over and over was in almost all cases more than just fine - provided the tanks knew how to do their job by pulling mobs one by one, and not running insanely through a groop of fire or ice-spitting enemies...

Honestly, I really don´t know what to pick up next with the Dam- and Nosu spells on the offensive site, and the Buff and Debuff spells on the defensive site available by today. The only thing I know is that I want to keep using the rods, and keep the elementary bonus by not mixing different elemental PA´s.

Would you recommend using the new offensive elemental spells on the offensive rods, and taking another one or two rods for the buff and debuff spells as a Fortetecher or wouldn´t you mind to mix them ? Or would you recommend to just stay on the offensive side and retain the buff job to others using the hybrid force classes ?

[Pob]

On 2007-01-12 03:38, Knight_of_MIA wrote: Or would you recommend to just stay on the offensive side and retain the buff job to others using the hybrid force classes ?

Hybrid forces can't get their techs over 20, so I wouldn't recommend that.

I plan to have 1 rod for the 4 buffs, then the other 3 for attack. I only carry 1 wand and 1 bow. I also have resta on every rod and wand, since you need to use it all the time when playing in a party...

[Palefire]

Yet another person chiming in with it's really up to you and your playing style. It usually takes some experimentation with both (not to mention bows...lovely bows) in order to arrive at something comfortable.

And you don't even have to break the bank to do it: you could get one rod (I recommend searching the player shops...eventually you'll find a player who's willing to sell at a price actually lower than the NPCs charge) and a few wands, and move around your spells to see which combination suits you best.

For me, I've found that putting Resta and Reverser on a couple of wands while setting the other elemental spells on rods. Those half-seconds in the casting time difference can mean the difference between life and death, especially in a boss battle. At least, that's been my experience.

Oh, and about Barta and Zonde: I can't stress their usefulness enough when going against monsters and bosses of the opposite element. However, if you're reluctant to build either orboth of them up, you'll need to get a couple of bows and equip them with Reisei-sou and Raisei-sou respectively.

[zanotam]

well i personally am switching from WT fo FT just for rods because only 2 spells gets annoying now that buffs and debuffs are out.

[BahnKnakyu]

One of the posters put it best. Do you want mobility and quick damage dealing capability? Pick a wand. If you want to be able to have a LOT of techs available at your disposal and be able to do better damage over time and tons and tons of PP, use rods. I prefer being mobile, when I was a FO, I HATED the wtf-sit-there-and-pose time for Rods. It made me less "reactive" to the party's needs in terms of support. With wands, I can drop a heal on one side, move out of the way, and drop one somewhere else when necessary. Because of how quick response to the situation was an integral part of my playstyle, I became a WT for that reason, and haven't looked back to Rods since. My second most played character is a GT, so I can honestly tell you I prefer wands because of their ease of use for support and quick damage (but not necessarily BIG damage).