Remove Wand Heightening

[soulaeon]

Please, remove the enhancements Wand Heightening, or combine them with Wand and Scroll Mastery.
No one uses damage-wands practically in content after level 10. And for levels 1-9, most of the vendor-wands are ridiculously expensive for the level in which they might work a little.
No one is going to kill a beholder or sustain DPS with any damage wand, but I would like to see that happen if I am wrong. However, Wand and Scroll Mastery is popular, but most likely for the healing, so most of these two enhancements lines are just a waste of space.

[Edit]
There are epic wands that might be useful at high levels, however a whole enhancement line for something too specific is still wasteful.

It's a weak line of enhancements. I'd rather leave it and just change it to 1 AP each tier.

Also a good idea.

[Nysrock]

While I have never taken Wand Heightening, I take Wand/Scroll Mastery all the time. It really helps a lot when using healing wands/scrolls. No reason to take it out of the game when it is so useful.

[soulaeon]

While I have never taken Wand Heightening, I take Wand/Scroll Mastery all the time. It really helps a lot when using healing wands/scrolls. No reason to take it out of the game when it is so useful.

My suggestion is what the subject says, or to merge these two enhancement lines.

There seems to be no advantage to taking Wand Heightening over Wand Mastery, as it is. The DC of a heightened wand would only be in the 20s at best, and that's never going to cut it by the time one reaches the level where they can learn the whole line.
If wand DC is going to be in the game at all, it should be merged with Wand Mastery, because it does nothing useful alone.

[MrCow]

But... for level 7-12 it is fun to use Wands of Phantasmal Killer backed up with a few Past Life Wizard passives and Wand Heightening II for DC 22 Phantasmal Killers on a 3 second cooldown...

[soulaeon]

But... for level 7-12 it is fun to use Wands of Phantasmal Killer backed up with a few Past Life Wizard passives and Wand Heightening II for DC 22 Phantasmal Killers on a 3 second cooldown...

If that's true, does that not seem terribly convoluted, to have an enhancement line for very few situations?

[maha0201]

If that's true, does that not seem terribly convoluted, to have an enhancement line for very few situations?

enhancments can be reseted every 3 days but lvl 7-12 for tr is 3-7 days depending on groups and time
and for few situation all nonboss nonundead

[soulaeon]

It's convoluted if you're justifying changing enhancements for just that one type of wand
With the new Half Elf feats, this would be a good time to do something more useful with wands in general.

[maha0201]

It's convoluted if you're justifying changing enhancements for just that one type of wand
With the new Half Elf feats, this would be a good time to do something more useful with wands in general.

at mighty coast of 3 ap for instant kill every 3 sec hmmmm why did i do that on my bard i wonder ?

[soulaeon]

at mighty coast of 3 ap for instant kill every 3 sec hmmmm why did i do that on my bard i wonder ?

Think of it this way.
What if there was an enhancement line for something else, like wepaons. But, the weapon had to be terrible specific, like Flametouched of Lesser Undead Bane, and the enhancements added +1 damage per rank or something relative to only these kinds of weapons, and you could only get them from random drops or an AH. Does it not make more sense to just include this with something already existing that is more generally useful, or just remove it all together?

[maha0201]

Think of it this way.
What if there was an enhancement line for something else, like wepaons. But, the weapon had to be terrible specific, like Flametouched of Lesser Undead Bane, and the enhancements added +1 damage per rank or something relative to only these kinds of weapons, and you could only get them from random drops or an AH. Does it not make more sense to just include this with something already existing that is more generally useful, or just remove it all together?

+1 on dmg from enhancment line is ap 2. You dont look at big picture. For some is usefoul to use wand heightening at low lvls coase they can get something out of it. It is not must it is can, I for sure wont have wand mastery at lvl 20 but it can be handy in mid lvls especialy for wizards and/or bards who spend all of their spell points and then can watch and whip some heal wands...

In example i had raise of the phoenix on my monk till i hit lvl 20 - why i could make better use of raising pocket clrcs etc... but when i got from lvl 18 to 20 then i respeced and never looked at raise back eaven i had it from lvl 10 to 20...
Many monks dont see how it is good to have raise, but imo it is very good when clrc manage to die and suddenly "gimped" mnk can raise him

There are just smoe enhancments that can be handy at certein lvls period.

[Aashrym]

It's a weak line of enhancements. I'd rather leave it and just change it to 1 AP each tier.

[soulaeon]

It's a weak line of enhancements. I'd rather leave it and just change it to 1 AP each tier.

+1 this, too.

There are just smoe enhancments that can be handy at certein lvls period.

What is the advantage of having Wand Heightening over Wand and Scroll Master, if it is just for an instant-kill wand? That's not a bigger-picture situation.

[MrCow]

What is the advantage of having Wand Heightening over Wand and Scroll Master, if it is just for an instant-kill wand? That's not a bigger-picture situation.

The usefulness of this enhancement line is directly tied to the types of wands we get access to. With itemization the way it currently is I do agree that these enhancements for Wand DCs (which are showing their age from when they were first made) have extremely limited use, such as a Wand of Sound Burst, Wand of Phantasmal Killer, Cacophonic Verge, Epic Brimstone Verge on a True Reincarnate, and possibly Epic Cacophonic Verge with its higher DC in Update 8.

In theory this enhancement line can be a greater part of the game through modification, the addition of more wands, or other changes (such as the slim distant future having Artificers). I'm unsure if actions really need to be taken at the current time though for this enhancement, being the end results may not yield much.

[maha0201]

What is the advantage of having Wand Heightening over Wand and Scroll Master, if it is just for an instant-kill wand? That's not a bigger-picture situation.

In youre eyes there is none, instant kill can be handy when you kill beholder/trolls/ogres
At lvl 7 you have 24 AP at lvl 12 you have 44 AP so if you cant spare 3 AP on wand heightening, dont but dont call it not usefoul. When i hit lvl 11 on my bard i got in trouble - 300++ hp so no healer can heal me good, since im WF, and it was must for that lvls to have swap bettween +2 on wands for 15% on scrolls.
If you are fleshie wizard/sorce you should be able to chug heal pots to keep youre hp up(if you are on caster and getting hitted either you are soloing or you arent doing it right - grab pocket clrc for first and for 2nd control your casting)
If you are WF you dont need extra healing form scroll mastery at those lvls (lvl 12 hps 250? 1 recon scroll 110) - it can be handy it is not must

[shagath]

It's convoluted if you're justifying changing enhancements for just that one type of wand
With the new Half Elf feats, this would be a good time to do something more useful with wands in general.

Like for example fix normal and epic Roderick's wands to summon new summons also. Much more important wand fix to do than touch wand DC enhancement lines.

[Rasczak]

There is no reason to change it. You can argue usefullness all day but it's an ap that you can either take it or leave it depending on build, level and situation.

There is no reason to make an overpowered enhancement line purely because you feel they are useless. Every one of my casters has wand/scroll mastery. They have the heighten based on level.

You may not find it useful but there are those who do. Not everything is built around endgame epic.

[Samiusbot]

Do you realize that Ice Storm comes on a wand?

[Gorbadoc]

Here's an idea: Make it work on ALL items that have a DC. See how those mid-level undead like my disruptor NOW.

[sirdanile]

Do you realize that Ice Storm comes on a wand?

OMFG!

*Runs to vendor before they remove those as well*

[saber7]

20gp ice storm wands disappear this update