New player question about wands

I'm messing around on POB wanting to make my own build. I want to make a witch build and was looking at wands but I'm getting confused about how damage works in this game.
My questions are if I use ARC for my damage gem. And then go into my passive tree and add the Wand Damage passive that says "Wand Attacks deal 12% increased damage with hits" Does that increase ARC damage or only skills that use wands. What about Wand attack speed as well and Accuracy rating.

Probably a dumb question but this is my first time even messing around in POB.
Any help would be great.

Arc is a spell and therefore anything related to attacks will not affect Arc whatsoever.

Flat dmg to spells
Increased Spell dmg
Elemental dmg as well as Lightning dmg
Cast speed
Crit chance and Crit multi (if you go for crit obviously)

are the modifiers you are looking for.


If you wanted to deal attack dmg utilizing a wand make sure use an attack supported by wands like

Kinetic Blast
Kinetic Bolt
Frenzy
Barrage
Power Siphon

and so on. Be warned tho: Attack based wand builds are amongst the most expensive options out there. You will need topnotch gear to make it work.
Spells are usually way cheaper to put together.

Arc is a spell (you can tell by looking the gem--the top part of the description gives you the tags "Spell, Chaining, Lightning." The things you references are for attacks so they will not affect arc. They are meant for things like Kinetic Blast.

That makes sense now the whole weapon spell part is a little confusing but the more I mess around in POB the more sense it makes. Thanks for your time and quick responses.

When looking at weapons in general, assume every mod mod that does not specify "spells" or "global" will only affect attacks and not benefit spells at all. When using the passive tree the same rule of thumb applies, except spells will benefit from "while wielding."

Yeah I just realized this. Ive been wasting half my passice tree on that.

"

kyler887 wrote:

Yeah I just realized this. Ive been wasting half my passice tree on that.

It happens, that's what regrets are for.

Some easy errors to make;

Passive Skills (and modifiers) that say Attacks are very litteral, they mean an attack with that weapon. Things like Fireball or Arc are not attacks, and thus don't gain benifit (it also means Evasion does nothing, normal Block does nothing, etc, more important for learning how to defend against monster spell casters than here).

In addition, say you have a magic Wand that has "Adds 1 to 50 Lightning Damage". This is what is known as a Local Modifier, and frustratingly in its somewhat missleading wording, will only apply to THAT weapons attacks (so even if you're duel wielding wands, it'll jump in half of the time, since you alternate your attacks).

If a magic Wand has "Adds 1 to 50 Lightning Damage to Spells and Attacks" (i.e like the implicit ability of many wands), this is going to add to your Arc. It would also add that same lightning damage to a Fireball, and whatever else is classified as a spell. Meanwhile the Prophecy Wand's implicity "40% incrased Spell Damage" will likewise add into your Arc damage (as it clearly states it's increasing spell damage".

As noted above, as a spell caster using Arc, you're looking for bonuses to Spell Damage, bonuses to Lightning Damage (just be wary of the word 'Attack').

To glance at the early witch trees (I'm assuming you're a Witch so using stuff near it for exammples, if this isn't the case, please let me know I'll redo this set of examples, use the search feature in the middle top of the skill tree to find these in game).

Arcanist's Dominion (+20% Increased Spell Damage, +5% Cast Speed, +20 Intelligence): This is fair game, increased spell damage gives you ARC damage, but would NOT help your wand attacks (even if they deal elemental damage).

Lightning Walker (25% Increased Lightning Damage, 5% increased Cast Speed with Lightning Skills, +15% Lightning Resist): This again is fair game, it would increase BOTH Arc damage, and wand attacks that happen to deal lightning damage (since it's just looking at lightning damage, nothing about spells or attacks).

Static Blows (30% increased Damage if you have shocked an enemy recently, 50% Duration of lightning ailments, 30% effect of Lightning ailments): Fair game again, and one that works for spells and attacks, as it ONLY cares about lightning damage.

Wandslinger (30% increase Damage while wielding a Wand, 10% increased Attack Speed with Wands): here we get into the less pure help. The first part DOES help, as it's just asking IF you have at least one wand equipped. Assuming you meet that requirement, you cash in on the 30% Damage bonus. However, ARc is not an attack, so no bonus speed no matter what from this (But obviously can have value if you use wand attacks for some reason). So while not ideal, it's kinda accessable, it's not the absolute worst investement, but it's not really carrying a ton of weight, but it is doing some help. Something you could get for a bit, then regreat out of later once you have a sum of points to get further away from your start, or something to buy because you don't know where you're going yet, and you want something that will stand out later that you can undo, while still offering some degree of help.

Elder Power (10% increased Wand Damage per Power Charge, 10% chance to gain a power charge on kill): Here's a bad mixed bag, the Wand Damage per Charge is dead, it will not help Arc (see 'Wand Damage'). But the second part is only asking for a kill, so Arc WOULD be able to proc that, though boy do you need a good reason to need power charges to spend all the points to get there if you're not shooting that wand a lot.

Tempest Blast (Gain 20% of Wand Physical Damage as Extra Lightning Damage): And now we're into the ultra niche and unhelpful. This looks at the Damage your Wand deals, ONLY the physical. As such it will not help Arc at all, and is fully dead weight unless you're actively doing your harry potter impersination and swinging that wand around.

Hopefully this helped more than it hurt. It takes a bit to sorta internalize how the abilities work and need to be read. Feel free to ask more if you want more clarity.