This was the first time I ever proposed a shared topic: What is your favorite weapon? I'll be answering it twice. My subsequent version will be from a Tankadin point of view, which is where the question originated, but as I was also thinking about it from my Mage's perspective and that prompted this deeper question:
What is a Mage's real weapon?
Historically, it's a dagger. And WoW has spellblades of various sorts and the like, but how many of us have ever found ourselves slashing a boss with any edged weapon? In Fantasy Fiction, the great wizard wields a Very Manly Staff, usuallytwo handed, but again, if we're on melee auto-attack on a boss, we're doing it wrong.
No matter what the one-hand or two-hand weapon is that we've equipped, it isn't treated as a weapon, but another dump slot to shove the best bonus we can manage. And yet, some of these weapons are definitely cooler than others, but none managed to etch themselves into my mind as something I could call a favorite.
There is another slot, however. And this one has on occasion been an important weapon. I'm talking about the wand. There were plenty of times while leveling that I would finish a creature by switching to a few blasts from my wand. It did decent enough damage at the time and it also allowed my mana regeneration to start just a little bit sooner. Does that still happen? I'm not sure with all the recent changes in leveling that mages are encouraged to use this tactice. Any recent mages have an opinion?
Yeah, we probably still aren't using wands on a boss, but the fact is I have much better memories of seeing my character running around with a still glowing wand in her hand. In fact, I wish I knew just which wand that was. It glowed, not unlike Fiery Weapon!
I love Fiery Weapon, by the way. Not so much for my own weapon, but because as an enchanter, it was the earliest enchant that provided me with a profit! I spotted it on the Auction House and grabbed it and was soon building a comfortable collection of gold. This came at a time when I needed a source of funds, so I'll always have a solid appreciation for that enchantment.
But I digress. I had a wand that glowed. I think it also had a sparkle. It really did glow orange and left behind a little trail, like a dying sparkler being waved around on the Fourth of July. It also provided a pool of light circling around me on a dungeon floor. That always reminded me of how in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign as a Dungeon Master, I'd forget which characters had darkvision or infravision and which needed a torch. There's probably an Order of the Stick cartoon that could include that as a punchline.
Do Night Elves see better in the dark than a Gnome? Doesn't matter, really. Well, unless there's a boss battle where the lights go out and suddenly those that have glowing weapons can see better than those without. That could be kinda cool.
Hm, another digression. I think I was going to talk about how a wizard's staff doesn't have any ranged attack animation. I guess the item would then consume three slots, filling the wand slot, too. I'm sure Blizzard could do it, but that seems wrong. Instead, if we aren't shooting bolts out of our wand, we'd better be shooting them from our hands.
Or our eyes! I'd love having Enchanted Engineering Goggles that had a pew pew lazer animation. That'd be worthwhile to grind some reputation to exalted.
Since I can't remember Martuska's favorite wand, I can at least tell you the weapon I remember the best. Because Mage's got a headstart on Kirin Tor reputation and I was delighting in the cooking and fishing dailies, Kirin Tor was the first Wotlk faction I got to Exalted. That meant that Flameheart Spell Scalpel was the first ilevel 200 item I picked up, well before I could actually equip it. And for whatever reason, it didn't get replaced until much later. Therefore I had was my weapon for an extremely long time. It was a happy thing. It was something I could be proud of having earned and it looked pretty decent. So it easily wins my vote as a favorite. It even provided me with a RP prompt once. I could casually mention, "Oh this? Just something I got from the Kirin Tor in appreciation of my service to Dalaran." Yeah, like no one else could do it. Ha!
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