Wand Enchants
Ancient wands are a PvE-only beam weapon. The beam tears through shades and wraiths, every boss, and Erebus pit guards — but does nothing to other players. If you want to hit players, that's a job for a sword or axe or a bow.
How wand casting works
A wand is held to channel: keep right-click down and the beam fires repeatedly at your cast rate. Wands no longer slow you down while you fire — holding right-click streams beams at full walking and sprinting speed, the same as a bow. A single click still fires exactly one cast.
Each beam lands on a single target, so cast-speed builds genuinely scale your single-target DPS instead of fizzling. A cast only ever hits a given enemy once — stacking cast speed is how you push damage, not multi-hitting one mob. To cover a pack you reach for the enchants that add beams or bounce them: Prism, Chain, Pierce and Spell Echo.
Holding a wand is a deliberate glass-cannon tradeoff: you take +10% damage from all sources while it's in your main hand. That's spelled out on the tooltip, and it's shared with bows — see the glass-cannon tradeoff for the full picture.
The damage scalers
| Enchant | Rarity | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Arcane Power | Elite | +5% increased beam damage per level, up to +25% increased at L5 |
| Surge | Legendary | Consecutive-hit ramp: +1% increased damage per stack per level, up to 10 stacks |
Both were rebalanced down in Season 2, with wand base damage raised ~25% to compensate. Arcane Power was previously +12% per level (up to +60% at L5); Surge's ramp was previously +4% per stack. Surge (which also lives on bows) decays one stack at a time — you lose a single stack per second you stop firing, rather than dropping the whole stack.
Both are increased damage, so they sum into one additive pool with your other increased-damage sources rather than multiplying on top of them. The conditional scalers — Executioner, Ambush and Long Shot — are more damage instead, and each multiplies with the others.
The wand enchant lineup
| Enchant | Rarity | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Reduced Cost | Uncommon | 10% less Ancient Energy per shot, per level |
| Far Reach | Uncommon | 15% wider beam and chaining range per level |
| Velocity | Uncommon | 25% faster projectiles per level |
| Repel | Uncommon | Knocks the target back |
| Rapid Cast | Elite | +10% cast speed per level |
| Arcane Power | Elite | More beam damage (see above) |
| Ambush | Elite | 10% more damage per level on an opening hit |
| Long Shot | Elite | 6% more damage per level at full beam range |
| Combustion | Elite | 15% increased fire damage per level on your Ignite |
| Ignite / Venom / Shock / Frostbite | Elite | The ailment procs — burn, poison, shock and chill |
| Pierce | Elite | The beam passes through +1 enemy per level before it can chain |
| Monster Hunter | Elite | Increased damage against every enemy that is not a player |
| Surge | Legendary | More damage as consecutive hits ramp (see above) |
| Catalyst | Legendary | 20% increased ailment damage per level |
| Executioner | Legendary | 8% more damage per level on Low Life targets |
| Chain | Godly | On beam hit, the strike arcs to +1 nearby enemy per level within 10 blocks, for 60% of the hit each |
| Prism | Godly | Fires 1 extra beam per level in a fan, each rolling its own damage |
| Spell Echo | Godly | Every cast echoes — it fires a second time shortly after, for free |
| Phantom Beam | Godly | Beam ghosts through terrain to hit enemies behind cover |
| Soul Eater | Godly | Banked-soul stacks add cast speed and damage |
| Contagion | Godly | Ailments spread to nearby enemies on death |
| Petrify | Godly | Chance to root a target on hit |
| Boomerang | Godly | The beam returns, piercing for 30% of its damage |
| Detonate | Godly | On a kill, chance to explode the corpse for 25% of its maximum health |
Lucky works on wands: it boosts the proc chance of the wand's own enchants by 10% per level, up to 40% increased at L4. Cavern Luck, its Calcite upgrade, can now be applied to wands as well.
Ailment stacking
Wand ailments follow the same limits the bow does, including the copies Contagion spreads to nearby enemies:
- Ignite does not stack — a new proc replaces the live one only when it is stronger, and refreshes its timer.
- Venom stacks up to 3 times on a target. At the cap, a new proc replaces the shortest-remaining stack.
Each caster keeps their own instance, so two players wanding the same boss never overwrite each other.
Repel
Repel knocks enemies back 3.5x less per hit at every level than it used to. Because a channelled beam applies it several times a second, the old value launched anything you looked at out of the fight.
Customising and augmenting
Wand enchants are applied with Enchant Orbs like any other gear. You can also dress a wand up with a wand trim, and unlock beam cosmetics to give your casts their own look.
Version history
v3.0.0
- Wands no longer slow you down while you fire. Holding right-click streams beams at full walking and sprinting speed, the same as a bow.
- Soul Eater, Spell Echo, Chain and Phantom Beam are now Godly enchants and roll from Mystery Godly Enchant Orbs, alongside Prism, Contagion, Petrify, Boomerang and Detonate.
- Executioner, Ambush and Long Shot now grant more damage instead of increased damage, and their values were cut to 8%, 10% and 6% per level to match.
- Shock damage now scales with its level, at 8% increased damage taken per level for 24% at level 3.
- Frostbite no longer makes chilled enemies take increased damage. It is pure control now: the chill slow and the freeze sub-roll are unchanged.
- Monster Hunter now works on every enemy that is not a player, and grants increased damage rather than a separate multiplier.
- Repel now knocks enemies back 3.5x less per hit at every level.
- Wand Ignite and Venom now follow the same stacking limits as the bow, including the copies Contagion spreads to nearby enemies.
- Cavern Luck can now be applied to wands, and boosts the proc rate of the wand's enchants.
- Fixed calcite enchant levels showing as a number instead of a roman numeral on wands.
v2.0.0
- Wands can now be held to channel, and every wand beam lands on a single target — cast-speed builds finally scale single-target DPS.
- Wands now work on all PvE content — every boss, all dungeon mobs, and Erebus pit guards — while staying strictly PvE-only.
- Added the wand enchant lineup: Rapid Cast, Soul Eater, Arcane Power, Catalyst, Executioner, Ambush, Long Shot, Contagion, Combustion, Repel, Petrify, Boomerang, and Phantom Beam.
- Arcane Power and Surge rebalanced down, with wand base damage raised ~25% to compensate.
- Lucky now functions on wands, and holding a wand adds +10% damage taken (glass-cannon).