Melee caster weapons are good for hibrid builds, but I’m not sure if they fit well into pure caster builds. I mean, if they are melee, they should also deal physical damage. In the real world, a dagger deals physical damage and also bleeding. In Grim Dawn or in any other game, it should not be so different, IMO. Base magic damage would be appropriate for a ranged staff or something like that, just like in TQ. For melee weapons (and also guns and crossbows), physical and magic damage should work together (2 base damages, maybe).
There already are some ranged weapons with % bonus to magic, but they are not yet ranged caster weapons. In a nutshell, since we will not have staffs in Grim Dawn, I think melee and ranged caster weapons with base physical + magic damage would be neat.
Pure caster builds you would be using off hand caster items with the caster weapons or a really good non caster weapon.
Its a pity pure casters won’t have a weapon that is mage specific with a unique attack like we had in TQ, but perhaps they can still add perhaps gloves that allow you to cast fireballs, spew lightning from your hand, that would fit Cairn and look cool 
Hey Zantai, any chance we could get some screenshots of just the basic level items. The epics are neat and all but I’m more interested in seeing what the average slub will be packing. 
Some new Screenshots in the Media section would be nice…the last ones posted were in February! :eek:
As a caster you are the weapon, not some stick.
We also have the offhand caster items which give great bonuses for a caster - something that TQ didn’t have if I remember correctly.
I know that there are a lot of people that want the generic staff/wand - I for one am glad that GD isn’t going for the generic ranged caster item but emphasizing the use of spells and the not-usually-seen melee caster hybrids as well.
Cant wait for the Fiendblood Spellblade for my Summoner!
This is gonna be fun
Yeah, might take some time for some people to change their thinking to fit in with the way Grim Dawn does some things.
Not really, if they deal elemental, only a third of it is cold, so if my gear is cold focused (% buff to cold) two thirds of my elemental damage go unbuffed whereas if I were dealing cold damage, all of it would be buffed
Ok, explain why for ranged weapons it is ok to deal damage types that are not dealt in the real world while for melee weapons it is not…
The issue with physical and elemental is that they are buffed by different stats. No caster wants any physical damage because of that
There was no unique attack, the staff is just like a bow, just with a different damage type, so not different from what we have here, except for the ranged part
You mean like the first two pics in the OP ?
I thought the same thing at first, but I think what they want to see is a picture of an actual regular weapon with it’s stats, much like the ones shown for the epic items.
But they will once these new caster weapons are released. Think of these daggers and scepters as ceremonial in nature that are designed to enhance the spell caster’s power.
I’m not sure how more spellcastery, aka mage, specific they can get.
IMHO, people are not thinking out of the box!
The way I see it, the issue with magic ranged weapons surfaces when the player decides to go full ranged caster with NO-spammabale skills.
The choice the player has at that point is to go for either pistols/tomes combo or crossbows/rifles. Currently, these ranged weapon types do not benefit full ranged casters the same way Scepters and Daggers benefit those players who decide to go full melee caster OR those who go for hybrids, OR those who go for full ranged casters with spammable spells.
I think the easiest way to solve this problem, is to be able to roll affixes on pistol, crossbow or rifle with similar properties as Scepters and Daggers. Not only you’ll cover all possible player build, you’ll also satisfy those players who do not want to see staffs, orbs, wands, gauntlets or whatever as new ranged magic weapon types:
Benefits:
- Scepters and Daggers - ideal for melee caster, melee hybrid, spamable ranged left mouse button skill with magic melee weapon equipped.
- Maces, Swords, Axes, Hammers - ideal for those who go for full physical/piercing or hybrids that use magic and physical weapons at the same time
- Ranged caster that uses spammable left mouse button skills.
- Ranged caster that does not use spammable left mouse button skill, instead it relies on heavy hitting spells with cooldowns and basic left mouse button attack from magic pistol ( one handed - with tomes ) or magic rifles/crossbows ( two handed )
Agreed, that was my understanding right from the start. It even says so in the OP
“Daggers and Scepters. These two archetypes fit the vision of devious sorcerers slitting their palms over a ritual circle”
So a lot more ceremonial than actual weapon
Wow, love the look and the new options these will give us. Crate, you continue to amaze me with the design decisions and new content every patch.
I like this idea. Having caster bows and guns with base elemental damage would certainly fill the gap. I think we already have one pure fire shotgun so why not more ranged caster weapons.
Thank you to Medierra for posting, it makes a little more sense now.
yes Hellmaw Shotgun is a good example of what players seem to expect of ranged caster weapons. why not make crossbows the ranged version of daggers and scepters, and rifles the physical ? that should differentiate rifles and crossbows, and encourage players to use 2H ranged weapons. just an idea like that though.
another thing to consider which is important imho is what Medierra already stated several times : casters should rely on spells. in a pure caster build the fact that the weapon is melee or ranged is irrelevant, because you’ll basically never use your basic attack, and so can play ranged with a melee weapon. in that case the choice of the weapons is based on bonuses and dmg type (for the %wpn skills).
and talking about skills, here’s the spammable skills atm which could benefit from spirit :
demo : cocktail, jacks (with transmuter)
occ : dreeg’s eye*
nb : phantom blades* (with transmuter and modifier)
arcan (to be confirmed ) : tempest*, flash freeze, nullification, aether ray (chanelled)
*wpn dmg
these skills benefits from fire/burn, lightning/electrocute, cold, chaos, aether, poison/acid bonuses. so you can imagine a lot of builds not relying on your weapon range. doesn’t mean that magical ranged weapon are uninteresting though, but not necessary in many ranged magical build (hope it was clear enough, if not sorry^^).
I agree. We can be safe to say that many, who choose to go for casters, will end up using spamable skills, and at that point it won’t make a difference what class of weapon you are holding. However for those tiny fraction of people who decide otherwise, they will be penalized by the current system.