Is it me, or does having a weapon on a caster totally useless (cosmetic wise)

[Uzi91]

throughout all my time playing wow i have always wondered why is it that caster classes (mages, locks, shamans, priests, and sometimes balance druids) never actually use the weapons equipped to them to attack or summon spells. See the reason why i like to play melee classes so much is because its badass to see them use those ridiculously large weapon like they are made out of plastic, but caster dont do that. One second they have their staff or hammer and shield in one hand, the next they are casting and it just disappears. I think that it would be awesome if shamans would shoot lightning out of their hammers and mages could use their staves with one hand and the other would shoot the fire ball or the staff would shoot it. Kind of like how Gandalf uses his staff to summon his spells.

Not sure if blizzard acknowledges this, or they do but don't have time to implement it since i suspect it would be a ton of work to re animated all the casters and whatnot. But what do you guys think? you think caster would be funner to play if the behaved that way in combat?

[Wildtree]

I see your point, and have to agree, to some degree.

Sword wielding mages are not uncommon in fantasy literature per se. Gandalf for example has one too...
Generally the classic caster weapons are wands and staves. And those are usually rather humble looking.
Plus, on that aspect I agree.... Caster weaps in WoW lacking the animation of how spells are originate from them, and it would be a nice feature if they did.
It looks stupid, and not "realistic" how the staff basically sits there useless with the toon.

[Deleted]

Yeah, or if Guardians could like have a big staff in their mouth and shoot aggro from it, that would be awesome...

Seriously though, the animations are a bit limited and in some cases (like shapeshifters) you just have to suspend your belief in order to have workable game mechanics.
But yeah, it would be cool.

[Baladash]

I don't think I agree - In WoW I thought the spells were coming from you conjuring, not your weapon, which is why silences stop casting. Possibly as a conduit or something but that is more like a totem to me? In the other MMO's I've seen I never liked casting animations with a big staff flopping around like it doesn't weigh anything and looks kinda dumb. I do think on other fantasy settings it is appropriate because of how their magic works (think Wizards in DnD) just not WoW specifically.

/2cents

[Thundertom]

I would also like to have casters use their weapons in animations more. In pre-rendered stuff you always see, for example, a mage casting a fireball from his staff.

[Deleted]

I don't think I agree - In WoW I thought the spells were coming from you conjuring, not your weapon, which is why silences stop casting. Possibly as a conduit or something but that is more like a totem to me? In the other MMO's I've seen I never liked casting animations with a big staff flopping around like it doesn't weigh anything and looks kinda dumb. I do think on other fantasy settings it is appropriate because of how their magic works (think Wizards in DnD) just not WoW specifically.

/2cents

Yeah I agree with this but some spells could use some animations, the blood elf in the TBC opening if I remember rightly uses her staff for an arcane explosion but the human mage conjures a polymorph with his hands.

Also irony is Death knights get a weapon animation for their death coil spell lol.

It would be nice but the way they are making out that the revamped character models almost killed them, this would probably takes years to develop.

- - - Updated - - -

A good alternative could be for weapon enchantmets grant your weapon a spell abilitiy (that you put on your bars) and it unleashes a spell. Might be a little similar to unleashed elements though.

[HardlyWaken]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2353015977
They once said they wanted to. WOD would have been the perfect time, but I guess it wasn't brought up enough. Pity.

[Uzi91]

Yeah i agree with you and Baladash in some aspects, like how "silencing" works you do have a good point. But yeah blizzard has shown multiple times caster using their weapons to cast, so i think having it in game would be amazeballs. I mean just think how cool it would be having a shaman raise his/her hammer to when casting Lightning Storm (the aoe that pushes ppl off) or then slamming the hammer to the ground to summon an earthquake, or have a mage slam his staff to the ground to do a frost nova. I think all that would make caster look soo much cooler.

but again all that work would probably kill the animators in blizzard, and for now i just want them to finish WOD.

[Impoxh]

I would like to get actual weapon animations for spells. If i stays like it is now I would like to at least be able to hide my staffs.

[Pony Soldier]

I just look at them as power sources. They are what power up your spells. If a mage didn't have it's staff he'd be powerless. Then again you can unequip your weapon and still cast spells so with that I guess you can just say that the weapons just make your spells more potent. I don't know, just use your imagination. Plus I like the way staves look on mages and it's good enough for me.

[Rosstafa]

Would be awesome if as a shaman, lightning bolts came from your mace, Thor-style.

[Grumpy Old Man]

Since I watched TBC trailer I've been wanting to see my priest hold her staff above her head, with both hands, while casting resurrection...