That hammer has a range of 358-385 damage in ideal form. Attack rate is useless to wizards so one shouldn't look for the weapon with highest DPS value. With this hammer, unless a combination of ideal wand/orb combo with really high +% Wizard only damage modifiers, you get the most bang for damage even if the stats aren't ideal to the class.
Actually, I think this wand is the potentially highest DPS weapon for a wizard, Chantodo's Sacred Protector.
But your main concern still stands. Almost every class will be after the highest DPS weapon in the game assuming there are no class restrictions.
Some caveats:
* + Casting Speed would have a huge impact into a Wizard's/Witch Doctor's decision.
Eg. The Tormentor
* + Attacks Per Second
Some weapons have this property which could have a huge impact on your decision.
* Jay has confirmed that the list of items on the site is not final and they are working on more. Additionally many properties have not been implemented yet and that legendary items will have unique properties.
I believe some abilities may actually factor in attack speed. Maybe not a whole lot for the Wizard or Witch Doctor, but maybe a few. Such as how the monk works with some of his abilities. His skills don't even use the animation of his weapons, but are greatly effected by them.
Casting Speed probably won't even be a possible suffix on a great axe or a long sword. There are many such ways to limit what weapons you want to aim for per class. I don't believe the game will be so one dimensional in the end, but maybe you might come across such times where your using a axe instead of a wand for that reason. But just until you find a wand that's much better.
Resource suffix' might be a possible limitation as well. What if the resource buffs don't carry over to translate to other classes. That would make a huge gap in what weapons you want in the end.
There are a few things I'm curious about Magic Weapon also. For instance, most of the runes for it mention melee attacks. Does this include Spectral Blade hits? If not, is Blizzard really still clinging to the idea that people might ever use the generic 'attack' skill, ever (yes, I just used 'ever' twice)? Clearly at some point in design it was expected we would use normal attacks, because several classes have passives to increase it's power, and the Demon Hunter seems to have been designed assuming that ~ 1 in 3 attacks would naturally be autoattacks,* but the footage that I've seen suggests that at low levels (where you have the least control over what options you have) your resources regenerate so quickly that there is never a reason to normal attack, and even more so for the Barb/Monk, whose normal attacks are direct downgrades to generator skills.
But back to the main topic, Magic Weapon + Wizard skills, do they work together? Before making a fool of myself, I decided to pause and check out the official D3 forum to see if this has been discussed, and an interesting point is made. Wands have a built-in +% damage to Wizard skills on them, but you cannot use Magic Weapon with a wand (only enchants melee weapons), while melee weapons do more base damage but do not have the added Wizard only bonuses (at least not as a built-in stat). There -might- be an argument that allows for Magic Weapon to exist for that reason (turning your sword into a stronger magic focus for your spells kind of thing), however if this is the case I would like to see a rune changed to suggest this kind of usage** (presently all the runes seem to be focused on normal attacking with the enchanted weapon, although the obsidian rune might be usable otherwise).
On an unrelated note, I really wish I had posting priviledges on the D3 board... I'm starting to feel like a second-class citizen knowing my posts won't see blue-posting eyes.
* that or some general use disc skills got cut without anyone noticing, since the remaining disc skills are once per encounter and/or situational skills (observation being that in the old DH resource system you either had to attack at less than full speed or mix in normal attacks to allow for hatred regen
** preferably a "this skill also grants a +attacks per second/cast speed bonus" (benefiting both meleeers and casters. hehe, meleeers....
Attack rate is useless to wizards so one shouldn't look for the weapon with highest DPS value.
I don't have access to the beta so I have to ask: are we 100% certain that Spectral Blades is based on base weapon damage and not DPS? For aesthetic and practical reasons I just don't like the idea of a Wizard running around with a giant two-handed weapon for use with a skill that is fast casting and essentially three slashes in quick succession.
If anything I would want dual-wielding swords, or wielding a sword with an orb in the off-hand, to be just as viable as wielding a giant claymore, if not more so.
Attack speed definitely affects the cast speed of spectral blades, so there should be an equal proportion of wizards with giant swords as tiny ones (assuming things like animation canceling don't break attack speed's importance). It is unconfirmed, however, whether or not weapon speed is going to affect other skills once the change to spells using weapon damage is implemented, but it is highly likely that it will (since clearly the code already exists to make it so if they deem it necessary). Now, whether that means wizards can gain dual benefit from +attacks per second AND +casting speed is another question entirely (and one that I am a bit curious to hear the answer to).
Attack speed definitely affects the cast speed of spectral blades, so there should be an equal proportion of wizards with giant swords as tiny ones (assuming things like animation canceling don't break attack speed's importance). It is unconfirmed, however, whether or not weapon speed is going to affect other skills once the change to spells using weapon damage is implemented, but it is highly likely that it will (since clearly the code already exists to make it so if they deem it necessary). Now, whether that means wizards can gain dual benefit from +attacks per second AND +casting speed is another question entirely (and one that I am a bit curious to hear the answer to).
Animation cancelling is only a viable exploit in this very outdated version of Beta.
Speed cannot be ignored, it does not make sense to do so, especially given all our spells use wpn dmg now.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One is never hurt by being given additional choices, only by taking them away. A QUADRILLION MAGIC FIND is worthless if you can't kill shit!
Oh, I know canceling only exists in our current very primitive beta build, but that it was even confused as an intentional feature by Bashiok suggests they are experimenting with similar ideas, and something like canceling still has the potential to exist, and given creative enough players, still be broken. I have faith that Blizzard will be able to squash such exploits should they exist in the future, but it still may happen (and people may forget that it's fixed and using old websites for suggestions, build their 'UBAR LE3T WIZ' using outdated information/ideas, leading to slightly disproportional amounts of 2hander sorcs existing).
All in all though, since your only source of loot is what you get, and what's on the AH, having a popular choice actually makes it easier for people who know better or don't care enough to min/max EVERY little thing (since the non-popular items will cost much less for only a slight reduction in overall quality). If it is a gross disparity, however, and 2handers can double the dps of wand+orb/shield, then that would be a problem that again, I'm hoping Blizzard is able to fix.
In short: Blizzard, why can't I post this somewhere you can read it?
Also why wouldn't you strive for a weapon that deals the most top-end damage? ie. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/schaefers-hammer
That hammer has a range of 358-385 damage in ideal form. Attack rate is useless to wizards so one shouldn't look for the weapon with highest DPS value. With this hammer, unless a combination of ideal wand/orb combo with really high +% Wizard only damage modifiers, you get the most bang for damage even if the stats aren't ideal to the class.
But your main concern still stands. Almost every class will be after the highest DPS weapon in the game assuming there are no class restrictions.
Some caveats:
* + Casting Speed would have a huge impact into a Wizard's/Witch Doctor's decision.
Eg. The Tormentor
* + Attacks Per Second
Some weapons have this property which could have a huge impact on your decision.
* Jay has confirmed that the list of items on the site is not final and they are working on more. Additionally many properties have not been implemented yet and that legendary items will have unique properties.
Casting Speed probably won't even be a possible suffix on a great axe or a long sword. There are many such ways to limit what weapons you want to aim for per class. I don't believe the game will be so one dimensional in the end, but maybe you might come across such times where your using a axe instead of a wand for that reason. But just until you find a wand that's much better.
Resource suffix' might be a possible limitation as well. What if the resource buffs don't carry over to translate to other classes. That would make a huge gap in what weapons you want in the end.
Be my Buddy =^.^=
But back to the main topic, Magic Weapon + Wizard skills, do they work together? Before making a fool of myself, I decided to pause and check out the official D3 forum to see if this has been discussed, and an interesting point is made. Wands have a built-in +% damage to Wizard skills on them, but you cannot use Magic Weapon with a wand (only enchants melee weapons), while melee weapons do more base damage but do not have the added Wizard only bonuses (at least not as a built-in stat). There -might- be an argument that allows for Magic Weapon to exist for that reason (turning your sword into a stronger magic focus for your spells kind of thing), however if this is the case I would like to see a rune changed to suggest this kind of usage** (presently all the runes seem to be focused on normal attacking with the enchanted weapon, although the obsidian rune might be usable otherwise).
On an unrelated note, I really wish I had posting priviledges on the D3 board... I'm starting to feel like a second-class citizen knowing my posts won't see blue-posting eyes.
* that or some general use disc skills got cut without anyone noticing, since the remaining disc skills are once per encounter and/or situational skills (observation being that in the old DH resource system you either had to attack at less than full speed or mix in normal attacks to allow for hatred regen
** preferably a "this skill also grants a +attacks per second/cast speed bonus" (benefiting both meleeers and casters. hehe, meleeers....
I don't have access to the beta so I have to ask: are we 100% certain that Spectral Blades is based on base weapon damage and not DPS? For aesthetic and practical reasons I just don't like the idea of a Wizard running around with a giant two-handed weapon for use with a skill that is fast casting and essentially three slashes in quick succession.
If anything I would want dual-wielding swords, or wielding a sword with an orb in the off-hand, to be just as viable as wielding a giant claymore, if not more so.
Speed cannot be ignored, it does not make sense to do so, especially given all our spells use wpn dmg now.
A QUADRILLION MAGIC FIND is worthless if you can't kill shit!
All in all though, since your only source of loot is what you get, and what's on the AH, having a popular choice actually makes it easier for people who know better or don't care enough to min/max EVERY little thing (since the non-popular items will cost much less for only a slight reduction in overall quality). If it is a gross disparity, however, and 2handers can double the dps of wand+orb/shield, then that would be a problem that again, I'm hoping Blizzard is able to fix.
In short: Blizzard, why can't I post this somewhere you can read it?
Staves, Ceremonial Daggers, Wands have better magical damage then other weapons.