The Daily Deal

Igneous Scorchstaff
Multiplayer-3
The most popular wizards use fire spells so anything with Combustible needs to be great to consider running. Igneous Scorchstaff is merely solid. While it only requires a minor token, it is far from the best available fire staff. Overheated Staff is a better option for low token Instant Burns, which can only be found on staves. Gob Of Flame is not found on many staves but is much easier to get on arcane items.

Singleplayer-2
For low level adventures where low cost items are useful Firestorm is simply more efficient at getting the job done than Instant Burn, in which case you want Staff Of The Inferno and Mullik's Blisterstaff. There are a few maps that have low enemy numbers with higher HP where Instant Burn might be more effective but you won't have the tokens available for good burning arcane items to take advantage of it. In the higher levels, you will want staves with more Instant Burns than Igneous Scorchstaff can provide. Or just be lazy like me and never switch out the Firestorm party.

Overall power level- Igneous Scorchstaff is a solid staff with a unique mix of Instant Burn and burning spells but it isn't going to be making it into anyone's perfect fire wizard build. Would not recommend buying it.

Substitutes- Forgefire Staff (R), Orange Staff (R): Instant Burns. Torching Staff (E) no token, Trembling Staff (R) no token: good burning spells.

Blessed Mail
Frennik's Soulstone
Pol's Prayer Beads

5-Will fit in any deck. Sees a lot of play in multiplayer or has great utility in single player.
4-Powerful, but deck specific. Popular in multiplayer or useful in certain adventures.
3-Average. You could do better, you could do worse. The cards on this item will not make or break a build.
2-Subpar. There are unplayable aspects to this item or many better alternatives exist.
1-Very bad to totally unplayable. Little or no redeeming qualities.

 

Hmm I have a desire to improve upon said rating system.

Under this system, it would suggest that an item rated 5 would literally be used in any deck. Taken to an extreme, this would mainly include tokenless items like The Strongarm, Raging Battler, St. Portia's Maul and Skull of Savage Iljin. Possibly some special items like Bloody Command, Superb Trickery, or even Parrying Buckler. Yes, I would rate Parrying Buckler a 5.

Problem with this is that you miss out on some very potent items, even if they can't be used everywhere. My personal favorites are Overheated Staff, White Flame, and Troll's Ire. They might truly only be worth "4" under this system, but there aren't any other items out there that do what these items do. It's hard to rate things.

I'd also like to contest playability VS buyability. There are some amazing items out there (Fulg's Cleansing Pot comes to mind) for certain builds, but the epic equivalent (Noral's Cleansing Relic) is a pretty fair comparison.
Another example I can think of is Cleansing Hide Armor vs St. Malaj's Cuirass. I would rate them both as a 4 due to their card draw potential, which is very useful for certain terrain maps. As for their buyability, I really can't recommend buying one if you have the other; also I can't recommend buying the 2500g Cuirass when the other is out there more commonly for 500g.

But then again, I'm sure some people would disagree on rating these items highly when they only work in specific builds.
I have a hard time giving an item a better rating simply because they are better than an epic item. Price is a factor.

Let's say Mordecai's Staff of Magma VS Staff of Blazing Sparks, for example.
Mordecai: 5 all-around
Blazing: 4

Then back to Fulg's/Cleansing relic.
Fulg: 5
Cleansing: 4 (arguably a 5)

But the difference to me is buyability. I would rate them in this order:

5 -(Only staff with 4 Volcano, very strong)
4 -(Powerful, popular staff for the price)
2 -(Great draw potential but expensive, considering all the other items with 2 Cleansing Ray!)
3 -(Useful item, consider buying one for the specialty builds)

You could also discuss Bloody/Advanced Command, Raging Battler/Apprentice Ferocity, Perfect/Superb Stoutness, Petochl's Sword/Sundersong etc etc etc.

I'm of the mind to rate the better items as better, but for 5X the price I would almost always rate the epic equivalents as being superior value. Particularily for the 2000g difference being one lousy card which isn't even the important part of the item. (Important part being Blind Rage, Duck, etc)

So....
Yeah.

 

This is getting a bit of topic, but I always though it'd be neat if the wiki allowed for forum users to give item ratings.

 

When I say will fit in any deck I guess what I really mean is you don't need to build around the item for it to be great. If people would like to suggest a new rating system I'm open to it.

 

I would just like the Item tag to change the link's colour based on the item rarity.

Also, this thread is all about giving item ratings. So totally on topic for the moment.

You would think that after 100 pages worth of item discussion threads that someone would have made a database listing items and all relevant discussions.

 

Whoops! I meant to say wiki. I just fixed my last post. But I agree, some sort of database would be cool.

 

Staff Of The Misanthrope. 3/5! Many players advice to farm scenarios lvl 2-5 a lot instead of buying it, and that's a good advice. But if you don't like to farm that much and still want the great tokenless staff for the farming, it's the best available option, especially after the rebalance. You may also consider that having 3-4 copies of it isn't "too much".

Perfect Flexibility. 2!/2! The best item with Advanced Battlefield Training. The only thing remaining is to find a good use for it to justify spending the yellow token
Staff Of Chask 4!/4 The best "frontline staff", if you want your wizard to be at the frontline. Punishing Bolts are the base of "frontline theme", and Pushback Parry also support it. A pair of these staves make a nice "anti-warrior wizard", especially if you want to save the tokens for the other items.
Tarial's Diadem 3/3.

My rating shows only the power/cost ratio of the item in the right build (not necessary in yours!) '?' means the need of a special build. '!' means the best item for its cost, in its category or essential for the build.

 

I guess that includes all non-tokenless items that are very powerful for their tokens. Quick Jon's Axe, for instance, can be used without much support, and will be good for almost any warrior.

That's why I've refused to use that rating system. It implicates that items usable in any deck are better than the items requiring a special deck, and that's just false. See my rating line.

My rating is 5?! for Mordecai (no, it doesn't "fit in any deck", you need enough Volcanos to play them effectively) and just 4? for Blazing Sparks.

My rating is 4?! for Fulg's and 4? for Cleansing, since Fulg's is better. It's really hard to prove that cleansing cards are good enough to fit any build, especially for a token. They are great if you're playing Volcanos, or your opponent is playing them, so they either require a specific build or defend against it.

My rating shows only the power/cost ratio of the item in the right build (not necessary in yours!) '?' means the need of a special build. '!' means the best item for its cost, in its category or essential for the build.

 

Personally, I really like the one you're using. Single digit ratings can't cover everything, and you provide a concise evaluation for the reader to consider. Never expect everyone to agree about anything.

 

Staff Of The Misanthrope
Multiplayer-2
Flash Of Agony takes a lot of work to deal more damage to your opponent's characters than your own. This will often mean separating your wizard from the rest of the party which is a dangerous proposition. You also need to be playing on a relatively open map so that you can get line of sight. Even if you do manage to catch all of the opposing characters with their pants down your opponent will be playing around Flash of Agony for the rest of the match. Staff of the Misanthrope needs too many things to go right in order to get value in multiplayer.

Singleplayer-3
As a tokenless item that hits multiple enemies, Staff of the Misanthrope can be great for farming some lower level adventures. However, it still suffers from the line of sight problem on a lot of maps. While you may need to wait a bit for enemies to wander into range, Firestorm is superior in maps with limited line of sight. It will also do more damage, it can be buffed with skills, and the fire damage can be prevented with Resistant Hide. Staff of the Misanthrope does provide you with two additional multi-target attacks per weapon over Firestorm staves and is better against enemies with their own Resistant Hides but if you are going to invest gold for farming I would prioritize getting Firestorm Staves. Pro-tip: don't spend 2500 gold on a farming item if it'll bust your piggy bank.

Overall power level- The damage potential is great for a tokenless staff but it is hard to actually get the damage through. Would not purchase unless you really really want to shave some seconds off farming select low level singleplayer maps.

Substitues- Staff of the Inferno (E): Firestorm

Perfect Flexibility
Staff Of Chask- Great staff for a defensive wizard against melee oriented teams. Just keep in mind that while you will survive longer against warriors and priests, you are giving up a lot against other wizards due to having 3 dead cards and short range attacks. Punishing Bolt is great in singleplayer against enemies with large shared hands and the well endowed big bosses.
Tarial's Diadem

5-Staple item that does not need to be built around. Sees a lot of play in multiplayer or has great utility in single player.
4-Powerful, but deck specific. Popular in multiplayer or useful in certain adventures.
3-Average. You could do better, you could do worse. The cards on this item will not make or break a build.
2-Subpar. There are unplayable aspects to this item or many better alternatives exist.
1-Very bad to totally unplayable. Little or no redeeming qualities.

 

"3" means "Average" which is definitely not fair for the staff. At least "4" is needed.

Consider that you cannot have more than one Resistant Hide, and you're going to have a lot of Firestorms from the other items, so an extra Firestorm staff will rarely add extra burning damage that can be buffed with skills. Plus, the limited range of Firestorm can really slow down your farming speed on some maps (where enemies capture the distant victory areas).

Unless you really farm a lot, but still don't have enough Staves of Misanthrope despite all your efforts.

Pro-tip: combine this staff with Savage Curses, and you will get the damage through

A very bad substitute to say the least. Two Combustibles make you think whether do you really want to play Firestorm, and that substantially increases your farming time.

 

For farming SP, Staff Of The Misanthrope is clearly the best choice on some maps, and Staff Of The Inferno is the best for other maps. And if you're farming for gold, it doesn't matter which map you play on, so you can choose the map that works best with the build you have. Last night I put together my first Flash Of Agony build to try it out, and while it still needs some tweaks (and a third Misanthrope), it's a much safer build than Firestorm.

 

Great on some maps, horrible on others, that seems pretty average to me.

So at worst it does the same damage as Flash of Agony. Name one low level map where there are distant vps that you have line of sight on.

My point was that you will rarely have line of sight on everything, not that the attacks are low damage.

Combustible will increase farming time if you only have one firestorm wizard. It it very unlikely all your wizards will have combustible at the same time with no Resistant hide when you have a dedicated Firestorm party. You will have to pry the Staff of the Infernos from my Combustible dead hands before I give them up for a pile of Staff of the Misanthropes.

 

This is true if you repeatedly redo a level to farm. Personally, I will run through multiple modules for the final chest over redoing a specific one, especially now that the loot tables have been standardized. Have you found Agony farming a favorable map to be faster than Firestorm? I don't have enough staves for a dedicated Agony party to test myself.

 

Doing single maps is something to do while waiting for the fairy to move.

I've just started trying an Agony team (I only have 2 Misanthropes and I'm still using Firehide Robes so sometimes it looks exactly like my Firestorm build), but so far none of my chars have ever died in a battle. It's not as fast as my best Firestorm map (Lair of the Trog Wizard), but it seems faster for Defense of Woodhome and hopefully for Tvericus too (and maybe even Secret of the Gnomes).

 

Today's Deal is:

Miligar's Dragon Tongue 5!/5 The only item with all three Flame Jets, for a blue token. It's essential for the "burning wizard" build, since that build needs appoximately the same number of Flame Jets and Globs of Flame from the items, and it's very difficult to get the Flame Jets. But you can play the Tongue in every deck with the good results. Definitely a good buy if you don't have one yet.

Agility. 2/1
Pacifist Trickery 3/2
Tome Of Pain 2/2

My rating shows only the power/cost ratio of the item in the right build (not necessary in yours!) '?' means the need of a special build. '!' means the best item for its cost, in its category or essential for the build.

 

This logic is completely flawed. If some item is great even on one map, then it should be rated as good. Time is precious! Some players are trying to get the needed legendaries by playing the scenarios of appropriate levels every day, and they really need the builds to reduce farming time.

I don't remember the map names, but I remember a map with a lot of zombies and a distant vp, and a map with berserk gnomes and a distant vp. There are also maps without vps, but with vast open areas. Why the maps should be low level? Is saving tokens on a high-level map bad?

That also depends on the map. There are maps where you can easily hit enemy characters on turn one from a great distance (Wicked Waterways maybe?), while most of their spells are too short-ranged to hit you.

If you play three wizards, maybe. But I'm playing two Firestorm wizards + a Savage Curse priest, and I cannot lose one of my wizards to Combustible.

 

So what you are saying is you expect a player to spend 5000 gold per wizard in order to farm a level faster to get a specific item? I wish I could say that was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard but you've had some winners. They should invest in Firestorm which farms everything relatively fast instead of Flash of Agony which farms a select few maps a bit faster. I feel like you are catering to a different type of player than I am. If you have the extra gold to blow on an item to help farm a few maps faster you probably already have the Firestorm items. But for players that have a limited inventory and funds that want to know what to get, Staff of the Misanthrope should not be a top priority or even on the same level as Firestorm and Volcano items.

Low level because with tokens you graduate to Firestorm staves without Combustible and Volcano staves.

You obviously have not played Wicked Waterways before.

You absolutely can lose one wizard to Combustible. Does your other wizard suddenly stop attacking because his buddy died? You even have Savage Curse in your build to help pick up the slack.

 

Staff Of The Misanthrope is great to swap into FS builds on open maps. I use them very often (as in, just about every day), but I don't recommend buying one. The ideal buyer would be someone who has farmed for one for a long time, just can't get the damned thing to drop, and has loads of gold.

 

Is it worth it getting a second Miligar's Dragon Tongue? My gut feeling is no as 3 Flame Jet seems sufficient.