Weapon Guide: Ice Staff

The ice staff was at one point the most powerful ranged weapon, however due to buffs of the bow, the Ice staff has fallen out of popularity.

**If you are not familiar with the mechanics of a wand, please read through the weapon pages first.**

*This guide is from Fonky - A Wand main that has pushed to the 3 stars rank with wand at one point.*

*Note that this is only for 1v1, 2v2 uses a different strategy and skillset.*

As with all guides, just reading obviously will not improve you as a player. Use this as a guideline and GET OUT THERE AND PRACTICE.

## General Theory

### How to approach this weapon

The ice staff is a multipurpose weapon, often good for support, stall, 1v1, poke damage. It is very annoying to face and often players at lower tiers do not understand how to fight this.

As an ice staff user, your main attack is your charge attack, shooting projectiles. These projectiles do not deal much damage, but with good aim can constantly chip away at your opponent.

An ice staff must constantly deal damage, or else the game is lost. It is also integral to understand unarmed combat to escape from difficult melee situations.

## Mechanics

### Unarmed Combat

In order to master the wand, it is important to master unarmed combat, being able to dodge attacks, roll, pin others down is a vital skill for all ranged weapons, and is often the dividing line between Higher and Lower tiers of players.

#### How to practice

It is vital to practice unarmed combat, and one great way to do so is to create another account, a smurf. Do not use this account to troll other players, and throw games. It is of UTMOST IMPORTANCE that you use this account to tryhard and rank, as to not disrupt the community. When using this account, always throw your weapon away and just practice fighting unarmed. See how high you can rank like that. Once you get to around 130-150 in rank through pure unarmed combat, you are ready to use the wand at high levels.

### Strategy and taking it to the next level

#### Strategy

The general strategy of the wand is to stay as far away as your opponent. Using Jump+Sprint will give you great distance, allowing you to punish your opponent if he tries to follow you. When shooting at your opponent, they will try to kick back your shots (right click), so what you have to do is move in a direction where you won't be hit by the deflected shots, while still shooting (diagonal movement preferred).

You also want to punish all your opponents rolls with a special or a barrage of attacks.

#### Advanced Tips

It is also important to keep track of your stamina bar. Every time before it is full, you want to squeeze all the value and shoot one projectile, possibly "chipping" away at your opponent. This keeps a constant stream of distractions, and you don't waste any stamina.

### Common Combos

#### Freeze+Throw

An excellent finisher at low levels, if you land a freeze, throw your weapon and deal massive damage. Follow up with a bunch of pin rolling. Excellent burst damage. Note that at higher levels, players will dash to dodge your weapon throw, so only throw the ice staff if you know for sure that their dash has been recently used. Otherwise, barrage them with normal attacks. It is also possible to bait them to waste their dodge, then throw your staff by shooting 2 bolts at them then throwing.

#### Engage

Start shooting shots at your opponent while moving closer towards them. When you are in range, shield bash(dash+shield). This forces them to choose between taking damage from ice staff shots, or taking damage from shield bash.

### Countering and Counters

You must watch out for sword, claw and hammer weapons exclusively. These weapons have great engage, and can easily interrupt you starting your charge. If they get close to you, you must run away, as they have many more options and damage opportunities in a close combat situation. An ice staff without range is worse than an axe, which can still deal good damage.

Against ranged weapons, you just have to have better aim. Remember to zoom your screen out. There's not much as it becomes a pure skill match up.

### Potion Combo

If you decided to arm yourself the staff as the main weapon, watch out every potion in the map.

* Mirage Potion : This make yourself being clone up. Obviously, this really helpful with ranged weapons, since your clone can also shoot projectiles. It is highly recommended you should have 2 or 3 mirage potion in your inventory, and the final slot is for healing/stamina potion.
* Haste potion : One more reason you should keep distance to the enemy, is ranged weapon is not designed for melee combat. If being enclosed you can use a haste potion to escape on your own. Note that combo-use with Sprint and a Stamina Potion can even beat The Flash.
* Stamina Potion : Should be in one of your primary slot. Every shot consume stamina, sprint too.
* Health Potion : Keep this in hotbar is a good idea. Not only it can save your life from risky situation, it also have the ability to auto-consume when low health.

Secondary Items :

* Knife : For extra damage only. Work well on close range (not recommended)
* Grenade : A good item that you should bring it with you when fighting near enemy Fort. Not only it can pass any obstacle in it's way and damage gates, it also deal splash damage and knockback to multiple enemies in group. It is not recommended to bring in close range, as this can lead to suicide.