Sorry if it’s a repost but i searched and found nothing.
Do Arcane / Nature / Shadow Damage wands do more damage against certain mobs? I’ve tested a few out and i didn’t see any type of damage change or benefit.
Any tips or tricks are appreciated.
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Certain mobs have spell resistances to certain schools, which will reduce the damage that those wands do.
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Some mobs can be resistant or even immune to specific wands, yes. But there isn’t a mob that will take EXTRA damage from your wand, unless of course the mob has some sort of debuff that amplified that certain school of magic.
elementals are often resistant to cold or fire. So those wands tend to be worthless at the end game.
Thank you. I thought i was losing out on extra DPS by not using the proper wand against certain mobs.
While some wands will do better against certain mobs due to their resistance levels, it’s honestly not worth having different wands. I mean, while leveling in a zone or dungeon, you’ll find some of these mobs that have resistances while others don’t. What, are you going to carry 4 different wands with different schools of magic damage and constantly switch them depending on what you’re attacking? That’s nuts.
Just find whatever wand has the best stats for you at that time. Maybe in endgame raiding, you might consider resistances (and that’s a big maybe), but it’s not worth it while leveing
To my knowledge world mobs don’t take extra damage based on a certain element (like in Pokemon). As others have stated, some wands do less damage (if any at all) against certain elementals. I have been told, however, that wands will benefit from talents that increase damage from that school of magic. So if you have, for example, +fire or +shadow talents/gear, then fire/shadow damage wands should hit harder. I have not confirmed it, though.
Edit: I stand corrected.
Tar elementals in Un’goro take extra Fire damage, and have a chance to debuff themselves with a small fire DoT if you hit them w/ fire spells. You can see it in the combat log as (Vulnerability damage).
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Wingardium Leviosa
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Typically, i avoid fire damage on wands. many things are resistant or even immune to fire.
Wands are not affected by these items, but wand damage will be affected by debuffs on mobs, E.G. Priest talent shadow weaving, and Warlock curses will increase the damage taken by that mob if your wand is of the same spell school.
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Thank you. I knew it worked with shadow weaving but wasn’t sure about other talents.
Generally, you select a wand based primarily on its stats.
Of secondary consideration is it’s damage.
In general, Shadow > Cold/Arcane > Fire > Nature. The reasoning behind this is that Shadow is the most amplified by available debuffs, Nature is the least and Fire is the most common resist type.
However, if your main concern is damage you can simply carry a rack-o-wands and pick your favorite based on the enemy.
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Thank you, this helped tremulously.
It’s how I want to play. I haven’t come across 4 different Wands, yet. But I have been swapping a Staff with an Axe & Shield on my Shaman. If my Shaman is fighting one Mob, I’ll use my Staff. If I’m fighting multiples, I’ll use my Axe & Shield. My insanity is fun for me 
haha don’t worry i’m with you. I do own all 5 of the different wands. 
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Or they’ll be completely immune.
No it isn’t.
Do not roll into MC with a fire wand.
Get a (the) holy wand at least as a backup and never worry about resistance again.
That wand is not in game until Phase 5 sadly.