Wands are not considered spells. Although they inflict fire, or shadow, or arcane damage, they are still considered a physical attack. Your attack rating and the creature's armor still come into play. (I'm wondering if agility ups the damage...)
Wands are nice because they're free distance damage, but, the damage is less than you will do melee even as a mage, and the mashing of the button between recast timers is so annoying that I wouldn't honestly label wands completely worthless.
It's a shame, too. They were awesome back in phase 2 before they added the recast timer.
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