Staves and wands are easiest for them to use in general, but they can use other weapons when combined with the right spells, if they include useful bonuses like focus, crit, or cast speed. Cannons are not typically used, but I suppose it would work okay with Shocking Orb.

I mostly just use staves, although there are perfectly viable wand builds.

The biggest thing is to pick something to focus on. Like ... are you going for a Fire mage, an Ice mage (or a prismatic mage, etc).

Personally, I think I'm most fond of Ice, but Fire can be fun too.

Shield builds are nice if you have a decent wand or use a stat-stick like Netherrealm Axe with non-DPS-based abilities. Embermages can be pretty squishy, and I don't believe I would have beaten Hardcore Elite without a shield, certainly not at the same level. Shields also give you another item to enchant with Borris over using a staff.

Oddly enough, I'm building my newest Embermage strength build (to 999, then FOC) to use a claw - Bonepry Wedge. It has a monstrous +25% crit rate bonus, and since you need 486 DEX to equip it that guarantees that your crit will be 76% or higher. The reason I chose a legendary claw over a Netherrealm Axe is because I needed weapon DPS to be high for Shocking Orb, but I didn't necessarily need it to be on a wand or staff. I feel like this is going to be one heck of a build if I can pull it off...

But all this is to say that there are lots of options, and even some out-there combinations can work if you plan it and enchant it well.

Shocking Orb runs off of plain weapon damage, not DPS, so a claw may not be the best option there.

Originally posted by ADEC Inc:

Shocking Orb runs off of plain weapon damage, not DPS, so a claw may not be the best option there.

Interesting. I'm still learning. I suppose that would make Ophidian's Endgame the best option, provided you could make up for the Crit % loss (with a few Whorlbarbs probably). Thanks for the tip!

**EDIT**
The wiki says "Inflicts X% of Weapon DPS as Electric Damage" for Shock Orb. Are we sure it is raw weapon damage and not DPS? It wouldn't be increased by adding a Vastok Skull, but would be by adding a Vellinque?

**EDIT 2**
I checked in-game as well, and sure enough it says Weapon Damage, not DPS. The wiki lied to me. Drat.

sooo bottom line
Ember Mager = Staves and Wands! Full Stop?

For convenience, yes, but other weapons can be used with the right skills.

You can certainly make use of other weapons if you want, but I'd say be sure you understand how they work first, and how they interact with whatever powers you intend to focus on.

It's an ARPG, you want to aim for synergy.

Wands and Staves are going to be easier to incorporate into any Embermage build.

Originally posted by Lord_Sadist:

sooo bottom line
Ember Mager = Staves and Wands! Full Stop?

If you're not using Shock Orb, or any spells based on weapon damage specificially, you can do very well with an axe or two. Specifically Netherrealm Axe, which IMO is the best stat stick for its 4 sockets and +8% Crit rate.

Originally posted by Lord_Sadist:

sooo bottom line
Ember Mager = Staves and Wands! Full Stop?

If only building with skills that feature no Dps (Weapon Damage) then the Weapon doesn't matter as much since Focus-skills don't really use the Weapon except for any bonuses to Cast Speed or Focus-related damage boosts.

That means the Weapon can either be used as a stat-stick (affixes) or used (Direct-weapon attack) for leeching Health and Mana usually from Set Bonuses.

The Embermage is one of the more flexible of the vanilla classes in terms of weapon-selection.

Originally posted by ADEC Inc:

For convenience, yes, but other weapons can be used with the right skills.

So I already had a couple lying around, but I finally discovered the stats on "The Final Embrace", and I think I finally understand now. That's the best weapon for Shocking Orb, isn't it? (Provided the character has enough strength to wield it.) Works out that I hadn't gotten around to enchanting Ophidian's Endgame on my new build yet.

Now I just need to do some math and figure out whether it's best to enchant it with more elemental damage (likely electric) or Focus from Borris. My guess is Borris will be better.

*EDIT*
I ran the calculations, and my stats should be very close to the point where the bonus damage from additional Focus (Borris) will be almost equal to the bonus from more Elemental Weapon Damage (Telsor).

At lower Focus and Strength, Focus pulls ahead, but at higher Focus and Strength, Elemental Weapon Damage pulls ahead. I'm going to go with Weapon Damage because it's much easier to get good enchants and it will scale higher if I can increase my stats somehow.

*EDIT 2*
On second thought, I might just go with the Focus. They're very close, but I will probably need the extra Mana for Shocking Orb.