Looking for some insight on wizard

[FlipisWin]

Got a friend rolling a wizzy tomorrow, any insight on the general life of a wizard? After reading through the forums, I feel inclined to tell him to steer clear of the class. But then others say its not that bad, just gotta get to where you raid. So is this guy who will be starting from scratch, be shooting himself in the foot by playing a wizzy? He enjoys grouping, but our play times are kinda jacked atm so he might get stuck going solo. Is it all that terrible to solo as a wizzy?

Guess in a nut shell, could some of you elder wizards throw me some pros and cons from your own personal experience?

[username17]

I feel like this has been asked and answered many times over.
Try using the 'Search this forum' dropdown on the right before posting.

For the lazy:
http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137618
http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140828

[Oleris]

life will be rough soloing until he can get JMB. Those will be necessary to quad kill. Other than that, they start to shine in the higher levels (chardok etc) and will be used to burn down raid mobs in velious.

[Nagash]

Like for (almost) every class but only much much more obvious: a poorly played wizard is a waste of space in any setting (group or raid), a well played one is a must have.

[Rhambuk]

in a group theres more than just sitting standing nuking repeat. get him used to using rootcc to park mobs that makes a big impact on groups attitudes towards the "afk wizzy" and try to tell him to conserve mana its better to nuke once per mob than to just blow one away and sit afk for the next 3

solo isn't bad, its not that good until bonds of force at 29 root bombing mobs works but its not the best. jmb are stupid expensive and for a first time char completely unfeasible unless you want to buy them for him :P best bet is to save up for a 10dose sow pot and only use it when he has to for soloing. spells always more important than gear even though he should be looking for gear upgrades they don't make a HUGE difference on a wiz like other twink classes.

[Shodo]

Soloing really isn't too bad on a wizard, it just takes some patience (and a good book or a netflix subscription). Luckily, it doesn't really require any gear either; so, for a new player, it's probably a better option than a warrior or other heavily gear-dependent class.

Also, once he gets to mid-level, the ports will help him make some cash; both by porting others for tips and by allowing quick access to different cash camps.

[Estu]

Yeah, this topic has been kind of done to death. But here is my two cents as a 60 wizard.

* For solo EXP, wizards are OK. There are classes that can solo better (druids/encs/necros because of charming, bards because of swarming, shamans later on because of easy epic + lots of other stuff) but quadding is a pretty good way to EXP. Before quadding? Yech. Root-nuking stinks if you want to level fast.

* For high level camp soloing, wizards are bad. 'Nuff said. There are some options for making cash but overall wizards are very weak for this kind of thing. Porting can make you a little money (~500pp an hour on a good day) but nothing compared to what other classes can achieve at high levels.

* For grouping, wizards are bad. Their DPS in the long run is abysmal compared to just about any melee class and their utility, except for evac, is outdone by other classes easily. People will tell you that you're good against casters because you have stuns. Who else is good against casters? Clerics, bards, enchanters, and druids have stuns, and tanks and large races have bash/slam. In other words, stopping spellcasting is a skill that almost everyone has. People will tell you that you can use root and snare as CC. Sure. But most well-formed EXP groups are going to have a bard or enchanter that can CC much better with mez, and again, tons of classes have root. Tl;dr: your DPS is crap and your CC is not at all impressive. The one exception is AE groups, which wizards are great for, but you'll only really see these at level 56+ in Chardok and demand for DPS tends to be low in those groups compared to demand for enchanters.

* For raiding, wizards have their uses, but this is often overstated. Planar ports are obviously something only a wizard can do; OK. But in terms of nuking down raid bosses, wizards run into trouble when it comes to managing aggro. Rogues and monks, the top raid DPS classes, have excellent aggro management tools: evasion and feign death. Wizards have a single aggro management tool: the Concussion spell, an MR-based spell that reduces aggro. Trouble is? Most raid bosses have huge MR and your concussion isn't going to land on them. So if you just go all out and nuke like a madman, you're going to get dunked after two nukes. So you end up having to nuke less so you don't die, and most of the time end up getting way out-DPSed versus raid bosses. For some raid bosses, wizards really do put in rogue-level or better DPS, but generally speaking I've found that you'd be more help by porting people wherever on a wizard and then switching to a rogue to actually be useful.

So what's the summary? OK solo, bad for groups, not that great for raids. How about fun? Are wizards fun to play? In my experience they're boring as fuck since most of the time you throw out a couple of nukes and then med for a long time. You don't have a lot to do, like, say, a shaman or enchanter. The ability to port around and get wherever quickly is nice but if you wanna do that you can roll a druid and be more useful in groups and better at soloing and have more fun as well.

My advice: don't play a wizard.

[Fiyero]

I take it you regret having a level 60 wizard Estuk?

[Estu]

I take it you regret having a level 60 wizard Estuk?

Well, let me put it this way - if I was starting over, a wizard wouldn't be my first choice of a character to get to 60. (Or my second choice... or my third choice :p)

[FlipisWin]

Thanks for all the solid replys guys, and yea the subject has been beaten to death. I derpd on my search filter ><. But once again I appreciate the comments, think hes gonna try a shaman out and see how it feels.

[Tuljin]

There's a bunch of classes besides wiz that get a bad rap for groups especially past 50 - namely wiz, dru, mage, and nec. All are actually excellent group classes, you just have to be good at EQ. You also have to make friends and usually create your own groups as a wiz due to the bad rap. You also need the skill to hold it the fuck down, not die, and keep group leader so nobody boots you out :-P . If you're a beginner you'll have a hard time. Most lvl 60 wizards at this point are PLed then chardok AOEd to 60 anyways, very few people play wiz mains due to the difficulty.

[Etris]

Well, let me put it this way - if I was starting over, a wizard wouldn't be my first choice of a character to get to 60. (Or my second choice... or my third choice :p)


What would your 1st, 2nd or 3rd choices be?

[Estu]

What would your 1st, 2nd or 3rd choices be?

Personally, I think I'd go (1) rogue (2) shaman (3) cleric. Rogue is a boring class but I like being useful for my guild and it's nice when gear does something useful for you other than add mana. Shaman is the class I've had the most fun with, soloing for EXP and platinum. Cleric because I like being able to help people by resurrecting them. There are a lot of different reasons to level a character.

Other contenders would be necromancer (arguably the best power leveling class - again that's desirable because I like helping people out in-game; fun to play; good soloer), bard (selo's is amazing; taking down whole zones at once is a cool thing to be able to do; their ability in groups and overall skill ceiling is huge; they're very useful in raids and not in very high supply), druid (fun and extremely efficient solo play with charming, can buff newbies and port around), and enchanter (jewelcrafting is cool, their solo and group play is interesting, they're one of the most powerful solo classes).

[lithnar]

i had great luck with my wizzy at low levels at crush bone in groups or root and nuke, also there are some bandits in bb i used to kill at lower levels. if you are still interested