New Wizard Advice

[Cyph]

Hi all,
I've been considering rolling a new toon for my pending return to P99 and have been putting serious consideration into playing a wizard, it's one of the few classes I never played. I've read a lot online, mostly negative to be honest, but I'm still interested. I'm thinking of having it as a background toon whilst I work (and who knows, I may go back to main'ing one of my other toons).

Class wise, it seems that gnomes are up there. I played a gnome necromancer and ended up loving that little fellow. Or a human.

Anyway, some questions for any experienced wizards out there:
- What race is recommended or does it matter at the end of the day?
- Religion wise, is it worth choosing Solusek Ro or going agnostic?
- Should I expect to live a solo life or are wizards (more) welcomed in groups these days?

Any other advice?

Thanks in advance all :)

[Scoojitsu]

- Religion wise, is it worth choosing Solusek Ro or going agnostic?

https://wiki.project1999.com/Imbued_Platinum_Fire_Ring

[Cyph]

Apart from the -8 str, that's tasty!

[Scoojitsu]

To offset that STR penalty:

https://wiki.project1999.com/Thick_Banded_Belt

There aren't too many good belt options anyway.

[Muggens]

Erudite are the ultimate wizards. Solusek Ro is a default choice, the god of heavy nuking. Brells Girdle is a good belt.
Solo quad exp is faster and yield good plat, but you will get groups if you want. Get some jboots and get the flux staff at lvl 20. Good luck, check out my sig for a twink wiz leveling route

[Exard3k]

Any race has the option for solusek ro, including dark elves. Picking a more neutral deity will come with better faction when picking e.g. dark elves.

Dark elf Wizards get access to dark elf cultural chain armor, which can be nice and is very high AC along with moderate Int stuff.

The belt is rather expensive, but there are several jewelry pieces (earrings with str+int) and moonstone rings that gets your strength up.

Keep in mind the sol ro ring and cultural armor isn't on green yet, so pick what you like the most. I prefer Sol Ro because it just fits best for a wizard.

[Muggens]

Racial Hide as Dark Elf is also nice for semi afk quadding sessions

[Negativ]

I'm with Muggens. The best thing you can do is roll a Dark Elf so you can hide while you med for 20 minutes in the uppper 50's.

[Cyph]

I didn't even think of dark elf to be honest.

Damn, decisions decisions.

[Vexenu]

Dark Elf is unquestionably min/max for Hide, Ultravision and high INT. Erudite super high INT is mostly wasted because Wiz gear is overflowing with INT anyway. Gnome and High Elf are comparable, just a question of your aesthetic preference. Human is max Fashionquest and rarity. Don't see many Human Wizards running around.

[Kirdan]

Human because fashion is the end game, Solusek Ro because those rings are hard to replace until the upper levels of Velious, and you'll probably end up soloing, but you can do it well!

[Cyph]

Shame on me... but I've never played an "EVIL race...

[Stonewallx39]

+1 to Dark Elf. It just goes so well to be an evil wizard and everyone should have an evil toon at some point in there life.

The ability to hide is also useful in groups when medding so pulls don’t sit aggro. Wizards are already behind the curve for DPS the last thing you wanna do is lose out on a tic or *cough* a few because you look away from the keyboard for a second.

Just don’t be an AFK wizard. CC, avoid aggro, evac if things get hairy. Play like one of the good ones then show off on raids and snag xp for you group, they’ll surely appreciate it.

You will be looked down on by many for groups but on blue there are so many incomplete/unique leveling groups you should have any problem finding xp.

[Tuljin]

Dark Elf makes a great Wizard and casters in Dark Elf cultural chain look great. Hide and ultravision are nice bonuses, though you do get vision spells if you decided to roll another race. Unlike on Blue you really need to cast them on Green if you don't have racial ultravision.

I prefer Erudite for wizard because I have always liked the Erudite (superior) race and if you really want to get into actual "min/max" especially if you are going to ~~~~~~~~rAiD~~~~~~~~ you roll an Erudite with max Stamina. They also have the racial +5 MR. There is so much int on Wizard gear you don't need to put any points into it at roll on an Erudite.

Human makes a nice statty toon all around but if you aren't going to go hard and get the top dragon drops you'd have to dump a lot of points into INT instead of STA. From the sounds of it you're already late to the ~~~rAiD~~~ game so it'll take some "catching up" to get in line for drops.

As far as the solo/group question is concerned - and P99 is infamous for a lot of hot air and buzzwords that float around - "quadding" on this server is not something you just "go do." People like to talk about it, people like to say "oh just go quad" and "oh just go get jboots" but its not that simple.

While you're leveling you will be able to get groups. There is still a lot of "wizard hate" but on this server people like to load up groups and churn mobs. You will get lots of invites and in Classic wizards are quite powerful. Also, if you are good at the game and can stun, CC, and use your interrupt nukes on casters you will be a great help to your groups. Also, if you have your act together you can put groups together easily. If you just sit at zonein posted up /LFG you'll be sitting for a while if you don't make some friends.

Now, somebody posted a link to a quadding guide in their signature. This is fine but this is mostly listing Kunark zones. The Classic zones that are mentioned work....in theoryquest. I will now address the hot air and buzzword of "quadding" as it relates to Green.

You won't be "quadding" Crag Spiders in your high teens/low 20s. You won't be "quadding" gnolls outside of Paw in your high 20s. The fact of the matter is everything on this server is camped. By the time you mess around and play games with other people taking your mobs your bar doesn't move very much. If you get in a good group in a zone with a good ZEM your XP bar will fly. Runnyeye in 20s flies, for example. You can't move your bar any "faster" by quadding while leveling on Green because while it works on a paper napkin, the fact of the matter is everybody knows all the spots, and everybody is going to be there messing with your mobs.

This brings me to my final point, which I find unbelievably frustrating. I will address it now and "let the secret out" which really is no longer a secret at all. Quadding Oggok guards in your 40s, which everyone "says to go do," has now become an incredibly annoying endeavor.

There is always somebody there. There are level 50 druids that go there to farm plat (which is incredibly frustrating and honestly very lame.) As someone with "limited" playtime I don't have the luxury of waiting around for a camp to open, I need to log in and get my bar moving. When people get a spot there, they stay for hours. There's always somebody there pretty much 24 hours a day. Everyone has been told to go do it, everybody now does it. Including level 50s who go......farm fine steel for plat. Absolutely ridiculous.

So say you get the four guards at the front tower. Theres gonna be someone else there killing the other guards around the front. Mobs spawn every 24 minutes. It takes you a few minutes to actually kill the quad. So that brings us to (paper napkin math) maaaaaaaaaaybe 10 mobs an hour, if you're lucky (again, I'm writing on my paper napkin.)

You won't be able to kill 4, sit to full for 10 minutes, get the next 4 that spawn in the front area of the zone, and stagger that out to be pulling a quad every 12-15 minutes. That works on a paper napkin. Does not work on P99 green. Not with level 50 druids farming guards for fine steel and everybody constantly going there. Even Bards go there in high 40s. Its an absolute shitshow.

So to answer your question - you will actually be grouping most of your life on P99 Green as a Wizard. In lower levels the bar really does fly and you'll get groups easily. Higher levels it will be a little tougher but you can still get groups all the way through your 30s and low 40s. High 40s gets tough for everybody that can't solo on green, but honestly if you can't commit enough to sit around and wait for Oggok guards to open you can move the bar just fine in a good spot root rotting mobs. This whole "go quad Oggok" thing has gotten out of hand, and there really isn't anywhere else good to "quad" in your high 40s. Everything is always camped. Real talk, enough Theoryquest and PaperNapkinQuest

[Snortles Chortles]

Hear me out

former live wizard here (never again)
never once rolled a wizard in my 10 year emu career
my sincere advice is to roll a Druid (if you love quad kiting) or to roll a Necromancer; which actually feels more like the powerful wizard trope based on what you can accomplish in game vs oops I’m outta mana lol

[Crede]

Hear me out

former live wizard here (never again)
never once rolled a wizard in my 10 year emu career
my sincere advice is to roll a Druid (if you love quad kiting) or to roll a Necromancer; which actually feels more like the powerful wizard trope based on what you can accomplish in game vs oops I’m outta mana lol

Druids are garbage at quad kiting compared to wizards, on blue especially with easy access to jboots. Flux staff is one of the most enjoyable items I've ever owned. Instant pulls plus AOE snares, evo spec, and superior nukes make rounding/quadding actually enjoyable, which druids really have no comparison to until at least level 58.

Leveling a wizard was a surprisingly enjoyable & relaxing experience. Make friends, join guilds and they'll invite you to groups, people do appreciate the wizard utility. If you ever raid, that's where they really shine. Would 100% roll DE, hide on a wizard is one of the most useful racial abilities I've noticed, even when compared to things like regen. Being able to just afk med right in the middle of your camp and not have to hide in a corner somewhere like the other races is really nice.

[Snortles Chortles]

ah yes, please tell us more about that 20 minute afk med break utility :rolleyes:

[Gorster]

I have my DE SolRo Wizard up to 28 now, a decent amount of leveling has been semi-AFK while working which if you can find a nice static on a 6-8 min timer the class is great for. Evil is also fun rampaging around towns and guards. Finding static spawns can be a bit hard however and I have run into more and more problems finding good spots.

Grouping can be a little hit or miss, but on green, it really hasn't been an issue for me and likely won't be until Velious when mob hp really starts hindering Wizards more due to lack of decent scaling. Unless you become known as an AFK Wizard then you are likely just shit outa luck.

Admittedly my Wizard is more travel and some money-making in doing so for gearing up another class later. Necromancer was my favorite on live, and a hankering to be pure evil is always tempting.

[Snaggles]

I leveled a wiz to 51 mostly on single kill xp in high zem zones (HK was great). It just fit my schedule. Slow by any rational definition but YouTube and paperwork made it a nice break once the blue bar was full. A Soloist’s Icey Wand made the grind from 12-29 on single target mobs way easier since nothing is more annoying than nuking something down to 1-5% and having to expend another expensive spell.

Jboots and the flux staff are almost necessary items.

[LoFi Guy]

I'm with Muggens. The best thing you can do is roll a Dark Elf so you can hide while you med for 20 minutes in the uppper 50's.

I tend to lean this way as well when it comes to wizards, because lets face it..there is some downtime associated with quadding lol.

[Christina.]

Wizards are fun.