Playing a Wizard in a group

[knottyb0y]

Any tips on being effective as a wizard in a group?

Do you drop your mana via chain nukes then afk med for 5 min? :P

How do you consistently contribute to DPS? Avoid over aggro?

Should I use ae spells or rains?

What other roles and abilities should I look for to maximize the group experience? root cc? burning down casters or something?

I've played a wizard mostly with root & nuke, and quad kiting and that's fine. I am not sure how to be effective in a group situation, particularly xp grinds where you see chain pulls etc.

[Jimjam]

Roots and tactical stuns.

Some zones it is fun to pull with eye, snare bomb the incoming mobs and root them off 1 by 1. Works well in Hole at the drop down after the swim - in zoneline.

[Tnair]

the other thing us nonwizards love when wizards do is quick response nukes, either for mobs fleeing without snare/dangerously close to causing adds if snared, or when an add is stuck on the cleric or enchanter and the melee arent getting it off easy. just Boom drop that sucker.

edit: also be ready with Evac, and vocal about offering/doing it. everyone would prefer to have to break back into camp rather than wipe, as long as they get a heads up that youre casting/ready to cast it

[Gustoo]

Pretty much everything here is the main good advice. Keep mana in a good place so that you are of use. Your DPS isn't good so don't worry about it. Make the fast damage count. Use your utility to keep the team strong and healthy. Don't die.

[Duik]

Dont use aoe or rain. Especially if grouped with chanter. Rains/aoe hit multiple mobs. Good groups *try* to only deal with 1 at a time. Where do you think those (upto) 3 other mobs are gonna go?

As above, tactical stuns for casters the fastest casting one, nvm the duration. A CH mob takes 10 secs to cast, wiz mana bombs cast fast. Leave casting animations/particle effects on and learn what is what.

You are better off doing the last 8% of a mob and killing it than the 1st 10% and just pissing it off.

Edit bit
Regarding the aoe snare wiz get. Snare (if you are the designsted snarer) even if you cant put enough distance to NOT snare yourself in dungeons. Its not iike running around helps melee pull agro off you.

[Kich867]

the other thing us nonwizards love when wizards do is quick response nukes, either for mobs fleeing without snare/dangerously close to causing adds if snared, or when an add is stuck on the cleric or enchanter and the melee arent getting it off easy. just Boom drop that sucker.

edit: also be ready with Evac, and vocal about offering/doing it. everyone would prefer to have to break back into camp rather than wipe, as long as they get a heads up that youre casting/ready to cast it

Ya, I tend to wait until a mob is ~40% hp to start casting, usually execute it around 15-20% as its about to run.

Another thing I'll add is, try to stay fairly high on mana. Wizards are unique in that unlike a lot of other classes, if shit kinda hits the fan, Wizards can go nuclear and put the situation back to normal by just murdering something.

Or, similarly, as things get low you can essentially function as an executioner to let the rest of the group more quickly move to the next target. It's a boring life, most of the time, but I always really enjoyed grouping on my wizard and knowing that 90% of the time I'm just kind of idling, and I can push on the throttle when its needed. There's something fun thinking about most classes can kinda go full bore if they want to but wizards have to very consciously hold back for most of the fight because their DPS is so high when they want it to be.

[eqravenprince]

1. Having the mana to burn down a mob quick when needed. This is when you get to be the hero.
2. Root CC, Root prevent fleeing mob, and interrupt NPC casters
3. Talk to group, have fun, make friends
4. Be group leader, you have lots of time on your hands, when someone is leaving in 15 minutes, be proactive and line up a replacement, get them ported in. Vice versa, port people out.
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100. Cast nuke on mob when at full mana

[cd288]

1. Having the mana to burn down a mob quick when needed. This is when you get to be the hero.
2. Root CC, Root prevent fleeing mob, and interrupt NPC casters
3. Talk to group, have fun, make friends
4. Be group leader, you have lots of time on your hands, when someone is leaving in 15 minutes, be proactive and line up a replacement, get them ported in. Vice versa, port people out.
.
.
.
100. Cast nuke on mob when at full mana

Was about to say number 1 as well. Keep some mana in reserve for whenever that one nuke to kill (or nearly kill) a mob is needed. Maybe you have a bunch of adds and so the sooner the group can turn to the next one the better. Maybe a mob is running in a dungeon and it's about to create a shit storm of social aggro. Nuke that thing one time and kill it. But yeah otherwise the other tips in here are solid. If you have an Enchanter in your group who has a charmed pet, you can help them by hitting them with a stun if charm breaks...saves the Enchanter from having to do it before they mez and re-charm the thing.

[Jimjam]

Do be careful on 'helping' enchanters with charm breaks - wizard stuns all have a damage component, which will break a mez if they get off one of those spells before you complete your stun cast.

[Solist]

Pull with eyeballs. Pretargets setup to root when in LOS.

Zero reason you can’t keep a pet snared and control breaks with flux staff etc.

If epic, all the more of the above.

Obligatory stuns when needed. You have incredible aggro potential. Your dps is the worst thing you can do in most cases.

[Rader]

Go AFK like a pro

[kangum]

keep root on hand if no chanter. Ive seen extremely well crowd control by rooting the mobs then step back out of the way so they can't reach you. Chain rooting mobs and stepping out of range can sometimes be more effective than trying to blast all your mana away. again this is if you have no mez class.

[Jimjam]

Nah, even if you have 2 other people rooting still focus on root. Tank is tanking? Root. Enc mezzed something? Root. Pretty much anything? Thats a rootening.

[enjchanter]

I will never invite a wizard willingly

[Jimjam]

I will never invite a wizard willingly

What about a friend?

[Jimjam]

I will never invite a wizard willingly

It is very important wizards gear to look like enchanters.

[enjchanter]

What about a friend?

Real friends wouldn't bring a wizard

Get your wizards PLd to 60 like an ethical person

[Toxigen]

Yeah the only time a wiz is getting in a group is through friends.

Best bet honestly is to start friending bards. Can do some pretty fun stuff with that off meta duo.

[sox7d]

Played a wizard since 2010, wizards should never be in groups. Even a 60 wizard without any rend robe w/e is doing less sustained damage than like a 43 paladin.

Classic EQ is an asymmetrical world. Wizards are fantastic at raids, mobilization, AoE, and soloing, but they are virtually dead weight in groups.

I don't care how many stuns, snares, evacs or cope excuse for "utility" anyone thinks they bring. They don't belong in groups but their strengths shine elsewhere.

If they make P99+, they should definitely just remove clarity from enchanters and give it to wizards

[sajbert]

Got a 60 wiz. Practically never grouped to 60 but never needed to either.

Even with VP robe (60ish mana free DPS), VP staff and Epic I've literally gotten ghosted by Seb groups in trash gear. Like someone invites you and you show up, "oh a wizard ..." and they don't invite you and start crawling down.

Tbh, with a VP robe you can deal a fair bit of sustain and big nukes, roots and stuns can stabilize a bad pull and keep mobs from gating.

Before that however you are sort of useless, Wizards just have no sustained DPS. If I had to try I'd use low level root and stun, try to get some melee swings in because that's probably better DPS than what mediation and nuking would get me. Keep an eye on gating mobs and runners and nuke em or stun em. Make sure there'as mana for an evac.

[Videri]

This thread has some worthwhile info for wizards and would-be wizards. Please don't be discouraged - look how many people level their wizard to 60. And it's an awesome class. The epic is really good - and not terribly hard if you are willing to join a raiding guild. The mobility, the quadding/medding/AFK playstyle for solo (lift some weights), the raid mob damage, the gear options...pretty special class.

As for me, I'd always invite a wizard to my group, especially if they are a guildmate. I will benefit when my wizard comrade gets to level 60, so it's in my best interest to help him and make the journey more enjoyable. The best part of this game is socializing. Wizards need to socialize too. :)

[Jimjam]

If the group is going pretty good, you got nice CC and cleric, but u lacking xp mobs you can just accidently load and port up to PoHate :)

[pokishi]

I was extremely lucky to have leveled all the way to 60 grouping though it wasn't easy. The truth is that a Wizard is not ideal in a fast, well oiled xp group. No sustainable dps and lack of great utility puts you at the bottom of priority classes.
Take everyone's tips on group contribution. Look to execute low health mobs with big nukes, have root up and ready (fetter is such a wonderful spell) and always have a stun memmed.
Something I did that helped me get into groups was that I was willing to pull. Granted this was at KC where doing that on a Wizard is viable but it can be possible in other zones I suppose. If you have CC, then splitting shouldn't be an issue and if you don't then root, snare and eye goes a long way to controlling the number of mobs you bring in at a time. Epic, flux staff and gcd will make this endeavor much easier.

[Toxigen]

yep nothing wrong with stepping up and pulling as a wizard, prob the most useful thing you can do tbh

[blackrock]

Any tips on being effective as a wizard in a group?

Do you drop your mana via chain nukes then afk med for 5 min? :P

How do you consistently contribute to DPS? Avoid over aggro?

Should I use ae spells or rains?

What other roles and abilities should I look for to maximize the group experience? root cc? burning down casters or something?

I've played a wizard mostly with root & nuke, and quad kiting and that's fine. I am not sure how to be effective in a group situation, particularly xp grinds where you see chain pulls etc.

Depending on how high, usually it is a good plan to have one stun memorized for the complete heal. Hatred is always a factor but a CH can at some levels add 50% encounter time to the NPC

[redgiant]

I disagree about not using rains, and sometimes PBAE.

Rain spells are our single best dps tool for contributing noticeable damage without getting low on mana. A wiz can cast a rain, then sit while it tics, wait for the (short) cd, then do it again. There are even a couple special rain spells that can be cast simultaneously with the other "normal" rains, to have 2 rains tic'ing at the same time (this is mainly at higher levels).

A group that understands wiz rains and tailors pulling strat to use them has an advantage; mobs will appear to drop as if hit by an extremely strong dot. Just keep in mind the easy rules of rain spells:

rains hit on and closely around the target mob - keep any mobs you don't want to hit parked a bit away (you get a feel for how far this is quickly)
1 mob gets all 3 tics of dmg
2 mobs get 2 tics each (this is the "sweet spot" as the only way you get a 4th tic)
3 mobs gets 1 tic each
4+ mobs gets 1 tic each on the target mob and 2 next closest mobs only


If a group is supposed to be using rains, and a mob gets inadvertently hit that shouldn't be, don't blame the wizard, blame the cc for not doing it away from the kill area, or the tank from not walking the kill mobs back from a late cc that happens to be too close. The wizard's job is to simply target a kill area mob and rain on them and those around it per group strat; they cannot control which mobs around it get hit.

The TAE spells that are point-blank centered on yourself (aka PBAE) that hit unlimited targets all at once, like Cast Force or Circle of Fire. These are useful when the group is structured to pull 3+ mobs at one time and not cc-parking them to kill them later. Since they are centered on yourself, the added danger of needing to be close to the mobs gives them higher dps than the "safer" TAE that are centered on a remote target (the infamous "Al'Kabor"-style TAE spells that frankly nobody uses, at least I never do). You have to have a group that knows what they are doing wrt color stuns and such, to keep mobs taunted/stunned so they never attack you though, which is why the group needs to have the right classes with the right mindset to do this correctly. Btw, this is how most high level PL services pull and kill an entire zone; they pull with a bard to gather a ton of mobs, clump them together and the enchanters start overlapping color stuns (which are also PBAE and affect unlimited nearby mobs) in rapid succession while the few classes like wizard use their PBAEs to kill them all in a few chain casts.

[cd288]

It's a great point on the Rains, if we were in ordinary classic EQ world. These days structuring a pull and CC to make use of Rains is possibly more inefficient than just mezzing and burning down one at a time. Plenty of twinked Rogues, Monks, etc. plus Enchanter charmed pet DPS just melting mobs mean the Rain strategy is likely more trouble than its worth.

In a certain group comp or on a more fresh server though? It's a good idea.

[Jimjam]

Pretty fun having 3 rains loaded and just unleashing them all at once :)

I've been playing my wizard again recently (this thread got me hyped) and have found loads of opportunities to use rains, even in groups with an enchanter.

WTB blue Pillar of Flame.

[Toxigen]

honestly your best bet as a wizard is to find a bard to duo with

[Duik]

Well blow me down. I both misused and misunderstood rain type spells. Our group from 10 - 55 on live had the trinity of war clr enc with rog mnk and wiz.
Live we prolly did alot wrong hey.
Now with a group of top tier players on twink alts that strat sounds dangerous/profitable.

[enjchanter]

there are not many profitable things that involved 6 players in 1 group

[Jimjam]

there are not many profitable things that involved 6 players in 1 group

Yar, imo a full group of twinks is the exact time to get a bit silly.

[Duik]

Gameplay can also be profitable. That right there is what is wrong wiff da world. Greed. No matter what humans do they turn it into a business. Play for playings sake.

[dragolyche]

1-Use rain on single mob for good ratio Dmg/mana.
2-Don t use rain if multiple mobs in camp.
3- Nuke below 80%
4- Use root for CC, and stun

[wuanahto]

You dont always have to use max level spells

[Jimjam]

Fetter
Atol’s
Manaskin (no epic /weep)
Draught
Harvest
Tishan
Tishan
Eye

Recently i been using this in group. Rain or pbaoe stun in 8 if not pulling.

Tbh i don’t think the contribution is great ��

Edit: sometimes i’ll even throw in some O’keils. The high level version is surprisingly stackable.

[Trexller]

Yar, imo a full group of twinks is the exact time to get a bit silly.

This 100%.

If i got 6 people in an LCY group, im pulling all 4 BGs or half the pit mobs just to see who lives thru it

[Jimjam]

This 100%.

If i got 6 people in an LCY group, im pulling all 4 BGs or half the pit mobs just to see who lives thru it

“Oops eyeball went crazy 🙃”

[Solist]

“Oops eyeball went crazy 🙃”

Holy shit this is my #1 most written thing in groupchat.

Only way to make that place tolerable.

That or pulling a single extra mob ontop of that panchovilla 60 enc dude and watching him die to a green sentry.

[rhold]

This 100%.

If i got 6 people in an LCY group, im pulling all 4 BGs or half the pit mobs just to see who lives thru it

In a game of endless lives, dying is living.

Playing it 100% safe is boring.

[Toxigen]

In a game of endless lives, dying is living.

Playing it 100% safe is boring.

amen

[Vexenu]

The entire point of playing a Wizard is to not ever group except for raids and porting people, and then only grudgingly. Never allow your levitate to drop and sully your wizardly boots on the soil. Spam your flux staff on people to annoy them. Drop Sunstrikes liberally and one-shot random low level mobs for the hell of it. Quad for all XP. Spend 90% of your in-game time AFK. Treat others players with utter disdain for playing classes that actually require time and effort.

[magnetaress]

In a game of endless lives, dying is living.

Playing it 100% safe is boring.

Running back to corpse isn't as fun and interrupts the endless stream of dopa(mine) messages.

The entire point of playing a Wizard is to not ever group except for raids and porting people, and then only grudgingly. Never allow your levitate to drop and sully your wizardly boots on the soil. Spam your flux staff on people to annoy them. Drop Sunstrikes liberally and one-shot random low level mobs for the hell of it. Quad for all XP. Spend 90% of your in-game time AFK. Treat others players with utter disdain for playing classes that actually require time and effort.

I do agree with all that.

[spoil]

Just be mindful of the enchanter who has to CC all those mobs, deal with a pet and keep you monkeys buffed. I spent a few nights in KC on my main and then asked myself why am I carrying these groups for no exp and no loot.

[Swish]

Pretty much everything here is the main good advice. Keep mana in a good place so that you are of use. Your DPS isn't good so don't worry about it. Make the fast damage count. Use your utility to keep the team strong and healthy. Don't die.

Don't overnuke mobs knowing you're probably 5-10% of the mob's health over the top of what's needed.

Don't nuke fleeing mobs.

In the absence of decent CC, stun a mob at the back of a pack when there's an overpull and root it either in place or at your feet when it's entered the camp where you want it.

Above all... don't be a netflix wizard that's barely paying attention.

[Jimjam]

Root 5 mobs in a ring around the edges of camp. Stand in the center of the ring outside their melee range and use your pbaoe to hit all of them at once. You’ll probably only break one root per cast which is fine (: