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Old 11-04-2014, 11:08 PM
Estu Estu is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 1,994
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Level 60 wizard here. Some points about wizards:

1) They are OK soloers (in terms of EXP farming). Once you can quad-kite, quad-kiting is pretty good EXP. It's not as good as charming on a druid/enc/necro, and it's not as good as AoE kiting on a bard (obviously), but it is nice and easy. The main problem is finding areas to quad that are not already being occupied by quadders and non-quadders. A small pet peeve of mine is going to one of the few places I can quad at a given level and finding a bunch of non-quadders soloing there when they could be in any of a million other places. In terms of level 60 cash camp soloing, they are pretty weak.

2) They are sub-par in groups. Their DPS output is very poor compared to any melee or pet class. Their crowd control ability is also poor. People will tell you that a good wizard is an amazing addition to a group because of their ability to crowd control and deal with casters. In my opinion, this is overrated. Tons of classes have abilities to interrupt casters, and tons of classes have roots or snares. Most every EXP group you'll find is going to have an enchanter or a bard doing CC much better than any wizard could hope to. The exception is Chardok AE groups from around level 56 onward - if you manage to get a spot in one (demand is high), this is very very fast EXP during a time that most classes struggle for ages to get to 60. I did all of level 59 in a single day in Chardok, it was great.

3) Their raiding chops are, in my opinion, overrated. Wizard raid DPS is good, but a rogue is better than a wizard for most raid encounters. The problem with wizards is not that they cannot put out damage, but that they cannot manage their aggro. Their only means of aggro management is the spell Concussion, which will NOT land on the majority of raid bosses. As such, they cannot afford to put out rogue-level DPS, because they will get aggro and die. Rogues have the excellent ability Evade which lets them DPS their hearts out without getting aggro; monks have Feign Death; wizards have basically nothing. I'm leveling a rogue and I'm really enjoying it - I can feel like I'm actually contributing to my group, rather than feeling like I'm leeching EXP and doing very little of benefit, and I know that once I hit 60, for most raid bosses I will be the #1 DPS class.

Adding on to all of the above, wizards are a very dull and one-dimensional class, and playing them is in my experience a snoozefest. Taking everything into account, I would rate the wizard as the overall second-worst class in classic EQ, behind the ranger (which isn't to say that neither class has anything going for them, or that you can't have fun with these classes). I do not recommend the class unless you're absolutely sure that it's what you want.
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Estuk Flamebringer - 60 Gnomish Wizard | Kaam Armnibbler - 55 Ogre Shaman | Aftadae Roaminfingers - 54 Halfling Rogue
Aftadai Beardhammer - 50 Dwarven Cleric | Aftae Greenbottom - 49 Halfling Druid
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Last edited by Estu; 11-04-2014 at 11:13 PM..