Wanting to go wizard.

[Bweetza]

On live, I played a Wizard. They oscillated between levels of uselessness most of the time. My server was not nearly as min maxed as Project1999. I think my raiding guild had a human warrior as the main tank. Few questions for modern wizards:

1) Race and stat allocation. I ran a Dark Elf Wizard, and would like to again. Am I handicapping myself? Stat allocation recommendations vary from 25 int, 5 sta or 5 str, to some claiming you go all sta. Is there any consensus? Solusek Ro seems like the go to Deity. No real downside other than roleplay and there is a ring only they can use.

2) Are wizards at all useful? Nobody seems to want to group with them (unless it's PBAOE), but I will be soloing most of the time, so that doesn't bother me. Are they useful in raids?

3) Are there any irreversible pitfalls in character construction/skill allocation that I am missing?

[Swish]

Dark elf wizards are the way to go, granted mine is on red but still an excellent choice for hide and being able to afk with an "invis" that sticks til you come back (/con a non-indifferent target to make sure you hid correctly etc).

Going Sol Ro might cause a bit of a hiccup at the Halas part of the epic quest (going from my live experience so might not be true here) but it's probably not a big deal...certainly a wizard's deity [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Grouping can be an issue but get yourself in a leveling guild that likes to group together, or put groups together if you have the motivation [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Very useful in raids.

5 in STR is a good idea. I don't think wizards get much of a HP bonus for allocating in stamina so I'd go 25 int... totally subjective though, some might say some points in agility might be a good thing. Weight reduction bags are your friend of course [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Bweetza]

Originally Posted by Swish [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Going Sol Ro might cause a bit of a hiccup at the Halas part of the epic quest (going from my live experience so might not be true here) but it's probably not a big deal...certainly a wizard's deity [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Hadn't considered that. I was agnostic on Live when I did it. But then, that's fixable, and epic is a long way away.

5 in STR is a good idea. I don't think wizards get much of a HP bonus for allocating in stamina so I'd go 25 int... totally subjective though, some might say some points in agility might be a good thing. Weight reduction bags are your friend of course [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This is the kind of information I need. I keep leveling characters, regretting my stat allocation, and abandoning them. Thank you so much for the input.

[Tuljin]

Roll 25 STA and 5 STR or INT. You will hit the hardcap very easily if you roll 25 INT and you'll regret it. I would rather take 60 HP at level 60 than 150 mana (that 150 mana is if you don't break the 255 hardcap, which you likely will one day) There are countless Wizards on this server that rolled 25 INT and are cranked over the hardcap and now those stat points are worth absolutely nothing.

Hide is nowhere near as great as it used to be since the nerf so Dark Elf isn't the end all be all race.

Don't roll AGI at all even on Erudite

[Bweetza]

Thank you for the input.

This is the kind of disparate advice I was worried about.

[Tuljin]

Its very important to understand hardcap/softcap before you roll. Over the 200 INT softcap (or WIS) you get almost half of the mana per point as you do when under 200. Over the 255 hardcap you get nothing. Ideally you have as few INT points over the 200 softcap as possible.

Once you are over 200 you want to swap for pure HP or mana items, resist gear, etc. Some people have gear so uber they can't help but go over the 200 softcap.

Erudite has the highest base of the two main stats - INT and STA. Really all races offer decent Wiz stats and Dark Elf stats are really quite good. The high INT and STA of the Erudite offers some options when it comes to hitting the softcap, and also the racial 5 save magic is nice. Human with 15 STA and 15 INT isn't a horrible roll at all, either. Its all about knowing the deal with point allocation and softcap.

[Castcalm]

Don't agonize too much over the stat choices. Gear is flexible enough to offer you lots of options.

For example, let's say that you pick the Dark elf and go 25 int/str. Yes, you will hit the int cap more easily. However, that means you can totally drop certain slots from having gear with any int on them at all and instead pick up more hp/mana items.

Rings: Velium fire wedding rings, 6ac/65 hp
Neck: Velium black sapphire neck, 65/hp/65mana
Ears: Gold black sapphire earrings, 25hp/35mana

And so on, and so on. The value for wizard STA points at 60 is so low that I'd bet you can pick up more HP from raw HP items than you can from dumping 25 STA into your character creation.

[Lojik]

I don't necessarily agree with allocating stats just based on whether you can hit the hard cap with sick gear, especially if it's your first toon. Let's say you roll 25 sta instead of 25 int, for the vast majority of your characters life you'll have a sizably smaller mana pool for negligible hp gains. Hell most wizards won't even hit the hard cap even with 25 int. The only time I'd go 25sta instead is if I'm a total neck beard and I know I'm gonna get bis everything in whatever the top raiding guild is, and this choice is even easier if you already have a few 60s and you're paying for pl. Stamina returns on a wizard are terrible, especially when you compare what your max hp will be with cleric buffs.

[Kevynne]

if you want to min max, Erudite Wizard is best. High Elf and Dark Elf also exceptable.
agnostic best for deity, sol ro not terrible choice.
wizards very useful on raids. Ice Comet OP Sunstrike OP
you will be soloing most of the time because wizards are known for sitting afk in groups

[Tuljin]

At the end of the day it really doesn't matter what you do, but the 150 extra mana to your mana pool at 60 over softcap is little more than one extra Tishan's Discord. Personally I'd rather take the HP and also we are talking min/max. STA returns are low while leveling but also INT returns are also low compared to pure +mana gear. With an Erudite you have as much INT base as other races after you've allocated points.

There's many times I've lived with low HP and I always thank the extra STA and HP gear. I probably also play with lower INT than most players just barely hovering around the softcap and I put priority in HP and resists when I have any INT points over softcap. Really though you'll be fine no matter what, no matter what you allocate you'll question it at lvl 60 =P