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.

[Bweetza]

So what would you do if you wanted the optimal race, stat, deity allocation?

[Tuljin]

I would go Erudite with 25 STA and 5 INT or STR. If you want min/Max go Agnostic but really Sol Ro is tight for RP purposes. If you're talking min/max Eru has highest stats of the stats you need on an INT caster. They also have an edge with the +5 racial save magic.

Dark Elf Hide is good but you have to screw around with it until you actually con indifferent which kind of sucks. You don't need Hide to AFK there's just a ton of hot air and misinformation out there. If you are actually somewhere dangerous the last thing you're going to want to do is AFK, hidden or not.

Gnome also has high STA but lower INT. Gnomevision is nice as well. You can be an Bertoxx Gnome wiz which is cool. You can't be a Paineel Eru wiz and that is a little strange, you can even be a Paineel Eru Cleric. Tinkering is not bad either.

Objectively speaking High Elf has the worst stats.

Humans have nice balanced stats. The high STR is nice and if you roll 15 STA and 15 INT you end up with 100 base STA and 100 base INT when combined with the other Human stats you end up with a very statty toon.

That's my 2CP. I stopped listening to people that say you don't need HP on an INT caster a very long time ago.

[Bweetza]

Why is agnostic the best min/max deity choice? What is the downside to picking Sol Ro?

Again, thank you for the input. It's very helpful.

[Tuljin]

Agnostic is best min/max deity choice because it minimizes the chance of NPCs being hostile based on your deity, it will only be based on race. Many Enchanters go agnostic so they can cast their Illusions and enter cities without the chance of being attacked based on deity.