The role of group wizards while levelling up

[Troxx]

Wizards just get the short end of the stick. A shaman not focusing on healing or slowing can pump out a lot more damage over time via direct damage nukes alone through the use of canni mana regen.

Druids can't manage more nuking sustained damage, but can group regen, dmg shield, patch heal, and buff ... On top of providing evacs.

Mages? Well their pet alone can sustain 3-5x as much sustained damage as a wizard during an xp session ... not counting the mages nukes.

In classic eq, Wizards are really only raid burn and solo xp artists who don't mind a lot of down time. In this regard I would agree with the OP. A good wizard is one who appreciates that they won't sustain dps for shit and instead plays to their (admittedly limited but someone had to do it) utility capability while keeping enough mana on hand to blow a hard burn or flip a life saving evac that is well timed.