Wizard, when do they turn the corner?

[Lojik]

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

The sad truth is that Wizards aren't even good burst damage in XP groups 50+. A Warrior tank has no chance to keep a mob off a chain nuking wizard, so for starters you are relegated groups with Paladin or Shadowknight tanks. Even with a suitably on-the-ball hybrid tank, a wizard with 2000 mana available can only cast Ice Comet 5x. Thats 5500 damage assuming no resists . . . which is maybe 2/3 of the HP of a Krup Knight. If your puller fucks up and brings all 5 chef mobs, it will be the Enchanter/Bard locking them all down with mez who saves your ass, not the Wizard.

If you are just dying to beat your head against the wall and play an XP Wizard, you should abandon the idea of burst damage and instead play to their real strengths: porting and stuns. Porting is nearly self explanatory: when you get a cleric rep from two continents over your group will breathe a sigh of relief. Stuns are also tremendously valuable. Stun Wizard mobs when they are about to nuke your tank for 1100+. Stun cleric/shaman mobs before they chain heal themselves for 50% of their bar. Consistently stun charmed pets and Enchanters will love you.

This advice basically follows Loraen's 12th Rule of EverQuest: a class becomes better the closer they play to an Enchanter (who can do all of the above much better than a Wizard). So can a cleric. Which is why Wizards are not good in XP groups.

Wizards are great in xp groups of 4.

When there are 4 mobs, that is. Some good quadding camps for 50+ now with velious out, wizards can probably get 30-60 with less actual time played than any other class, with 10 mins afk and 1 min killing 4 mobs. Good class if you play at work or doing other stuff.

Yah wizards can stun and root CC, but its kinda a catch 22: If theres no enchanter they are useful for it, but they'll be less effective with 0 mana regen. If there is an enchanter, you probably wont' need them for root cc/stuns.

[mgellan]

Originally Posted by Stonewallx39 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What is it about raiding that really let's a Wizard shine?

The faster you drop the target the less damage the raid takes and the less likely a wipe. Ergo, burst damage wins over sustained damage since wizzes can burn their mana bar chain casting nukes to burn a mob down.

Regards,
Mg

[Daldaen]

Now on raids, bane nukes are the main factor.

2000 unresistable damage for 450 mana. Using Harvest, C2, GoB, Manaskin/Epic, Glades and maybe Bard regen, with a decent 3500-4000 mana pool, and Specialization Evocation, you can usually get about 10-12 Bane Nukes in, with Concussions inbetween. That's about 20-24k DMG in 2-3 min fight.

If you cannot use Bane nukes (or you don't have them), on fights like Sontalak, Klandicar, Statue/AoW, Tunare... You're relegated to using Lure of Ice, which is a far less impressive 875 DMG for 320 mana. Then for fights like Eashen where he is immune to cold and you cannot bane him, and you have to use Lure of Fire, 640 DMG for 320 mana. You may as well swap characters.

Blowing up a mob in a short span is very valuable because it strains cleric mana less and reduces the chance that someone trains you while you're engaged on the mob or you are less likely to have another mob spawn while you're engaged with that one.

[Lojik]

It's also easier for wizards to avoid damage from special attacks/aoes since they can sit out and pop in to do their damage. It's easier to get resists up on them as well, and with epic/manasink aoe damage is mitigated a lot, also making it easy on healers.

[Nibblewitz]

Wizards also bring much needed blue and orange spell particles to dragon fights.

[Daldaen]

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

It's also easier for wizards to avoid damage from special attacks/aoes since they can sit out and pop in to do their damage. It's easier to get resists up on them as well, and with epic/manasink aoe damage is mitigated a lot, also making it easy on healers.

This is also true. On most ToV Dragons you can get 1 Bane + 1 Concussion in before you need to duck behind a wall. Doing this you can burst nice DPS and never take a hit.

But man, between Manaskin and Bane, I can easily go through 100 Peridots in a weekend. It's cheaper than a Reaper or Wort pot recharge though.

Magic resist gear is really cheap/easy to get on a wizard also. With rather minimal investment (maybe about 10-15k in gear) I can hit 255 Magic and 200~ Fire or Cold when raid buffed on my crappy alt wizard who has no Velious raid gear. Infact the only piece of Velious gear at all I think he uses is a Student's Homework.

Whereas some Melee or tankish type classes have to spend far more to get close to those resist levels.

[Lojik]

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

This is also true. On most ToV Dragons you can get 1 Bane + 1 Concussion in before you need to duck behind a wall. Doing this you can burst nice DPS and never take a hit.

But man, between Manaskin and Bane, I can easily go through 100 Peridots in a weekend. It's cheaper than a Reaper or Wort pot recharge though.

Magic resist gear is really cheap/easy to get on a wizard also. With rather minimal investment (maybe about 10-15k in gear) I can hit 255 Magic and 200~ Fire or Cold when raid buffed on my crappy alt wizard who has no Velious raid gear. Infact the only piece of Velious gear at all I think he uses is a Student's Homework.

Whereas some Melee or tankish type classes have to spend far more to get close to those resist levels.

If you wanna be cheap you can just use manasink, only takes a jasper but mitigates 250spell damage.

[Daldaen]

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

If you wanna be cheap you can just use manasink, only takes a jasper but mitigates 250spell damage.

It stacks with Manaskin, you should use both for 850 rune total.

But yea having an epic click to replace Manaskin would save me probably half or a full stack of DoTs every week I think.

[Xaanka]

wizards have a strong and underrated role in red server 6 man groups: defense. they are absolutely nuts in pvp against sub-60's who don't have raid gear, and they can evacuate your group out of the zone when shit hits the fan. there are a lot of zones i wouldn't feel safe leveling in without a druid or wiz, and unless the group is low on heals or the zone has an animal charm i'd take the wiz for my group.

[Stonewallx39]

What exactly makes wizards so adept at pvp? I hadn't heard that before.