Did I make a mistake by choosing to play wizard?
 

see title. I was attracted to their high burst damage but after browsing the forum it seems people think pretty lowly of wizards. Could some of the more experienced players offer some clarification on this? Should I reroll? I'm fine with being useless for my low and middle levels, but I'd at least like to be useful at the higher end/raid type stuff. Seems like the general consensus here is that even when wizards are useful, someone else can do it better.

Wizards are awesome for raiding. For leveling, you will not get many group offers unless its a group of friends, so you'll be root / nuke, and quadding after 34. Chardok AE is viable and great for 56-60.

Nah wizards are cool in raids fo-sho.. sounds like you're fine!

Can't get to some raids without a Wizard.

Wizard lyfe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpgQSbwnWD0

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.

Estu--wizards are god tier on fights that are actually hard. Fucking mvps of gore and hosh. Very useful on all bosses but those two they are just huge helps. It really depends on the level of which you raid. They're massive for class c and only somewhat important in r. Gore when you have time to prep isn't all that bad. Neither is hosh. But melee on both fights benefit greatly from formed groups or dispel\cure and clickies. Wort\soulfire\prayers op.

Are you able to poopsock for raids? It's miserable raiding on blue right now and in general playing on it. Come on over to red and give it a shot.

[Fri Feb 21 18:22:07 2014] Trakanon was hit by non-melee for 825 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:15 2014] Trakanon was hit by non-melee for 825 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:23 2014] Trakanon was hit by non-melee for 825 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:31 2014] Trakanon was hit by non-melee for 825 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:31 2014] Trakanon hits YOU for 17 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:31 2014] Trakanon hits YOU for 345 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:31 2014] Trakanon bashes YOU for 148 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:33 2014] Trakanon hits YOU for 620 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:33 2014] Trakanon hits YOU for 345 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:38 2014] You regain your concentration and continue your casting.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:38 2014] Trakanon was hit by non-melee for 825 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:39 2014] Trakanon hits YOU for 620 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:39 2014] Trakanon hits YOU for 170 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:40 2014] Trakanon hits YOU for 370 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:41 2014] Trakanon hits YOU for 195 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:41 2014] You are stunned!
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:41 2014] Trakanon bashes YOU for 155 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:48 2014] Trakanon was hit by non-melee for 825 points of damage.
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:48 2014] You have slain Trakanon!
[Fri Feb 21 18:22:49 2014] You gain party experience!!

not me, but yeah wizards p gud much fun

I suspect concussion works even when resisted. At least I am fairly sure the warrior +hate proc works even when resisted, so I don't see why the wizard -hate spell should fail.

In my personal opinion Wizards are a top tier raiding class just like Rogues, Warriors, Clerics, and Monks. They aren't a very complicated raiding class, but then raiding is not very complicated.