A wizard is you...

Haledan · #1 08-10-2015, 12:31 PM

So I'm getting started here on P1999 and thought I would say hello. I played a shaman named Haledan on Xev back on live during late Kunark up through Luclin, then popped in and out a few times over the years. Never reached level cap once during all my play time because I'm easily distracted by shiny things and just kind of did whatever I felt like doing and in a game like EQ which always had a huge amount of things to do this really slowed down my leveling progress.

As I return here I could use a little advice on picking a class. I've considered shaman again but decided I'd like to try something different. After trying out a few characters and leveling them a couple of times (rogue, monk, bard, and wizard) I thought I would ask what the general thoughts on wizards were here. Is this a class that is easy to start from scratch with? Will I be able to find groups that want or need me? I soloed too much with my shaman when I played on live and I think I'd like to try grouping more this time around. Will I be able to fill my spell book to a reasonable extent? It seems like it is expensive to gear up melee classes but also pretty expensive to get a hold of important spells too.

I guess I haven't ruled out bard or rogue yet but am leaning toward wizard and was wondering if there are any major reasons to not play one as a main.

Thanks!

Castcalm · #2 08-11-2015, 01:33 PM

Spellcasters are, generally speaking, easier to start out with naked than melees. Monks being the near-exception to that rule. Rogues and warriors are particularly gear-dependent and will have a struggle at the start.

That being said, wizards are one of the more difficult first-character spellcasters. They are not particularly efficient soloers until 29 when quadding becomes possible. You'll have a lot of meditating and short (but very doable) fights.

Groups do not generally seek out wizards, so you may have to be proactive and outgoing to secure yourself a spot.

Overall, wizards are tougher at the start but begin to really shine later on. Once you get into the 29-44 range, quadding provides a more efficient leveling method, and you can easily make decent coin by offering teleports. Since velious is out, you have translocates to look forward to. Wizards are very desired at the high end due to their usefulness in raids and relatively low population; they are one of the less popular spellcasters. (Druids, necros, enchanters, and shaman are the very popular ones)

curtischoy · #3 08-11-2015, 02:09 PM

Unfortunately wizards get a bad name because of the people that will get play them that get in a group and burn the first 3 mobs a group pulls and then afk until they are fom. That is being a bad wizard. If you use your mana wisely you can ghetto mez mobs by root parking them, help get a mob off the enchanter/cleric/whatever by stunning them, or you can selectively burn mobs down. I say selectively because sometimes burning a mob is appropriate and sometimes it is being a bad wizard (see above). Say you are fighting hags in unrest, they are wizards and their spells hurt, they also have low hp. As a wizard you can save the cleric valuable mana by burning them down as fast as possible so that they cannot get off nukes (You can even use your dd/stun to interrupt them while doing good damage!)

Players of all levels hate it when mobs flee at low health, this is why snare is so nice to have in a group. At lower levels people tend not to snare because you kill too quickly and then waste all of your mana on a snare. So instead of stopping them form running by someone snaring, you can stop them from running by starting a nuke late, say 50% mob health, and it might land at 25% health and then kill them right infront of the tank. People love to see that in groups and it makes your dps seem impressive. Get the timing down right and you will land your nuke for full dmg and have the mob barely be able to move when it begins to flee.

They have a lot of tools, people just need to be made aware that not all wizards are afk.

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Haledan · #4 08-12-2015, 10:31 AM

Thanks for the advice so far! I tend to have pretty good situational awareness and like to be active so I think playing in a way that is just burning down the first few mobs and then afking a bit isn't a trap I would fall into. Timing nukes, rooting, stunning, these are all things that sound pretty fun to me. It took a couple of days for this to get approved so I might have another welcome post on the way ( sorry about that [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] ) but since then I've leveled my rogue and wizard both and was starting to lean a bit toward the rogue. I think because I understand low level rogue items...ie. banded, best piercer i can afford, those 5ac 55hps rings if i can afford them.

I think this thread has helped me decide on trying my wizard first. I've never leveled or twinked a wizard in any past life so other than cloth and a dagger (and those 5ac 55hps rings?) is there anything cheap I should be looking to acquire at the start? Because I have had a bit of altits going on I've managed to build up 100ish pp across various characters through questing and was going to pool it all on to the one I decided to main. I've got a dagger, and cloth, and some alligator tooth earrings and limestone rings from the Qeynos aqueducts atm because I knew where to camp them but I don't know where to camp any low level +mana gear.

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Vheran · #5 08-13-2015, 02:42 AM

My main's name has always been Helfdan, so i had to look at your name a few times

curtischoy · #6 08-13-2015, 10:37 AM

5/55 rings are really good until high 50s when you can reasonably replace them. I do not think I have anything better on any of my characters. 110 extra hp to a low level silk wearer is amazing. I believe they are around 220-250 each. For some int http://wiki.project1999.com/Stein_of_Moggok these maybe go for around 250. Check out the quest and see if you can do that instead of buying it if you don't have the cash.

I would also save some money to buy gems that you need for reagents for your rune line of spells. This line will save your life.

Haledan · #7 08-13-2015, 02:28 PM

Quote:

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

My main's name has always been Helfdan, so i had to look at your name a few times

That's pretty good...I'm pretty sure Haledan came right from SOE's name generator as I wasn't good with coming up with names. My wizard is named Wizode...yup not good with names. Level 8 Erudite bound in Qeynos currently.

Getting the 55hps rings would nearly double my hps atm and make me a lot more durable so I'll see what I can do. The stein is nice but I don't think I'll have the ability to get past the ogre faction requirement so I'll probably have to buy one. I had forgot how expensive spells can be so I've got to account for that too. Figure I'll do at least to lvl 12 in the Qeynos area and maybe up to 16 for invis if I can find groups to level with. I think I'm going to be missing the SoW of my shaman and the sneak and hide of my rogue right up until I start getting my ports.

Charlievox · #8 08-13-2015, 04:20 PM

Quote:

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

5/55 rings are really good until high 50s when you can reasonably replace them. I do not think I have anything better on any of my characters. 110 extra hp to a low level silk wearer is amazing. I believe they are around 220-250 each. For some int http://wiki.project1999.com/Stein_of_Moggok these maybe go for around 250. Check out the quest and see if you can do that instead of buying it if you don't have the cash.

I would also save some money to buy gems that you need for reagents for your rune line of spells. This line will save your life.

Stein of Moggok is pretty much an Enchanter quest. You need to be able to do illusions or else spend a lot of time doing faction work in some unsavory places. Dark Elves can do it at level 8, others need level 12 for Illusion Dark Elf.

And what are theses 5/55 rings?

curtischoy · #9 08-13-2015, 04:54 PM

what people always forget about the stein is that u can turn in items while invis. this forces you to eat a death from the final turn in NPC (clurg? been a while) but you can absolutely get it without any faction work.

5/55 rings

Haledan · #10 08-14-2015, 09:18 AM

Quote:

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

what people always forget about the stein is that u can turn in items while invis. this forces you to eat a death from the final turn in NPC (clurg? been a while) but you can absolutely get it without any faction work.

5/55 rings

Do you do this by giving the item and clicking quickly before they notice and kill you? I suppose I would be willing to give this a shot but I don't get invis until 16 so I'll have to wait until at least then. I am currently smiting wisps in Q hills and saving up lightstones and greater lightstones for quest turn ins out in north karana as I remember that being pretty good exp and cash.

I think I'll buy my important lvl 16 and lvl 20 spells then see how much if anything I have left over to spend on equipment. I've got a few stacks of bone chips and 3 or 4 hq bear pelts to sell, are these hard to find buyers for over in the east commons tunnel? Haven't done any group play yet but the levels are slowing down and the mana regen times are picking up so it is time to start looking.