Gaining XP as a wizard

[Coldaine]

Is there any way to gain XP as a solo wizard without wanting to cry? I'm only 4, and it's already a chore. Worse than I remember from original EQ =(

[ko37qtl]

As a solo wizard, you probably know the drill. You hit things until they die, either with spells or a weapon. I've been working on a wizard myself recently and while it's not skipping through fields of wildflowers, it's been going a little better than I remembered. I think playing an enchanter might help a bit just in the sense of nukes. Enchanters might have a generally easier time but their nukes are singularly unimpressive and it's nice to have a zap that works.

[Tecmos Deception]

Enchanters might have a generally easier time but their nukes are singularly unimpressive

Lol :)

I know enchanter nukes are lame, but really, wizards only have two single-target nukes that hit significantly harder than a same-level enchanter's nukes do.

[Estu]

As a solo wizard you'll be pretty slow until you hit 29 and can quad kite (this will also require about 200 INT to pull off). Even then you're slower than several other soloing classes. Moreover, you'll find that you won't be in high demand for groups because your sustained DPS is awful (takes a lot of time to med up from nukes). Overall, if you want to play a wizard, you should have a very good reason for it, because in many ways they're a bad class - they arguably give rangers a run for their money as the worst class in classic through Velious EQ. What they are good for is AE groups (which are rare and mostly occur in the higher levels) and raid boss DPS (since you're taking down a single target from full mana rather than a steady stream of targets as in a regular group setting).


I think playing an enchanter might help a bit just in the sense of nukes. Enchanters might have a generally easier time but their nukes are singularly unimpressive and it's nice to have a zap that works.

No offense to this poster but this is pretty much nonsense. Playing an enchanter is completely different from playing a wizard because enchanters can summon pets and charm monsters, and also have much better crowd control, and have clarity. The nukes are pretty irrelevant. Enchanters are far superior soloers (and groupers) than wizards.

[fugazi]

One big problem with wizards is that the higher level spells are more mana efficient. This means you'll want to use them, but they also cost the most mana. The result is that when you do something, it counts, but you can't keep that 'something' up.

Another problem is that your most mana efficient spells are AoE and groups prefer to take mobs one a one-by-one basis. The downside of AoE's are that they do not deal enough damage to kill mobs so you'll need more AoE'ers in your group to make it worth it. As said by Estu, this is hard to do at lower levels and requires specific groups.

The wizard IS good at nuking down a big target fast though. The wizard also has a wide variety of stuns at his disposal that can turn menacing casters/gaters into easy xp. The obvious problem with this is that they mostly happen at higher levels and with the former, you'll be out of mana afterwards.

Wizards thrive in guilds and raids. If you want to play an easy to level nuker, roll a mage. If you want to be a desired class, play an enchanter.

Also, try to group up till you're at least 12+.

[ko37qtl]

[snipped]No offense to this poster but this is pretty much nonsense. Playing an enchanter is completely different from playing a wizard because enchanters can summon pets and charm monsters, and also have much better crowd control, and have clarity. The nukes are pretty irrelevant. Enchanters are far superior soloers (and groupers) than wizards.

I see I worded this badly. What I meant to say was that playing an enchanter increases my appreciation for wizard nukes. Obviously enchanter play solo or grouped is different than with a wizard but despite their many advantages enchanter nukes (when I need them) rankle due to their slowness and frequency of resistance. I was not suggesting that the OP start an enchanter in order to feel better about a wizard.

[Swish]

I think its the same drill as with rangers. They're both "less desirable" to a lot of groups, so think about getting a group started and networking with as many people as possible. If you're friends (or in the same guild) as those you group with then you'll stand a much better chance of regular groups.

Not to mention you can port your group from A to B if you're gathering in EC or somewhere (34 onwards for the good port locations IIRC, but GFay is good for 29 and getting people towards Unrest/Mistmoore).

Overall, don't overnuke - its a pet hate of tanks who have to then get the mob back off you. Give a mob til 70-75% health to launch your first one, and try and nuke once per combat to show you're not one of the afk variety.

All of that will help...the greatest challenge is getting to 20ish I'd say.

[Raavak]

You can maybe melee and nuke until your low teens, then root/nuke until you get Pillar of Fire at 16 along with some SoW potions and can quad kite (without snare).

Try to form AE groups with other wizards and enchanters as soon as you can. I don't know what level that becomes viable, but I remember doing some Mistmoore Castle years ago, with a fleet footed bard to pull.

One warning, once you taste PBAE exp you won't ever want to go grind solo ever again.

[Splorf22]

So if a 60 wizard and 60 enchanter are in a group and both do nothing but nuke, the enchanter will do more damage. The wizard is somewhat more efficient at nuking (Dementia: 675 damage for 250 mana, 2.7:1 vs Draught of Ice: 720 damage for 215 mana, 3.34:1) but the Enchanter gets 50 mana per tick while the wizard gets 30 (and that is assuming they have clarity).

[Tecmos Deception]

ToT > harvest, by a couple orders of magnitude.

[Captain Faceplant]

Wizards are hands down the hardest class at low levels*. There's no easy way around it unless you have a group willing to carry you.

It starts to get better at 16, when the extreme range of your bolt will let you kill most blue mobs before they even touch you. (On this server, wizard bolts act as long range DDs. I'm not sure if this is a bug or intended; mage bolts are very buggy, so they may have done that to wizard bolts intentionally because they're a much smaller part of our class. The last one is level 16, while mages still have them in the 50's). Get comfortable with your bolt distance, running/stopping quickly, and always have root/gate memmed, and you'll have no problem soloing outdoors for quite a few levels.

Your hardest time will probably be 8-15. Take advantage of the distance and damage of your level 8 bolt. Get comfortable rooting things that reach you. Knowing how to root something that's beating on you will be about 95% of your survivability.


*the exception being a level 1-3 mage, which wins because they're nearly identical to wizards until 4, but wizards can nuke for 1 point (!) more.

[fugazi]

How is enchanter aggro at 60 when nuking? I know that nuking as an enchanter up to lvl30 is suicide.

[Estu]

So if a 60 wizard and 60 enchanter are in a group and both do nothing but nuke, the enchanter will do more damage. The wizard is somewhat more efficient at nuking (Dementia: 675 damage for 250 mana, 2.7:1 vs Draught of Ice: 720 damage for 215 mana, 3.34:1) but the Enchanter gets 50 mana per tick while the wizard gets 30 (and that is assuming they have clarity).

Just to point out - Sunstrike is 3.59:1 (so, better than Draught of Ice). But good point about mana regen.

[Tecmos Deception]

How is enchanter aggro at 60 when nuking? I know that nuking as an enchanter up to lvl30 is suicide.

It's pretty bad. No one is trying to make a case for enchanters nuking to DPS though really, moreso just pointing out how wizards are subpar choices for xp groups because of their low sustained damage.

Before you "QQ MINMAXER BASEMENT DWELLER" people show up, though, I'm leveling a wizard right now. Wizards suck (overall) for normal xp groups, but ports, quadding, AE xp groups, and raids? Wizards are swell for those things! :)

[koros]

Wizards also get a 10% spec evoc bonus!

[ymw]

There's also something to be said for having fun even if it doesn't involve being the best at everything!

[Captain Faceplant]

Enchanter gets 50 mana per tick while the wizard gets 30 (and that is assuming they have clarity)

What's the source of that extra mana per tick?

[Tecmos Deception]

Theft of thought.

[Splorf22]

How is enchanter aggro at 60 when nuking? I know that nuking as an enchanter up to lvl30 is suicide.

If you have an SK or Paladin tanking you should be OK. If you have a warrior tanking you have to hope he has good aggro weapons. You should be able to get away with about 1 nuke per proc, which works out in theory if he has good dexterity (3 PPM with 255). Anyway there is absolutely no reason to play an enchanter like this.

Really, no one should play a wizard like that either. The most effective use of Wizard mana in a group is stunning all the nonclassically OP caster mobs we have whenever they try to cast ice comet/envenomed bolt/etc. I was grouping with Xoquil in sebilis today. We had no healer, but between his Wizard stuns on casts, a necro constantly HP pumping, and me casting bedlam/slow/stuns here we were able to keep up a L55 warrior with relatively mediocre gear at the chef. Then we CoH'd down a shaman and even that was relatively impressive IMO. Even a well played wizard is still not that great (we'd have been doing better with two enchanters for sure) but its better than just nuking.

[Captain Faceplant]

Theft of thought.

That only works on caster mobs though, right?

[club]

Kill blues, ez game

[Topdog]

My wizard life:

Race: Gnome
1-4 Steamfont Newbie Area
4-10 Steamfont Mills/Minotaur Cave Area
11-16 South Karana random creatures
16-22 East Karana Gorge Hounds
22-39 South Karana Gnolls
40-49 Lake of Ill Omen Bloodgills
50-51 Timorous Deep Aviaks
52-57 Ocean of Tears Sea Furies

Alternative route would be
52-59 Timorous deep Raptors
52-59 Burning Woods Quad random blues

[renordw]

So if a 60 wizard and 60 enchanter are in a group and both do nothing but nuke, the enchanter will do more damage. The wizard is somewhat more efficient at nuking (Dementia: 675 damage for 250 mana, 2.7:1 vs Draught of Ice: 720 damage for 215 mana, 3.34:1) but the Enchanter gets 50 mana per tick while the wizard gets 30 (and that is assuming they have clarity).

I'm not sure where you are trying to go with this, but enchanters are way more resisted nuke-wise even with tash. A lot of wizard nukes have less resist checking than any other class. You can pull out fire, ice, magic, and stuns for the situation.

Plus we get PB-AoE spells that are out of this world, Supernova basically allows me to run through the entire sarnak fortress, pulling as many as I can with my Staff of Temperate Flux, then hit them with supernova, i.e. Bracer of the Hidden.

Quad spells are pretty awe-inspiring as well. They are fast casting as hell, and have a nearly 10/1 :: damage/mana ratio.

I almost never group, only to raid.

[Raavak]

I'm not sure where you are trying to go with this, but enchanters are way more resisted nuke-wise even with tash. A lot of wizard nukes have less resist checking than any other class. You can pull out fire, ice, magic, and stuns for the situation.My records show the first resist mod DD is Conflaguration at lvl 44, at -10. From there on out the fire and ice spells are all -10, except the Lure line which is -300. None of the magic and stuns have a mod (except Lure of Lightning). Prior to Conflag all the resist mods are 0.

But I think most enchanter nukes are magic based so maybe mobs tend to have higher MR than CR or FR. I dunno. Resists never seemed like an issue to me on anything that con'ed blue (excepting bosses or PoSky stuff).

My advice is to quad with the column/pillar line and get into AE groups whenever you can.

[renordw]

I'm not sure where you are trying to go with this, but enchanters are way more resisted nuke-wise even with tash. A lot of wizard nukes have less resist checking than any other class. You can pull out fire, ice, magic, and stuns for the situation.

Plus we get PB-AoE spells that are out of this world, Supernova basically allows me to run through the entire sarnak fortress, pulling as many as I can with my Staff of Temperate Flux, then hit them with supernova, i.e. Bracer of the Hidden.

Quad spells are pretty awe-inspiring as well. They are fast casting as hell, and have a nearly 10/1 :: damage/mana ratio.

I almost never group, only to raid.

I forgot to say this:

At least on life, *not sure here* enchanter nukes were never partially resisted. A partial resist is a total resist.

[ko37qtl]

I forgot to say this:

At least on life, *not sure here* enchanter nukes were never partially resisted. A partial resist is a total resist.

It is also my recollection and recent experience that enchanter nukes are all or nothing. In addition, they have the interrupt stun attached that blocks the nuke landing on anything that is immune to stun. If I recall correctly, this is the reason for the higher resist rate as the stun and the nuke both must land for the damage to be carried through.

[Splorf22]

I'm not sure where you are trying to go with this, but enchanters are way more resisted nuke-wise even with tash. A lot of wizard nukes have less resist checking than any other class. You can pull out fire, ice, magic, and stuns for the situation.

Plus we get PB-AoE spells that are out of this world, Supernova basically allows me to run through the entire sarnak fortress, pulling as many as I can with my Staff of Temperate Flux, then hit them with supernova, i.e. Bracer of the Hidden.

Quad spells are pretty awe-inspiring as well. They are fast casting as hell, and have a nearly 10/1 :: damage/mana ratio.

I almost never group, only to raid.

My point is that wizards are terrible in normal xp groups. If you replace a 60 wizard on blue with a 60 magician, necromancer, or enchanter, that group will get better - regardless of the number, level, and classes of the other members. If my group was Enc/Enc/Enc/Enc/Enc, I would still rather have a 6th enchanter than another wizard :D Members of those other classes would have to be actively bad, i.e. 75% afk or constantly training the group or breaking mez or whatever for this to not be the case.

Now don't get me wrong, the Wizard class is far from bad. They can level up easily with quad kiting/pbaoe groups. They are fantastic at blowing up raid bosses. They are fantastic at mobilization.

But whenever you are consistently casting single target nukes as a wizard, you are being extremely ineffective compared to just about anything else.

[sambal]

My point is that wizards are terrible in normal xp groups. If you replace a 60 wizard on blue with a 60 magician, necromancer, or enchanter, that group will get better - regardless of the number, level, and classes of the other members. If my group was Enc/Enc/Enc/Enc/Enc, I would still rather have a 6th enchanter than another wizard :D Members of those other classes would have to be actively bad, i.e. 75% afk or constantly training the group or breaking mez or whatever for this to not be the case.

Now don't get me wrong, the Wizard class is far from bad. They can level up easily with quad kiting/pbaoe groups. They are fantastic at blowing up raid bosses. They are fantastic at mobilization.

But whenever you are consistently casting single target nukes as a wizard, you are being extremely ineffective compared to just about anything else.

I just med up in groups and when things get out of control, just burn 1-2 mobs down. Med for 10 min.

[Tuljin]

lets take a minute to stop the sustained damage in an xp group discussion, because we have all done the math on that one :) eq is about way more than dealing damage, isn't it?? my two cents - - - -

manasink - a 250dmg spell damage rune that only costs a jasper. this is a very awesome spell, and i have met lvl 60 wizards who never even bought it :( turns the spiroc lord 600pt aoe into a 350point aoe, will generally nullify the damage from most nukes from most regular mobs in the game. (if your saves are high enough, point #2)

saves - if you properly gear a wizard you can get your save magic, fire, and cold near and above 100 before buffs and specialized gear. cast your +30 save fire/cold elemental armor spell (and maybe some cleric and druid save buffs as well) and you will feel fairly confident staring down a reet wizard whose hands are lit up blue and he just resisted your stun :). having a wizard pull caster mobs with a flux staff at that rate is a better option than having a warrior or monk facepull and get blasted by multiple nukes before he even gets back to the camp. (point #3)

flux staff - very underrated. very easy to instantly single pull roamers, peel mobs off of a monk or necro FD, and easily pull entire rooms with having room to run away and avoid physical damage while you resist many of the spells that come your way. it only takes one melee hit to pull the agro off a flux staff pulled mob, so when the mob is running in a melee can intercept it and you take no damage. this is especially powerful for pulling single mobs in the hole when making your way through the city. also, the -5 cold/fire debuff is not for nothing - you should be fluxing every mob you cast an elemental nuke on even at 60. speaking of the hole - -

snare/root - 20% free damage to running mobs. mobs don't run, group doesn't get trained. say you have a cleric or shaman mob and his hands are lit up shiny blue at 30% hp - - cast draught of jiva (interrupt nuke) - no heal, and his HP goes down to 20% and he starts running and stops casting. in a roundabout kind of way you dealt 30% damage to the mob, 20% of that damage with impunity. also, wizard gets fetter, which is a very bad ass root.

stuns - between tishan's clash, tishan's discord, and draught of jiva you can chainstun casters and keep the agro on you while the rest of the group beats him down. you can stare casters in the face because of your high saves and spell damage shield. you can pepper in concussions while the mob is immobilized to keep the agro going back to the rest of the group, also - concussion only costs 25mana (kinda pain in the ass quest but a key spell.) stunning out an ice comet or a slow for 65 or 130 mana is an excellent mana-to-effectiveness ratio (a bit more of an abstract calculation than mana-to-damage ratio)

evac - another under-appreciated skill that we all forget about until we are saved a long corpse run. druids and wizards have a very important responsibility in high level dungeons. wizards and druids have absolute evac authority and it should be exercised if there is any doubt about survival, dont wait for other group members to call it. group wipes are in your hands.

TBH, i dont even keep an elemental nuke memmed when a mob comes into play - - i have annul magic in my elemental nuke slot so i can get rid of DS and some buffs right away before shamans and enchanters cast slow. if its a melee mob and i've annuled him i'll swap in the elemental nuke and hit him, but i usually snare and catch up on mana on slowed melee mobs cause the extra damage is mostly unnecessary at that point. after the melee mob is killed, the annul magic goes right back in the elemental nuke spell slot.

so - - - strap on your al'kabor's cap, port a group to tox, let your group into the hole with a keymule, relog and shadowstep through the rock, and do something besides sit and nuke!!!!! :)

[Strifen]

So if a 60 wizard and 60 enchanter are in a group and both do nothing but nuke, the enchanter will do more damage. The wizard is somewhat more efficient at nuking (Dementia: 675 damage for 250 mana, 2.7:1 vs Draught of Ice: 720 damage for 215 mana, 3.34:1) but the Enchanter gets 50 mana per tick while the wizard gets 30 (and that is assuming they have clarity).

How does a wizard being specialized in Evocation factor into this equation? That's a lot more efficiency given to wizard nukes you're not including is it not?

[Temin]

My wizard life:

Race: Gnome
1-4 Steamfont Newbie Area
4-10 Steamfont Mills/Minotaur Cave Area
11-16 South Karana random creatures
16-22 East Karana Gorge Hounds
22-39 South Karana Gnolls
40-49 Lake of Ill Omen Bloodgills
50-51 Timorous Deep Aviaks
52-57 Ocean of Tears Sea Furies

Alternative route would be
52-59 Timorous deep Raptors
52-59 Burning Woods Quad random blues

Was this all solo or in groups ?