Magician vs. Wizard now and in the future
 

Just wanted to get people's input on this. When it comes to combat Wizards atm seem to be Magicians just without the pet. Ports are convenient and all but when it comes to making stuff dead it just seems like Magicians have more up their sleeve and their nukes are only slightly less damage. I played a wizard back in Luclin, and the disparity didn't seem as much as it was today. Are there changes in Kunark/Velious that change this dynamic?

For a point of reference, that class population thing that has been posted here (LINK) shows pretty much two times as many Magicians as Wizards. Is that because they are that unbalanced right now? Or more because Magicians can solo so much better and people figured they'd like a solo class on a new server?

I feel like Magicians are a little more versatile, which is their big stength, while Wizards certainly have the edge in travelling (and therefor emaking money) and higher burst.

They're two flavours of the arcane Damage dealer.

Wizards have ice comet! With kunark they will get buffed like crazy thou, and with velious theyr giant / dragon bane spells are insanity ... wizards will eventualy evolve to the top caster DPS once kunark is released due to concussion (agro reduction) and nice effecient nukes ...

Yes mage nukes are currently "only" 400 dmg less (lvl 49 nuke does 800ish, ice comet ~1200ish), but are more mana costly ... in kunark that efficiency gap will get even bigger

Wizard get criticals on their spells. Cant say for sure how it changes the DPS dynamic though, but you do get that.

Sssssh don't tell people how cool Wizards are... I like being wanted :)

Beside the fact that they can nuke for more (a lot more), wizards also have nukes on 3 resists while mages only have 2, have better AEs by far, and have nukes with resist mods or flat out unresistable nukes.

Yeah, thanks, I thought for sure there was something I wasn't remembering that helped separate Wizards.

Thanks for the input all.

Wizards also get the Lure line in Kunark if i remember correctly.

I can't speak for the current balance of the game, as I haven't played either yet. But my original character from Velious-GoD era was a wizard.

Disclaimer: I'm not stating any of this in an anti-mage way. I don't want to start a class war. I'm just stating what facts I am aware of in the pre-Luclin era.

In my experience:
- Wizards get fewer resists
- Wizards (depending on expansion) had better damage/mana ratios
- Wizards can nuke on the Ice resist
- Wizards get faster casting nukes
- Wizards get Bane nukes (anti-Giant and -Dragon)
- Wizards teleport, evac and decession (targeted evac) are useful for raid mobilization. Decession is unique to wizards, druids can do the rest too.

- Mages get pets (which are situational and in some/many raids not allowed)
- Mages get modrods... that's like +100 points right there
- Mages have more utility
- Mages get Call of the Hero
- Mages can sustain DPS longer because their pet can be whomping while they're medding

In the end, it boils down to Wizards are good for spike damage, resistant mobs and teleportation. Mages are good for utility and sustained damage.

PoP was a real kick in the nuts to Wizards. Mages were given nukes that were equal or better than Wizard nukes in terms of mana/damage ratios and cast speed, their pets were beefed up a ton, etc. I lost a lot of urge to play at that point. That's when I played my monk alt a lot more and discovered I liked that class more :P

Fear the ENC's :0