[Alarti0001]

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

Anyone who claims wizards are good sustained DPS has never done or looked at any DPS parses and compared them to wizard DPS calculated by mana regeneration.

Here's an example. I dug up some DPS parse from someone else's raid (Splorf posted this one):
Silverwing in 87s, 33k @378dps --- Adriana 8k @90dps (23.6%) --- Dravingar 7k @118dps (20.76%) --- Cecily 7k @83dps (20.55%) --- Tassive 2k @39dps (7.1%) --- Gobober 2k @44dps (6.1%) --- Destroyed 2k @28dps (5.42%) --- Xebeker 2k @35dps (5.31%) --- Xobeker 2k @41dps (4.64%) --- Jabeker 1k @32dps (2.9%) --- Jann 1k @22dps (1.8%) --- Vabarn 0k @35dps (1.47%) --- Xarartik 0k @10dps (0.33%) --- Verenity 0k @0dps (0%) --- Getsome 0k @0dps (0%)

Adriana is a monk; Dravingar and Cecily are rogues. Splorf also noted that Sakuragi, a warrior, usually did around 40dps in normal EXP fights. So this is an example of what melees can do at around level 60.

Now let's compare to a 60 wizard, and I'm stressing here that we are NOT looking at a raid boss situation, but an EXP group situation, meaning the question is not burst DPS but sustained DPS, so we have to take mana regeneration into account. The best wizard nuke is Sunstrike, which does 1615 damage for 450 mana. How long does it take to get 450 mana? Meditate gives 1 mana/tick per 12 points in the skill, so at 300 skill, it gives 25 mana every 6 seconds. Let's add in Clarity II: it gives 11 mana every 6 seconds. Let's add in Harvest: at 60, it gives around 320 mana every 600 seconds, so 3.2 every 6 seconds. Add all that up: you get 6.5 mana per second. To get 450 mana, you have to wait 69 seconds. So how much DPS is 1615 damage every 69 seconds? 23. And that's assuming you're never resisted, not even partially. This is much, much worse than even a warrior in an EXP group. Completely eclipsed by any actual melee DPSer, in other words. We can even see in that log a couple of pets that do more DPS.

Compare these results to any lower levels, where wizards have less-efficient nukes and worse mana regeneration, and the difference between the wizard and the melee DPS of the same level will be even more striking.

Not sure if you mentioned this but the TOP melee DPS in a raid generally has Avatar on them and you won't find that in group encounters. Not to mention Raid level weapons and armor. Melee are much more gear dependent than a wizard. However if you want to throw in top end gear... mine as well add in the free mana item nukes wizards get.