Played a Wiz as a main for all of my career on live, which started near launch and went through till OoW release. I made a wiz here recently because I didn't learn my lesson the first time (I hope I never do). He's only 20 so far, I will try to touch on both experiences.
1. Wiz Group DPS - Playing my wiz now I have frustrations based on the mechanics people have mentioned. DPS isn't tied to gear except when emptying a full mana bar vs a fight. As a low level wiz easily accessible strong melee weapons can make you feel shameful to be leaching group xp because of the state of horrid mana regen. Resists will make you want to slit your wrists. As others have mentioned the more chain pulling your group does the worse your dps per fight will be.
On the flip side of this if you are in a group that has more time between pulls you benefit. Also if you happen to have a nice enchanter cast some crack on you it is quite possible to dominate the dps for a portion of time, particularly if you are in a group capable of pulling multiple mobs.
It is unforunate though that unless these circumstances occur you will be likely the bottom of the dps in a standard group setting. I do say the word stanard because if you are in a situation with multiple mobs and agro management AoE efficiency can have a huge impact on dps and total damage output.
On live I remember when AAs and crits arrived that I would group with a chanter and bard in my guild and manage to pull pretty good sustained numbers but that isn't pertinent at this time.
2. Wiz DPS - The counter balance of Wizards having poor sustained DPS is good burst. At some spell levels its normal to two shot dark blue mobs and if soloing at camps with a limited number of mobs its actually nice to be able to burn the mobs down then just chill while medding and waiting for respawn.
In the raid setting Wars and Clerics (maybe a slower) are probably the only truely critcal classes but obviously different classes have benefits. Wizards can pump out quick DPS that doesn't have to be sustained indefinitely. I actually remember on live I got the majority of two of my late 40s/ early 50s levels in PoFear raids. Even with deaths I made a killing on xp because the space between mobs let me burn them down.
Even in a group at my current low level if a pull goes bad I have some extra mana I can burn down some mobs and maybe save the day.
Kunark and Velious made the margins more narrow between wizards and other dps for raids but then later on Luclin and PoP put Wizards and Rogues back in another league. Again not all necessarily relevant.
3. Soloing - Wizard soloing is not the best. It's also far far from the worst given that several of the classes have no soloing ability once they reach a certain point. I loved being able to go out and just quad for xp on live. No help was required from other classes if you had jboots, though a SoW or Clarity was a nice aide to have.
4. Camping Items - No pet means no free sustained damage. No free sustained damage means you could potentially go oom clearing through green mobs if they are handled in singles. I recally being able to camp things outdoors pretty easily and not a terrible amount of trouble with indoor spawns though.
5. Utility - If you like traveling and get bored of xping in the same place it is a huge boon to instantly get across the globe.
There are obvious downsides to playing a wizard, namely standard group sustained deeps. But at least you can function without a group and from my experiences function well in a raid. Hopefully you play a class that you like and play with people who (if they are super dps focused) understand the other benefits of a Wiz.
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