• You can develop the skill of nuking only after aggro is firmly established. 70%? 60%? After the paladin casts 1-2 Flash of Light and Stun, or after the shadow knight casts Shadow Vortex and Disease Cloud...etc.
• If you know the approximate percentage of damage that your nuke will do to a given mob, you can get good at nuking it from, say, 50% to 19% so it is in flee mode and won't come after you anyway.
• You can also nuke mobs from, say, 30% to 1% so they can't flee very far before they die (suppose they aren't snared and you're near social mobs).
• Another reason certain players shun wizards in groups is that their rate of mana regeneration limits their total damage output. Certain melee classes will outdo them over time, especially when twinked. Don't get mad, just port around and get a group.
• A better way to apply wizard mana is to just
delete caster mobs, and/or stun them when they cast spells, especially heals (so wait til 40%, when healer mobs will start healing). Wizard and magician mobs nuke a lot and their AEs can do damage to the whole group, so it's worth getting aggro if you can kill them outright.
• Get a spyglass so you can spam your Spell Gem 1, or so you can go straight from nuke to root to nuke, or stun1 to stun2, or whatever. If you don't know what I'm talking about, enjoy my brainbarf here:
http://wiki.project1999.com/Clickies