Advice on strategy for a Wizard

[Kiithsa]

Don't let the haters get you down. Use your roots and snares and backup cc, use your stun to stop those pesky casters, and most of all - be ready with evac!

Really good advice here, wizards have more utility than most people realize. There are so many classes that can out-DPS wizards so you need to use your Root/Snare CC and stuns to show groups that you are still effective. You can really shine in dungeons with lots of casters that heal and gate, wizards get multiple stun spells and can manage casters really well. Evac is also very handy in case one does happen to gate on you. Basically if you rely solely on nukes, other classes will outperform you. So mix it up a little.

Kiithsa
60 Wizard

[ziffiz]

Thanks again for the responses and the encouragement. I dont plan on giving up the wizard. I just want to get involved in the community and there are some good suggestions. One of the reasons I decided to play here is that I expect the community to be better and if I solo all the time I would not be experiencing it. Im actually still paying for a live account.

I am lvl 30 now, and I can port,stun, snare, root, invis and lev so there is more to a wizard than just DD if needed. Ive played this class for years on live so I know it pretty well. I will head to some grouping areas and try to get in. To this point I have tried to stay near spots where evil races can sell which has kept me on Antonica, but with my various gates now thats no longer a concern.

[Jimjam]

Ziffiz:

It sounds like what you really want is to be able to form your own groups and take them to interesting places.

Wizards are actually pretty good at this.

Source: The Hobbit.

[Kuch7]

Wizards are crucial to the raiding scene as well; you can't get to Plane of Hate or Plane of Sky without them. Add in their DPS, caster management (stuns), ability to invis, ability to port and ability to GTFO with evac and they're one of the most underrated classes for guilds to have. They're also fun as hell if you enjoy the solo grind.

The only complaint I have is the lack of money-making ability at later levels. You'll be out-camped for the majority of cash spots.

My advice? Don't group. Research quadding. You won't make it past 40 without that skill. Buy SoW pots with porting money until you can camp for JBoots, and get your Staff of Temperate Flux in the meantime. Then start practicing on Aviaks in SK.

[mgellan]

Wizzies are a lot of fun, just try to go somewhere where you can solo or group as the mood takes you. See the Hunting Guide below for recommendations on where you can go.

Regards,
Mg (maining Jiraze 60 wiz)

[Troxx]

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

Don't let the haters get you down. Use your roots and snares and backup cc, use your stun to stop those pesky casters, and most of all - be ready with evac!

It's not about 'being a hater' - it's just math. Wizard damage potential is very strictly limited by mana regen bottlenecks in classic. At 60 without clarity, never missing a med tick, and using their most efficient nuke this equates to 15-16 sustained dps potential assuming you never have the opportunity to med beyond full. That's less than bard melee dps or shaman pet dps. It's less than a third of necro pet dps and a quarter of mage pet dps. With c2, bard song, and POTG ... even factoring in specialization you're still under 40dps sustained at level 60. At lower levels where nuke efficiency is significantly lower ... think 3-5 sustained dps at level 25 assuming no resists.

That's just math - and most people who play p99 understand that math.

Wizards are a niche class who's benefits are well known:
-burst is great for raids
-ports for self friends
-quad nukes for soloing
-only porting class to hate/sky
-evac (only 1 other class can do this)

Stuns and cc are shared with numerous other classes.

I just want him to know what he's getting into. Unless with friends he will have a hard time finding groups because a group would be better off adding literally any other class in most situations ... or just leaving that spot empty.

That's not hating, that's just the truth.

[skarlorn]

ya so you will definitely encounter lame people like that, but you will also encounter fun loving sociable adventurers for whom the game is more than just "maths"

send me a tell on any toon you see me on if you want to adventure :P

[Troxx]

Perhaps I should clarify.

This server is notorious for class discrimination. Sit in groups long enough and you will see it come through when it comes time to replace people who leave. Of all the classes that struggle - wizards have it the worst. Hell, even necromancers who bring a whole lot of everything to the table don't get invites easily. My point here is we've got a guy new to this server who has experience with the wizard class from live. Wizards on live from luclin onwards just get better - to the point that they are a premier dps class both for raid burns and for standard groups. Wizards here are very different. The new guy should know up front what his challenge will be and why it will be a challenge.

The argument that wizards bring a whole lot of "other" to the table is just disingenuous. 3/3 priests, 3/4 int casters, 1/3 tanks, and 1 melee class get root. 5 other classes get snare. Multiple classes can stun. These extra jobs aren't even jobs a wizard does better, it's just an optional extra they can do. Druids for example, do everything a wizard does for a group on top of a wide range of buffs and heals. The only thing a Druid does worse is flat out nuke - and the math already shows us that outside of a burn even the best nuking class can't put down consistent damage pull after pull. Mages have the benefit of a pet that puts out more sustained by itself than most reasonably well geared and buffed melee in their 50s ... their nukes are just extra icing on the cake that's still close to what a wizard can manage over time.

It's a niche class. If you enjoy it, by all means play it. If you want so solo quad - they're good for that. If you want to burn raid mobs - again, they are good for that too. If you want to get groups outside of charity invites or hunting exclusively with friends ... you might just find the life of the wizard to be lonely and frustrating.

For the record, I have/had plenty of wizard friends and have a nasty habit of inviting random people lfg even if we don't need them or their class isn't ideal. The social aspect is what I enjoy about eq - and sitting lfg for hours sucks.

[Jimjam]

Basically Troxx is right on the capabilities of a wizard.

As already pointed out they aren't useless; they are there to root, stun, dispel and provide the occasional burst or kite. Others can generally do it just as well, and in their defence, damageless roots synergise well with mez, and I miss them greatly when playing a ranger or druid.

It is nice to have a character that isn't going to be spending mana on heals/slows/etc so you can rely on them to have mana when ancillary utility.

While they sadly lack a damageless stun, they do have good variety in their stuns and also have a very nice/low aggro push nuke from 16.

Despite their (limited?) utility I can see why they are looked down on. Played lazily they are next to useless in a group. Played badly they at a liability in a group. Played well they are unnoticeable in a group.

[Cen]

My bard has been denied twice in groups because of a hatred of bards. One guy was on about how useless they are, but the other guy just seemed to have a more personal seething hatred of them in general. Both times it was a mage involved. Which sort of makes sense because those two classes dont work so well together at all.

I can imagine wizard discrimination is a nightmare