Wizards! Do you regret it?

[Acillatem]

I played a WIZ on Live for 5 years and now here. I don't regret it at all.

Sustained DPS (ie XP groups) we suck.
Burst DPS (ie raids) we rock.

HOWEVER, you can help boost your overall effectiveness in a group via stuns. Stun-locking healers / casters can help reduce the length of a fight, and/or reduce the amount of healing/rezzing the CLR will have to do.

Of course evacs etc. Basically a WIZ is good for XP grinds when you need an "Oh Shit!" button. We can either burn a bad pull down ASAP, or we can evac - either way we're the only class capable of doing that.

If you do more than just sit on yer ass and nuke every now and then - people will take notice and you will make friends and get groups on yer own.

Sometimes tho, that's all you end up doing.....single pulls etc, no casters - ya you might spend all nite just twiddling thumbs casting Draught of *** all nite.

Other times you are on the ball root parking adds, stun locking healers, burning the shit out of a 5 mob pull to help make it more manageable for the ENC as far as CC etc.

Either way - the problem with the WIZ class is 95% of the WIZ I see fall into the "I'll just click my nuke button every so often and watch this movie", and only like 5% actually make good use of their spell-book.

[clacbec]

i lub my wiz, he s 41 since ages but i love it with passion.

[Nirgon]

If you think leveling a wizard is slow 51+ you don't know how to do raptors (in b4 they're always camped, gimme a sec) or you cant handle quadding in burning wood.

Let's talk about how melees can't solo almost anything or effectively heal themselves.

Wizards are bad in a group that chain pulls compared to a rogue.

No shit? Really??

Never mind that off rooting mobs in the dps role exists so the cleric or healer otherwise doesnt have to.. or the enchanter is momentarily overwhelmed (or dead).

[TheBlackSheep]

I don't plan on being Mr. Raid Guy and since most of my leveling will be done with 1 or 2 other friends, perhaps I should quit while I'm ahead.

I think I'm going to shelve ole Alzar now at level 10 as opposed to regretting sticking it out for 60 levels. I did that once before with my first character. I invested 45 levels in a half-elf paladin before I realized I was getting screwed on XP and couldn't hit the broadside of a barn and it wasn't a good feeling.

Looks like I'll be going with my old standby, Azorath the Necromancer.

[Nirgon]

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

half-elf paladin

Velious->Tunare religion-> free epic+ quality 2h (no bash I don't think, though).

[Messianic]

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

If you think leveling a wizard is slow 51+ you don't know how to do raptors (in b4 they're always camped, gimme a sec) or you cant handle quadding in burning wood.

Raptors at 52 (not vicious raptors) are approximately 1.5% exp per quad, which takes up roughly 90% of my mana bar (with 203 int and +190 mana in items). Spirocs are only slightly better, since they take 55% of my mana per quad and are about 1% on average, although sometimes higher if I get a good set of blues. BW is a little more, but not much, and the time you take actually finding mobs and dodging sarnaks makes it slower than Spirocs (since Spirocs just sit around in the same place like morons and don't aggro).

Sorry, that's not very fast. It's not terrible, but a good group is faster.

[TheBlackSheep]

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

Velious->Tunare religion-> free epic+ quality 2h (no bash I don't think, though).

This was pre-Kunark. After shelving the paladin, I fired up a DE rogue and DE Necro and had a blast till POP made me spoon my eyeballs out with the corner of my keyboard.

[Nirgon]

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

Sorry, that's not very fast. It's not terrible, but a good group is faster.

Implying a good group is guarunteed? [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Just playin' you a little on the comment don't freak out. Here's the deal...

Most groups I've had experiences with have a "gotta go" every 2 hours or so, no two players are on the same schedule. Then there's the down time of looking for certain classes etc with a seb key or are waiting outside the bubble no less. Mention of Karnor's XP is omitted because I always made less there than doing almost anything else.

But my point I guess I'm trying to make, is I had a higher play time and could bank on consistent/measurable XP and could bank on the fact that I was completely self reliant. My AFKs didn't piss anyone off etc.

Now, also, will a group take a 57+ wizard over a 51 rogue with "lesser gear"? These are also points to consider. You'll get groups but for grinding out mobs fast, I yield to a well geared rogue being a grind machine.

That said, whenever I was called to Seb for xp or pvp, I always went..

[Nirgon]

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

dodging sarnaks.

The only thing I was dodging was the named gorilla.

I pulled out by the bee hives and quadded bees, giants and the non named gorilla. Gotta be real careful, he will piss in your cereal.

[Skope]

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

Raptors at 52 (not vicious raptors) are approximately 1.5% exp per quad, which takes up roughly 90% of my mana bar (with 203 int and +190 mana in items). Spirocs are only slightly better, since they take 55% of my mana per quad and are about 1% on average, although sometimes higher if I get a good set of blues. BW is a little more, but not much, and the time you take actually finding mobs and dodging sarnaks makes it slower than Spirocs (since Spirocs just sit around in the same place like morons and don't aggro).

Sorry, that's not very fast. It's not terrible, but a good group is faster.

Yea, I did spirocs until 53. Though it certainly slowed down towards the end it was still quiet and decent exp. You should really go for pillar of lightning before you try raptors as they have >4khp. I did entrance to KC (ravishings n' ragers) to 55 because raptors is so busy -- was quite nice.

You want to steer away from BW. Too many roamers and few safe places to med. Often wound up having to spend more time dodging roamers then I did quadding and killing stuff.