Why roll a Wizard?

[Umbra]

n00b question so don't flame me, but I am honestly wondering what the advantages of a wizard are and why would anybody ever roll one?

With the amount of scrolls/wands/money in the game is there really any advantage to a wizard? Half the casting time and double the manna as a sorc with the ability to just wand or scroll any less used or scenario specific spell? <- ok, sign me up!

Ability to change spells mid quest and free metamagic feats just don't seem like it would ever be worth the trade off, obviously I am missing something because there are many wizards, but what is it?

Umbra

[Umbra]

Note to self: check other forums before posting...

This thread sums it up quite well, http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=144272

Still can't imagine I would ever choose a wiz over a sorc, but atleast I know the details of how they are different.

Umbra

[Justicar]

One thing that it may or may not have mentioned in the post as I didnt take the time to read it is that Wizards make great use of the insightful reflexes feat. It is of great use in end game when things are spamming AoE spells to have such a high reflex save.

[Kaldaka]

Only 2 reasons I can think of:

1. If race was Warforged or Dwarf (I personally just can't get myself to start the casting stat at 16)

2. To make an Arcane Trickster build (Wizzy 15/Rogue 1 or 14/2, etc.).

Other than that, I'd roll a Sorc.

[scampb]

Note to self: check other forums before posting...

This thread sums it up quite well, http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=144272

Still can't imagine I would ever choose a wiz over a sorc, but atleast I know the details of how they are different.

Umbra

Umbra, I am glad my OP has come in handy. I posted the same question on the Sorc and Wiz boards. God lots of feedback, both ways. I chose to do the Sorc route. I can tell you I am having a blast with him. My fav. toon so far (just ahead of my Barbarian). I will roll a Wiz next just so i can compare the two personally but the Sorc is great. You will enjoy the power you have once you get past level 5 or so. I just hit level 7 last night and I can outkill 'most' other level 7's in groups. It is sooooo much fun! However, even with all the mana you get you do still need to watch it on certain quests if the shrines are few and far between (like Tangleroot Slayer).

[GlassCannon]

Note to self: check other forums before posting...

This thread sums it up quite well, http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=144272

Still can't imagine I would ever choose a wiz over a sorc, but atleast I know the details of how they are different.

Umbra


No further comments necessary. It's good to bring that older thread out of the archives though.

[cdbd3rd]

....why would anybody ever roll one?


Because....

They make the funniest cackling screaming noises as they bounce down the hill in the barrel we nailed em in to.

http://home.att.net/~cdbd3rd/evilgrin.gif
http://home.att.net/~cdbd3rd/rofl.gif





No further comments necessary. It's good to bring that older thread out of the archives though.


Oh, all right... :(

:)

[Asirin]

Its real simple...A wizard is a scalpel and a sorceror is a sledgehammer.

Any player willing to invest time into mastering one will soon learn with proper sp conservation a wizard FAR outclasses a sorc in tough situations.

Those "useless" metamagic feats open up room for toughness and other neccessary feats a Sorc will never ever see.

The most common misconception is that sorcs outkill wizards....the truth is that sorcs outkill BAD wizards.The cooldown timers being reduced in mod 5 made Finger of Death and Phantasmal Killer almost instant speed for BOTH classes.

But I digress to say this...play a wizard well and the difference in SP will be almost moot....Because "wasting" your SP to fully buff (sorcs are incapable of this) a party before a difficult quest will result in completion more times than not and possibly lots of DV's from a grateful cleric....

Well that's my OPINION anyway and I have alot of exp playing both classes.The point is to build both and see what suits you.

[GlassCannon]

Because....

They make the funniest cackling screaming noises as they bounce down the hill in the barrel we nailed em in to.

http://home.att.net/%7Ecdbd3rd/evilgrin.gif


Satirical humor isn't a comment, it's a deviation from the thread topic, and humor is always acceptable :)

Of course there are some who cannot differentiate wickedness from humor... :(

[Lucian_Navarro]

yah, the wizard class is useless and should be removed from the game.

[Vendee1968]

i have 2 wizards and a sorcerer,i like them all equally. the more mana is cool and the faster casting is cool,but thats what quicken is for. and the 4 extra feats being human is also very handy for those who like hp and want to take toughness.both have advantages and disadvantages,its all about wht you like not what other people think.

[Issip]

I have both a wizard and sorceror at level cap and a couple other casters. My sorc gets more play at cap - he's quick and powerful, but my wizard is much more adaptable. Very few scrolls work as well as the actual spell so the ability to swap spells at a shrine is nice - you should always have any spell that gives an advantage in a quest regarless of how obscure it is.

The wizard is also good for testing all the new spells when they come out or hte level cap is raised. I had my wizard first and he has always been my spell tester so I know what I want on my sorc.

One thing my wiz does that my sorc can't is cover all buffs and debuffs. For instance in reaver with the wizard I buff the group and then hit the reaver with bestow curse, waves of fatigue, waves of exaustion, ray of enfeeblement, ray of fatigue, and crushing despair. Then I go in for a charge and FoD/PK ele's. By contrast my sorc may throw a scroll or two of debuffs (I keep waves of exaustion because there is no save and it's a powerful debuff, but I don't have the rest).

If a quest is about speed and power, or if you want to do the majority of the killing in the quest, then the sorc is better adapted. If you want to support the group and make things go smooth by giving the right buffs and using the right spells at the right times to grease the wheels as the party strolls through a tough quest then the wizard is the better choice.

I like the path I followed by creating a wizard first and a sorc after I knew what pells I liked, of course this was a long time ago when sorcs could NEVER change a spell and the level cap was 10, and I realize leveling 2 casters is much more work. On the other hand a wizard is much more effective at levels 3-9 than a sorc due to the spell availability and SP max so wizards are easier to level IMO.

OK more words than anyone wanted from me so I'll end it here. Feel free to PM me if you want any specific advice on your caster.

Issip

[Talon_Moonshadow]

More spells.
Higher lvl spells sooner.
More highest lvl spell at cap.
if WF, repair is class skill. No WF - to Int.
Metamagic feats
Metamagic feats leave room for other feats.
High Int means more skill points.....lots more.
More spells.
More spells mean more buffs....
Flexability of spells.
Insightful reflexes feat...(reflex save is most imprtant save IMO)

(Sor don't get twice the SP....not sure exacelyt but something like 125%-150%)


Don't get me wrong....Sor are nice...very nice.
Especially that fast casting thing......way faster than a Wiz!
High Cha mean a high UMD too........very useful.

[Gol]

As somebody who ONLY plays Dwarves and Warforged, the question is...

Why roll a Sorcerer?

[GlassCannon]

Its real simple...A wizard is a scalpel and a sorceror is a sledgehammer.

Any player willing to invest time into mastering one will soon learn with proper sp conservation a wizard FAR outclasses a sorc in tough situations.

Those "useless" metamagic feats open up room for toughness and other neccessary feats a Sorc will never ever see.

The most common misconception is that sorcs outkill wizards....the truth is that sorcs outkill BAD wizards.The cooldown timers being reduced in mod 5 made Finger of Death and Phantasmal Killer almost instant speed for BOTH classes.

But I digress to say this...play a wizard well and the difference in SP will be almost moot....Because "wasting" your SP to fully buff (sorcs are incapable of this) a party before a difficult quest will result in completion more times than not and possibly lots of DV's from a grateful cleric....

Well that's my OPINION anyway and I have alot of exp playing both classes.The point is to build both and see what suits you.


Wizard:
http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1597664/2/istockphoto_1597664_rubber_chicken.jpg

Sorcerer:
http://gfx.dagbladet.no/pub/artikkel/4/43/436/436109/malle2.jpg

Anvil:
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee307/sarin_elf/CAUTIONSHARPEDGES.jpg

Peanut Monkeys:
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee307/sarin_elf/1208893460619.jpg

Dole:
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee307/sarin_elf/Dole.jpg

[Accelerando]

Its real simple...A wizard is a scalpel and a sorceror is a sledgehammer.

Any player willing to invest time into mastering one will soon learn with proper sp conservation a wizard FAR outclasses a sorc in tough situations.

Those "useless" metamagic feats open up room for toughness and other neccessary feats a Sorc will never ever see.

The most common misconception is that sorcs outkill wizards....the truth is that sorcs outkill BAD wizards.The cooldown timers being reduced in mod 5 made Finger of Death and Phantasmal Killer almost instant speed for BOTH classes.

But I digress to say this...play a wizard well and the difference in SP will be almost moot....Because "wasting" your SP to fully buff (sorcs are incapable of this) a party before a difficult quest will result in completion more times than not and possibly lots of DV's from a grateful cleric....

Well that's my OPINION anyway and I have alot of exp playing both classes.The point is to build both and see what suits you.

If you want extra HP on your caster, make a WF sorc. Other than that there is no wizard I have ever seen, no matter how good that can keep up with a Sorc. of equal playing skill. I had a maxed out wizard. I deleted him to roll a nuking sorc.

We were discussing this in guild the other day. One sure way to bring wizards and sorcs in balance would be to create a Wizard enhancement line that provided 1/2 or 1/4 cost on metamagic usage. With wizards having all those extra MM feats a line like this would then provide them with an advantage. Also allow wizards only to pre-meta spells onto their hotbars. This would somewhat make up for the casting speed difference as the wizard could pick and choose on the fly to cast a regular fireball, an empowered fireball, and empowered/maximized fireball, or a maximized fireball... all with only one click of your mouse/gamepad/keyboard/stomp peddles (lol)

[Ghoste]

Wizards generally end up with much more skill points. Depending on what you do with those skill points, this can make a huge difference.

[doodooman]

Why make a Fighter, when you can roll a barbarian? They both hit stuff with pointy weapons. They're different classes for a reason, theres some quests I rather take a Wiz over a Sorc theres others I'd raher have a Sorc and the rest of the time both classes will be run by some noob who pikes the whole time so it doesnt matter.

[Talcyndl]

I have both a wizard and sorceror at level cap and a couple other casters. My sorc gets more play at cap - he's quick and powerful, but my wizard is much more adaptable. Very few scrolls work as well as the actual spell so the ability to swap spells at a shrine is nice - you should always have any spell that gives an advantage in a quest regarless of how obscure it is.

The wizard is also good for testing all the new spells when they come out or hte level cap is raised. I had my wizard first and he has always been my spell tester so I know what I want on my sorc.

One thing my wiz does that my sorc can't is cover all buffs and debuffs. For instance in reaver with the wizard I buff the group and then hit the reaver with bestow curse, waves of fatigue, waves of exaustion, ray of enfeeblement, ray of fatigue, and crushing despair. Then I go in for a charge and FoD/PK ele's. By contrast my sorc may throw a scroll or two of debuffs (I keep waves of exaustion because there is no save and it's a powerful debuff, but I don't have the rest).

If a quest is about speed and power, or if you want to do the majority of the killing in the quest, then the sorc is better adapted. If you want to support the group and make things go smooth by giving the right buffs and using the right spells at the right times to grease the wheels as the party strolls through a tough quest then the wizard is the better choice.

I like the path I followed by creating a wizard first and a sorc after I knew what pells I liked, of course this was a long time ago when sorcs could NEVER change a spell and the level cap was 10, and I realize leveling 2 casters is much more work. On the other hand a wizard is much more effective at levels 3-9 than a sorc due to the spell availability and SP max so wizards are easier to level IMO.

OK more words than anyone wanted from me so I'll end it here. Feel free to PM me if you want any specific advice on your caster.

Issip


Great post. And the reason I choose Wizard as me first Arcane. I may eventually roll up a Sorc, but if/when I do I know he'll be a lot more effective because of my experience on the Wizard.

[suitepotato]

Because generally, rolling wizards is better than rolling winos due to the much greater chance of a bag of holding filled with gold.

However, there is no rolling of wizards or anyone else as there is no pickpocketing skill, no actual rogue thievery, and no mugging.

But, if you find a wizard on the street, absolutely. The drunker the better.

(The point of wizard toons has been of late that due to the continual imposition of a variety of nerf known as "item supply manipulation" (oh wait, that's the gasoline market, but same principle) namely the removal of many scrolls from vendors and that sorcs and others cannot actually memorize found scrolls the same way wizards can, a wiz can be used to collect and learn every arcane spell. Then after about twice as long as it takes to level a tank, you can level a wiz and actually do things with those spells but without the spell point love sorcs get. Oh well...)

EDIT: I forgot that there are a lot of people old enough to remember spending undue amounts of time torturing themselves with various considerations of how to paint a very popular set of Grenadier miniatures before launching into their mystical artistic masterpiece which is if their wife didn't toss it now packed safely in a box they'd sooner die than lose.

[Kalari]

lol im with you Suite I thought this topic was about rolling Wizards albeit down inclines. While funny to some my mage doesnt like it one bit :angry: Im sure them dwarves like watching my little elf blur as I went rolling down that steep incline but I was scared for my life! I mean what if no one raised me? (oh thats right im not permadeath..) Either way Im against rolling Wizards down anything... one min someones telling me something..huh this isnt about rolling wizards down obstacles..Its about making the class? Ohhhh....Nevermind ^_^




((If you couldnt tell im a classic snl fan, a *shinny copper* to whoever can tell me the great comedian I tried to parody))

























*note copper can only be given away on sarlona during the night of the big moon, when Veheer is wearing a all pink robe. Rules may vary some other legal mumbo so people dont bug her for a copper piece.

[MrWizard]

Why roll a Wizard?

to get his money,.....


(get it....'roll' him...a slang term for robbing him....)


:D

[Amalthius_Di_Veluna]

If you don't like the way a wizard toon performs (or bards, for that matter) you have two choices:

1) Study the forums and outside player information sources and get better at creating & playing a wizard.

2) Just don't play wizards. Stick with the classes with which you are most comfortable.

There ... wasn't that easy?

There's no reason to "dis" the build and plead for it's removal from the game. That's going a little overboard. Everyone has classes and races they prefer and others they dislike (its human nature). Classic D&D players would take to the streets in protest if any of the core classes or races were done away with.

Let's discuss, instead, what could be done to improve the wizard class and recommend better ways to create, tweak and run one, using the builds and multi-class variations that are already out there. I have tried both sorcs and wizzys and personally prefer the sorc, but I've known several good wizards. There is a knack to it ... no doubt about it. I've been playing this game since a week before it formally launched and, if there is a weakness in a class or race, I'm sure the devs will eventually fix it.;)

[Cholera]

Having capped 4 wizards and 2 sorcerers, I feel like something of an expert on this subject. This isn’t to suggest that I believe my opinion ought to be taken as the final word – because I don’t and it isn’t. It does mean, however, that I have some clue on this issue.

It should go without saying that the functionality of each class depends almost entirely on build and play style. That being said, the most prominent difference in functionality between sorcerers and wizards is focus of power versus versatility, respectively. To attempt to deny this by building for one quality on the other class is likely to generate a relatively under powered character. That is, relative to what could be achieved otherwise.

Beyond this, there is little else to say without addressing particular builds and play styles. The core strength of a wizard is versatility and for a sorcerer it is power. Design your build and play style around your character’s class strength and you are unlikely to go wrong.

Of course, what one really should do is play exactly what and how they want. If you wanna splash two levels of plumber on your 8th level jedi carpenter, go for it and don’t let anyone tell ya not to.

[knghtstalkr]

... where do you get rolling paper big enough to, ummm errrr...

nevermind!!!

*puff, puff, pass... don't bogart the wizzie!*

[query]

Emily Litella, played by the late great Gilda Radner.


I'm Query, and you're not.


(Forget the copper piece, as Fearface on Sarlona will most likely be too busy killing then to be picking it up.)


PS Franco is Still Dead and Gary Gygax does NOT like this guy in his neighborhood.


lol im with you Suite I thought this topic was about rolling Wizards albeit down inclines. While funny to some my mage doesnt like it one bit :angry: Im sure them dwarves like watching my little elf blur as I went rolling down that steep incline but I was scared for my life! I mean what if no one raised me? (oh thats right im not permadeath..) Either way Im against rolling Wizards down anything... one min someones telling me something..huh this isnt about rolling wizards down obstacles..Its about making the class? Ohhhh....Nevermind ^_^




((If you couldnt tell im a classic snl fan, a *shinny copper* to whoever can tell me the great comedian I tried to parody))

























*note copper can only be given away on sarlona during the night of the big moon, when Veheer is wearing a all pink robe. Rules may vary some other legal mumbo so people dont bug her for a copper piece.

[Kalari]

Emily Litella, played by the late great Gilda Radner.


I'm Query, and you're not.


(Forget the copper piece, as Fearface on Sarlona will most likely be too busy killing then to be picking it up.)


PS Franco is Still Dead and Gary Gygax does NOT like this guy in his neighborhood.

LOL *DING DING DING* ^_^ and aww about the copper I shall have to give Fearface a hug if he ever gets downtime from killing stuff. Either way better go get that sleep thing tommorrow I get woken up to cold breakfast made with luv :)