Guilllotine
11-17-2010, 04:10 PM
This is all good general info I have copied/pasted from various people on these forums into a word doc when I was new to wizardry. Some of it is outdated, but take it for what it's worth. :D
If you're going to be tossing a damage spell, you need to be careful about making sure the mobs you want stay in it as long as possible.
For me, I tend to keep both of them on all the time once I get past 10 or so. I tend to value things more in terms of time, so burning things quicker is better for me. I will, however, turn it off if I find I want to be frost lancing or scorching with rays. I try not to use either of them on 3rd and lower level spells, but I keep those around as they are in and of themselves handy.
When I buff/cast I usually toggle off all metamagics but empower/maximize then do exp. retreat, jump, GH, nighthshield - 20 min is enough - then resists if needed. Next are protection from elements, stoneskin and false life again without extend because they are ablative and will wear down their protects prior to the duration expiring. Then I turn on extend and heighten, go into lich form, toss a death aura, displacement, rage and fire shield. Then I turn on quicken. Unless something comes up, they all stay on until the next shrine. I've got my hotbars set up and keyed so I can do this pretty quickly while moving so I'm not just standing there if I don't want to (time is key for me).
That's a far number of buffs, but it lets me play a bit more fast and loose and not worry so much.
And at the lower levels, while soloing, buy cleric hirelings. I will NEVER make another character and not bring along a cleric hireling for EVERY QUEST, even if i am a WF. It's flabbergasting how big a difference they make, since any time not spent healing yourself is more time spent...well, doing other useful stuff. And if you aren't a WF you will die pretty much halfway through a quest without heals no matter HOW good you are at soloing.
Kobolds? Good reflex saves, bad will saves, usually bad fortitude saves (tiny, fast, and dumb).
Ogres? Epic fortitude saves, poor will saves, mostly decent reflex saves (Big and dumb).
Scorpions? High AC, decent Reflex, decent Fortitude, low will--but immunity to most spells requiring a will save. (best bet? Magic missile).
Fire elementals? Good reflex saves. Pack up all your ice and force spells--except Niac's Cold Ray, which requires a reflex save.
And remember--very few things can dodge, resist, or dispel a magic missile.
*Ghoul touch + chill touch.
A great low level spell but if you don't have necromancy focus (or a necromancy plus item(or both)) you might want to skip it. The beauty of ghoul touch is that it is the lowest level hold spell and held creatures are auto hit auto crit. That means that even if you don't have masters touch on you can whip out your two hander and crit the face off almost anything in about three seconds. Be aware that if you have extend on it will cost you 10 more spell points because of the increased hold duration. You don't need very long to uber pwn held things so take extend off before you use ghoul touch. Also, ghoul touch is TOUCH spell so you have to get close to use it. While held ogres are nice in theory, your probably better off with a nice extended acid arrow.
Don't be afraid to take a minute or two to prepare for any quest, on any character--if no one wants to wait, they don't deserve your help anyway. (although I stress the 'minute or two' part. =P). Ask if they have any requests. Are there warforged? Can they self-heal, or would they like you to pack a repair spell or two. Gather information about your foe, if you don't know the quest.
Buff yourself. The longer you're alive, the more you're putting out damage, even if you're just throwing your +1 returning throwing dagger. Nightshield, blur, false life, mage armor, resist energy--these are your friends.
Wands are also your friends. Buy them, collect them from chests, hoard them. Don't waste mana on those first trash mobs--haul out a wand, mage armor/blur/false life yourself, and blast away. Conserve your spellpoints--they'll keep you alive.
With low hit points and usually a complete disregard of AC, a wizard can always use a meat shield. The Summon Monster spells and the Pale Master's Summon Skeleton provides that much-needed bodyguard--with that and invisibility, you can catch up to the party relatively easily, using the skelly to distract your enemies and then running like the wind.
OR (this is mostly what sorcerers do, but I've seen some wizards do it as well): Grab maxmize, empower, heighten, anything that makes your spell bigger, keep your eternal wands close by, and wait until you see a redname. When you do, let loose a fireball, eat up half your spellpoints, and kill it--and everything nearby--instantly.
learn how to guard your weaknesses with resist fire or stoneskin, and even learn how to use the game's occasional wierdnesses to your advantage.
P.S. once you hit about 6th level, consider permanently adding Jump to your prepared spells. With good hand-eye coordination and that nifty +20 bonus, it's usually possible to dodge just about anything.
In the early levels, you need some form or DR.
- Sounds difficult, but cruise the AH for a robe or outfit of invulnerability. That'll save you quite a big of headache for quite a few levels.
- If you can't manage that you can work it out with some blocking gear. On Korthos you can get a Spear-block set of bracers ... which makes things like archers / etc. much more tolerable. A hammerblock robe helps against blunt
In the early levels, some form of energy resistance is useful.
- You get this as a spell at 3rd level. Very handy. Minor resistances (esp cold, fire, acid) are handy too.
In the early levels for a wizard, charm / hypno / etc. as suggested are very useful. Web.
- Charmed dudes attack your enemies.
- Dudes who are stunned / fascinated / webbed / etc. don't swing back. You can hack at them w/ a greataxe and they can't hit back.
In the early levels, don't feel bad about swinging a greataxe (or staff).
- Seriously. Pound on them.
Carry healing pots
- Don't rely on others to heal you.
farm Waterworks for the eternal acid wand. Use the eternal finger of fire wand. If you're VIP, get the MM wand from Catacombs.
Pale Master- My main strategies are getting skeletal minion out and a good summon, The new choices for the summoning spells are great, usually ice mephit. Then i cast buffs on myself, like mage armour, shield lesser death aurs. Cast firewall and kite monsters through it. They take damage from firewall, my aura and my minions, and i can Necrotic Touch them. Love Necrotic Touch, great damage and uses no sp.
I *do* use Frost Lance at later levels if I need a single target ice thing and I do try to carry one direct fire, one direct ice, etc. spell.
Gear-wise, I basically have coasted to 9th level with the following:
* CON, other stat boosters
* Lightning Rod & Pillar of Light (for occasional melee)
* Archivist set
* Two picks, whatever I can grab, for smacking held things
I currently play a force am with fire (lvl 16)- no enchant - and must say that I can bring the pain. In parties with other mages I dominate the kill board. Melee cant touch me without top notch gear (and i have less than optimal). Arcane bolt and blast hit probably 90% of the time and do 110 to 250 dmg on crit. Chain missle is my friend hitting on crit for 470 and magic missle averages 45 per missle with max around 65. I run empower maximize and heighten. Firewall I find to be a bit slow even when it ticks for 170ish damage. I still use it on grps but its too sp intensize for solo mobs. And unless you have a small area or nonmobile mobs, fw only hits a couple of times for a cost of 65 sp. The best spells I use to augment my force chain (chain, bolt, blast, missle, repeat) is phant kill and FoD. They are unaffected by max and empower so i dont have to turn the feats off, unlike other spells that if used with feats would drain my 1400 sp dry long before I reached a shrine.
That's kinda it. Instead of focusing on getting lots of SP so you can cast lots of spells, I'm using items (eternal wands, summon monster clickies) so that I'm not using my own SP. Instead of spending SP on multiple charms, I'm making sure the ones I do cast land (which actually saves SP).
I solo a fair amount w/ a cleric hireling (whichever one at my level has DV). I start each run with a summoned mosnter (still use the hellhounds - actually have 2 of those staves), a Pale Master summons (whatever I think may work best) and the hireling. Then I charm / ooze puppet / command undead / etc.
Rarely run out of SP.
- Only nuke when it's needed.
- Get robe of Invulnerability.
- Only inscribe what you need.
- Get damage boosting gear.
- Try to be buffer instead of nuker.
- Try to CC instead of nuking.
- Learn to use your Spells better
- web+niacs
- solid fog+fw
Here are some very useful "wizard" spells that I typically do not see sorcerors using due to their limited spell slots:
*Master's Touch* = proficiency in the held weapon.
*Knock *= very useful for the Shroud raid and other places. Many sorcerors will take this eventually but they are probably giving up Scorching Ray or Blur because they can only have Four 2nd level spell slots, A wizard can load up Five spells.
*Rage* = a popular party buff for extra damage and hit points.
*Protection from Energy* = a life saver in certain quests. If the wizard is quick to repeat-cast this he can survive a long time under heavy attack. At higher levels I repeat cast the 7th level Mass-version that protects from all energy types to everyone around me.
*Sleet Storm* = one of the few spells that will modify how a boss monster will fight. He moves around in small steps and turns around because he doesn't like the Storm. That means he is attacking less often, i.e. easier to heal people. Many monsters are blinded by this spell too making it like a better form of Displacement.
*Suggestion, Mass Suggestion* = very useful at all levels of play, including Epic. Wizards can get a very high Enchantment DC. Any time you make a monster behave differently or attack differently you can take advantage of it, just like any other exploit that DDO players use.
Enervation, Energy Drain = some wizards will load up both of these for rapid energy draining as de-buffing or as a damage-dealing alternative. Enervation cooperates well with an item of Spell Penetration VII or less. Do you have a Spell Pen 9 item for Energy Drain?
*Fire Shield/Chill Shield* = a life-saving personal spell. Half damage is extremely useful especially against bosses and on Epic. You can get short duration from scrolls. I rarely see Sorcerors, bards, rogues (UMD) taking advantage of this protection.
*Solid Fog/Acid Fog/Cloudkill* = not often useful but certain adventures can exploit it very well, especially if the caster is soloing or short-manning the adventure. i.e. Web + Cloudkill = frost giants stop attacking, take damage, and lose CON. Now easier to land Stunning Blow/Fist for quick killing.
*Stoneskin* = added survivability is always great and the spell is superior to Wand usage. I think smart sorcerors will have this, but many will not because they only know Four level 4 spells, while the wizard can load up Five.
*Ball Lightning/Chain Lightning* = It is very useful to be able to deal high amounts of damage with energy other than fire and cold. I suspect a lot of sorcerors will have one of these spells, but they might not. A wizard can always have it ready, along with every other useful 5th and 6th level spell.
*Break Enchantment* = situationally very useful, even though I personally do not bother to cast it much even when loaded.
*Dominate Person/Monster* = very good for specific high level adventure exploitation, or small-group adventuring.
*Mind Fog* = the spell save de-buffer that allows wizards to land some really impressive control spells if they don't already have an Enchantment DC of 40+ . Epic Ward supposedly prevents it from working.
*Summon Monster V: Bearded Devil* = a very potent summon spell for characters around 9th level. Sorcs and UMD users are able to buy lots of scrolls of this.
*Greater Heroism, Flesh to Stone, Reconstruct* = very potent spells to cast from memory. Sorcerors and UMDers can use scrolls for half-power (or less). Only a Wizard is likely to have all of these available in memory, along with the other very useful level 6 spells.
*Otto's Dancing Sphere, Delayed Blast Fireball, Symbol of Stunning, Waves of Exhaustion: *A wizard is not likely to have all of these prepared at once, but he could. A sorceror will never have most of these prepared due to there being other good 7th level choices.
*Summon Monster 8 & 9* = some very potent pets that any wizard will have available as needed. These scrolls are not available for purchase from vendors. Some sorcerors still do not have these. Perhaps they will change their mind eventually when they see what wizards are doing with them.
*Meteor Swarm* = an extremely high damage spell if you have a Combustion item to enhance it. The non-fire damage component alone is higher damage than many other lower level spells.
So in my opinion, at 3rd level, use Scorching Ray. It's got the range, no save, and good damage (especially with Maximize). Magic Missile comes in 2nd, in my opinion, and then Burning Hands/Niac's are basically tied for third (depending on the enemy and situation you're in).
Edit:
Oh, and if you use Scorching Ray, you can buy Inferno potions from the potion vender in the Stormreach marketplace. They will increase the damage of your Fire spells quite nicely for not a lot of $$.
Brutes (eg ogres, hobgoblin slayers, kobold warriors): Fight up close with melee weapons, sometimes with ranged weapons. Good fort saves, poor reflex/will saves. Note that the bigger something is, the lower the reflex save usually, and the smaller something is, the better the reflex save usually. Use crowd control spells with will saves or damaging spells with reflex saves. Avoid any spell with a fort save.
Rogues (eg bugbear assassin, kobold sneak): Fight up close with melee weapons, sometimes with ranged weapons. Often hide and are difficult to see without a good Spot or Listen skill. Good reflex saves, poor fortitude/will saves. The same general rule is true that the smaller the creature, the better the reflex save, but very few large monsters fall into this category. Instant death effects like finger of death tend to work very well and are usually the most efficient ways of killing these. Avoid anything with a reflex save, especially anything that is reflex for half damage since these types of monsters often have evasion.
Divine Casters (eg hobgoblin cleric, xoriat death priest): Fight by casting divine spells like sound burst or flame strike or healing themselves or allies. Good fort/will saves, poor reflex saves. These guys are tough as far as saves go. Your best options are direct damage spells that require a reflex save. In general their fort saves will be a little lower than their will saves so you might have limited success with fort save effects, but effects that at least have a partial effect on a successful save (like frost lance) are favored.
Arcane Casters (eg kobold shaman, hobgoblin witch doctor): Fight by casting arcane spells like fireball or lightning bolt or buffing themselves or allies with spells like displacement or false life. Poor fort/reflex saves, good will saves. Sometimes these are multiclassed like barbarian/shamans. In this case they will also have good fort saves. Direct damage with reflex saves usually works, but fort saves that have save or die effects work wonders. Finger of death works very well.
Ultimately recognize that monsters with class levels such as orc ranger or bugbear bard follow the same rules as player characters. Thus the ranger will have good fort and reflex and the bard will have good reflex and will. Other times the name of the monster will simply hint at their class, but you can usually figure it out by the monster's behavior. A monster with "berzerker" in the name is probably a barbarian and thus has good fortitude saves (and good will saves when raging).
Once you learn to recognize monsters as one of these types it gets easier. There are many other types of monsters that you begin to encounter more as level up. Note that high level content begins to blur the line. Many outsiders like devils and demons as well as dragons have good saves in all categories, thus spells with no saving throw are sometimes favored. Aberrations like tharak hounds and beholders have good will saves. Vermin and magical beasts have good fort and reflex saves. Constructs have poor saving throws but are immune to many effects. Air and fire elementals have good reflex saves. Earth and water elementals have good fort saves. Giants have good fort saves. Oozes have poor saves but are immune to many effects. Undead have good will saves and are immune to many effects.
Endgame ideas: Prepared: (Offense) Niac's Cold Ray, Hypnotism, Scorching Ray, Web, Fireball, Wall of Fire, Phantasmal Killer, Fear, Hold Monster, Cloudkill, Feeblemind, Flesh to Stone, Disintegrate, Acid Fog, Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Banishment, Finger of Death, Greater Shout, Otto's Irresistable Dance, and Sunburst. (Def/Misc) Tumble, Jump, Shield, Resist Energy, False Life, Blur, Haste, Protection from Energy, Rage, Displacement, Stoneskin, Break Enchantment, and Greater Heroism.
Misc: 500 of each component including stoneskin, 20 scrolls of Teleport, 20 scrolls of Dimension Door, 10 scrolls of Break Enchantment, 5 Truesight, 10 scrolls of Summon Monster VII, 20 scrolls of Greater Teleport, 40 scrolls of Enervation, 20 scrolls of Cloudkill, 1/2 Page of wands (IS, RCW, Invis, Stone Skin, Detect Secret Doors @10th, Scorching Ray @11th, Energy Resistance @11th, Protection from Energy @10th), 100 Cure serious wounds potions, Many high end Mnemonic potions.
Jaid314
11-17-2010, 05:46 PM
just thought i'd throw in a few points of my own.
1) symbol of stunning is terrible. it is something you *might* consider *only* because the vast majority of the level 7 spells are even worse. it has a horrible casting time, and most importantly, it has an obscenely long cooldown. it will never be one of your staple spells unless you wait for almost two minutes between each fight. don't listen to him when he says there are other good level 7 choices. there aren't. the vast majority of the level 7 spells are garbage. there are maybe 4 that i would even consider, and one of those i would only consider because it's less useless than the rest of the level 7 spells.
2) crushing despair is actually a great spell. it works on red names, it works on purple names, and it is useful for a debuff before you target any other spell on a group. unlike mind fog, it *does* work in epic quests also. this is a spell that i actually *can* say most sorcerers won't know, by the way.
3) don't bother turning extend off for ablative spells. extend already doesn't work on them, and it doesn't cost you more anyways. (if it's already off, you don't need to turn it on either, of course, but my main point is that if you have it on and want to cast stoneskin, don't worry... you won't extend it).
4) most of those "spells that sorcerers don't have" are in fact spells that sorcerers do tend to have, IME. except sleet storm. and summon monster 9 (which is worse than summon monster 8, imo). in fact, i'm going to go exactly opposite to what you were just told, and tell you that if you make a habit of casting sleet storm you will most likely find people not wanting to group with you again. this is because sleet storm also makes it really hard for your side to see anything, and because sleet storm also slows down your own team and may even make them fall down. the only reason you should ever carry sleet storm is because you want to get revenge on someone who thinks it's funny to cast grease all the time.
Guilllotine
11-17-2010, 06:00 PM
just thought i'd throw in a few points of my own.
1) symbol of stunning is terrible. it is something you *might* consider *only* because the vast majority of the level 7 spells are even worse. it has a horrible casting time, and most importantly, it has an obscenely long cooldown. it will never be one of your staple spells unless you wait for almost two minutes between each fight. don't listen to him when he says there are other good level 7 choices. there aren't. the vast majority of the level 7 spells are garbage. there are maybe 4 that i would even consider, and one of those i would only consider because it's less useless than the rest of the level 7 spells.
2) crushing despair is actually a great spell. it works on red names, it works on purple names, and it is useful for a debuff before you target any other spell on a group. unlike mind fog, it *does* work in epic quests also. this is a spell that i actually *can* say most sorcerers won't know, by the way.
3) don't bother turning extend off for ablative spells. extend already doesn't work on them, and it doesn't cost you more anyways. (if it's already off, you don't need to turn it on either, of course, but my main point is that if you have it on and want to cast stoneskin, don't worry... you won't extend it).
4) most of those "spells that sorcerers don't have" are in fact spells that sorcerers do tend to have, IME. except sleet storm. and summon monster 9 (which is worse than summon monster 8, imo). in fact, i'm going to go exactly opposite to what you were just told, and tell you that if you make a habit of casting sleet storm you will most likely find people not wanting to group with you again. this is because sleet storm also makes it really hard for your side to see anything, and because sleet storm also slows down your own team and may even make them fall down. the only reason you should ever carry sleet storm is because you want to get revenge on someone who thinks it's funny to cast grease all the time.
Yes great "updated" information to what I had posted, like I said some of it is out of date or mediocre, but there's alot of good nuggets in my old trusty word doc yet lol :D
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