most effective wizard spells

[Taters214]

I'm sure this topic has either been beat to death or is just considered general knowledge, perhaps, but I'm trying to figure out which wizard spells are most effective and which ones I "should" be using.

I get that firewall rules and use it constantly--halt undead works well for undead cc, too, so far. I also have great success spamming arcane bolt and 1 sp magic missiles.

I've also read a little that hypnotism and web are good. Why exactly? I've tried them a little in mid-level quests, but they don't always seem to take. Are DC enhancing items needed? Heighten perhaps?

What are the other "awesome" spells that any wizard should never run without?

Thanks.

[Rodasch]

yes heighten on web makes it a great CC spell, but without heighten it's not very good.

Other awesome spells are:

Jump
Resist Elements
Haste
Displacement
Rage
Blur (not so much once everyone has dusk or better on items)
Greater Heroism
Fireshield
Nightshield

All of these are spells you'll use a lot throughout your career as a wizard or sorc

for offensive casting and CC here are some of my favorites:

Otto's dancing sphere
Mass Suggestion (prefer this over mass charm monster due to it's bypassing SR and having a fixed duration)
Finger of Death
Wail of the Banshee
Mass Hold Monster
Summon Monster 8 (the air elemental is great CC with it's constant knockdown of enemies)
Banishment
Polar Ray
Disintegrate
Wall of Fire (of course)

There are other great spells that I would like to use but don't have room in a sorceror's limited repertoire which I'm sure others can add to the list. Hope this helps.

[aradelothion]

I'm sure this topic has either been beat to death or is just considered general knowledge, perhaps, but I'm trying to figure out which wizard spells are most effective and which ones I "should" be using.

I get that firewall rules and use it constantly--halt undead works well for undead cc, too, so far. I also have great success spamming arcane bolt and 1 sp magic missiles.

I've also read a little that hypnotism and web are good. Why exactly? I've tried them a little in mid-level quests, but they don't always seem to take. Are DC enhancing items needed? Heighten perhaps?

What are the other "awesome" spells that any wizard should never run without?

Thanks.

If you want to use Web or Hypno at mid-late levels, Heighten is necessary for them to land because it ups your base spell DC to the highest spell level you can cast; if you can cast level 9 spell, it basically treats Hypno like a level 9 spell instead of a level 1 spell.

Spells that I can't live without (as a moderately geared Wiz) are Enervation/Energy Drain.. it gives 1d4/2d4 neg levels which allow for all your other CC/Instakill spells to land more often. And Bestow Curse on low Will Save/high HP mobs.

Getting a high DC is good; but don't forget that as a Wiz, you can slot spells that can also lower their saves. It does gets a bit sp-intensive though.

[lazyninja81]

I'm sure this topic has either been beat to death or is just considered general knowledge, perhaps, but I'm trying to figure out which wizard spells are most effective and which ones I "should" be using.

I get that firewall rules and use it constantly--halt undead works well for undead cc, too, so far. I also have great success spamming arcane bolt and 1 sp magic missiles.

I've also read a little that hypnotism and web are good. Why exactly? I've tried them a little in mid-level quests, but they don't always seem to take. Are DC enhancing items needed? Heighten perhaps?

What are the other "awesome" spells that any wizard should never run without?

Thanks.

Kinda depends on what level you're at. I'll assume up to level 4 or 5 spells.

Web is good for mobs resistant to FW, like clay golems. I don't bother much with MM for bolt as it seems to take to long to kill stuff. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Hypno is good for low level cc but at higher levels try to use hold person/monster. Charm/dominate is great if you're soloing or short manning. Can charm mobs and then release them one by one to be beaten down. If you're fire spec'd make sure you have a cold spell for things like fire ele's.

Don't discount party buffs. I always carry rage, haste and greater heroism (just heroism at lower levels). Sure casting haste and GH on the melee party members burns sp but they'll thank you for it and they'll also beat down mobs that much faster. Often also throw out blur to front line melees to help reduce cleric healing a bit. You may feel a bit like a buff bot but a well buffed party will chew through quests. Typically, if I'm running with a group and the party is hasted for every large encounter (for example more mobs than party members), I feel like I'm not doing my job. Can be hard sometimes though if you're with a fast moving group. Will sometimes wait until melees engage then jump in the middle and fire off a haste.

If you're soloing, make sure you have displacement. Best AC (most) wizards can get.

These are my general choices but it may depend on you style of playing (I tend to solo a lot) and what quests you're running, like lots of undead or lots of humanoids.

[sirdanile]

find a sorcerer who plays well, they will have all the good spells. then you can take the nice to have ones as needed.

[Taters214]

Excellent. Thanks for the tips, mates.

Is there a way to assign metamagic feats only to certain spells? For instance, say I always want to have my webs heightened, but not any other spell, and I always want my firewalls maximized, but not other spells. Is there a way to set this up? To my knowledge there isn't--one must click heighten to turn on, cast the web, then click heighten to turn off, cast other spell that he doesn't want heightened, and then, oh, time for another heightened web--but there's always something I'm not aware of. :-) (For the longest time I didn't know about the auto-gather feature on the gem and ingredient bags, but when someone told me about it in response to my complaining in game, boy was I excited!)

[DrNuegebauer]

Is there a way to assign metamagic feats only to certain spells?

No.

[dragoninfernoblade]

.

Is there a way to assign metamagic feats only to certain spells?!)
yes...in a way. just turn them off/on when you cast a spell