Wizard Build, Win or Fail?

[jared_5432]

Hello. This build is probably very stupid as i have thought it up whilist showering. My idea is a Wf Wizard (self healing) That focusus on crowd control and buffs. He hides behind a sheild and uses wands. Heavily realies on party to do damage as he controls crowds with spells like sleep and dance, while shooting with his wands.

[ninjaeli]

pretty sure thats called a caster?

[sifubob]

As long as you actually have a group to run with for every quest it should be ok. A static group would be best, so they know what you're about and everyone can tailor their characters around the idea that you'll be buffing and CC ing, rather than DPS'ing.

If you're going with a support character, you could also consider taking 2 rogue or artificer levels and also picking up trapping skills. that way you have covered a lot of useful bases. i have an Elf wiz/rog who does a similar thing; He buffs, CC's, does traps and does a bit of Two weapon fighting. As much support as i could get into him, basically.

One thing to consider is also that Wizards get a lot of spell slots, and there are only so many useful buffs and CC's, so you likely will have a few slots left over. So, if you don't go with Rog/Art splash and do traps, it would still be worthwhile picking up the Spellcraft skill and getting some sort of spellpower boosting item to do direct damage spells.

Also, remember that shields have a chance Arcane Spell Failure, so unless you put some points into the Eldritch Knight tree to get a reduction of ASF you'll be failing spells because of it.

here is a link to a Character Planner; http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO/DDOCharGen.html

Have a play around with it, and post the build you have created. You'll get more responses i'd say if there is something more concrete to look at.

[Lanhelin]

Hello. This build is probably very stupid as i have thought it up whilist showering. My idea is a Wf Wizard (self healing) That focusus on crowd control and buffs. He hides behind a sheild and uses wands. Heavily realies on party to do damage as he controls crowds with spells like sleep and dance, while shooting with his wands.

If there was a possibility to get/craft enough wands beyond Caster Level 10 this might be viable. Atm past Level 10 you'll notice the mobs more and more saving or even entirely dodging/evading offensive spells from wands. Also your spell penetration and spell power won't affect wands. Furthermore if you want to focus on Enchantment you probably want scepters, clubs, orbs or quarterstaffs in your hands with Enchantment Focus, Spell Penetration, Spell Augmentation and other useful things on them. Wands currently serve only a bit in case of emergency, when you have nearly no SP anymore.

[bennyson]

Hmmm, judging from the info you gave about your build and idea for it, I'd say its ok as long as the wands you use are high in caster level.

Going 18 wizard and splashing it with another class is ok, however, remember that you sacrificed caster levels for your wizard spells. Caster levels equal the level of your magic using class (clerics, sorcerers, druids, rangers, paladins, favored souls, wizards, bards, and artificers) all these classes have caster levels. Even if you splash your wizard with another magic using class, their caster level will not apply to your wizard spells.

For example, splashing a level 15 sorcerer with 5 levels of artificer will not count towards your caster level with spells from the sorcerer class, you will always have a caster level of 15 with sorcerer spells and a caster level of 5 with artificer spells, even with destines you WILL be a weaker caster than someone who has gone pure sorcerer. Same thing goes for a level 18 wiz/2 rog build, unless you want to deal with having weaker caster level.

Also, if your going full-on focus with CC spells, you'll want your spell DCs and their caster level to be as high as possible, splashing your wizard is not an option if this is what your going to do.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Enchantment focused wizards were in high demand about 4 years ago. Then they removed epic immunity to instakills and there was really no reason to be enchantment focused anymore, because if you could get a no fail hold monster you could get a no fail wail, and everything being dead is the best CC. But if you really don't want to go necro spec, you can always mass hold then throw a firewall on top and let them cook. The extra helpless damage works on spell damage too.

Using charmed mobs to do your fighting for you, great way to slow down the dungeon crawl and annoy your party members, especially if they want ransack. It also doesn't work in all those places where you have to kill the mobs in front of a door before that door will open. And for all the places it does work, going invis and running past the mobs is just so much faster. Either that or run down the hall collect enough mobs for yellow alert, then firewall/acid rain, done.

Wands do terrible damage, just imagine casting a fireball at min level with no maximize or empower and no spell power and the dc is not increased by your int mod. It's just terrible.

[bennyson]

Wands do terrible damage.

ONLY the commonly found wands in your local magic shop. There are two wands in the game that are far more powerful than common wands sold by pathetic wizards. These wands are Epic Winter's Wrath and Epic Brimstone Verge. Check the DDO wiki.

Also, these wands can become more powerful if a pure artificer wields them and has Arcane Empowerment.

[HungarianRhapsody]

When you cast offensive damaging spells or when you cast offensive CC spells, those spells get bonuses to the damage they do and bonuses to DC that come from your various feats and enhancements and gear. Those bonuses generally don't apply to your wands, so using wands for offense generally doesn't work well.

Everything else in the build sounds completely fine, though.

[HungarianRhapsody]

ONLY the commonly found wands in your local magic shop. There are two wands in the game that are far more powerful than common wands sold by pathetic wizards. These wands are Epic Winter's Wrath and Epic Brimstone Verge. Check the DDO wiki.

Also, these wands can become more powerful if a pure artificer wields them and has Arcane Empowerment.

Even Epic Winter's Wrath and Epic Brimstone Verge don't do very much damage when you compare them to the spells that you are casting at level 20 and above.

[danotmano1998]

Hello. This build is probably very stupid as i have thought it up whilist showering. My idea is a Wf Wizard (self healing) That focusus on crowd control and buffs. He hides behind a sheild and uses wands. Heavily realies on party to do damage as he controls crowds with spells like sleep and dance, while shooting with his wands.

Replace "Wands" with "Empowered and Maximized damage spells" and "Hides behind a shield" with "Tanks inside of an AOE" or "kites".

NOW you're talking.

Your forum search should be "Enchantment wizard". There are a ton of builds on these forums that will give you some good starting directions.
Good luck and happy adventuring!

[bennyson]

Even Epic Winter's Wrath and Epic Brimstone Verge don't do very much damage when you compare them to the spells that you are casting at level 20 and above.

True, but they also serve as other sources of magical damage when:

1. your out of mana with no way to replenish it.

or

2. you want to use as little mana as possible in a dungeon with very few and limited ways to replenish it.

or

3. your fighting an enemy that is resistant to most of your spells and have no other alternative spells to cast.

In any case, these wands have some usefulness for at least these kinds of situations. I do agree though that they cant deal as much damage as a spell that hits for 500 or 9k damage.

[Azurchaos]

Also, remember that shields have a chance Arcane Spell Failure, so unless you put some points into the Eldritch Knight tree to get a reduction of ASF you'll be failing spells because of it.


There are some shield's out there that have NO Arcane Spell Failure and are made for casters.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Fanion

Prob the best one. Can be a pain to get (get 8 Shield Fragments from Orchard wilderness/quest chests)
Despite this i think it it worth getting for any caster.

[bennyson]

There are some shield's out there that have NO Arcane Spell Failure and are made for casters.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Fanion

Prob the best one. Can be a pain to get (get 8 Shield Fragments from Orchard wilderness/quest chests)
Despite this i think it it worth getting for any caster.

The best one for mages who want to use a shield is an Epic Eilte Skyvault.

[Enoach]

Going with an Enchantment focus Wizard is one way to accomplish the task, but what you need to consider is the following:


Depending on wands/scrolls for your damage means investment in Wand and Scroll Mastery to up the DCs, additionally the DC will be at the lowest caster level the spell can be cast. Using wands against creatures with high saves will be throwing charges away - especially if reflex and evasion is possible. The upside is that using the right combination of Enchantment spells can help increase wand/scroll potential
"Charming" the dungeon can be SP draining especially if the playstyle is to kill everything in a room and move on. This technique works best in situations where encounters are not needed to succeed and it can help get you past them using a lot less resources then what it would take to kill the whole room. However, this playstyle works best Solo as the idea is to sneak past all the unneeded stuff to get to the encounter
You still need something when you need to focus DPS weather it is Single Target or AoE. Some of the quests have a Boss at the end that MUST be killed to win, and they can't be CC'd.


This style could work well in solo play and a static group. While you may get a lot of appreciation from some players for "Holding" all there targets in one place, some may become annoyed by the "Charmed" creatures as they put their self value in the Kill Count.

You can have a lot of fun with an enchantment based Wizard, I just recommend having a few "other" tricks up your sleeve for the moments Enchantment won't help.