A wizards purpose

[sephiroth1084]

a wizards purpose is to complain how much better a sorc is

Pssh!

[Vormaerin]

As mentioned earlier, the main issue is that low level wizards are just not that efficient. This is especially true of genuinely new ones that aren't tricked out in twink gear. Your damage spells aren't all that efficient and your buffs are pretty short duration. Your crowd control spells are your most effective tools.

However, you should do what you have fun doing. That's the most important thing. Most folks at low level aren't really expecting a lot from anyone, except maybe (maybe) the rogue being able to deal with traps.

Niac's is generally your best damage spell....just realize that high reflex save monster tend to take no damage from it. Scorching Ray is solid also. AoE damage spells are fun, but pretty risky when most monsters can incapacitate you with a sneeze.

Crowd Control: Hypnotism and Fear are the best spells you have. Unless you've got some nutso with a two handed sword spoiling things, Hypnotism will rule. Its quick to cast and AoE. Fear is great for big uglies.

Debuffs: Glitterdust is awesome sauce. You should be using this spell a lot. It blinds mobs that run into it and blind mobs are all kinds of less effective. And they don't stop being blind when you beat them up. It is slow to cast, so you want to put it up at the beginning of the fight. But I find its more effective than web and doesn't burn up if you toss some fire down.

Once you get to the mid levels, you'll start having a lot more efficient spells and the gear/feats/enhancements to make it so that you can buff, damage, and CC without running out of mana immediately.

[FluffyCalico]

"What is typically expected?"

.

It is expected that you have scribed every spell and thus can pick up any requested spell at any shrine or before entering. Other than that its like playing a sorc. You are just a sorc that accepts spell requests.

[sephiroth1084]

As mentioned earlier, the main issue is that low level wizards are just not that efficient. This is especially true of genuinely new ones that aren't tricked out in twink gear. Your damage spells aren't all that efficient and your buffs are pretty short duration. Your crowd control spells are your most effective tools.

However, you should do what you have fun doing. That's the most important thing. Most folks at low level aren't really expecting a lot from anyone, except maybe (maybe) the rogue being able to deal with traps.

Niac's is generally your best damage spell....just realize that high reflex save monster tend to take no damage from it. Scorching Ray is solid also. AoE damage spells are fun, but pretty risky when most monsters can incapacitate you with a sneeze.

Crowd Control: Hypnotism and Fear are the best spells you have. Unless you've got some nutso with a two handed sword spoiling things, Hypnotism will rule. Its quick to cast and AoE. Fear is great for big uglies.

Debuffs: Glitterdust is awesome sauce. You should be using this spell a lot. It blinds mobs that run into it and blind mobs are all kinds of less effective. And they don't stop being blind when you beat them up. It is slow to cast, so you want to put it up at the beginning of the fight. But I find its more effective than web and doesn't burn up if you toss some fire down.

Once you get to the mid levels, you'll start having a lot more efficient spells and the gear/feats/enhancements to make it so that you can buff, damage, and CC without running out of mana immediately.

To build on this fairly solid advice:

Web is one of the most effective crowd control spells when you get it, and continues to be right up to the level cap (and from what I hear, beyond!). Learn, use it, love it.

Glitterdust is a great spell, but I tend to carry it only irregularly--it just takes too long to cast, and in most quests with most groups, by the time you cast the spell the group has already killed everything in the area, which means you wasted mana and are probably frustrated.

I happen to really like Otto's Resistible Dance--I use a gamepad and have that on an easy to hit button (my Oh ****! button): something gets to close, I hit it, and set the thing dancing before it can lay into me.

Remember also, that red named monsters are immune to most crowd control, so against really tough bosses, you want to be doing debuffs and/or DPS. At low levels, the number 1 debuff for most fights will be Ray fo Enfeeblement.

[VonBek]

Charm person is a good suggestion. Do people frown upon its use in PUGs? Especially with mobs being able to break out of it at a possibly inopportune time.

Some PUGs do, yes. I ran with a caster who religiously charmed an army whenever possible. It's not that he was "wrong", but the charmed mobs couldn't follow us through all parts of the quest (waste of mana), or would turn on us at awkward times. (He was a little upset when I asked if he'd mind switching to Hold Person - seems every problem looked like a nail and he really didn't know how to use any tool but a hammer...)

Consider: Sure, you're going to throw out some buffs. After, you do not have to spam spells against mobs to deal with them. Charm/Control one or two. Hold/Halt one or two. You've shifted a couple of mobs to your side - they should die quickly. You've immobilized a couple of others - you've kept them from contributing their damage output to your party. The encounter ends sooner, your buffs last for more encounters, and you spend less time just watching the rest of the party do their thing.

Learn to carry this thought a bit further using differing combinations (many already covered), and you've got some mana in reserve for nuking, buffing your group after they shrine, or just for those "wups" moments.

As you learn the quests - watch your mana bar as you get to shrines. If you have "most", or none ask if that's makes sense based on where your party's been since the prior shrine. It's not a rigid rule, just a way to learn.

[tralese]

Yup. Keep in mind that you don't need to hold the Power III scepter all the time--the extra SP isn't going to help after you've used those 30 SP, so try to find something worthwhile to swap to. And just remember to re-equip the SP item when you rest. I forget that alll the time!

Thanks for this info. I will say that I am notoriously pathetic at remembering to swap items for such usages, but now that I have a staff of power 3 and a could of scepters that have other nifty things such as potency and spell penetration, I will do my best to equip the staff upon resting then casting my buffs before switching over to the scepters.

One more thing... I have the Archivist Set from the Korthos Island quest line and really like it, especially since it gives me Power 2. About the Power 3 staff I just acquired... will the power 3 supersede the power 2 from the Archivist set and thus give me the extra 10sp? Or should I unequip the set before equipping the staff (because it takes the bonus of whatever is on first). My assumption if it goes off of whatever bonus is the most powerful (like arrows and bows).

[sephiroth1084]

Thanks for this info. I will say that I am notoriously pathetic at remembering to swap items for such usages, but now that I have a staff of power 3 and a could of scepters that have other nifty things such as potency and spell penetration, I will do my best to equip the staff upon resting then casting my buffs before switching over to the scepters.

One more thing... I have the Archivist Set from the Korthos Island quest line and really like it, especially since it gives me Power 2. About the Power 3 staff I just acquired... will the power 3 supersede the power 2 from the Archivist set and thus give me the extra 10sp? Or should I unequip the set before equipping the staff (because it takes the bonus of whatever is on first). My assumption if it goes off of whatever bonus is the most powerful (like arrows and bows).

Power, wizardry and magi (and archmagi) items will not stack, so whichever grants you the biggest bonus will be applied.

In this case, your Power III staff will supersede the Power II being granted by the Archivist's set. I don't recall what else the set grants, but you can stop wearing it for something better by around 3rd level probably. Keep the necklace though--the SP clicky will remain useful forever--just don't go around wearing it if you can find something better.

It takes some getting used to, but one key to item management is to keep in mind that some equipment is only useful some of the time, and that you should swap that out for items of more universal utility for the majority of your adventuring.

As an example, most items that have a clicky ability don't have any useful static bonus on them. If you aren't currently using the clicky, the item is just taking up space. If the clicky is out of charges, it's just taking up space. Thus, keep it on a hotbar somewhere for when you want to use it, but maintain a primary set of clothing or accessories for those slots.

[sephiroth1084]

Some PUGs do, yes. I ran with a caster who religiously charmed an army whenever possible. It's not that he was "wrong", but the charmed mobs couldn't follow us through all parts of the quest (waste of mana), or would turn on us at awkward times. (He was a little upset when I asked if he'd mind switching to Hold Person - seems every problem looked like a nail and he really didn't know how to use any tool but a hammer...)

Consider: Sure, you're going to throw out some buffs. After, you do not have to spam spells against mobs to deal with them. Charm/Control one or two. Hold/Halt one or two. You've shifted a couple of mobs to your side - they should die quickly. You've immobilized a couple of others - you've kept them from contributing their damage output to your party. The encounter ends sooner, your buffs last for more encounters, and you spend less time just watching the rest of the party do their thing.

Learn to carry this thought a bit further using differing combinations (many already covered), and you've got some mana in reserve for nuking, buffing your group after they shrine, or just for those "wups" moments.

As you learn the quests - watch your mana bar as you get to shrines. If you have "most", or none ask if that's makes sense based on where your party's been since the prior shrine. It's not a rigid rule, just a way to learn.

This should be much less of an issue in the new mod since all casters are supposed to be getting a "Dismiss Charm" button, making minion management more...manageable.

[tralese]

In this case, your Power III staff will supersede the Power II being granted by the Archivist's set. I don't recall what else the set grants, but you can stop wearing it for something better by around 3rd level probably. Keep the necklace though--the SP clicky will remain useful forever--just don't go around wearing it if you can find something better.

Perfect! Just what I wanted to hear. I have a +2 constitution bonus necklace I picked up in a quest, but haven't used it so far. Although now that I think about it, if I'm in the middle of the dungeon and I remove the con necklace and replace it by the archivist clicky to get some mana back, won't my hitpoints go down? And more importantly will my hit points go back up when I put on the con necklace again?

[VonBek]

Yes. You want to be quite careful removing that Con item if your HP are too close to zero. Many Bartenders watched my fighter die at their feet because he wanted to haggle a little better....

[Baranor]

Yes. You want to be quite careful removing that Con item if your HP are too close to zero. Many Bartenders watched my fighter die at their feet because he wanted to haggle a little better....

right, been there done that

[sephiroth1084]

Perfect! Just what I wanted to hear. I have a +2 constitution bonus necklace I picked up in a quest, but haven't used it so far. Although now that I think about it, if I'm in the middle of the dungeon and I remove the con necklace and replace it by the archivist clicky to get some mana back, won't my hitpoints go down? And more importantly will my hit points go back up when I put on the con necklace again?

Be careful removing Con and False Life items!

However, if you remove a Con item, and then re-equip it, your HP will increase by the same amount, so if you're doing this in a safe(ish) area, you'll suffer no ill effects. That does not hold true for other items that grant HP or SP however (including items that boost your casting stat).

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Some PUGs do, yes. I ran with a caster who religiously charmed an army whenever possible. It's not that he was "wrong", but the charmed mobs couldn't follow us through all parts of the quest (waste of mana), or would turn on us at awkward times. (He was a little upset when I asked if he'd mind switching to Hold Person - seems every problem looked like a nail and he really didn't know how to use any tool but a hammer...)

Consider: Sure, you're going to throw out some buffs. After, you do not have to spam spells against mobs to deal with them. Charm/Control one or two. Hold/Halt one or two. You've shifted a couple of mobs to your side - they should die quickly. You've immobilized a couple of others - you've kept them from contributing their damage output to your party. The encounter ends sooner, your buffs last for more encounters, and you spend less time just watching the rest of the party do their thing.

Learn to carry this thought a bit further using differing combinations (many already covered), and you've got some mana in reserve for nuking, buffing your group after they shrine, or just for those "wups" moments.

As you learn the quests - watch your mana bar as you get to shrines. If you have "most", or none ask if that's makes sense based on where your party's been since the prior shrine. It's not a rigid rule, just a way to learn.

My prefered method is to charm a single monster in a mob before they agro on the party. This gets all the agro on the charmed guy and allows the party to approach and select targets safely. And usually gets the charmed guy killed during the fight.

I will also charm anything agroed on my caster in self defense.

And charm as many as I need to turn a bad fight into a victory.

Occasionally like to charm more to take agro from an end boss. Let him swing his big fists at his own guys for awhile instead of us.

If I find I have too many charmed minions I try to find a way to get them killed quickly.

[Mr_Ed7]

The advantage of a wizard is his flexability.

Wizards, like a good fighter, can adapt to the situation they find themselves in...

[Perdovim]

Are we also expected to heal WF characters?

[Kalari]

Are we also expected to heal WF characters?

Thats a good question most WF I know are so used to arcanes not doing so that they rely on the cleric. All my wizards whether they are WF, Elf, or Human will repair and reconstruct, heck even my sorcs. I have the ability why not use it? A. It saves the cleric mana if they are paying attention cause lord knows many have healed behind my repairs /sigh. B. It shows that you want to help your fellow party members which is always a good thing.

I mean its really up to you I dont like to be "Expected" to do anything but it is nice and you do reap benefits in my opinion. Having a WF tank in many quests knowing they have someone who will look out for them helps quests go smoothly for me. Then again I do party with a lot of them so my views are a little bias.