Some Wizard questions

[MysteryNotes]

Just looking for some numbers

Currently my wizard is lvl 17 with 220 hp, and i've been told that its too low.

I started with 12 con and i'm wearing a +6 con belt, i took toughness with 2 enhancements(Drow) and i'm wearing Minos.

Now as you can tell from my join date, i'm fairly new.

I've been looking at the Wizards Handbook by Vienemen
Been running DQ for the Torc, but no luck so far.

Currently only using Poison and Blindness immunity rings in the ring slots(I know there are better options out there), what could i use instead of those since i could just get some potions.

Still using the gloves from korthos(+1umd) so what should i swap those out for?


*Edit*

New Question

I'm planning to craft some greensteel items, Greensteel Goggles and bracers.

I'm planning for the goggles to have:
Deathblock
Poison and Fear Immunity
Blindness and Disease Immunity
Slay Living Guard

And the bracers:
+3 Int skills(Exceptional) and +100 SP(Greater Elemental Spell Power)
+2 int(Exceptional) and +50 SP(Elemental Spell Power)
+1 Int(Exceptional) and Wizardry VI
Slay living guard

Exceptional values stack with others only when their values differ, so i would get a total of +150 sp and +6 exceptional int bonus from the bracers, right?
Please correct me if i am wrong.
Also, any other alternatives?
Just want to make sure i don't make something which would be useless for me ;P

My end gear would be

Minos(Helm)
Torc(Necklace)
Head of Good Fortune(Trinket)
GS Goggles with above properties
Icy Raiment/Blue Dscale Robe
Napkin(Cloak)
GS Goggles with the properties mentioned above
Greater False Life(Belt)
Bramble Casters/Seven Finger Gloves(Whichever i can find first)
Boots of the Innocent
+6 Con Ring
Ring of Lies

Skiver and a Sup Potency VI sceptre for weapons

What do you think?

[Sirea]

Just looking for some numbers

Currently my wizard is lvl 17 with 220 hp, and i've been told that its too low.

I started with 12 con and i'm wearing a +6 con belt, i took toughness with 2 enhancements(Drow) and i'm wearing Minos.

Now as you can tell from my join date, i'm fairly new.

I've been looking at the Wizards Handbook by Vienemen
Been running DQ for the Torc, but no luck so far.

Currently only using Poison and Blindness immunity rings in the ring slots(I know there are better options out there), what could i use instead of those since i could just get some potions.

Still using the gloves from korthos(+1umd) so what should i swap those out for?

Look for a +2 CON tome if you can. Also, you didn't mention Greater False Life, try fitting that into your equipment as well. You can also craft a hit-point item in the Shroud, for 45 HP. Carry the Rage spell to give you a temporary boost to CON and HP as well. If you plan on running Tower of Despair, you can also put +2 exc. CON on a named ring from there, although I would recommend also trying to get one of the INT +6 Exc. INT +1 rings too so you can craft +2 exc. INT for an INT +9 ring.

Couple options for your gloves. Gloves of the Glacier from the VoD raid are great general use gloves, as they reduce the amount of SP some of your metamagics use. If you're trying for a respectable UMD, you can also run Titan raid for the Seven-Fingered Gloves (UMD +5 gloves among other things, the ASF -10% in conjunction with the elven enhancements is nice if you want to be an armored caster). There's also the Vile Blasphemy from the Abbot raid, for spell point regeneration.

[MysteryNotes]

Thank you Sirea, i shall see if i can get those items.

Another question i have is - Why do so many people consider Meteor swarm to be such a bad spell?
I've no trouble hitting my target with all 4 meteors.

[Sirea]

A lot of it is probably targeting and terrain issues. It helps if you are even and especially higher ground than the mob you are trying to cast it on, because of the arcing nature of the meteors; and if you're say downhill or on a flight of steps, they have a tendency to just hit the side of the hill or stairs and totally miss the monster. Out of habit I usually jump when I'm casting it to try to avoid having the meteors hit the ground in front of me instead of my target. It's a great spell for the undead areas, and I even use it in places like Demon Queen even thought she has fire resistance.

[MysteryNotes]

Yeah your to low need a greater false life item try for a con tome and all the other advice the other poster gave you. At 15th lvl my drow wizard has 252 hp and at lvl 17 I should be at 272 with no con tome yet and for me I am not going to use one as I plan on going TR where I will start with a 16 con so I can get more hp.

Is that 252 with rage or no?
Also were you using a greater false life item?(I looked all over the AH for one and all those i've seen are kinda expensive for me - they're selling 1.5m gold+)

A lot of it is probably targeting and terrain issues. It helps if you are even and especially higher ground than the mob you are trying to cast it on, because of the arcing nature of the meteors; and if you're say downhill or on a flight of steps, they have a tendency to just hit the side of the hill or stairs and totally miss the monster. Out of habit I usually jump when I'm casting it to try to avoid having the meteors hit the ground in front of me instead of my target. It's a great spell for the undead areas, and I even use it in places like Demon Queen even thought she has fire resistance.

Ah i see, thanks!

[Sirea]

Is that 252 with rage or no?
Also were you using a greater false life item?(I looked all over the AH for one and all those i've seen are kinda expensive for me - they're selling 1.5m gold+)

To give you an idea of the kind of HP you can get with some high-end gear, as you see in my sig I have a level 20 elven wizard. Elves are supposed to be the squishiest of the squishy, right? I started her at a 14 CON and was lucky enough to pull a +3 CON tome from a 20th raid end reward. I also have a trinket called Litany of the Dead from the Abbot raid, which gives me a +1 Profane bonus to all my stats that stacks with everything. Add a +6 CON item, brings me up to a 24 CON. Like you, she has Toughness and the two Racial Toughness enhancements. With a Shroud crafted HP item and GFL, she can walk around with 377 HP (I don't currently wear a GFL item most of the time because of gear constraints atm, so that's 347 usually). Add Rage, 397. Add a Yugoloth potion from Shavarath favor, 437 HP on an elven caster. I know Warforged casters that can get almost 500 HP fully buffed up like described here.

Granted, a lot of that stuff takes a considerable amount of grind, I just wanted to show you what you can be capable of HP-wise. But even small things like a GFL item and Rage can make all the difference. With a couple gear tweaks you should be able to hit at least 300.

What server are you on? If it's Ghallanda I may have a spare GFL item floating around that I could pass to you.

[RTN]

Another question i have is - Why do so many people consider Meteor swarm to be such a bad spell?
I've no trouble hitting my target with all 4 meteors.

When I tested it out, I was struck by the poor amount of damage it did in comparison to other spells that cost fewer spell points. I'd consider it against undead, but that's about it.

[MysteryNotes]

When I tested it out, I was struck by the poor amount of damage it did in comparison to other spells that cost fewer spell points. I'd consider it against undead, but that's about it.

Hmm, my meteor swarm currently deals about 115 damage per meteor, 30 bludgeon and about 85 fire damage.

Swapped it out for Energy Drain.

Also, i have a new question which i have edited into my first post

[Uska]

Yeah your to low need a greater false life item try for a con tome and all the other advice the other poster gave you. At 15th lvl my drow wizard has 252 hp and at lvl 17 I should be at 272 with no con tome yet and for me I am not going to use one as I plan on going TR where I will start with a 16 con so I can get more hp.

[Sirea]

I'm planning for the goggles to have:
Deathblock
Poison and Fear Immunity
Blindness and Disease Immunity
Slay Living Guard

And the bracers:
+3 Int skills(Exceptional) and +100 SP(Greater Elemental Spell Power)
+2 int(Exceptional) and +50 SP(Elemental Spell Power)
+1 Int(Exceptional) and Wizardry VI
Slay living guard

Exceptional values stack with others only when their values differ, so i would get a total of +150 sp and +6 exceptional int bonus from the bracers, right?
Please correct me if i am wrong.
Also, any other alternatives?
Just want to make sure i don't make something which would be useless for me ;P

My end gear would be

Minos(Helm)
Torc(Necklace)
Head of Good Fortune(Trinket)
GS Goggles with above properties
Icy Raiment/Blue Dscale Robe
Napkin(Cloak)
GS Goggles with the properties mentioned above
Greater False Life(Belt)
Bramble Casters/Seven Finger Gloves(Whichever i can find first)
Boots of the Innocent
+6 Con Ring
Ring of Lies

Skiver and a Sup Potency VI sceptre for weapons

What do you think?

Slay Living Guard doesn't go off enough to really be worth it, it sounds like a cool item in theory but it's kind of underwhelming. The first tier, Blindness and Disease Immunity, is probably the most useful. You can cast GH for Fear Immunity and get potions for Poison Neut, and Deathblock you can always make a Silver Flame Talisman for in the Necro or farm out some sets of Flesh Render Guard goggles. As far as the INT item, just to be clear the +INT skills is just that, only to your INT based skills (Search, Disable, Repair) *not* your actual INT ability score. So INT skills aren't really important for a Wizard.

I'm a big fan of Concordant Opposition. To me the ability to regen your spell points in invaluable, not to mention pretty overpowered. You can make both a hit point and a spell point item that are ConOp, which are the two GS I recommend any caster class to make. For the SP item I'd recommend Blindness/Disease Immunity (Neg), +50 SP/+2 CHA Skills (Pos), +100 SP/+3 CHA skills (Neg + Pos). This'll give you a +5 to CHA based skills like Haggle and UMD, +150 SP, and the immunities. Then for your HP item you could make +10 HP/+1 STR Skills (Neg), +15 HP/+2 CON Skills (Pos), +20 HP/+3 CON Skills (Neg + Pos). That'll give you a +5 to CON based skills, like Concentration, and +45 HP. You'll also get +10 to Diplo and Haggle, and +6 Wisdom from Con Op (2 won't stack, obviously). 2 Concordant Op items plus your Torc you'll regen mana without even trying.

[RTN]

You'll want the VOD bracers, so don't craft bracers.

[Sirea]

You'll want the VOD bracers, so don't craft bracers.

He's got the Skiver for the Archmagi, he can cast Fire Shield Cold on himself, and Spell Pen VIII can go on Dragontouched. From what I hear, the change to potency clickies coming out next mod will be better than the static Glaciation on the bracer/gloves set. There's nothing those bracers can give you that you can't get elsewhere.

[MysteryNotes]

He's got the Skiver for the Archmagi, he can cast Fire Shield Cold on himself, and Spell Pen VIII can go on Dragontouched. From what I hear, the change to potency clickies coming out next mod will be better than the static Glaciation on the bracer/gloves set. There's nothing those bracers can give you that you can't get elsewhere.

I'd rep you but it says i need to spread some around first ;P

[RTN]

He's got the Skiver for the Archmagi, he can cast Fire Shield Cold on himself, and Spell Pen VIII can go on Dragontouched. From what I hear, the change to potency clickies coming out next mod will be better than the static Glaciation on the bracer/gloves set. There's nothing those bracers can give you that you can't get elsewhere.

He'll want the VOD bracers anyway because the DT grind can be horrificly long unless you get really really lucky.