WF better as pure or 18/2 wizard?

[ddoer]

At the cost of getting wizard spells later. What will get you from 7 to 9 faster, firewall or disarm traps? What will get you from 17 to 19 faster, Wail of the Banshee or disarm traps. *hint* It ain't disarm traps.

I level'd a WF Wiz18/Rog2 before. (and also pure wiz, monk splash wiz) and I think rogue splash is easier to level.

Some quests require or much better with a rogue. e.g. Tear of Dhakaan. With rogue level, I don't need to wait for a rogue to join the party. I usually play with very good players in the party, usually play same or under level quests (i.e. won't do very challenging quest), and we split up to complete the quest to gain the highest xp per min. With rogue skills, the group could complete quests in roughly the same time with extra distrap bonus xp.

Other than Tear of Dhakaan, there are many other quests that rogue skills is highly desirable, e.g. the rat maze in necropolis part 3, the one in necroplis part 2 with high disable trap bonus, von5 etc.

It's true that you'll get new spell later. For me, I actually took wiz1-7 first before I take the rogue level. As a TR, I concern spending less time in leveling more than max out skill points. Not taking rog at the first level means u can max out one less skill. For me, it is not a big deal as a wiz has more skills than i need anyway. Assume you will take rog 1 and then wiz 1-7, you'll get Fw at level 8. For a non-TR, I don't think it's hard to level up from 7 to 8, and after you got fw, you will use it intensively until you arrive Vale. I don't think getting new spells one or two level behind a pure wiz is a big deal. And Banshee isn't a game breaker.

For new player, i would even suggest to consider taking the 2nd rogue/monk level earlier. (i definitely won't do it myself, however) Evasion is useful to reduce damage and survive better. After you get FW and be able to use Reconstruct scroll reliably, there is no big deal to get new spells later.

I don't like rogue splash personally as I think disabling trap is boring and stupid. but from my experience, they could level up faster.

[ddoer]

Too funny! I know "better" is subjective that's why I asked for OPINIONS not people telling me to play which ever I like better...
I am looking for advice from veterans to save me pain later on

I have 3 wiz. two TR2 L20, and one L16. They are Drow, Human and WF. The WF was wiz18/rog2 in the 2nd life, and wiz18/monk2 in the 3rd life. My subjective opinion are:

• wiz20, wiz18/rog2, and wiz/mnk2 are the best choice for casting wiz (battlemage is diff story) and you can't go wrong by using any of the three.
• Rogue splash is generally more useful to a party. Many quests need / prefer to have rogue skills.
• For me, I hate disabling trap and it doesn't fit my playing style. Disable trap is so slow and I like to zerg ahead killing everything. But other than my personal preference, a Monk splash has a lot more HP, it could have +48 more HP, and it is a huge difference. My monk-splash could get around 550 self-buff, and I think it could be even higher.
• between pure wiz and monk-splash, I like my pure wiz more. The wiz/monk2 has more HP, and is much more survivable, I like to use it more than the pure in one and only one quest which is Epic DQ2. but its casting power is much weaker as it loses 2 caster level and capstone. its high level damage spells is 10% weaker, -2 in spell penetration, less spell points, every spell costs more mana etc. If casting power is your main concern, go pure.
• pure wiz > monk-splash > rogue-splash