Caster DPS needs nerfed MORE (or not boosted from current dps), SLAs are enough

[Aashrym]

You know what's funny... is while all these spell changes are going on - so are the mechanisms to controling mob agro being changed. Well geared DoS Pally's are in decent shape to hate tank though with the new way intimidate works... will be quite a pain in regearing for a DDs fighter though they'll need a lot more hate generating gear behind them to garner similar levels. Even so a savant may find themelves tanking more often because the mob agro from a melee perspective ... in u9 quite a less controllable.

That might bring us back to more tactics like blocking doorways and boxing players in. Meatshielding can be quite literal. It will be much more interesting watch what happens when tactics like that won't be effective and casters need to make more choices on their aggro management.

I've definitely had a few "don't steal aggro from the tank" moments already. Of course I blamed the tank for that.

[Aashrym]

No bauble no eardweller, got shimmering arrowhead drop on every single character only once even seen bauble drop for someone else.

I can't count the number of times I ran that to get a bauble. Arrowheads galore, but the bauble took forever.

[Cartheron]

Also, I forgot to mention it is VERY HARD TO FIT IN Negative Energy Burst. It is a level 4 arcane spell, in a very crowded level. If it were level 3 or level 5, it would have been better.

At level 4, desirable spells are Firewall, Icestorm, Enervation, Crushing Despair (CC in U9), Dimension Door (no, I don't have these scrolls), Fire/Cold Shield (very important to have these for ToD and epic dragon). Notice I didn't put in Stoneskin.

Now, you are going to squeeze in Negative Energy Burst. That is a total of 7 desirable spells in a 5 spell slots for a level 20 wizard Palemaster.

Enervation - scroll it or forget about it, energy drain is better (as Shade said)

Crushing despair - nice debuff for boss fight, nice for CC in U9 if your DC is not high enough

DD - useful only in few quest, you can swap it then.

Fire shield - scroll it, it is good enough from a scroll.

Stoneskin - almost useless for PM, with all DR and passive self healing they can have. And IMO it is useless for everybody, but I just dont like this spell

Ice strom and FW - good spells.

So, Ice storm, FW, Crushing, negative burst, death aura.

I tested it and you can be generalist wizard PM with all elemental lines (with 9AP investment/line), as WF I just had to sacrifice some HPs, so from 600 I dropped to 540. I think I can live with that

My PM can tank 2-3 epic archers at the same time without using neg burst to regain sp - sturdines of PMs is incredible, and occasional burst is really enough.

[Tyrande]

Scroll Enervation. Get a couple of stacks of 100 scrolls. Besides Energy Drain is better.

I have enervation scrolls. The problem is when you need the spell is dealing with monsters that have spell resistance. Besides, enervation stacks with energy drain. It helps when you want to finger/wail/CC something quick and your DC isn't high enough.

[Tyrande]

Enervation - scroll it or forget about it, energy drain is better (as Shade said)

The problem isn't the unavailability of scrolls. The problem is dealing with monsters with spell resistance. For example, devils. scrolls would be useless in this case. BTW, my casters do have a stack taking a precious inventory space, which they don't have a lot of. And sometimes you want to cast BOTH enervation and energy drain in quick succession and then a finger or wail. Enervation scrolls are useless in that case. Enervation scrolls are useful when you're on a perch, in relax mode, dealing with monsters without spell resistance like in EVONS 1 or may be EBoB or E TTT, non-drow, of course. BTW, the mass hold + dreamspitter ain't going to work after U9 release.

Crushing despair - nice debuff for boss fight, nice for CC in U9 if your DC is not high enough

My casters would need this, since their DCs isn't in the 40s. And no, they don't have +4 tomes nor any +7 main stat epic items. They do not even have a +2 main stat ship buff.

DD - useful only in few quest, you can swap it then.

Probably, but sometimes you forgot when in a hurry.

Fire shield - scroll it, it is good enough from a scroll.

May be, may be not, but a scroll only lasts like 1 minute 21 seconds. I do not think our guild raid group is that uber yet on part II of TOD. Plus, it is cumbersome to use a scroll while running. Slows you down. Shadow walk, on the other hand, can probably be used before hand. On part II of ToD when kiting, my casters preferred to have quicken ON for all spells.

The scrolls might be okay for dragon, as the healers are watching you more closely.

Stoneskin - almost useless for PM, with all DR and passive self healing they can have. And IMO it is useless for everybody, but I just dont like this spell

My casters do not slot this spell, they only use clickies for this. I mentioned this spell because someone in the guild likes them.

Ice strom and FW - good spells.

So, Ice storm, FW, Crushing, negative burst, death aura.

Gee, this is really tight.

I tested it and you can be generalist wizard PM with all elemental lines (with 9AP investment/line), as WF I just had to sacrifice some HPs, so from 600 I dropped to 540. I think I can live with that

My PM can tank 2-3 epic archers at the same time without using neg burst to regain sp - sturdines of PMs is incredible, and occasional burst is really enough.

540HP? I don't think there is more than 10% of all wizards having that much HP.
I do not think 540 HP is enough to tank Horroth though.

Most wizards averaged around 300 to 350 HP.

My wizards have more than 400+ and I considered them lucky.

Since you're going generalist, why not considering Acid Rain and/or Burning Blood? Probably they went from good spells to bad spells after the last U9 patch on Lamannia.

[FengXian]

Still, you can get good self healing as an arcane, either by going WF or PM (maybe with a little sacrifice if you're a bit undergeared, otherwise you won't need enervation as a spell). And I'm pretty sure most wizards are either WF archmages or fleshie PMs, and many sorc's are WF...
As for people saying arcanes are nearly impossible to multiclass, there are some pretty effective sorc 16 and wiz 17/18 melee/casters...ofc you require more gear and possibly some past lives than if you wanted to multiclass a fighter with a barb or such. But the latter case is melee+melee, obviously easier than caster+melee.
The only thing I can find against arcanes atm is that you need to keep a lot of shortcut bars open, but eventually melee toons with some clickies end up having to do the same...

[PopeJual]

This is a funny thread alright. It definately makes me wonder what level of content those who have contributed are familiar with. Casters can solo farm Epics for scrolls currently. They are making mobs easier to kill in U9, which will make the practice even more lucrative. The power of casters isn't in the raw DPS they can achieve by emptying their blue bars into a mob. It's the fact that they have many ways to incapacitate and neutralize most mobs which they can then kill at their leisure. Or by kiting through AoE spells while not being in any real danger themselves. In U9 they will be able to do what they can do in all pre-Epic content now, which is run around and insta-kill everything once they are geared and have good enough DC's. Mobs will have less HP too and with the changes being make nuking will become viable too. Melee can't effectively do any of that. They don't even have a melee exclusive HP equivalent to Major Mnemonic potions.

Translation:
NERF ARCANE ARCHERS!