Wizard Gear By Level

[DkrLeo]

So I've been pouring over the forums in search of a thread that contains important wizard gear by level.


Any suggestions?

[stille_nacht]

lower levels are sort of blurry, really just pick up a superior potency item, the best sp item you can find, deathblock, false life, and heavy fortification

[Ridag]

lower levels are sort of blurry, really just pick up a superior potency item, the best sp item you can find, deathblock, false life, and heavy fortification

Yeah it's not that big of a deal, to be honest. Damage improving weapons like lores for your primary elements, potency or combustion etc, any item that give bonuses to your primary casting stat and con, hp and sp items.

If you are twinking then the chrono set, morleths docent if you are WF, +50 SP (100 for sorcs/fvs) at lvl 1 is very nice. If you are rich an Archmagi Ioun Stone, if you are a TR conc/opp and green steel.

[DkrLeo]

My issue is i'm level 11 but met a level 12 that had firewalls that were doing 5 times the damage of mine.

My Wizard is here------>http://my.ddo.com/character/thelanis/xeichati/ <------

Let me know if I need to change anything.
Ive been told that I play my class well...I just want to play more efficiently.

Thanx!

[Gumbolo]

My issue is i'm level 11 but met a level 12 that had firewalls that were doing 5 times the damage of mine.

My Wizard is here------>http://my.ddo.com/character/thelanis/xeichati/ <------

Let me know if I need to change anything.
Ive been told that I play my class well...I just want to play more efficiently.

Thanx!

Firewall that cause ~5x more damage? If we expect that both of you had same amount ench line, it could be that he were using clicky (75% vs your 50% from potency item) and were using maximize metamagic (or he mentioned his crit dmg while you talked about normal ticks?) to create such different.

[sephiroth1084]

Do you have Maximize and Empower? The caster you saw with better firewalls was probably using a Superior Inferno IV item (+75% vs. the +50% from a static Superior Potency or Combustion item). How many ranks in the fire damage line do you have? They probably had a lot. Were they counting critical ticks?

Uh, just glancing at your MyDDO I have to ask...why is your Con so low?

[stille_nacht]

yeah he probably just had maximize empower and a clicky active ( times 2, times 1.5, times 1.75)

[sirdanile]

well looking at your gear you have no item bonus to your 4th level or higher fire spells.
so if he uses a clicky he's at 75% higher vs yours, and then if you don't use metas and he is thats another 250%.
if he was talking about critting that could get him 4-6* your base damage.

But yeah, max con, max int, highest potency bonus for the spells you cast, highest crit bonus for the spells you cast, sp items, then stuff like tasty ham sandwiches that you cook in your firewalls.

[DkrLeo]

Do you have Maximize and Empower? The caster you saw with better firewalls was probably using a Superior Inferno IV item (+75% vs. the +50% from a static Superior Potency or Combustion item). How many ranks in the fire damage line do you have? They probably had a lot. Were they counting critical ticks?

Uh, just glancing at your MyDDO I have to ask...why is your Con so low?

Ive been pouring my points into INT.

where should it be at my level?
Should I invest in a tome?

as for maximize and empower I have both but only use them when we are burning thru a quick tough fight.
They eat up too many SP's for my liking.

So superior inferno huh?

Would it be smart for me to find a group willing to start farming GS mats this early?

[sephiroth1084]

Ive been pouring my points into INT.

where should it be at my level?
Should I invest in a tome?

Tomes are good. Not sure if you could afford one, but if you can without bankrupting yourself, I'd pick 2 up (one Int and one Con). Ideally +2s, but +1s could tide you over for a bit. Tomes will start dropping for frequently as you level.

You should be putting points into Int, yes. What kind of Con item are you wearing? +1? At 11 you can acquire up to +5 Con, though the AH is kind of stupid in how much people sell that stuff for. You're at the point where you should be trying to get a big Con item, a Moderate or Heavy Fortification item and a Greater False Life item. Heavy Fort being the most important in the bunch probably. Picking up the Toughness feat and a few enhancements for a 1st time wizard is also a good idea.

But maybe you play very well and don't need the extra defenses too much. The question is, how often do you die or go incapped in quests? If it's more than once per, I don't know, 5-10 quests (unless you're running elite all the time, in which case I'd say 1 in every 2-3 quests), you probably need to seriously start devoting resources to improving your survival.

as for maximize and empower I have both but only use them when we are burning thru a quick tough fight.

That's probably where the discrepancy lies. He was probably going full-nuke.

So superior inferno huh?

Yes, but it's not a big deal. Personally, I prefer static items until end game, and even then I keep a Superior Potency VI that I swap to when nuking out of habit, as I often forget to hit my clickies and sometimes they run out.

Would it be smart for me to find a group willing to start farming GS mats this early?

I'd wait. It isn't that important to start farming GS early, especially for a caster, and there's a lot more content for you to see around your level. Plus, most groups won't let you into their Shroud groups until you're level 15+ (the pansies!) and that's the only real grindy part. Sure, you may have some difficulty getting the necessary ingredients from the Vale quests, but running those a few times isn't as big a deal since you can repeat the quests as often as you like, can blitz through some in 15 minutes, don't need to wait for 12 people to begin, and can't do anything meaningful with the ingredients until you gain the Shroud stuff anyway.

[Ridag]

Ok that Wiz you ran across was most likely twinked out.

If you want a powerful Wall of Fire max out your fire/ice enhancement lines, get a major fire lore item (which I see you have) and a superior combustion IV (that event dagger is only increasing damage on level 3 spells and below) item and turn on Maximize and Empower. If you want to boost it even further, go to the shop named Object Desire in House P and buy a few hundred Superior Inferno IV potions, they last for 3 minutes and boost fire spells by 75% (though the description says 50%, it is incorrect).

Increasing Int does not increases spell damage, but it increased DCs and increases your SP pool.

Also, looking at your my.ddo page, you need more HP - 106 is a bit low, and you need a heavy fort item ASAP. Greater false life and a +4 con item will help that out a bit, as will a Minos Legens (heavy fort and stacking toughness) from Orchard Tapestry turn ins. You can farm them fairly easy and it is a great item to have, the necro 4 pack is worth it for that item alone if you are premium and still learning the game. Also grab a toughness feat at level 12...

[DkrLeo]

Ok that Wiz you ran across was most likely twinked out.

If you want a powerful Wall of Fire max out your fire/ice enhancement lines, get a major fire lore item (which I see you have) and a superior combustion IV (that event dagger is only increasing damage on level 3 spells and below) item and turn on Maximize and Empower. If you want to boost it even further, go to the shop named Object Desire in House P and buy a few hundred Superior Inferno IV potions, they last for 3 minutes and boost fire spells by 75% (though the description says 50%, it is incorrect).

Increasing Int does not increases spell damage, but it increased DCs and increases your SP pool.

Also, looking at your my.ddo page, you need more HP - 106 is a bit low, and you need a heavy fort item ASAP. Greater false life and a +4 con item will help that out a bit, as will a Minos Legens (heavy fort and stacking toughness) from Orchard Tapestry turn ins. You can farm them fairly easy and it is a great item to have, the necro 4 pack is worth it for that item alone if you are premium and still learning the game. Also grab a toughness feat at level 12...

This thread is really helping out a lot.
Tomes arent hard for me to get due to my guild and the fact that my toon lychorinda is only there to make money.
Money isnt an issue. =D

I'll start looking into con/fort...etc...

where should I be at 11/12?
200hps?

What about invuln items that offer DR?

I'm specced out for Archmage and pouring all my extra points into Fire\ice.

[DkrLeo]

Also I'm always wondering where I can find the rare but worth it loot that casters use best.
I have scorched bracers and boot of corruption from Chrono runs but at level 11/12 what should I be looking for?
Lately we have been running in Necropolis and getting flagged for VoN.

Any input?

[Trillea]

Also I'm always wondering where I can find the rare but worth it loot that casters use best.
I have scorched bracers and boot of corruption from Chrono runs but at level 11/12 what should I be looking for?
Lately we have been running in Necropolis and getting flagged for VoN.

Any input?

Necropolis - get the Minos Legens ASAP. You get it by turning in the tapestries from the Orchard. Also, get flagged for the Abbot raid - there are some AWESOME lootz from there (litany, robe if you are a pale master, the staff is awesome too). Not to mention the Skiver that you get by turning in tome pages.

VoN - look for the Eye of the Dragon, which when you hit 20 you will want to make epic for the clicky.

As for other loot to look out for, when you get high enough level to run Dreaming Dark stuff, look for the Eardweller and robe of the phoenix, look for random lootgen major lore items (preferably 1-handed) and there are various other pieces of raid loot that give great caster bennies (gloves/bracers of the glacier come to mind immediately).

[Caprice]

My wizard is just barely ahead of you and the following are my target items for the next few levels in case they are at all helpful. Hopefully people with more experience can comment and correct me. I am P2P so I have access to all the packs, so my suggestions may be less useful if you do not and also depending on your luck and tolerance for grinds.

If you have access to the P2P part of Lordsmarch, the Master Transmuter's Staff (http://ddowiki.com/page/Master_Transmuter%27s_Staff) is rather nice for consolidating a few good bonuses as it gives INT+6, Superior Potency 6, and Concentration+10, and the Mark used for the combine is ridiculously common compared to the others in my experience. That will cover your Firewall and more, although it is not as powerful as a clickie because it only gives 50% damage boost rather than a clickie's 75%. I have already farmed one of these up, and it did not seem like a bad grind to me. I do have the advantage of a static duo partner and we play well together, share chest rewards according to need, and at the time we were playing a duo that did not include my squishie wizard, so my experience may be atypical for an aspiring wizard and especially if you prefer to solo.

Using that staff will cost you your current +crit slot though, so you would want to try and find that on another slot. If you are doing Lordsmarch then one of the end rewards is the Frostflame Robe, which has both Greater Fire Lore and Greater Cold Lore (+9%/+0.25) and as a lesser perk has both Improved Fire Resistance and Improved Cold Resistance. This is slightly less powerful than your current Lore item, but not horrible. You may prefer your current robes as Fearsome and Spearblock are both good for survivability, but my plan is to switch to the Frostflame for now.

Once you get to around 14, if you have access to Gianthold you might try farming Elven Relics to purchase an Elfcrafted Robe (http://ddowiki.com/page/Elfcrafted_Robe), which gives you +6% crit chance/+0.25 crit multiplier for all spells (less than both your current Major Fire Lore scepter and the Frostflame, but affects all damage spells), Minor Spell Penetration 7, and even +1 DC to Evocation spells to support all those damage spells Turbine is trying to force us to cast in U9. I have not farmed one of these up so I do not know how bad that is going to be. If you are really ambitious you can farm Gianthold Tor itself and earn a Blue Dragonscale Robe (http://ddowiki.com/page/Blue_Dragonscale_Robe) for its Greater Arcane Lore (+9%/+0.25x to all spells) but from my limited understanding that's a more serious undertaking since AFAICT the scales needed only drop in the "Gianthold Tor" Reaver pre-raid, and even so the critical multiplier is still a little lower than your current. I consider it a good tradeoff, but I am a novice and have not even started to try for either yet.

Heavy Fortification is extremely important for everyone, but especially noticeable on a d4 HD character, and I highly second the recommendation of farming up a Minos Legens as others have said. The Minos is a fairly easy farm with some good XP attached, although you might want to get it pre-U9 (2 days!) as Firewall becomes much less powerful versus undead soon. For me the extra 20 HP it grants is important too; however it is a helmet and I can't see what effects you have on your pirate hat, so you may have something you are loathe to sacrifice there. You could instead do Relics of a Sovereign Past (level 12ish quest in House D), in which there is an optional part where you can collect Adamantine Ore from the ground and can turn it in to a NPC in the dungeon for a Heavy Fortification necklace (among other options). There is more than enough ore for such a necklace each run. If you are farming Lordsmarch for a Master Transmuter's Staff, you may also get a Garments of Equilibrium, which is intended for monks but also offers Heavy Fort, and which might be an okay bridge until you get something better like pairing the Minos with one of the Gianthold robes. I have the necklace and the Equilibrium robes, and have just finished getting my 20 tapestry shreds so I can get my Minos Legens now. FWIW I had fun getting all three of the Heavy Fortification items I mention.

I also have several Superior/Greater Inferno IV+ clickies I use for Firewall. I bought all of mine either on the AH or off the House D vendors, generally being as cheap as I could be in purchasing. I consider this plat well-spent.

[Ridag]

This thread is really helping out a lot.
Tomes arent hard for me to get due to my guild and the fact that my toon lychorinda is only there to make money.
Money isnt an issue. =D

I'll start looking into con/fort...etc...

where should I be at 11/12?
200hps?

What about invuln items that offer DR?

I'm specced out for Archmage and pouring all my extra points into Fire\ice.

Glad to be of help.

200 HPs is good, basically the more the better. It's hard for me to compare as all my latest casters have been TRs and fully twinked out with Green Steel items at lvl 11 (SP + Conc/Opp and HP).

As for items to try to get for various levels....

Skiver is level 14 as is Blue Dragon Scale Armor, both of which require a significant investment to get.

If you farmed the Crystal Cove event at all the level 16 dagger is amazing - Superior Potency VI with Major Lore for Fire/Ice/Lightning.

I don't know if I'd make the master transmuters staff personally, I prefer having two 1 handed weapons and always keep my Lore item in my offhand as I'm leveling and potency item main hand. That way when you swap out for a scroll or wand or +DC weapon you aren't hurting your crit chance if you have to drop an elemental spell on the fly.

The Scepter of the Fleshweaver and Scepter of the Ogre Magi are both worth grabbing for sure, and used separately from each other.

I know everyone can't wait to get Superior Potency VI, but in reality your main money spells while leveling are level 5 and below, and I'm not just talking about Wall of Fire. Hit a pack of mobs with a Fireball immediately followed by a Cone of Cold and watch them disappear in a hurry.

Of course this is all going to change in U9 with the elemental lines split, but for now Fire/Ice enhancements really let you mow through the content.

[DkrLeo]

Heavy Fortification is extremely important for everyone, but especially noticeable on a d4 HD character, and I highly second the recommendation of farming up a Minos Legens as others have said. The Minos is a fairly easy farm with some good XP attached, although you might want to get it pre-U9 (2 days!) as Firewall becomes much less powerful versus undead soon. For me the extra 20 HP it grants is important too; however it is a helmet and I can't see what effects you have on your pirate hat, so you may have something you are loathe to sacrifice there. You could instead do Relics of a Sovereign Past (level 12ish quest in House D), in which there is an optional part where you can collect Adamantine Ore from the ground and can turn it in to a NPC in the dungeon for a Heavy Fortification necklace (among other options). There is more than enough ore for such a necklace each run. If you are farming Lordsmarch for a Master Transmuter's Staff, you may also get a Garments of Equilibrium, which is intended for monks but also offers Heavy Fort, and which might be an okay bridge until you get something better like pairing the Minos with one of the Gianthold robes. I have the necklace and the Equilibrium robes, and have just finished getting my 20 tapestry shreds so I can get my Minos Legens now. FWIW I had fun getting all three of the Heavy Fortification items I mention.

My hat has Magi on it so i'm getting 100 spell points bringing me up to about 1020.
I have the upgrade to my dagger granting superior potency in fire and ice. I can use that at 12.

Update: Picked up a Belt of health and that helped a little. Looking at prices on Tomes or possibly farming on my next day off.

When the elemental lines split I should probably respec my enhancements?

[Caprice]

Skiver is level 14 as is Blue Dragon Scale Armor, both of which require a significant investment to get.

How bad is the Elfcrafted Armor? The relics are listed as dropping in some of the rare chests, so I was hoping that it was just another Minos-like farming activity and I could put in a few medium length sessions here and there over a couple of weeks and have something to show for it (my friend and I having acquired our 40 Minos shreds from just a couple of medium-long sessions).

If you farmed the Crystal Cove event at all the level 16 dagger is amazing - Superior Potency VI with Major Lore for Fire/Ice/Lightning.

I had forgotten about those. You are quoting the tier 3 one, but the tier 1 would have been trivial to get and still has Superior Potency VI and Major Fire Lore, just not the others, but is still quite nice. Too bad I didn't make one when it was still open. It probably does not help the OP either, but it is good to note for posterity in case other casters read it when the event is available.

I don't know if I'd make the master transmuters staff personally, I prefer having two 1 handed weapons and always keep my Lore item in my offhand as I'm leveling and potency item main hand. That way when you swap out for a scroll or wand or +DC weapon you aren't hurting your crit chance if you have to drop an elemental spell on the fly.

I see your general point, although I do not know that it an issue for me specifically. I tend to use +DC bracers if anything, since currently I have nothing I want in that slot (+STR? +Repair? +4 Armor? Not useless but... no thanks).

What scrolls are you using regularly? When I play my non-TR, non-GS, no-"+6 CHA skills/exceptional CHA item" to boost UMD to something impressive, no-big-sibling-to-hand-down-100s-of-1,000s-of plat wizard, I tend to play to the limit of my blue bar and no further. I've been focusing more on a mid-level bard recently and thanks to decent Haggle my cash pool is getting larger, but it's still an issue for me. Are wizards expected to have "must have" spammable scrolls the way healers are and I just haven't been berated for it yet because I have not PUG'ed much yet (part of why both my serious healing-capable characters are now gathering dust)?

Also can I safely assume that your setup assumes that you have a +dmg clickie active at all times when you are using scrolls? Or is +9% crit actually better than +50% base damage when hip-shooting elemental spells? I don't see how that would be but I just want to verify that - as I say, novice talking here.

[Ridag]

How bad is the Elfcrafted Armor? The relics are listed as dropping in some of the rare chests, so I was hoping that it was just another Minos-like farming activity and I could put in a few medium length sessions here and there over a couple of weeks and have something to show for it (my friend and I having acquired our 40 Minos shreds from just a couple of medium-long sessions).

Elfcrafted armor is definitely a decent leveling stop gap that is relatively easy to farm.

I had forgotten about those. You are quoting the tier 3 one, but the tier 1 would have been trivial to get and still has Superior Potency VI and Major Fire Lore, just not the others, but is still quite nice. Too bad I didn't make one when it was still open. It probably does not help the OP either, but it is good to note for posterity in case other casters read it when the event is available.

Yes, even the base item is better then a plain jane Sup Potency VI scepter, I farmed extras of just about everything that I could imagine myself leveling in the near future and that has really paid off.

I see your general point, although I do not know that it an issue for me specifically. I tend to use +DC bracers if anything, since currently I have nothing I want in that slot (+STR? +Repair? +4 Armor? Not useless but... no thanks).

Yeah I have Green Steel HP in my bracer slot, but before that I had a very nice +1 Necromancy +1 Enchantment bracer. Very useful slot for +DC items indeed.

What scrolls are you using regularly? When I play my non-TR, non-GS, no-"+6 CHA skills/exceptional CHA item" to boost UMD to something impressive, no-big-sibling-to-hand-down-100s-of-1,000s-of plat wizard, I tend to play to the limit of my blue bar and no further. I've been focusing more on a mid-level bard recently and thanks to decent Haggle my cash pool is getting larger, but it's still an issue for me. Are wizards expected to have "must have" spammable scrolls the way healers are and I just haven't been berated for it yet because I have not PUG'ed much yet (part of why both my serious healing-capable characters are now gathering dust)?

My main caster is a Sorc (though I've played 40 wiz levels as well), so I am in the habit of scrolling everything that I can. GH, invisibility (mass and regular), tele, GT, Stoneskin, Fireshield etc. and I am a UMD junkie so usually heal, restoration, raise, greater resto, rez, depending on my UMD at the time.

Also can I safely assume that your setup assumes that you have a +dmg clickie active at all times when you are using scrolls? Or is +9% crit actually better than +50% base damage when hip-shooting elemental spells? I don't see how that would be but I just want to verify that - as I say, novice talking here.

Yes, while leveling I stock up on pots from House P. Superior Inferno IV pots are really awesome as are Superior Freeze V (for Cone of Cold), I cannot overstate that and I tell as many people as I can. Clickies are available at very low prices on the AH as well, though I prefer the pots.

[Ridag]

My hat has Magi on it so i'm getting 100 spell points bringing me up to about 1020.
I have the upgrade to my dagger granting superior potency in fire and ice. I can use that at 12.

Update: Picked up a Belt of health and that helped a little. Looking at prices on Tomes or possibly farming on my next day off.

When the elemental lines split I should probably respec my enhancements?

Minos is better than 100 SP in every way shape or form, also you can swap your SP item out after buffing and swap it back in before shrining. Look for a Pearl of Power X on the AH they are usually decently priced, at least on G-land.

You will have to respec your enhancements as the old ones will be gone completely. For leveling keep fire maxed with a secondary in cold and force.