Will I ever become a good Wiz?

[Cartheron]

I tried Niacs DoT on the final boss and the output was extremely poor and in the end just used FW.

My enhanements are all fire and acid atm, but I will change acid to ice or cold for DoTs - which would you recommend?

Well, if you have no cold enchantments, damage output of Niacs DoT had to be poor Additionally, trolls are weak to acid and fire, so advantage of FW in this fight was even bigger.

Lev 5 DoTs have unique mechanic - they are stacking with themselves up to 3 times. First stack is doing poor damage. Second is pretty nice. But third stack is extreme - base damage is 3d6 + 3 x your level, or 3d6 +27 in your case every 2 seconds. For comparison, FW base damage is 2d6 + 9 every 2 seconds for you.

My advice is to put points only into damage enchantments for all 4 elemental lines, dropping single points into crit chance and crit damage lines when you have some spare points and maybe a single point into force line (+20% for first tier on disintegrate is worth it IMO). This lets you use full repertoire of your spells, both lev 5 DoTs, firewall and acid rain. You can then choose right tool for your job, as every wizard should (and yes, I know that right tool is Circle of Death and Wail of the Banshee in 95% of cases).

[Ryan220]

Thayion

Hello there, Im not sure if Im qualified to give advice as Im the OP lol.

But I'll tell you what I use.

Ive invested in Fire and Acid btw - Ill change it eventually to add ice but for now its ok - oh and I mostly solo atm

Haste, Rage, Displace, blur
Scorching Ray
Resists
Acid blast ( i love acid rain but I cant fit it in at L9
Wall of Fire
Repair Crit

Thats about all I use tbh and I find it enough

I have ice storms and niacs biting whatever its called to but need to boost Ice to make it really useful


Remember Im a Wiz newb so theres prob a better choice

Dont forget a Sup pot and lore item too.


Also, look on the AH for thscrolls you dont have

[Ryan220]

Well, if you have no cold enchantments, damage output of Niacs DoT had to be poor Additionally, trolls are weak to acid and fire, so advantage of FW in this fight was even bigger.

Lev 5 DoTs have unique mechanic - they are stacking with themselves up to 3 times. First stack is doing poor damage. Second is pretty nice. But third stack is extreme - base damage is 3d6 + 3 x your level, or 3d6 +27 in your case every 2 seconds. For comparison, FW base damage is 2d6 + 9 every 2 seconds for you.

My advice is to put points only into damage enchantments for all 4 elemental lines, dropping single points into crit chance and crit damage lines when you have some spare points and maybe a single point into force line (+20% for first tier on disintegrate is worth it IMO). This lets you use full repertoire of your spells, both lev 5 DoTs, firewall and acid rain. You can then choose right tool for your job, as every wizard should (and yes, I know that right tool is Circle of Death and Wail of the Banshee in 95% of cases).

Thank you for this, I shall reset my enhancements tonight and bump the ele damage in all as you have suggested instead of specialising in just 2


edit added.......not Wiz, but sympathy hunting - Im stuck in Primarni atm whilst the missus buys the kids new underwear - thank god for mobile internet lol

[Cartheron]

I do believe i have have borked up my spell selections as iv leveled and are thinking about lesser wooding him to fix the situation.

Maybe something has changed (I havnt lesser reincarnated my wizard lately) but in the past you couldnt select new spells on lev up when you LRed your wiz. And it is not necessary to reincarnate wizard only to learn different spells - you can buy scrolls (lev 1 and 2 in the marketplace, lev 3 in house J, lev 4 - 6 house P if I am not mistaken, or just in portable hole (place where you can teleport using teleport spell/scroll)), spell inscription materials (in house J) and just inscribe new spells into your spellbook (drag Inscribe Scroll icon from your feat list into your hotbar, select scroll you want to inscribe and then click on inscribe button).

Most useful (IMO) spells per level:

1. Nightsield, Exp retreat, Jump, prot from evil, Hypnotism

2. Melf acid arrow, Resist energy, Blur (until you have displacement), Web, Knock, Schorching ray

3. Haste, Displacement, Acid blast, Fireball, Chain Missiles, Prot from energy (until you have Prot from elements)

4. Acid rain, Wall of Fire, Ice Storm, Dimension Door, Fire shield, Death aura and Neg energy burst (if you are Pale Master), Crushing despair

5. Niacs bitting cold, Eladars electric surge, Cone of cold, Ball lighting, Cloudkill, Teleport, Prot from elements

6. Circle of death, Mass suggestion, Chain lighting, Otiliuke freezing sphere, Disintegrate, Flesh to Stone, Greater Heroism, Reconstruct (if you are Warforged)

7. Finger of Death, Delayed blast fireball, Mass prot from elements, Ottos sphere of dancing, Greater teleport, Symbol of stunning

8. Polar ray, Black dragon bolt, Ottos irresistible dance, Summon Monster VIII (air elemental), Incidentary cloud, Symbol of death

9. Wail of the banshee, Energy drain, Meteor swarm, Power word kill

[gloopygloop]

Wizards should never be squishy. Level 1 you take toughness. All you need to do is pass down a superior clicky of whatever element you desire to use, acid spray or burning hands. You will destroy mobs as you solo. This works pretty well until you get fireball. Which works great until firewall/ice storm, even afterwards as many mobs will still be wiped out in one fireball. Dungeon scaling broke the game for casters. N/H are so easy it doesn't even matter anymore when you solo.

This.

One Maximised Fireball with a Superior Inferno III or IV clicky and a couple of points into Fire enhancements will kill most enemies in most quests on Normal for a loooooooong time. Acid Blast with a Superior Erosion clicky/potion and a point or two (not more) into Acid enhancements or something similar Lightning Bolt does the same to Fire resistant/immune enemies.

Spell point conservation comes in two parts for me. The first is in casting only spells that are useful. Everyone can have a Blur because it lasts for a long time and it helps the Cleric/FvS if we're in a "regular" party, but I'm only going to pass out Displacement to people who are going to get some serious use out of it and I'm not going to cast it at all if the party is dragging their feet or stands around picking their noses after each fight. I'm happy to cast Haste, but if you're going to wander away when I say, "Haste on me", then I'm not casting an extra one for you unless you're really worth it. I'll cast elemental resists, but I know which quest needs which resists for the most part, so I'm not going to cast extra resists that aren't needed. Also, lots of folks get elemental resists from guild ships now, so don't bother casting resists on people who don't need them.

The second part of conserving spell points for me is to only cast offensive spells when you can get some serious bang for your buck. If you're in a party, then don't cast any spell at a single trash monster that has no friends nearby when the melee folks can take it down in just a couple of swings. If you can disable/kill several enemies with one spell, then it might be worth casting. Look at your blue bar. Think about how far the next shrine is. Do you really need to help the melee types kill whatever they're currently facing or are you just casting that Fireball as a convenience? When you're soloing, then you can sprint through the quest until you have at least green alert and clean up a whole bunch of trash with one Wall of Fire or Fireball. Jump spell + Displacement (+ Blur) + bouncing around your Wall of Fire = much less damage taken than you might expect.

Just try it in a few solo quests since you'll die a whole bunch of times as you get used to that new tactic and all that dying is annoying to the other players when it happens in a group.