What spells to use while leveling?

[Zachski]

I know most people recommend a wizard because it lets you experiment with the spells.

However... I don't learn well this way.

You know the saying "Practice makes perfect"? It's a bit inaccurate. "Perfect practice makes perfect"

If you practice wrong, then all you'll learn is how to do better at doing things wrong.

And that's what I fear. I fear that I'll make myself learn how to use spells wrong. There's a lot of spells to learn, both from scrolls and level ups, and there's precious little platinum to buy all the inscription materials with early on.

Assume that I'll be partying when I can, and soloing when I can't. Also, Warforged, because why not.

This is what I know so far:

Tier 1: Master's Touch, Shield, Hypnotism, Repair Light Damage, ????
Tier 2: Repair Moderate Damage, Blur, ????
Tier 3: ????
Tier 4: Wall of Fire or Acid Rain?

And that's about as much as I know.

[Ironforge_Clan]

Level 1 - look to Expeditious Retreat or Magic Missile. Can't go wrong with either of these.

Level 2 - web...most definitely web!

Level 3 - an AOE spell like fireball or acid blast. It allows you to do damage to a group of monsters. Using web to entangle and then toss in one of the above spells...works well.

Levle 4 - either works but WoF lasts longer than acid rain so it is less sp intensive over the long hall. It is your bread and butter while leveling.

[SirValentine]

Level 2 - web...most definitely web!

Level 3 - an AOE spell like fireball or acid blast. It allows you to do damage to a group of monsters. Using web to entangle and then toss in one of the above spells...works well.

Levle 4 - either works but WoF lasts longer than acid rain so it is less sp intensive over the long hall. It is your bread and butter while leveling.

Agreed, with a few comments:

Web is awesome.

Acid Blast won't destroy your Web, while Fireball will.

Web + Wall of Fire = Win pretty much from level 7 up to Vale.

[Niv-mizzet]

Well I'll just answer a bit off the top of my head.

level 1 you will want and be expected to have jump prepped. Its handy for you so that you can run, jump, cast a spell in the air, and then land thus keeping your 'slowed while casting' time to a minimum

level 2 you will be expected to carry resist energy. It's meh before level 7, okay at 7-10, and excellent past that, as it becomes 30 pt resist. If you know the quest, throw on the appropriate ones on people, if you don't, toss all 5 on yourself and wait for the non-resisters to ask for specific ones. Very handy to find that the drooam archers aren't getting their free fire damage on you with every single shot just because you threw those on. Heroism is nice for a while too, and web!

level 3 you will be absolutely expected to carry haste and rage. Both wonderful, and they both let you 'vicariously' deal crazy amounts of damage that wouldn't have happened otherwise for relatively low sp.

level 4 having ddoor in your book to be swapped in when you know you'll need it is handy. Phant. killer is your first insta-kill, so if your DC's aren't shabby, it can be a nice snipe. Wall of fire is by and large just too **** good for a lot of the game, so snag it without question.

level 5 teleport, and the DOTS (eladar's elec surge, niac's biting cold), also cloudkill for a couple late game situations where you cause a miss chance against bosses with it.

level 6 reconstruct is obvious for you, and honestly at that point you can drop all other repairs for other stuff. Greater Heroism is a must, Disintegrate is sometimes the only thing that you can hit something with. (e.g. the boss of von 5 is immune to force and GAINS health from all energy types unless certain dogs die and stay dead, so disintegrating him is the only real reliable damage route for a caster) Circle of death is here too. your first AE everyone make some saves or die spell.

Beyond that you can probably pick up the rest yourself. If you've made it up to here either you got carried or you've picked up enough that you should trust your own judgement. And remember that being a wizard, knowing the quest makes you 24058252045825 times more powerful. So probably the most powerful spell in your spellbook is a sexy level 0 called "ask the party for input or check a wiki before entering." Unless you wanna do the whole 'non-spoiler' thing of course.

[Zachski]

Okay then... that's a lot of spells, a lot of them which are nice to have at end-game.

I'll figure something out then

[Cardtrick]

One other thing: at least in the low-to-mid levels, if you solo much it's a good idea to always have an AOE damaging spell available that costs less than 12 SP (the maximum amount you can regenerate). Depending on what type of wizard you are, that might be your SLAs, once you get them. If not, pick one and get a clicky for +75% damage. I prefer the 4SP level 1 spells for this purpose, so I can cast once per tick of regeneration, but some of the level 2 spells would be fine too (e.g., scorch or electric loop). You can do a surprisingly solid amount of damage without taking much in return by spamming acid splash on a a cluster of enemies while you run in a wide circle around them.

Yes, ideally you should never run out of SP. But realistically, it's going to happen sometimes at low/mid levels, when your SP pool is low and you don't have conc opp/torc for regeneration. It's good to have at least one damaging spell available to supplement your melee.

[Psiandron]

The best thing about wizards is their versatility. There are so many spells and wizzies can have them all. Its not really about the wrong spells, more so the wrong combinations. You really need to get an idea in your own head about what you want your wizard to be. How do you see his role in the game. After that you can better look into and decide what spells you want to have. Regardless of what you choose, over the long haul you should scribe as many spells as you can. If you don't, you won't be very versatile and therefore, would be better off running a sorc.

You said that money's tight right now. Sorry to hear that. Plat generally comes pretty easy in this game and, setting aside the AH, prices never change. So if your plat poor at the moment that will change. If this is your first toon, you might create another to support your wizzy. It's an awesome class, but expensive to maintain.

I know this wasn't what you asked, but I thought it was more what you should hear.

You might check out the forums for possible builds. There's a lot of good info out there.

[Zachski]

The best thing about wizards is their versatility. There are so many spells and wizzies can have them all. Its not really about the wrong spells, more so the wrong combinations. You really need to get an idea in your own head about what you want your wizard to be. How do you see his role in the game. After that you can better look into and decide what spells you want to have. Regardless of what you choose, over the long haul you should scribe as many spells as you can. If you don't, you won't be very versatile and therefore, would be better off running a sorc.

You said that money's tight right now. Sorry to hear that. Plat generally comes pretty easy in this game and, setting aside the AH, prices never change. So if your plat poor at the moment that will change. If this is your first toon, you might create another to support your wizzy. It's an awesome class, but expensive to maintain.

I know this wasn't what you asked, but I thought it was more what you should hear.

You might check out the forums for possible builds. There's a lot of good info out there.

Actually, it's more the fact that it's the way I play my characters.

They have to support themselves. Unless a super duper rare item drops on another character, the character has to be financially self-sufficient.

[Psiandron]

Actually, it's more the fact that it's the way I play my characters.

They have to support themselves. Unless a super duper rare item drops on another character, the character has to be financially self-sufficient.

Ah, tough love.

Well, there's certainly been a few good suggestions above. Generally you want to have at least one attack spell at each level. It's also good to have a spread on attack spells as far as range and damage type. MM is always great to have as there's no resist or immunity to force damage, its cheap and it always hits (if you keep the target in view). Burning Hands is a nice short range spell, especially as you seem to be wanting to melee a bit. Web is good for trapping enemies. As you get higher though you really have to learn which spells stack well and which don't. That's useful when it comes to stacking your own spells and also in countering enemy casters.

In the long run though, like I said before, you need to decide what kind of caster you want to be. There really is too much out there for a wizzy to just say that you must have these spells. An enchanter is different from an conjurer, is different from a necromancer, is different from an evoker, etc. At low levels you're not there yet, but you need to start building your feats/enhancements in a direction now and, since you're concerned about the costs of learning new spells, figuring which spells to take.

[MRMechMan]

Spells I take at each level, generally in the order I take them:
1. acid spray, shield, jump, prot from evil
2. web, snowball swarm, resist energy, knock
3. acid blast*, haste, displace, rage
4. acid rain, ddoor, wall of fire, stoneskin
5. cone of cold, niacs, eladars, cloudkill
6. reconstruct, disintigrate, circle of death, flesh to stone
7. finger, disco, waves of exhaustion
8. black dragon bolt, ottos, power word stun
9. wail, energy drain, MHM

This isn't what I have at cap, it's just what spells I make sure to have loaded ASAP to make leveling fast.

*for self healing I use pots till level 7 or 8 when I get acid rain-then I slot repair serious instead of acid blast.

This is from a sorcs mindset as that is what I am leveling atm, but wizard is pretty similar-only difference is you will get spells earlier and have more versitility.

[goodspeed]

theirs a pretty good generalization of spells, but as a wiz you'll be switching out 4 or 5 from quest to quest sometimes.

Just last night a wizard had to run and get mass bulls and a few others as he didn't have em slotted for hound.

[Lithic]

On my wizard lives, 99% of the spells I used were:

Fireball
Delayed blast fireball
Firewall.

When I saw a group of mobs, I'd toss a fireball. Once high enough level to use delayed blast, I'd quickly toss that too as mobs have more HP by then. Firewall was for big groups that I felt like kiting around.

The other 1% was for fire immune monsters and buffs.

Did this to cap three times, works quite well, but I've got pretty good caster equipment.

[Myrrae]

It's interesting reading what other people load... MrMechman's spell list was very different at level one from mine.

I'm relatively new to the game (started in Sept I think) and have leveled a wizard to 17 now. I got some great advice from the forums when I started, so here's what I went through...

First - I thought Mage Armor would be useful. It wasn't. I rarely used Nightshield even when I had it loaded just because I rarely seemed to take much damage at low levels. I still don't load it now because Halloween came and I got the Mabar robe with the Nightshield clicky and called it good

1: Niac's cold + superior freeze I potion was my bread and butter - but it doesn't work on skeletons, and critters with higher reflex save take no damage. Which is annoying. Niac's + burning hands (acid spray if with fire resist) covers most things, and counts as the level 1 spells for regen. I always carry Jump. Jump rules. Jump lets you skip that **** spike trap in Partycrashers. Jump lets you... well, I just always load Jump. Expeditious Retreat - also a 'must'. Mobility is a big deal in this game, and Expeditious helps with that. I'm actually drawing a blank on my fifth choice... Master Touch can also be nice, but I never used it, just eternal wand and Echoes of Power. Eternal Wand of Magic Missle from Catacombs is nice. Cacophonic Verge from Red Fens, and there are some others later on. I really don't carry Prot from evil - I've started a WF wizrogue though, so maybe going AM it will be different from being undead all of the time. It seems like it's mostly a 'use a wand when you really need it' kind of spell. At lower levels I also kept Charm Person loaded - could make rough fights so much easier if the party was good with it. It fades out at higher levels since there's Suggestion, Charm Monster, Charm Person Mass, etc. etc. Detect Secret Door - get some gloves with a clicky on them. Then if you really really need to find something, get the Voice of the Master + Mantle of the Worldshaper, and then equip them both for True Sight when you need them. A lot of people love Hypnotism - it didn't seem to work as well for me. I was too busy jumping around shooting things with Niac's when solo, or my group mates were swinging 2Hers and breaking it in groups... YMMV - I know a lot of people love this, and when I solo on my bard I LOVE fascinate. Never really used much of the others, Magic Missile a few times, maybe I should try Disrupt undead some day! Feather fall - again, clickies rather than loading the spell.

2: Web & Blur & Resist Energy. Those are almost always locked in. Blur >>> Mage Armor, plus melee types love having it cast on them. You can skip Resist Energy IF you have someone else in the group, but there are very few cases where it doesn't come in handy. Sure, if you're low level and everyone has 5 piece Abishai... but it stays in. I keep Scorching Ray in just for killing skeletons & lone Undead. As a Pale Master I hit use my free negative energy for singletons most of the time, but when I know I've got plenty of mana, I keep a maximized scorching ray loaded for convenience. (Not the most mana efficient to maximize, fwiw - I just do it when I'm more worried about speed than mana). Heroism was nice at low levels, but replaced by Greater Heroism. Electric Loop and Sonic Blast. I have a Cacophonic Verge though, so I get Sonic Blast in my wand for free. It's actually pretty funny to see CR 14 ogres stunned by the ML 5 wand, too. Knock and Invis are often on my bar, situationally quite useful. More often I just use my Wand of invis, but if I'm soloing and know there are plenty of shrines... it's more convenient to load it. As a PM Lesser Death Aura was a must originally, I currently have Invis swapped in instead because Death Aura is generally enough and I've been trying to farm Orchard & the desert to bring my cash totals up a bit. False life I keep on a wand - it's nice, but you don't normally need really long duration. Generally it's used to survive a nasty trap. I also keep Gust of Wind in because blowing out enemy firewalls and fogs is really nice. Lately I've been using more of a 'kill the caster ASAP' method, but Gust of Wind was extremely handy at lower levels. I loved Glitterdust in Pen & Paper D&D but it (like Grease) just didn't come out the same in DDO.

3: Maximize Fireball.... are there other spells? J/K at level 17 I really don't use this any more - Firewall and Delayed Blast Firewall have replaced it. Really, Firewall is probably really efficient, but I'm not sure any spell has made me giggle as much as Fireball... Of course, there's Acid Blast, aka Acid Fireball for the pesky fire resistant mobs. And then there's Displacement, Rage & Haste. I always have them loaded. Sleet Storm I didn't try out until much later on, and it didn't seem to be as effective as when the NPCs used it against me. Protection From Energy is good when you suck at jumping over traps and know what energy type to expect, but I rarely slotted it even before I got Protection From Elements. I also keep Chain Missiles loaded just for those times when I run into something that resists all the element types. Level 3 spells for me seem mostly for buffing (Used to keep Heroism up, but then Greater Heroism).

4: Wall of Fire. Maximized. Dance in it. Ice Storm in some respects may be better since it's got the whole bludgeoning thing going on, and it seems like someone blows it away less frequently... I think someone casting Ice Storm on a firewall puts out the firewall. Hard to beat FWs damage on mummy's though. I like to keep both loaded. Acid is nice, but much shorter duration. Phantasmal Killer - I never had much luck with it. As a first life without much in the way of gear farmed it just didn't seem to land enough to use over Wall of Fire. And that's as a max in Drow with SF and GSF necro and a level 8 & 16 Mabar robe. Maybe next life...

... Ok, I had gone all the way to level 9 spells, but then it got eaten. Shorter version :P Protection From Elements, Mass stays on my list at all times. Even if I don't cast it, it's just too useful. Especially if you don't have a trapper. Also useful vs. the skeletal wizzies etc. Otto's Sphere of Dance is just fun. ... I need to go do Frame Work tonight so I can watch lots of dancing cows. Dancing cows standing in my Ice Storm... Otto's Irresistible Dance & Polar Ray are two other good ones. Wail of the Banshee... also a giggle maker Just hit 17 though, so I'm less clear on the best way to make use of the level 8 & 9 spells. I'm also not entirely sure on my single target. I have Polar Ray, Necrotic Ray, Scorching Ray, my PM specials, Eladars and Niac's DoTs, Burning Blood, Finger of Death... I'm still experimenting with all of them. I'm also not rich enough yet to reserve Greater Heroism for scrolling only. Maybe one of these days...

Anyway, figure that might be somewhat useful since all of this is in somewhat recent memory for me.

[Cardtrick]

First - I thought Mage Armor would be useful. It wasn't. I rarely used Nightshield even when I had it loaded just because I rarely seemed to take much damage at low levels. I still don't load it now because Halloween came and I got the Mabar robe with the Nightshield clicky and called it good

I imagine you know this, but just to make it clear to anyone else reading: people don't suggest shield/night shield for their armor/resistance bonuses. The real benefit is that using either spell makes you completely immune to magic missiles, which can be a significant amount of damage in many quests. That, plus they're cheap in SP and they last forever. Which spell you use is pretty irrelevant; I tend to load night shield, because on the off chance that all my gear was completely destroyed and I had to rely entirely on buffs, I'd rather have +3 to saves than +4 to AC.

[Myrrae]

Yeah... in my head I was totally thinking "not taking that much damage from magic missile but apparently it didn't make it on the page Higher levels I started noticing a lot more damage, but I have the clickie now.

I'd choose Nightshield over Shield myself for pretty much the same reason. Making saves seems to be a lot more important than what my AC is. Seems like most of them need a natural 1 to miss me, with or without AC buffs. If people are trying to hit 85AC for end game tanking... yeah. Nightshield it is.

[Quetzacoala]

Yeah, I also use nightshield on my wizard for the above reasons.

I think a great example of how useful it can be is in VON 4, in the room where all of the warforged casters only seem to know magic missile

[Carpone]

After playing for two years and TRing multiple times as an arcane, this is what I recommend to level quickly:

Put enhancement points into Fire and Electric.

Level 1 spell: Burning Hands.
Level 2 spell: Scorch, Scorching Ray.
Level 3 spell: Fireball, Lightning Bolt.
Level 4 spell: Wall of Fire, Phantasmal Killer, Enervation.
Level 5 spell: Ball Lightning.
Level 6 spell: Chain Lightning, Circle of Death.
Level 7 spell: Delayed Blast Fireball, Finger of Death.
Level 8 spell: Doesn't matter.
Level 9 spell: Wail of the Banshee, Energy Drain.

Arcanes have the best area of effect spells in the game. You use the best AoE spell you have available at your level.

Scorching Ray and Lightning Bolt have double range, so they're your go-to spells for dealing with beholders.

Make sure you have Heighten (I take it at level 10 as the wizard bonus feat). That will keep the DCs up on your lower level spells like Fireball and PK until you get DBF and Finger of Death.

[MRMechMan]

Heh, you picked fire/elec I picked cold/acid.

I'm sure both dominate most content.

Really, any element is good while leveling, except fire in some late game content (where elec picks up the slack very well indeed). All have pretty good AOEs-which when going fast are what matter most (Icestorm/cone of cold/otilukes;firewall/FB/DBF;ball lightning/chain lightning;acid blast/acid rain). They are fairly balanced now.

I just wish elec had some kind of ongoing effect and that acid had a level 5-7 level insta nuke. But all are pretty solid to be honest, it's just a matter of preference.

As long as you have the buffs/utility spells that are expected of you and some kind of nuke, the rest of playing a caster mostly boils down to skill.

[Bogenbroom]

One line I don't see mentioned here is charm/suggestion/dominate. These spells are *excellent* for both preventing damage to you and causing damage to a group of enemies.

I am also a big fan of glittering dust (2nd level) as its blinding effect helps out those melees, especially the back stabbers.

[SirValentine]

One line I don't see mentioned here is charm/suggestion/dominate. These spells are *excellent* for both preventing damage to you and causing damage to a group of enemies.

Hmmm...I never used them when I was a Wiz, mostly just because I was Necro/Conj specced, not Enchant at all. But now that I think about it, what I'm remembering is all the times I'd get ticked off because someone charmed something, and we'd be standing around waiting for them to dismiss the charm. Was more of a waste of time than a useful tactic, it seemed. Maybe better solo than in a party.