What mindset does one need to build and play a Wizard?

[Rackot]

I am new to the game, and started as a wizard. Am only at level 7 yet. The mindset I have adopted is two-fold. First, there is gleefully watching charmed enemies butcher each other as you place your bets on which one gets nuked at the end.
10 spell points = 2 enemies dead.
Skills are specced to max hiding and move silently. It's not high enough to let me sneak past enemies reliably, but plenty high to let me approach, see, plan and start every fight on my terms.

Then there is burning things that can't be charmed, usually while they are webbed. Sometimes there is a slight burning of things that can't be charmed to get them in sight of things that can be charmed.

So lots of watching, and sometimes correcting an enemy health bar with an endless wand, if it outperforms the charmed mob by a wide enough margin.

Honestly, it was kind of boring that the strategy I used at level 1, still remains the safest and most efficient power wise at level 7, but spiders, undead, enemies and orange/red enemies do break up the monotony. Warforged enemies can't be charmed - suggestion works fine on them - but at double the cost, they are expensive.

Only downside is that cleric hirelings are a pain to manage - can't bring them anywhere near the fight as they will proceed to heal everything you charmed and then you are suddenly out of heals and half your enemies are at full health...

Now that I routinely loot basic damage wands (scorching ray and such), I often don't even need to use spell points to kill non-charmables that are webbed.

[Zachski]

Okay, so I finally got around to making a Wizard (after "stealing" a build from another thread)

I decided to go Elven Wizard, 32 point, going into Pale Master, and I am not regretting this.

Yes, I know, elves are not optimal wizards, but that bonus spell penetration is going to be delicious (especially since my Elven Sorcerer in Pathfinder has had to deal with spell resistance on the hordes of devils and demons)

I've been toying around with spells, and been doing a bit better job than I've done with my first wizards. There is one spell, however, that I've just absolutely fallen in love with.

Sound Blast.

For the love of Eberron, Sound Blast. I love it so much.

It's like a miniature Soundburst that I can cast at the same range as Niac's. For low HD enemies, this lets me spam it, keep large groups of them in place, and essentially kill them through attrition. All for 4 SP each cast.

For higher HD enemies, I can alternate between Sound Blast and Niac's or my wand.

It can also destroy breakables. As in, large groups of them. See that big pile of barrels? *Sound Blast* What barrels?

Keeping Mage Armor and Shield on myself is greatly improving my survivability. Though I can't wait to get the Black Widow Bracers so that I can permanently take Mage Armor off of my spell list and replace it with another spell.

My Sorcerer is overspecialized. However, with my Wizard, I can cast pretty much any element I desire. I can use both Acid Rain AND Wall of Fire, not just one or the other. Granted, I won't be able to do as well as a Sorcerer does with either, but I have the spell slots. Oh, and I get all of my spell levels a level earlier, which is very nice.

Greataxe? Pffft. Who needs a greataxe?

[hiryuu42]

I am new to the game, and started as a wizard. Am only at level 7 yet. The mindset I have adopted is two-fold. First, there is gleefully watching charmed enemies butcher each other as you place your bets on which one gets nuked at the end.

Then there is burning things that can't be charmed, usually while they are webbed. Sometimes there is a slight burning of things that can't be charmed to get them in sight of things that can be charmed.

This. The mindset of a wizard is enemies don't get to die with grace or dignity. Killed by their own men, caught in a web, dancing, stunned, held, lying on their back. Later, killed with a finger or a wail, or just level-drained to helpless. How's that sack of HP working for you now?

[alemulet]

Well, im not a experinced player, got 1 art caped, 1 sorc caped (who im planning to tr in wiz for dcs) both without great gear... its in 6 months, in this time i tried 3 wizs before the sorc.. all i got the same frustration... im playing mmos since 2004 and all, all mmos that has a caster (sorcerer, wizard, necromancer, druid, and others names) that class is a dpser class, a "glass-cannon" that kill all using sp/mp/mana whatever name it has...

In ddo, sorc is a dpser, but wiz isnt.. this is the most important diference between them... ppl try to play wizs like sorcs, and cant, and get frustrated and give up... im still tring wizs and still didnt get the way to play them (usually in the last part of the quest i dont have more sp) but in partys in lvls 16+ you can see the real power of a wiz, the problem is: "how to get in that lvl range?"... the answer for a player that is starting, without past lifes, great gear and such is PUG, PUG and when you rly get bored with PUG... PUG more and more.. ppl will say: 1) get a 2h weapon and melee your way, k... all wiz do it in low lvl, but not soloing and when soloing not in hard/elite 2) zerg your way in quests, but to do it you need to know the quest, and as a 1st trier you dont know the quests... so to me its simple, wiz = party till mid lvls, sorc = party or solo (usually fast) all the game till lvl 20.

Ah, make a favor for yourself, wanna play an arcane? go warforged, even if wiz and planning to go palemaster... sure a palemaster is rly nice but after lvl 12 at least... so go warforged am till lvl 12, than respect to palemaster, simple and clean.

[kclark1980]

When you find out please let me know. I can't stand the wizards and I really want to nail down the past lives to get the bonus.

[Faent]

When I level a wizard, I use Carnifex or a Cannith Crafted Holy of Bleeding Greatsword at early levels (Proficiency with Master's Touch). Couple this with Sleep and Web. And, of course, Blur yourself and carry a stack of healing potions. Melf's Acid Arrow boosted by Superior Erosion II potions is helpful. If you have access to high levels of Cannith Crafting, you can make up to a +4 Attack Bonus item. You can also guild slot up to a +4 Attack bonus on your crafted Holy of Bleeding Greatsword. If you do this, to-hit is a non-issue in Elite content.

When you pick up Acid Blast, you start using the weapon less. You round up a bunch of mobs, drop a Web and hit them with Acid Blast (not Fireball, which breaks webs). Cannith Craft a Superior Potency III item.

The next jump is to Web + Wall of Fire + Acid Rain, with the addition of Acid Blast if needed. (And Fireball, if the mobs take extra damage from it.) Frequently, a simple Web + Acid Rain or Web + Firewall will drop an entire group of mobs. Stacking both AoEs and adding an Acid Blast is just gravy. Cannith Craft a Superior Potency IV item, or rely on Spell Amp potions from Object Desire in House P.

Then you pick up Phantasmal Killer, followed by Circle of Death, Finger, and Wail. At this point, it's just Web + Acid Rain + Firewall and instakills. Make sure your INT is maxed at all times. Max your Spell Pen. Take Necromancy and Greater Necromancy Focus feats by level 12 (as well as the PL: Wiz Feat if you have it). Cannith Craft a Greater Necromancy Focus item. Use Yugo potions, if you have them.

At 18, I drop Fire/Acid Enhancements in favor of Electric/Cold.

I like Cannith Crafted INT rings, Cannith Crafted Superior Potency rings, and a Cannith Crafted CON belt. The first and last are almost replaceable by random loot, the Potency is replaceable by money and House P potions. I like crafted Superior Stability armor. You may prefer Invulernability. I craft on items with at least a Medium Guild slot, and guild slot HP, SP and Reaction.

sure a palemaster is rly nice but after lvl 12 at least... so go warforged am till lvl 12, than respect to palemaster, simple and clean.

No. Level to at least 18 as an Archmage. Archmages have more SP than Palemasters. They have better self-healing (especially if you can afford Reconstruct scrolls). And they have higher DC's at earlier levels. Archmage IV is available at level 15. Why level from 15 to 18 while suffering from a -2 to your Necro spells? That's just crazy. If you are desperate to play the PM, you can switch to it at 18, but frankly, Archmage dominates PM until you're in awesome PM gear.

[Zachski]

Did a lot of people miss my previous post or something? >_>

[Faent]

Did a lot of people miss my previous post or something? >_>

Yes, it sounds like you're using Sonic Blast. Just don't.

[Zachski]

Yes, it sounds like you're using Sonic Blast. Just don't.

Er...

What's wrong with Sonic Blast? It's served me quite well O_o

[SupTyr]

Sound Blast is just not an officially approved wizard spell.

Approved spells are Haste, Rage, Greater Heroism, Blur and Displacement. (sometimes Firewall too)

Stick to these spells or people will complain.

/sarcasm off

[wax_on_wax_off]

Unless it's a wf sorc, generally.

If you think that these are comparable then you're doing something wrong.

Generally speaking, WF Sorc won't have positive return on incoming damage in challenging content (unless DoD proc/shield blocking or something). On the other hand, once death aura is up, it's up and if you're at max HP on a PM with death aura running then you're doing it wrong.

Also, a decently geared PM will rely on getting hit to augment their spells through debuffs, this is pretty crucial.

[Simplesimon1979]

How to play as a wizard. Just sit back and watch all the enemies fight with themselves



Ended quest with 121 dead enemies. 77 of them were killed by there own team

[FuzzyDuck81]

I've been toying around with spells, and been doing a bit better job than I've done with my first wizards. There is one spell, however, that I've just absolutely fallen in love with.

Sound Blast.

For the love of Eberron, Sound Blast. I love it so much.

It's like a miniature Soundburst that I can cast at the same range as Niac's. For low HD enemies, this lets me spam it, keep large groups of them in place, and essentially kill them through attrition. All for 4 SP each cast.

For higher HD enemies, I can alternate between Sound Blast and Niac's or my wand.

It can also destroy breakables. As in, large groups of them. See that big pile of barrels? *Sound Blast* What barrels?

Agreed, this spell is awesome.. i keep it slotted on my capped PM & capped sorc, and love it.. set it to have no metas & its a very cheap, handy little spell that can be used to break stuff and as a cheap CC with the daze effect.

[DDOisFree]

1) You can never have enough INT
2) You should aim for a minimum of 40 necro and enchant DCs for end game content at level 20, more preferably 42+.
3) Your only other priority is HP. Con is not a dump stat and after INT and DCs, you cant ever have enough HP
4) Its preferable to remember that you are not a Sorc. DCs / Instakills and Crowd Controll are your speciality, not DPS.

Yes, it sounds like you're using Sonic Blast. Just don't.

Seriously? Up to level 6 Sonic Blast + Web spam provide superb CC. It is very good to use sonic blast alongside web until you have disco ball.

Sonic Blast = Will Save DC, Web = Reflex Save DC. Personally I find charming things to be much more annoying in a group than Sonic Blast, which pins targets down making it easier for your melees to hit them.

Web has a stationary AoE that enemies often move out of by the time its cast. Sonic Blast hits and stuns your target and all nearby enemies, and does some damage on top as well. Its a great spell to use at lower levels. Use sonic blast and follow up with web to reduce the number of enemies that move away from your web target's location.

How to play as a wizard. Just sit back and watch all the enemies fight with themselves

Ended quest with 121 dead enemies. 77 of them were killed by there own team

I disagree with this. I was 2 manning elite STK with a Sorc due to our rogue DCing who felt like charming everything when we could have easilly killed it. He didnt dismiss any charms along the way in the hobgoblin village, and we got completely overwhelmed at the end fight. The sorc died, I managed to escape and jump off a ledge down to what should have been safety.

Due to all of the sorcs earlier charms having ended a long time ago, I now have to attempt to solo kill all the remaining hobgoblins with echoes of power SP, and unfortunately I ran out of cure potions so couldnt keep my HP up to finish them off. Charming is a terrible way to play a caster, enemies are better off dead in most quests, and nothing kills them better than your own party members.

The quest you reffered to as well - blockade buster, you should be easilly capable of simply zerging through that yourself without a single issue, you hardly even have to kill anything unless you get harried. Its one of the easiest quests in the game to solo.

[OsOscarius]

Charm spells have a time and place, but there are generally better spells to use. But it should be noted that mass persuasion coupled with crushing despair can turn the tide of (non-epic) combat in a small moment.
That is also my first pick if I want to run Sins on hard/elite on an undergeared arcane. Run up yellow/orange alert and let the cleaves do the work.

Charming is also useful against air ellies. With their low will saves you can easily turn that knockdown against your enemy, or simply neutralize the elementals.

Finally, if you ever want to use charm...for the love of god...keep dismiss charm on your hotbar.

[squishwizzy]

So, I've tried to build and play wizards, but in all honesty, even if I follow a build, I'm not sure how to PLAY one.

Playing a Sorcerer feels more or less no-brainer to me.

The fact that, early on, they feel like Sorcerers that cast slower, have less SP, but more spells means that I'm doing something wrong. They should be feeling more like a different class.

Sometimes, it feels like I have too many options, and not enough use for those options.

I understand that, in general, Wizards are supposed to be more focused on CC, and Sorcerers more focused on damage (though I do quite love my Web spell on my Sorc) but it's hard to translate this into practice. At low levels, sure, I have some nice CC spells, but at that level, a Wizard's DC really isn't that different from a Sorcerer's.

At higher levels, sure, I can see the fundamental difference between the two, and how to play them differently. At the first 6 or 7 levels though...

What's your advice, forums?

Well, I've never played a sorc, but I can say that I LOVE to play wizzies. They appeal to my techno-geek nature. I can pull and prep whatever spell I want, when I need it (for example, not having to constantly slot Trap the Soul when I don't have the shards to make it work). Sure, there are lots of spells that I keep constantly prepped, but I can prep those spells that I know are going to do the most damage for the quest I'm about to go on.

So, it's all about flexibility.

Yeah, I don't shoot stuff off as fast as a sorc, or have the sp to be a continual nuker. Then again, if I have the right spells prepped, and just be judicious about what I cast, I don't need to have all that excess. So it sort of balances out in the end.

A wizzy is kinda hard to play at lower levels. You almost need to run in groups so that you're not speading yourself too thin with the casting. Lots of different methods here on the forums as to how to run a wizzy at lower levels. At higher levels, well, you start being the damage-dealer.

There is a lot of flexibility in how you play a wizzy. You can be a buff-bot, a damage-dealer, a CC person, or a combination of all three is you plan right.

[squishwizzy]

Er...

What's wrong with Sonic Blast? It's served me quite well O_o

Same here.

And you don't burn away the webs while you're stunning the mobs...

[squishwizzy]

Charming is a terrible way to play a caster, enemies are better off dead in most quests, and nothing kills them better than your own party members.

The trick to charm is to charm just enough so that in the end you have one or two of the chamrmed mobs alive, and with diminished HP.

Yeah, it's slow and somewhat annoying, but having THEM take damage as opposed to me and my fellows has more than a few advantages...

[DDOisFree]

The trick to charm is to charm just enough so that in the end you have one or two of the chamrmed mobs alive, and with diminished HP.

Yeah, it's slow and somewhat annoying, but having THEM take damage as opposed to me and my fellows has more than a few advantages...

Thats fine and as long as the charms are dismissed and the mobs finished off before moving on.

Having to run backwards in a quest either to go back to a shrine or recovering from a wipe (I have to save a lot of wipes as a wizzie) is made excessively harder when other casters have been charming everything in sight and leaving it unkilled before moving on.

At level 7+ on my wizard, I have absolutely no valid reason to use anything other than web, firewall and acid rain. And having conjuration focus and Archmage conjuration on top makes it even easier. I've only seen red names avoid getting stuck in my webs and killed by the AoEs, I have Superior inferno and Corrosion IV clickies to use too.

Elite bloody crypt at level 7 was easy fo me to solo farm one side / 2 paths of the map myself while an artificer did the other side, either with a pocket healer or loads of potions. Shadow Crypt is also an easy farm with FW + Acid rain too.

One thing thats really important to remember for a Wizard is that up to level 12, Zombie form and Necromancy is rubbish, and Conjuration Archmage = win (Niacs ray at lower levels, heightened webs + niacs rays at level 5, Acid Rain + FW + Web from level 7 onwards). Plus you get grease as a spell like ability to spam in Tempests Spine on the mountain

Its very poweful to take Conjuration Focus at level 1, then swap it to Necromancy and take Greater Necro focus at level 12 for Wraith Form.

[goodspeed]

I think the mindset should be your not a sorc. You cannot wipe the room and job past all in one swoop. Not unless you wanna be chuggn.

A wiz gets all those feats for a reason. They're the masters of cc. Even as a PM instakilling everything your still a cc. And even then you use gear to get back sp while things wail on you.

You can still dmg and nuke with wall of fire and whatnot, but it's gonna cost you to do it with speed. And unlike the sorc's you gotta scrape everything for the sp. The gs, the archmagi, the trinket, the guild slot, all of it. Where a sorc could hit around 3300 or so id say a wiz would be about 2500 geared. Unless you took mental toughness feats but that's just a waste on either or.

I know my wiz is the cc. He's the web spammer, the hypnoer, the disco baller. All the while casting insta death spells or maybe some dmg. (I wouldn't go the evo route ever since 9 it just went to hell) And my sorc is the nuker. He's the guy that faces off the reds burst after burst criting off em. With some cc usually web going and a fog to trap em. If spell pen isn't a factor he's usually good. Which is why I like em for drow and the dead. Stick those suckers and light em all up

So, you wanna be the cc guy? Or the nuker/slight cc guy? That's the question that determines if you wanna be the wiz or the sorc. And ya gotta be cc. None of that but im an evo mage stuff. Quickest way ive seen to leave a party other then to show up with like 200hp lol.