My new respect for spell slingers

[drwho1985]

Got tired of the hack and slash of a fighter and a monk so I thought I would try something new. So I was in the Character Generator and saw that a wizard was considered "Challenging" on solo.

Challenging? I've seen you wizards zerg and breeze through Elite quests while destroying everything in sight, floating around like David Copperfield.

How hard can it be, I wondered. So I rolled up a Human Wizard and off to Korthos for the blood bath.

O. M. G.

Half-way through Heyton's Rest I'm out of spell points and down to 10 hitpoints while flailing my Quarterstaff and missing half the time. I can't aim the blasted spells and now I have to worry about a red AND a blue bar.

I will never doubt the Character Generator again. I tip my helm to every spellslinger out there for making it look so easy.

[zeonardo]

Got tired of the hack and slash of a fighter and a monk so I thought I would try something new. So I was in the Character Generator and saw that a wizard was considered "Challenging" on solo.

Challenging? I've seen you wizards zerg and breeze through Elite quests while destroying everything in sight, floating around like David Copperfield.

How hard can it be, I wondered. So I rolled up a Human Wizard and off to Korthos for the blood bath.

O. M. G.

Half-way through Heyton's Rest I'm out of spell points and down to 10 hitpoints while flailing my Quarterstaff and missing half the time. I can't aim the blasted spells and now I have to worry about a red AND a blue bar.

I will never doubt the Character Generator again. I tip my helm to every spellslinger out there for making it look so easy.

Here's the thing.
They presume that if you pay attention to that nonsense on the character creation, you don't know much about the game or about the said class/race/path.

If you knew about it, you would not look to that and know that untill lvl7 (wiz) lvl8(sorc) (wall of fire) all you need is expeditious retreat and a)Carnifex, b)Hellstroke, c)Maelstron, d)Any great axe. Everything else is just luxury.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Here's the thing.
They presume that if you pay attention to that nonsense on the character creation, you don't know much about the game or about the said class/race/path.

If you knew about it, you would not look to that and know that untill lvl7 (wiz) lvl8(sorc) (wall of fire) all you need is expeditious retreat and a)Carnifex, b)Hellstroke, c)Maelstron, d)Any great axe. Everything else is just luxury.

Seconded, though masters touch helps quite a bit if you totally dumped str.

Also, while soloing, invisibility - run to the end, kill the redname, ddoor out, works extremely well in any quest with that type of mechanic. Which is most quests.

[mwgarn]

I thought this thread was going to be about bards..

Edit: Oh that says slinger not singer..

Yea expeditious retreat and a great axe will get you a lot more millage.

[drwho1985]

Thanks for the info. So a little bit of hack-n-slash is expected with a wizard also? Never would have tried that with my strength being so low.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Thanks for the info. So a little bit of hack-n-slash is expected with a wizard also? Never would have tried that with my strength being so low.

At level 1 or 2 the difference in dps output between a caster with a greataxe and and a melee with a greataxe is small enough.

Once you get fireball you can change tactics a bit, group up mobs throw a fireball, and melee the few that survive.

Once you get firewall/acid rain/icestorm, you can put the axe away.

[Urist]

Didn't you pick up the Eternal Wand from the Grotto rewards? You can get a lot of mileage out of that in the early quests. Or I did when starting my first Wizard, at least.

[Claransa]

At level 1 or 2 the difference in dps output between a caster with a greataxe and and a melee with a greataxe is small enough.

Once you get fireball you can change tactics a bit, group up mobs throw a fireball, and melee the few that survive.

Once you get firewall/acid rain/icestorm, you can put the axe away.

and pick up a small mithral shield, later on a skyvault shield. Even if you take no feats with masters touch and a divine power clicky you'll have good blocking DR. Just stand in you AOE.

[good_ole_corwin]

that is the wisdom of the forum that you should swing a greataxe. I personally never did this life - charm person, burning hands/acid spray, web got me through low levels very easily, soloing elite harbor. Admittedly, not a first lifer, but didnt use any twink or crafted gear until lvl5, definitely not on Korthos.

[drwho1985]

Is it the forums opinion that acid>fire>ice?

Thanks for sharing!

[Fungi]

and pick up a small mithral shield, later on a skyvault shield. Even if you take no feats with masters touch and a divine power clicky you'll have good blocking DR. Just stand in you AOE.

I prefer using a tower shield and defensive stance. Swap the tower shield out when ever i need to cast spells.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Is it the forums opinion that acid>fire>ice?

Thanks for sharing!

Few things are immune to acid. It makes it very versatile.

Fire is good for 3 reasons, firewall, fireball and delayed blast fireball, the problem is more things are immune to fire than any other elemental type.

Ice is great for 2 reasons, polar ray and niac's biting cold. (I suppose cone of cold deserves an honorable mention as well)

Elec needs some love, but people spec into it because of eledar's electric surge, stacked with niac's biting cold. Makes for a very sp efficient dps against red names.

[HastyPudding]

Few things are immune to acid. It makes it very versatile.

Fire is good for 3 reasons, firewall, fireball and delayed blast fireball, the problem is more things are immune to fire than any other elemental type.

Ice is great for 2 reasons, polar ray and niac's biting cold. (I suppose cone of cold deserves an honorable mention as well)

Elec needs some love, but people spec into it because of eledar's electric surge, stacked with niac's biting cold. Makes for a very sp efficient dps against red names.

People short change electric and wind spells too easily, I agree. Electric Loop is extremely useful in low-mid levels. The DoT is clearly awesome. The two wind spells can clear away any cloud spell as well as firewall, and knock down small mobs and slow a variety of others; mostly utility, but still useful. The only issue with electric spells is their dependency on reflex saves to deal damage, and there are far too many enemies that have evasion and/or high reflex saves. Otherwise, electric can dish out some pretty nasty damage (like an emp/max/heighten lightning bolt aimed at a caster and it double strikes).

[Jaid314]

in the current system, i've run lowbie wizards that used spells for damage on their first life. i probably fed it some twink gear, but the main thing is knowing how to do it. even at level 1, you still have burning hands and acid spray available to you, and while one is on cooldown you simply cast the other. at level 3/4 (wiz/sorc) you can add scorch, and you can easily spam burning hands and scorch back-to-back, while kiting and jump-casting, and roast the enemies that are charging you. keep a couple of off-element spells for immune enemies (i'm a huge fan of shocking grasp at low levels because the damage is huge).

having the right gear helps, but mostly it's knowing how to do it.

[themoonbreaker]

I guess I don't know how to do it... I can't get through the low levels on SP alone. I usually go the greataxe route with spell damage as an extra- I kind of play low level casters like monks, melee with special moves for more damage.

[Maxallu]

masters touch + greateaxe till FW.

[fco-karatekid]

I dunno if anyone else will agree with me - but I treat ALL classes as the same thing for the first, say, 5-6 levels. They are THF, slow, and unspecialized. Rogue/splashes MIGHT disable/disarm; but everyone else just hacks through those levels until they become useful in their specialty. Monks are a slight exception, as they can HIT things TWF (unarmed). I haven't played a fighter, FvS or Barb, so those may also be an exception.

[good_ole_corwin]

I think the greataxe sentiments are also a tradition from the old days, before echoes of power. Nowadays low SP pool on the first few levels doesnt matter, because you always regen to 12 SP within just a few seconds, which is enough for 3 casts of lvl1 damaging spells, which is enough to kill most mobs. Sure swinging a greataxe might be faster, but its really not the only viable or even safest or newbie-friendly way, since wizards/sorcs are so notoriously squishy in their hands. Jump around + cast = get hit less than meleeing.

[wax_on_wax_off]

Here's the thing.
They presume that if you pay attention to that nonsense on the character creation, you don't know much about the game or about the said class/race/path.

If you knew about it, you would not look to that and know that untill lvl7 (wiz) lvl8(sorc) (wall of fire) all you need is expeditious retreat and a)Carnifex, b)Hellstroke, c)Maelstron, d)Any great axe. Everything else is just luxury.

I gave up on this after the spell pass, simpler to just cycle burning hands/acid spray (with enhancements and items to boost it up); much quicker than what an axe puts out and very SP efficient (no metamagics).

Scorching Ray gets the metamagic treatment usually and is saved for bosses.

[Boombastic]

I gave up on this after the spell pass, simpler to just cycle burning hands/acid spray (with enhancements and items to boost it up); much quicker than what an axe puts out and very SP efficient (no metamagics).

Scorching Ray gets the metamagic treatment usually and is saved for bosses.

This. IIRC, +75% 3rd level and lower spell clickies can be used at level 1. Wouldn't be hard to craft a few, and cycle them so you have them on at all times