Considering Wizard

[Mav145]

Just a quick question for you guys. I would like to play a WF wizard (or maybe a sorcerer) but, as a first-lifer, 32-pt. build, will it even be possible. I like to perform my role when I am in a quest. I don't like to be gimp. Can you play a wizard or a sorcerer effectively without a bazillion TR's? I am on my third life as an artificer and I just don't think that I can jump through that hoop many more times. Certainly not enough to pick up three past wizard lives and 3 past FS lives like some on the forums suggest.

Before I jump into spell-casting, is it possible to make a good wizard that people won't shun with just a 32-pt. build. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Vinven]

Can you play a wizard or a sorcerer effectively without a bazillion TR's?

I've never TR'd in my life and my 16 wf archwizard plays just fine.

[ForumAccess]

Picking up 9 points of Spell Penetration allows you to use your feats and AP for other things. This is a major advantage, but not something that you are 'gimp' without. A lot of what you are asking about really comes down to your intended goal, though. Epic Elite Saves and Spell Pen are very hard to make, requiring both being heavily geared and for the hardest ones debuffing first. Epic Hard content you can manage quite well with a solid first life build, even 28 pt for a two-stat class like arcane casters.

18Sorc/2Paladin using Shiradi Spam is currently the undisputed top dog for casters in top end EE content. And this has no need for Spell Penetration at all. But this is only because of the current situation with save DCs, and could possibly even change before you cap the character. It is quite difficult to predict what the future holds when so many game systems are being thrown out and replaced.

[Uidolon]

going little zen on you ill answer like this.
if you build a sandcastle next to the water should you paint it yellow or red after its completed?

[Unsinful]

Just a quick question for you guys. I would like to play a WF wizard (or maybe a sorcerer) but, as a first-lifer, 32-pt. build, will it even be possible. I like to perform my role when I am in a quest. I don't like to be gimp. Can you play a wizard or a sorcerer effectively without a bazillion TR's? I am on my third life as an artificer and I just don't think that I can jump through that hoop many more times. Certainly not enough to pick up three past wizard lives and 3 past FS lives like some on the forums suggest.

Before I jump into spell-casting, is it possible to make a good wizard that people won't shun with just a 32-pt. build. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Its always possible
I have a main who has 3 past life wizards and fvs. They are not tht needed all it does it boost spell pen. It is nice but like i said not needed.
Wizard is my favorite class in the game hands down. It is very easy to play because you can do whatever you want. you basically have 4 options
-Go pure and be a dps wizard utilizing your spell like abilities
-Do the same go Pale Master and have nice heals and insta-killing
-Play a CC based toon, use hold person, hold monster and charms (This is really loved in parties)
-Go archmage and CC while dishing out damage.

you always wanna go pure unless u want traps u could take 2 rogue but i stay pure because the capstone is just amazing.

IMO i think its really easy on a 32-point build max int and rest into con

[Lanhelin]

-Play a CC based toon, use hold person, hold monster and charms (This is really loved in parties)
-Go archmage and CC while dishing out damage.

That's what I try to do. I play two firstlife Wizards (28 pt Human pure Level 14 Wiz Archmage and 32 pt Warforged 2 Rogue/Wiz 10 Archmage). I didn't take any SLAs yet, because of the SP loss which doesn't seem to be a good bargain right now. I do most quests on HE but even on HH the mobs often save against charms or other CC spells, so I also kinda feel limited to take a Cleric Hireling with Divine Vitality and Mnemonic Elixirs whenever they are offered as a quest reward. It happens in every single dungeon whether I solo it or play in a group. A Wizard has tons of buffs and useful spells, but currently I only buff myself and others when it's really necessary. Luckily just yesterday I found a Ring of Magic VI, which boosts the SP amount of my WF by additional 150 pt. A CC Wizard suffers even more from SP loss than a Dmg Wiz. Most dmg spells will do at least half the damage when the mob won his saving roll, but a resisted Charm or Web does nothing except reducing SP.

And to make CC-Spells most of the time working as wanted, make sure to take Spell Focus: Enchantment, Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment, Heighten, Enlarge and the Spell Penetration Feats and Enhancements as early as possible (to make the spells even more expensive, but less likely to fail). Charms have a very limited range, but with Enlarge the range is doubled and it's much more comfortable and less risky using them. And if you splash and start as a Rogue, be sure to put the Wiz Skill Dismiss Charm in a slot of your Hotkey bar after you took the first Wiz Level to be able to release charmed mobs prior. CC-Spells help a lot, especially in groups. Charms can reduce the difficulty of fights in an incredible way. I remember a fight in one of the Lordsmarch quests, a wilderness area with a village full of Minotaurs, where I was with the pure Wizard (specialized in Evocation). Doing damage only was a bad idea, but after swapping two spells for charms this fight became much, much easier.

Note that there exists a Bug when a charmed Mob remains in an actually completed Dungeon: If you leave the Dungeon without releasing the Mob first, there exists the possibility that the quest won't count for favor and not be counted as completed at all (this happened to me when I did the quest "Guard Duty" in Three Barrel Cove; the bug didn't occur in other dungeons, mainly because after this experience I never ever left a charmed Mob again, so I can't tell if it only concerns this quest or all quests in general).

[Inoukchuk]

Just a quick question for you guys. I would like to play a WF wizard (or maybe a sorcerer) but, as a first-lifer, 32-pt. build, will it even be possible. I like to perform my role when I am in a quest. I don't like to be gimp. Can you play a wizard or a sorcerer effectively without a bazillion TR's? I am on my third life as an artificer and I just don't think that I can jump through that hoop many more times. Certainly not enough to pick up three past wizard lives and 3 past FS lives like some on the forums suggest.

Before I jump into spell-casting, is it possible to make a good wizard that people won't shun with just a 32-pt. build. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

IMO it's easier to play a first life caster than a first life melee without being gimp. The only thing that suffers really is your spell pen. Most will tell you a shiradi caster is the easiest entry into EE. For anything short of EE, or if you just don't want to play a shiradi (can get boring doing nothing but spamming MM) I would go PM or sorc. I have a WF AM and a fleshy PM and my experience is that the PM is both better/as good at CC and better at being a cold blooded killer. Torc + death aura = nearly infinite SP, witch AM tends to run short on.

[Enoach]

Short Answer: Yes

Reason: Wizards get a lot of Feats to allow them to be flexible, and depending on your style of play the PM or AM allows for a lot of flexibility.

Since most Arcane builds are caster focused the builds would simply be Max Caster Stat (Int/Cha) and rest into Constitution. What 34/36 point builds give you is the ability to spend points in other abilities, which might help but in no way make you better at landing spells.

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Past Life Advantage:

While Wizard and FvS Past Lives help build Spell Penetration numbers, not all of the content has spell resistance or even SR that requires more investment than Levels and a piece of Gear

The Wizard Active PL feat is a nice feat as it is the ability to take Spell Focus: All Schools, but in the End it is only +1 DC

Cleric and Sorcerer past lives only improve your conjuration and evocation DCs respectively up to +3. These are nice bonuses, but you would have to weigh how much you use those spell schools to see if that is valuable to you.

[Lanhelin]

The Wizard Active PL feat is a nice feat as it is the ability to take Spell Focus: All Schools, but in the End it is only +1 DC

Every number counts, even the lowest I'd say. I remember when I was Level 8 (Rogue 1/Wiz 7) and had to search and disable traps on Elite in Tangleroot, I only had a +5 search and a +5 disable device item and the skills maxed to what was possible for me. Without the Rogue skill boost I (+2 to all skills) I wasn't able to locate the boxes. After I got both +10 items this issue was gone, but it shows, that also small numbers do count and really made the difference between fail & win.