Basic wizard for new players

[Hobgoblin]

Basic Wizard
A wizard gets okay dps, good survivability, good self-healing.
They have low defense and hp okay saves


For a more advanced version that takes a lot more work look at
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...e-Master-Guide
Race – you have a few choices –
For a newer player that doesn’t want absolute difficulty checks any race will work
However – for max dc’s without going p2p/favor unlock, human is best
Elf works for better spell pen
If you are willing to buy/favor grind drow is better You lose one feat but get 1/2 dc’s depending on gear
sun elf is the best but it requires not only buying sun elf but a +1 heart

Human Wizard

Stats
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 8
Constitution: 15
Wisdom: 8
Intelligence: 18
Charisma: 8

Final breakdown with reasonable gear
Con: 16 +8 item +2 guild +2 rage spell +4 lich= 32
Int: 18 + 8 item +7 levels +2 guild +5 enhancments +2 capstone + 4 lich = 46 easy to hit can get more 49 if drow

Reason behind stats
You need two stats: int for spell points/skills/dc’s and Constitution for more hp

Increase int at every 4 levels

Saves

Fortitude: 6 base + 11 con mod +6 item + 4 great heroism spell= 27
Reflex: 6 base + 14 int mod + 6 item + 4 gh = 30
Will: 12 base +-1 wis +6 item +4 gh = 21

Hit points
112 from wiz +25 from heroic durability +308 con mod +30 false life +31 toughness + 45 enhancement = 551 can go much higher with epic destinies/gear

Feats

Level 1 feats (level 1 spells)
maximize – more damage on spell like abilities
Insightful reflexes – uses int for your reflex save
wiz bonus – mental toughness – adds extra crits and more spell points

Level 3 feats (level 2 spells)
Spell focus: spell penetration – not used much in low levels very important for vale and later

Level 5 feats (level 3 spells)
Spell focus: necromancy – better chance for your spells to land

Level 6 feats
empower – see maximize

Level 7 feats (level 4 spells)
n/a

Level 8 feats
n/a

Level 9 feats (level 5 spells)
Heighten – makes your spells harder to resist

Level 10 feats
Quicken

Level 11 feats(level 6 spells)
n/a

Level 12 feats
Toughness – more hp is good

Level 13 feats (level 7 spells
n/a

Level 14 feats
n/a

Level 15 feats (level 8 spells)
Wiz bonus: spell focus enchant – see spell focus
Greater spell pen – for vale and beyond

Level 16 feats
n/a

Level 17 feats (level 9 spells)
n/a

Level 18 feats
Greater spell focus necro

Level 19 feats
n/a

Level 20 feats
Either improved mental toughness or enlarge for long range fingers or extend for longer buffs/aura

Level 21 feats
Epic spell focus: necro

Level 22 feats
n/a

Level 23 feats
n/a

Level 24 feats
Improved mental toughness or epic mental toughness or epic spell pen -

Level 25 feats
n/a

Level 26 feats
Epic spell power if you have epic destinies
Toughness if you don’t have ed’s

Level 27 feats
Ruin – big numbers

Level 28 feats
Hell Ball – more big numbers!

Enhancments
3 human
1-Sp boost
2 – Int
41 pale master
6 cores
11 tier 1
6- deathless vigor
2 – spell crit necro
3 – neg energy conduit
9 tier 2
4 efficent metamagic – maximize
2 – spell crit necro
3 – bone armor
7 tier 3
2 – spell crit necro
2 – int
3 – cloak of night
4 tier 4
2 – spell crit necro
2 – int
4 tier 5
2 – necromanctic focus
2 – improved shrouding
26 archmage
4 cores – all necro slas

6 tier 1
2 spell crit elemental
4 energy of the scholar
4 tier 2
2 spell crit elemental
2 improved empower
8 tier 3
2 spell crit elemental
4 spell pen
2 int
4 Tier 4
2 int
2 spell focus
10 eldritch knight
1 core
6 tier 1
3-Improved mage armor
3 toughness
3 tier 2
3 improved shield

Some notes on spells –
You can change them at will (at shrines)
This is not an exhaustive list but some good spells to have at each level

Level 1:
Hypnotize, jump, magic missle
Level 2: knock, resist energy, web, blur
Level 3: haste, rage, displacement
Level 4: firewall, phantasmal killer, negative energy burst, acid rain, dimension door, death aura
Level 5: Niacs, eldars, cone of cold, teleport
Level 6: circle of death, greater heroism, necrotic ray
Level 7: Finger of death, banishment, otto’s sphere of dancing, prismiatic spray
Level 8: power word: stun, polar ray, otto’s irresistible dance
Level 9: wail of the banshee, hold monster:mass, energy drain

finally:
skills
concentration - 23 ranks
heal - 11 ranks
umd -11 ranks
balance -11 ranks
diplo - 11
bluff - 11 ranks
spellcraft 23 ranks
other skills to taste

main thing umd does is let you raise

[Torkzed]

Human Wizard

Stats
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 8
Constitution: 16
Wisdom: 8
Intelligence: 10
Charisma: 18

Typo in the int and charisma stats? I assume you mean 18 Int and 10 charisma for a wizard.

[Hobgoblin]

Typo in the int and charisma stats? I assume you mean 18 Int and 10 charisma for a wizard.

ya fixed

cnp from my sorc guide lol

hob

[Jingwei]

You missed a few things:

When leveling up, refer to the Rare Arcane Scroll List
When you are offered spells to pick when leveling up, always pick spells from the rare list. Otherwise you'll have to track scrolls of them down later.

Once you get to lvl 9 teleport to the portable hole and buy and scribe all the scrolls. This should help make sure that you are only picking 'rare' spells when leveling up.

Spells to have:
Lvl 2: Lesser death aura
Lvl 4: Death Aura

For new players, I'd almost recommend Str 14, Con 14, Int 18 instead of Str 8, Con 16, Int 18, Cha 8

It's way to easy to get made helpless by ray of enfeeblement or ray of exhaustion since you can't count on having a +str item and may not have the SP to keep bulls str running all the time.

You also seem to be missing extend from your feat selection, it's great to have on your death auras and displacement

[Hobgoblin]

You missed a few things:

When leveling up, refer to the Rare Arcane Scroll List
When you are offered spells to pick when leveling up, always pick spells from the rare list. Otherwise you'll have to track scrolls of them down later.

Once you get to lvl 9 teleport to the portable hole and buy and scribe all the scrolls. This should help make sure that you are only picking 'rare' spells when leveling up.

Spells to have:
Lvl 2: Lesser death aura
Lvl 4: Death Aura

For new players, I'd almost recommend Str 14, Con 14, Int 18 instead of Str 8, Con 16, Int 18, Cha 8

It's way to easy to get made helpless by ray of enfeeblement or ray of exhaustion since you can't count on having a +str item and may not have the SP to keep bulls str running all the time.

You also seem to be missing extend from your feat selection, it's great to have on your death auras and displacement

palemasters are immune to exhaustion last tiem i checked

[EllisDee37]

For a drow version, there's also the Epic Challenge Farmer linked in my signature. It's a basic drow pale master build, though it does max the pet line because the pet is more useful in challenges than it is in quests. The pet points can be spent on whatever else you prefer.

I also agree that a couple points in strength can be very helpful. For a human I'd go:

28pt: 18 int, 16 con, 10 str
32pt: 18 int, 16 con, 14 str

I wouldn't bother with UMD on a wizard, especially now that you can remove stat damage with lesser restoration posts.

[MangLord]

There may have been one or two times that I was rendered helpless by a ray of enfeeblement, but is it worth wasting points in STR for points invested in another stat that will benefit me the other 99.9% of the time? I'm gonna say no. If you're completing a quest with enemies blasting you with ray of enfeeblement or other stat drain, you could spend a few PP to buy a wand of bull strength and get a similar result, or retreat behind a pillar and drink a lesser restoration pot. That spell is annoying for a couple levels, but hardly worth investing in STR at all. The investment in CON is much more useful, in my opinion.

My personal preference as a wizard is INT and more INT. I like Drow because you can pump INT to 20 right out of the gate. The racial CON hit isn't too bad with low-hanging-fruit PM and Harper HP enhancements, especially as a wizard, your only real concern is INT. With good gear and undead form, you'll be walking around with a healthy HP pool and good self healing. If you invest everything into INT, your CC will be basically unbeatable at HE/EH, so its unlikely that you'll be getting hurt very much anyways.

Wizard buffs are very strong. Blur, Greater Heroism and Shield are very, very good, and an Extended Displacement, Haste and Maximized Death Aura is a powerful combination with good nullification gear. Maximizing and Quickening your healing spells is somewhat expensive for your SP pool, but it really helps when you get swarmed and don't have to rely on a concentration check to get the spell cast instantly. I'd recommend at least Quickening you Death Aura and Negative Energy Burst. If you Maximize those with a good Negative critical chance from enhancement trees and gear, you'll easily self heal in the midst of battle.

UMD isn't very important for a wizard. Most of the spells you'd want to UMD you can scroll without failure as a wizard. The only scroll you'd need UMD for is raise dead. You may as well invest in something else. Put 10 points into jump and the rest into diplomacy that will allow you to earn bonus xp or bypass a fight or two.

Its important to take Heighten Spell feat early, as it will boost your CC spell DCs to your current level, making Web and Dancing Sphere pay dividends for your entire career. I didn't spend an awful lot of time at epic levels as a wizard, as I prefer melees, but my basic strategy was to lock up a chokepoint with a Web and Disco Ball, then garnish it with an AOE like Wall of Fire or Ice Storm, depending on what scepters I had, what spellpower they boosted, and what would be most effective for the enemies in that quest. If you take the time to swap spells to cater to a specific quest, you'll do very well. I managed to get through every HE trap with Stoneskin, Protection from Elements, Resist Energy, Haste, Rage, Greater Heroism and False Life spells and scrolls.

Necromancy is very nice, but I'd say my bread and butter for most situations was trapping mobs in CC and laying down an AOE elemental spell with my skeleton adding to the beatdown and grabbing aggro. Even with good gear, I learned to be frugal with SP and rely more on CC and AOE spells with excellent DCs. Necromancy is great for instakilling, but the cooldowns are pretty long and the majority of my effectiveness came from good fire or ice spellpower when I locked down mobs in a Web topped off with a Wall of Fire.

For a pet, the skeleton is incredibly durable if you invest in it. At heroic levels, I'd often open a door so that I wasn't right in front of it and grabbing aggro right away, tab toggle onto an enemy, send my skeleton in to grab aggro, then lay down a Web or Dancing Ball as soon as he drew the entire mob on his position. The skeleton may not be good DPS, but he's very durable. He's awesome at consolidating mobs and drawing aggro. If you take advantage of that feature, it can be a huge asset in terms of CC and focusing an AOE spell to maximum benefit. If you choose not to use the skeleton, you can lay down CC and AOE on doorways and chokepoints for maximum effectiveness, but the skeleton grabs an incredible amount of hate off you and can be quite an asset.

The nice thing about being a wizard is that if you don't catch every enemy in a spell the first time, you can just kite them back into it, forcing them to make another save until they get caught. If you don't have the best DCs, you can just kite mobs through AOE spells until they die.

Wizards, especially Pale Masters, as incredibly versatile. All the tools to succeed in HE are there straight off the bat for a first life caster, you just have to be clever about using your resources. If you can link up with a high level Cannith crafter to make DC boosting items, you'll be a force to be reckoned with. I personally kept my Necromancy and Enchantment DCs as high as possible, with some emphasis towards Conjuration (for Web and acid spells) and Evocation (most fire/ice/electric spell DCs) when I could.

[EllisDee37]

There may have been one or two times that I was rendered helpless by a ray of enfeeblement, but is it worth wasting points in STR for points invested in another stat that will benefit me the other 99.9% of the time? I'm gonna say no. If you're completing a quest with enemies blasting you with ray of enfeeblement or other stat drain, you could spend a few PP to buy a wand of bull strength and get a similar result, or retreat behind a pillar and drink a lesser restoration pot. That spell is annoying for a couple levels, but hardly worth investing in STR at all.

My personal preference as a wizard is INT and more INT. I like Drow because you can pump INT to 20 right out of the gate. The racial CON hit isn't too bad with low-hanging-fruit PM and Harper HP enhancements, especially as a wizard, your only real concern is INT. With good gear and undead form, you'll be walking around with a healthy HP pool and good self healing. If you invest everything into INT, your CC will be basically unbeatable at HE/EH, so its unlikely that you'll be getting hurt very much anyways.

Nobody is saying not to max int. Certainly nobody is saying sacrifice int to put points in strength.

We're saying that the stat points work out as follows:

16 build points into int (max)
10 build points into con (6 more would get it to max)
2 build points into strength
---
28pt (drow, or 28pt human)

With 32pt your choice is either 18 con 8 str, or 16 con 14 str. I prefer the latter. You yourself say that con isn't an issue for drow, and a drow wizard will have 14 con. If 14 con isn't an issue, 16 con surely isn't either.

Strength isn't just about being helpless. Encumberance makes you run slower, and the more chests you loot the more likely you will become encumbered if you start with 8 strength. Also, it's not a matter of 2 points in strength or bull's strength. My recommendation would be to spend the two points and use (extended?) bull's strength as one of your standard shrine buffs.

[Hobgoblin]

dropped con by 1 and put str for some of the reasons discussed in this thread thanks guys

hob

[EllisDee37]

Comparing the feat choices, here's the schedule from the OP:

1: maximize
1H: empower
1W: mental toughness
3: spell penetration
5W: Spell focus: necromancy
6: Insightful reflexes
9: Heighten
10W: Quicken
12: Toughness – more hp is good
15: Greater spell pen
15W: spell focus: enchant
18: Greater spell focus: necro
20W: Either improved mental toughness or enlarge

Here's the schedule from my link:

1 : Insightful Reflexes
1W: Spell Focus: Enchantment
3 : Empower Spell
5W: Extend Spell
6 : Heighten Spell
9 : Maximize Spell
10W: Spell Focus: Necromancy
12 : Spell Penetration
15 : Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
15W: Quicken Spell
18 : Greater Spell Penetration
20W: Mental Toughness

Eliminating the same feats, I take extend while you take two of toughness, enlarge and improved mental toughness. Of those four feats, as is obvious I prefer extend. It's quite nice for haste, displacement and death aura. I can see value in enlarge, but if I had a second feat to choose I think I'd rather have improved mental toughness, but not by much. It's a good call listing the two together and making it a player's choice. But I'd absolutely rather have extend than toughness.

I find enchantment actually useful in the lower levels, so I like to front-load that spell focus. You frontload maximize and empower for use on SLAs, but the only damage SLA they can be used on that early is magic missle, which is pretty poor at low levels even fully meta'd. I much prefer niac's cold ray. It does more damage un-meta'd than magic missile does fully meta'd, has a longer range, and is only slightly more expensive to cast.

As far as metas and SLAs go, I much prefer taking the web SLA and heightening it for free. Web is a level 2 spell, which means it can be heightened at wizard level 5. But that competes with extend for haste and displacement, which I value more. So I take extend at 5 and heighten at 6. Empower is taken early, as are the improved empower enhancements to make it cheaper. I then add maximize at 9, when I start to have enough of a mana pool to afford to use it. Again taking the improved maximize enhancements as soon as I get the feat.

Level 3 is way too early for spell penetration; level 12 is the earliest that I could justify taking it. Before level 10 quests, is there anything with spell resistance?

Level 5 is way too early to take necromancy focus, IMO. I don't use the necro school until necrotic ray/circle of death at wizard level 11, so necro focus is a natural fit for the level 10 wizard bonus feat.

I don't use quicken except for otto's sphere of dancing, which is wizard level 13. That gives a reason to take quicken at level 12, but I prefer spell penetration at 12 for ataraxia, that demon quest in the desert, the last two quests in sorrowdusk, and all the demons in threnal, all of which are quest level 10 or 11. So that pushes quicken back to 15 for me.

EDIT: Forgot to mention insightful reflexes. For a brand new player, their reflex saves will be awful until they take the feat. Even korthos traps will be super painful for a newbie, so I take it at creation.

[Hobgoblin]

Comparing the feat choices, here's the schedule from the OP:


Level 3 is way too early for spell penetration; level 12 is the earliest that I could justify taking it. Before level 10 quests, is there anything with spell resistance?

there is an ice flenser in korthos that should have sr but yes i agree with you

maybe renders in house k? the one ftp quest by the bank that no one ever runs?

i use quicken on necro burst. i usually run with 2 on my bar - one with quicken/maximize/empower one w/o just for emergencies.

for slas - i dont use mm - i use necro for the free sla and dc which gives you cold touch or whatever its called

the order i dont think is as much of an issue - but that may be biased coming from me. i tend to run through the first 12 levels real quick so it all blurs on me

Spell pen was more just to get it in and you can't take it with wiz bonus feats

hob

[Hobgoblin]

EDIT: Forgot to mention insightful reflexes. For a brand new player, their reflex saves will be awful until they take the feat. Even korthos traps will be super painful for a newbie, so I take it at creation.

wholly bleepity bleep did i really wait till 6 for reflexes?

ya that should be 3 at the very latest for new peeps.

[EllisDee37]

i use quicken on necro burst. i usually run with 2 on my bar - one with quicken/maximize/empower one w/o just for emergencies.

Makes sense. For me personally, I never use necro burst except in emergencies, letting aura do the work in non-emergency situations. Not having quicken until 15 just makes me mindful of preventing emergencies from becoming too severe via aggro management. But I can see the logic for taking it earlier.

for slas - i dont use mm - i use necro for the free sla and dc which gives you cold touch or whatever its called

Ah, gotcha. After having run several wizard lives, I've never once used that spell or its SLA equivalent.

the order i dont think is as much of an issue - but that may be biased coming from me. i tend to run through the first 12 levels real quick so it all blurs on me

Fair enough, but order is pretty important for new players. They definitely do not blast through the first 12 levels in a blur.

Spell pen was more just to get it in and you can't take it with wiz bonus feats

Yeah, spell pen is a PITA due to not being eligible as a bonus feat.

[EllisDee37]

maybe renders in house k? the one ftp quest by the bank that no one ever runs?

Taming the Flames? I don't remember any demons in there, just a bazillion elementals and mephits.

The only other F2P quests by the house k bank are level 11 (made to order) and 12 (relic of a sovereign past.) Both are thick with duergar, who have spell resistance, and are part of the reason I take spell penetration at 12.

I run all three quests every life.

[Hobgoblin]

Taming the Flames? I don't remember any demons in there, just a bazillion elementals and mephits.

The only other F2P quests by the house k bank are level 11 (made to order) and 12 (relic of a sovereign past.) Both are thick with duergar, who have spell resistance, and are part of the reason I take spell penetration at 12.

I run all three quests every life.

caverns of korromar

[EllisDee37]

caverns of korromar

Ah, gotcha. That's level 8 and does indeed have two demons, so fair point.

I also run that one every life, but for the demons I just dps them down, usually with frost lance and/or scorching ray.

[Hobgoblin]

Ah, gotcha. That's level 8 and does indeed have two demons, so fair point.

I also run that one every life, but for the demons I just dps them down, usually with frost lance and/or scorching ray.

ya i agree with ya - was reaching for anything with sr under 10 lol

hob

[MangLord]

wholly bleepity bleep did i really wait till 6 for reflexes?

ya that should be 3 at the very latest for new peeps.

Wizard saves are fairly weak, so I honestly wouldn't waste the feat. Excellent reflex saves are hard to get unless you play a class that excels in that area, like a rogue, ranger or swashbuckler bard specialist. Unless you can get your reflex saves into the mid 60's at epic levels without evasion, its not worth the expenditure when you have so many other options. Without evasion, a 60-ish reflex isn't enough to mitigate damage without evasion. Even if you have Evasion, a 60 reflex isn't foolproof. You need 70ish to make full use of evasion, and 75-80 to really benefit from Epic Reflexes. I'd rather focus on true strengths as a wizard, which allows me to mostly avoid any saving throws at all with excellent CC and death spells. If I can easily tie up mobs in CC and AOE, then there's really no need to waste feats with saving throws that aren't a guaranteed save. I'd feel a lot better opting for DC based spell feats

As a wizard, there are so many ways to power your way through traps. Just using Prot from Energy and False Life got me through most heroic level traps without using GH, Stoneskin, Haste and Rage.

An upgraded Pale Lavender Ioun Stone is one of the best investments that you can make as a DDO player, no matter what class. When you have to fight a beholder, pop it on and they can't kill your buffs or level drain you.

[EllisDee37]

This is a new player build. How would a new player have a PLIS? Why would they care about endgame saves?

It's also worth pointing out that the endgame pale master thread (also linked in the OP) has this to say about insightful reflexes: "and don’t forget Insightful reflexes (it is critical for survival)"

[AbyssalMage]

Any chance you can go take a look over and format it. Really hard (near impossible) to read.

I would place Elf or Human as most likely racial choices (if you truly consider Drow a premium race. I just consider it a "Now that you learned the basics of the game, here, have Drow " ). Elf, on a first life does provide Spell Pen + SP's which would be very helpful to a new player with no/very little gear who doesn't know the game very well.