Question about some game machanic (was away some time)

[Sanader]

Hello,
I was away some time because I felt that wizard was next to useless, so I'm asking was anything changed in the favor of wizards?

1) Can champions still have immunities to wizard spells (deathward, FoM etc.) If yes, did champions get any sort of immunities to combat tactical feats?

2) Do combat tactical feats still work on almost everything (stunning blow from plant to undead for example?And tripping spiders?). If not, do wizard spell work on more things now? (enchantment spells on spiders, wail of banshee on undead)

3) Do other classes still have to only get + tactic DC item +insg. tactic and have reliable tactic DC (without tactic feats, ED's, twisting DC stats, or serious enhancment tree crippling?)

4) Are wizards able to solo some harder EE's without chugging store pots and without using shiradi ED?

5) Do groups still decline wizards if to many of them apply (although having 12 barbarians isn't a problem, or whatever class is "in" now).

6) Is healer a needed class or using silverflame pots and EDs is enough?

7) Do some enemies get immunity to certain types of weapons? (Fire ellies ummine to fire, but is something immune to slashing weapons).

8) How are the tankiness problems adressed? Armor rating useless? PRR and/or dodge? Can spellcasters get decent damage reduction?

9) Do melee classes have to invest in to-hit bonuses if they put stat points into their to-hit stat?

10) Do wizards struggle with Spell resistance?

11) Any plans on removing blue bar? Would that make wizards OP? Atleast it would cripple people that duped SP pots. Did turbine do anything about duped items?

Btw, I'm a completionist with 50 or so lives, so I know quite a few about the game. Maybe I'm just rusty and don't know what happened in the last 12 months or so.

[cru121]

There's MoK, and negative energy healing is very strong these days. Archmage SLAs have been buffed.

1) yes; no
2) probably yes; no; everyone's Dire Charging these days
3) dunno
4) yes
5) haven't seen this
6) no; yes usually
7) boss Mummy in Search & Rescue has ~615 DR/-
8) what problems? 100+AC has benefits in end game. PRR & Dodge is great. Yes
9) yes
10) yes, unless having maxxed PLs or using different spells
11) no; no; -; check your inventory to see if you lost anything...

[FranOhmsford]

Hello,
I was away some time because I felt that wizard was next to useless, so I'm asking was anything changed in the favor of wizards?

1) Can champions still have immunities to wizard spells (deathward, FoM etc.) If yes, did champions get any sort of immunities to combat tactical feats?

Unfortunately yes - Champions are very commonly deathwarded - Makes even favour farming massively over-level a pain in some quests - Dreams of Insanity {Aaaaaargh at Champion Beholders - for a Caster.

Champions can be heavily DRd and in some cases virtually immune to certain Elements or Dmg Types but I don't believe I've ever seen immunity to tactical Feats.

2) Do combat tactical feats still work on almost everything (stunning blow from plant to undead for example?And tripping spiders?). If not, do wizard spell work on more things now? (enchantment spells on spiders, wail of banshee on undead)

As far as I can tell yes Combat Feats are still working on things they shouldn't and Spiders are still immune to Most Enchantments while Undead are still immune to Wail/FoD etc.

3) Do other classes still have to only get + tactic DC item +insg. tactic and have reliable tactic DC (without tactic feats, ED's, twisting DC stats, or serious enhancment tree crippling?)

Ahahahahaha

Reliable Tactics DC is what 95+ now?
Only get both a tactics item AND an insightful tactics item? Where do you fit this into your gear exactly?

4) Are wizards able to solo some harder EE's without chugging store pots and without using shiradi ED?

We have Legendary Elite now - EEs are nothing to the top tier Players.

5) Do groups still decline wizards if to many of them apply (although having 12 barbarians isn't a problem, or whatever class is "in" now).

Some people decline for all sorts of silly reasons - I've never seen an all Barb Raid or even heard of one {although I suppose it is possible it's been done like all Rogue or all Cleric/Soul Raids were done in the past}.
There really aren't that many Wizards or Sorcs around any more anyway - Warlock is the Arcane Caster of choice.

6) Is healer a needed class or using silverflame pots and EDs is enough?

Who uses SF Pots anymore? Everyone and their Dog has Cocoon and UMD through the roof for Heal Scrolls.

Healers help but good luck finding one.

7) Do some enemies get immunity to certain types of weapons? (Fire ellies ummine to fire, but is something immune to slashing weapons).

Rakshasa have DR vs everything but Piercing {possibly +Good}.

There's a mob out there with DR vs pretty much anything you care to mention.

8) How are the tankiness problems adressed? Armor rating useless? PRR and/or dodge? Can spellcasters get decent damage reduction?

PRR/MRR is the biggie now {some Dodge will help too but a minimum of 100 PRR/50 MRR is an absolute necessity for pretty much everyone.} Tanks can get up to 250+ PRR now.

9) Do melee classes have to invest in to-hit bonuses if they put stat points into their to-hit stat?

To Hit bonuses are not difficult to get so I wouldn't say it's an investment + Pretty sure they're only necessary in the absolute top {LE} content.

10) Do wizards struggle with Spell resistance?

Yes

11) Any plans on removing blue bar? Would that make wizards OP? Atleast it would cripple people that duped SP pots. Did turbine do anything about duped items?

Turbine will never get rid of the blue bar because SP Pots and DDOStore.

But go ahead and TR into a Warlock - You'll never worry about SPs again!

Btw, I'm a completionist with 50 or so lives, so I know quite a few about the game. Maybe I'm just rusty and don't know what happened in the last 12 months or so.

Do you have Warlock done?

If not you're no longer a Completionist so get those Warlock lives done.

[Sanader]

Reliable Tactics DC is what 95+ now?
Only get both a tactics item AND an insightful tactics item? Where do you fit this into your gear exactly?

Isn't the reliable DC treshold for tactics same as for spells? I can probably try to make a breakdown for tactics to reach 120 DC. And Im not really sure it's possible to get spell DC to 100 nowdays?
And I didn't realize fitting +tactical feat DC and combat mastery was so hard? Expecially since every piece of my wizard gear is towards spell DC and spell penetration. I wouldn't mind having to worry only about 2 things to have enough DC for reliable CC. And not worry about SP bar in the process.

You are true about SP pots :/

Well....to bad. Seems wizards aint needed since other classes got CC covered, and they can do everything else better (I can think of many situations where other classes can CC better then wizards actually.). So much about returning back to DDO and playing wizard.

Ty for your time and have fun o/

[lyrecono]

1)Immunity? not on trash champions as far as i noticed, unless the mob is immune already.

2) didn't notice a change on tactical feats.

3) No, on legendary elite (LE) that simply won't do unless you're a fighter or barb even then it's decked out to succeed. a simple first life barb with the 2 items you posted won't trip/stun anything on LE.
Some bard seem to get high dc's on their pdk with Cormyrean Knight Training& Spinning Ice

4) Are wizards able to solo some harder EE's without chugging store pots and without using shiradi ED?
Mana pots still don't drop enough though sla's&reliable dc's for instakils have made things somewhat manageable.

5) Do groups still decline wizards if to many of them apply (although having 12 barbarians isn't a problem, or whatever class is "in" now).
for many LE and EE runs people will still pick people they know or have ran with in the past or ask for your dc's if they don't.
This might surprise you but on my server there are about 4 reliable LE capable players that run well build and geared barbarians on a competent (for LE) level.
CC casters are in high demand when running some of the raids, if their dc's are good enough.

6) Is healer a needed class or using silverflame pots and EDs is enough?
needed? no, useful? yes! Silver flame potions are terrible for dps and have too long a cool down, for emergencies only. I see a lot of healing circles on barbs wich also adds dps but there is another problem for healers:
Mob dps, it's so high that you can't tank or heal, 1 or 2 shots are not uncommon, boss dps is outright stupid, melee's can't tank LE sorjec for example.
I rarely see a healer, let alone a good one. might be the lack of dps when leveling epic pastlives.
everyone needs to have a stack of rez scrolls in LE.

7) Do some enemies get immunity to certain types of weapons? (Fire ellies ummine to fire, but is something immune to slashing weapons).
No, never seen it, i have seen pretty hefty dr though
Keep in mind that some mobs on LE seem to have some unspecified amount of dr, almost like they have prr of sorts.

8) How are the tankiness problems adressed? Armor rating useless? PRR and/or dodge? Can spellcasters get decent damage reduction?
AC has been useless for years, the amount you need to put in to get a 40 to 60% mischance is insane.
I have a monk in guild who manages this, high ac and dodge. The problem however is when he does get hit, often an insta kill.
Prr and Mrr are a band aid for melee's, going over a 200prr and 100mrr on melee's that don't tank (e.g. s&b paly and fighters) yields extremely diminishing returns. it's not good enough for LE though. Saves need to be through the roof too. dodge, though capped is still useful, making a tower shield build is a very hard choice indeed.
Arcane spell casters can still cast displacement (after the nerf which made it self only).
As a caster you shouldn't be in the front line though, player skills are still the best damage mitigation btw.

9) Do melee classes have to invest in to-hit bonuses if they put stat points into their to-hit stat?
On LE yes, some of the raid bosses (inevitable in tempest spine) even made it hard for barbs. the new ring became a must have in LE. For me it was the first time i had to equip an accuracy item.

10) Do wizards struggle with Spell resistance?
not really from what i see, trash loot closed the gap

11) Any plans on removing blue bar? Would that make wizards OP? Atleast it would cripple people that duped SP pots. Did turbine do anything about duped items?
Not likely, but you can play a warlock who can do dps without a blue bar (though they do have one and a limited amount of spells)
No, since mana pots stopped dropping, the duppers that got ignored have blown through them by now.
Others just keep buying store pots anyway so you'll always have mana potaholic arcane casters running around.

Btw, I'm a completionist with 50 or so lives, so I know quite a few about the game. Maybe I'm just rusty and don't know what happened in the last 12 months or so.
meh, read the updates from ddo wiki and play again to find out the chages.
The cap got raised to 30 and 10 out of 12 (lv 30)Legendary Feats are (hybrid) caster only beneficial. They also added 12 caster only epic feats.
So caster were nice and coddled the past year.

The trent that started when the cap was raised form 20 to 25 has only gotten worse.
The dev team keeps overreacting to the cries of the overly vocal 1% of elite players who think the game is too easy, often resulting in too much dps on mobs.
Seeing hordes of (non champion) mobs spam 350 damage in an AoE in a lv 13 quest (15 on elite) is becoming the norm these days, with mob dps we have to strugle to get our saves hp/dr/mrr/prr/selfhealing/reparing/etc up.

Dwindling down their insane amounts of hit points is like a badge of honor to that very vocal minority, for the most of us on the Legendary Elite endgame side it becomes very boring hacking hp away like that.

[Uska]

Unfortunately yes - Champions are very commonly deathwarded - Makes even favour farming massively over-level a pain in some quests - Dreams of Insanity {Aaaaaargh at Champion Beholders - for a Caster.

Champions can be heavily DRd and in some cases virtually immune to certain Elements or Dmg Types but I don't believe I've ever seen immunity to tactical Feats.



As far as I can tell yes Combat Feats are still working on things they shouldn't and Spiders are still immune to Most Enchantments while Undead are still immune to Wail/FoD etc.



Ahahahahaha

Reliable Tactics DC is what 95+ now?
Only get both a tactics item AND an insightful tactics item? Where do you fit this into your gear exactly?



We have Legendary Elite now - EEs are nothing to the top tier Players.



Some people decline for all sorts of silly reasons - I've never seen an all Barb Raid or even heard of one {although I suppose it is possible it's been done like all Rogue or all Cleric/Soul Raids were done in the past}.
There really aren't that many Wizards or Sorcs around any more anyway - Warlock is the Arcane Caster of choice.



Who uses SF Pots anymore? Everyone and their Dog has Cocoon and UMD through the roof for Heal Scrolls.

Healers help but good luck finding one.



Rakshasa have DR vs everything but Piercing {possibly +Good}.

There's a mob out there with DR vs pretty much anything you care to mention.



PRR/MRR is the biggie now {some Dodge will help too but a minimum of 100 PRR/50 MRR is an absolute necessity for pretty much everyone.} Tanks can get up to 250+ PRR now.



To Hit bonuses are not difficult to get so I wouldn't say it's an investment + Pretty sure they're only necessary in the absolute top {LE} content.



Yes



Turbine will never get rid of the blue bar because SP Pots and DDOStore.

But go ahead and TR into a Warlock - You'll never worry about SPs again!



Do you have Warlock done?

If not you're no longer a Completionist so get those Warlock lives done.

Don't know if they have done it epic but we did do an at level all barb elite shroud last year so no ed's was interesting and nearly a tpk a couple of times.

[FranOhmsford]

Don't know if they have done it epic but we did do an at level all barb elite shroud last year so no ed's was interesting and nearly a tpk a couple of times.

My point is that was your choice - You did it because you wanted to try it NOT because you had a problem with Casters or Healers or Rogues or any other class!

If a group of people want to get together and do an All Wizard LE Shroud they could do that too - It's not common though and shouldn't be used as an example of Rogues or Clerics or Warlocks not being able to get into Raids just as an All Barb Shroud from last year shouldn't be held up as an example of Wizards not being able to get into Raids.

[FranOhmsford]

And I didn't realize fitting +tactical feat DC and combat mastery was so hard? Expecially since every piece of my wizard gear is towards spell DC and spell penetration. I wouldn't mind having to worry only about 2 things to have enough DC for reliable CC. And not worry about SP bar in the process.

Tactics on a Melee is an extra that comes after so much else. Your Wizard fits in Spwr, DCs, Spell Pen, Spell Points FIRST, The Melee has to fit in so much else FIRST!

Not saying that Wizards don't have problems, I've argued over and over again that they in fact DO.
And that requiring Spell Points, Spellpower for multiple Element Types+Force, Spell Crits for multiple Element Types+Force, DCs for multiple Schools and Spell Pen to ALL be geared for leaves absolutely no room for other basic requirements like Resistance, PRR, Deathblock, Fortification.

But the Fighter has to have all those basic requirements too {and some of them more than your Wizard does}, The Fighter also has to try and fit in Deadly and Seeker, Try fitting in two different Tactics Items and see what you're missing!


Gear is an absolute nightmare for melees right now whereas gearing up a caster is much much easier than it ever was in the past because literally every random weapon, armour, robe and shield as well as Rings, Necklaces, Goggles and possibly other items have caster stats generated at about an 80% chance!


I just picked up a +2 Enchantment DC of +1 Insightful Enchantment DC Min Lvl 11 pair of Goggles off the Orien AH for my Warlock today!
I don't even have Mass Charm, Mass Hold or Ottos yet but I'm holding on to those Goggles for when I do get those Spells!

[Uska]

My point is that was your choice - You did it because you wanted to try it NOT because you had a problem with Casters or Healers or Rogues or any other class!

If a group of people want to get together and do an All Wizard LE Shroud they could do that too - It's not common though and shouldn't be used as an example of Rogues or Clerics or Warlocks not being able to get into Raids just as an All Barb Shroud from last year shouldn't be held up as an example of Wizards not being able to get into Raids.

Yeah it was pre-planned just to see if it was possible we also tried it with other classes. If I do put a LFM I take the first 5 unless one of them is on my no way in hell list

[UurlockYgmeov]

deathwards? hit with dispel and then FoD... *poof* dead. :P

[Enoach]

Hello,
I was away some time because I felt that wizard was next to useless, so I'm asking was anything changed in the favor of wizards?

Wizards have not yet had their pass by Turbine. I am hopeful that when they do make some adjustments it will not just be in the Enhancement Tree but also with Spells with a hope that More Spells are also included.

1) Can champions still have immunities to wizard spells (deathward, FoM etc.) If yes, did champions get any sort of immunities to combat tactical feats?

Champion's buffs are random. Some will get deathward, some FOM and some both. The Wizard still has the advantage of being able to switch out spells and have a depth of spells to handle these types of situations.

2) Do combat tactical feats still work on almost everything (stunning blow from plant to undead for example?And tripping spiders?). If not, do wizard spell work on more things now? (enchantment spells on spiders, wail of banshee on undead)

Well Stunning Blow/Fist does not work on undead, but Vanguard Shield Bash does. Tripping a Spider still takes a high investment (Tactical Attribute Str usually, Gear and Feats). Enchantment Spells work on Magical Beasts and there are some spiders that are not considered vermin, Wail of the Banshee only works on the Living but Undeath to Death still works.

3) Do other classes still have to only get + tactic DC item +insg. tactic and have reliable tactic DC (without tactic feats, ED's, twisting DC stats, or serious enhancment tree crippling?)

That depends on what difficulty they are running. The highest content such as Legendary Elite I would not recommend just using a Tactic DC item(s), but would recommend getting other enhancements as well as debuffs to help land these reliably. However, I don't remember this being true for content Level 15+ either. Some investment needs to be made.

4) Are wizards able to solo some harder EE's without chugging store pots and without using shiradi ED?

Yes, wizards continue to be able to solo without need to have a drinking problem or need to have to use shiradi ED. The trick is the same, fight only the fights you have to fight. And there are still various SLAs available to be used. If however, you are the type of player that "has to kill it all" then you may find spell points are tight. But much of the newer content has several shrines to refresh at.

5) Do groups still decline wizards if to many of them apply (although having 12 barbarians isn't a problem, or whatever class is "in" now).

I'm not sure about your experience but I've personally never ran into this type of thing. Now I've been refused on all of my characters at one time or other because the Party Leader felt they needed a skill my character could not provide. I don't take that personally it is their party after all.

6) Is healer a needed class or using silverflame pots and EDs is enough?

This depends on who you talk with. For me a "Healer" has not been needed in a party since 2007. But I also ran with groups that used tactics to complete quests that allowed the group to always have the advantage in every fight and also used our strengths to cover each others weaknesses. Having a Cleric, Bard, FvS, Druid or Artificer in the group that wanted to use their abilities to help a party go further was always welcome.

7) Do some enemies get immunity to certain types of weapons? (Fire ellies ummine to fire, but is something immune to slashing weapons).

Damage Reduction still exists in the game that reduces damage and depending on the amount of DR it is still possible that zero damage is done from the Weapon, but any Sub Effects will still apply.

8) How are the tankiness problems adressed? Armor rating useless? PRR and/or dodge? Can spellcasters get decent damage reduction?

Tankiness for Wizard? That is still handled the same way, armor with PRR as much Dodge as possible and Concealment.

9) Do melee classes have to invest in to-hit bonuses if they put stat points into their to-hit stat?

That depends on how much they invest in their to-hit stat. Glancing blows are still a thing.

10) Do wizards struggle with Spell resistance?

At higher levels such as Legendary Shroud SR can be tough depending on your investment in Spell Penetration. But there is gear that can help with this.

11) Any plans on removing blue bar? Would that make wizards OP? Atleast it would cripple people that duped SP pots. Did turbine do anything about duped items?

Why? This is suppose to be ne of the equalization of a caster. Yes, they have put in a few fixes that seems to have reduced if not prevented duplication that occured

Btw, I'm a completionist with 50 or so lives, so I know quite a few about the game. Maybe I'm just rusty and don't know what happened in the last 12 months or so.

Please don't take this personally, but I've meet many that have even more lives under their belt that know less then they should based on that experience. I'm not saying this is you, but in the past 12 months Turbine has released several changes to different classes as well as new quests and gear that you might find useful as a wizard. One big change is the Epic Shroud and the gear that can come from this Raid as well as several quests with gear that can help strengthen a caster's ability.

I recommend looking at the release notes for the past year, make a list of the new quests and possible gear that you find interesting and spend some time updating your Wizard.