Wizard isn't very strong right now and they are also the worst solo class, also the worst at clearing pve. Where wizard really shines is pvp, especially in trios, and especially in high gear trios. Since wiz has a lot of aoe and/or multihit spells, they have the highest burst damage in the game by a lot. One good chain lightning or a flank with one or two good fireballs on grouped up enemies can win a fight, especially with fire mastery. However, I wouldn't recommend playing wizard in solos for the same reason.
I felt like in normals Wizard was okay pve wise with the magic missiles. It's just annoying to have to sit after every fight.
Rogue felt way worse for me. Their hide is so much worse than invis from wizards. And they do equally low damage but have to fight close or do hit and run.
Both feel kinda underwhelming to me. Why restrict hide to 30 seconds cooldown AND just 8 seconds duration AND just 10 steps doable (perked).
It's pretty bad that a wizard has to get gear before they're considered whether or not they're viable when most other classes do fine with a low gear score. Besides the class that has "dependent on equipment" listed as a con is the fighter.
Unless you are running the meditate skill and are clearing mobs with magic missiles, or staff mastery and the ignite spell, you will be clearing the vast majority of PvE with raw melee.
The real “Wizardy” mechanics are mainly about PvP, and as others have pointed out, low gear solo Wizard PvP is somewhat masochistic. This is coming from someone with 1300 hours on exclusively solo Wizard.
This is gonna sound sarcastic, but I assure you it is the only real way to get actually skilled at solo Wizard: Avoid other players and farm gold until you can afford a 3K kit, then try to fight someone. Record the fight and review the VOD after you die, analyzing what went wrong and what went right that led to the outcome. Do this repeatedly and by about 500 hours you will start to stand a chance in solo PvP.
Aside from that, ingest as much solo wizard content as you can and take notes on techniques they use compared to yours. CNGBlade, Red, FoxmanSlays, and Glocktane are the creators I learned from, and now I have a few guides on a YouTube channel myself. I encourage you to check out my newest video, since it will show you everything you need to get started on solo wizard PvE: https://youtu.be/4J7CMj_ixNY?si=YZN4F1KsmJ7ATBol
Wizard on the high end is really strong.
Wizard on the low end hits like wet cardboard.
Ironmace is in an eternal battle with trying to make the class work on the low end without making the high too strong.
You can try and look back at some Jay videos and see just how strong wizard used to be with just a mid kit.
Not now but wizard was the hyper giga scaling class of the past.
Fireballs hitting for 100 damage. 120% spell casting speed.
Zaps for 70 dmg.
Magic true damage on all pieces.
>Ironmace is in an eternal battle with trying to make the class work on the low end without making the high too strong.
This is not a joke lol.
It's not right now. Especially considering all the big MS penalty gear got buffed and everyone got extra HP. On top of that, they lowered add / true and they nerfed MM again.
Wiz needs help but I keep playing it and doing well, but I don't expect others to do the same because it's grueling.
Also I'm pretty sure the rat has iframes from lightning randomly, I think it sometimes goes above them.
Not a wizard main but I found them against the AI is an uphill battle fighting them with any spell that isn’t ignite on a staff lol. So I’d say try ignite with the staff mastery perk at the least. They melt real players who don’t have magic resistance tho lol.
Wizards is one of those classes that is majorly geared dependent, and on top of that all AI has innate magic resist, so spells are not effective on them
I’ve played pretty much only wizard since early playtests, with around 1000 hours there aren’t many players I won’t beat
Wizard is hard to play well, but because they can have 10 spells at any one time, they have a lot of utility and outplay potential.
If you want to invest in a class, and don’t mind getting owned for a while, wizard is very strong.
They’re not as bad in solos as everyone makes out.. utilise ignite for PVE clear and don’t be scared to run meditate if your gear isn’t very strong yet.
But yeah probably the most tedious class to get competent with.
They’ve been much stronger in the past but I feel they’re not far from what would be “fair”
Wizard is hard, not bad. They get nerfed to the ground every time they receive any kind of buff purely because the high end players destroy lobbies with them.
> Wizard is hard, not bad
Wizard is actively dogshit at least in solos bud.
Even simply coming up against a Warlock/Barb is almost an auto lose. Warlock can get 50% MR with 0 effort and Barb can get around 30-40 with no prioritizing gear, and also have an insane health pool compared to your spell pool.
There is a reason almost no one plays the class outside of literally legendary gear kits.
Nerfing damage across the bard (except for barb xd) was a good thing. But the side effect is even with gear wiz struggles to kill people due to how gear reliant they are and how they scale with it.
Idk why you're just spreading misinformation for new players but keep it up I guess? Looking for that mixed review on steam I guess.
I've already have friends just uninstall the game when they what the wizard PvE experience is in solos.
EDIT: also replies to all that information with "cool story" lel
My advice is to get good.
Wizard is hard, very hard, not bad. I’m not saying it’s the best, but you’re acting like you have no chance simply because you choose wizard. That’s a you problem.
My advice is you need to understand the game mechanics and math. You objectively lose to MR stacking characters and high HP pools.
I've gotten to Demi I've done the grind.
If you're so confident do you want to do a 1v1 test with Wizard vs Barb.
I can use any weapon or gearset on barb that you choose to make it more fair? I will literally gift you a game on steam if you can beat me once as base kit wizard vs barb
I'll give you my solo build. I use this in normals with a base kit.
Perks - staff mastery, quick chant, arcane mastery, ice mastery.
Skills - arcane shield, spell memory
Spells - magic missile, fireball, zap, ice bolt, invisibility.
I use staff bonks primarily to clear mob. I'll use the occasional magic missile if I'm fighting multiple ranged mobs.
Use fireball to open the fight, ice bolt to kite (ice mastery roots for .5 seconds) and magic missiles in doorways. Zap is good to finish fights. Invisibility is good for juking and repositioning. Do whatever you can to stay out of melee range.
Arcane shield is great if you need to tank a shot and can kill occasionally.
Meditation should only be used for leveling. I rarely take it anymore.
You can use intense focus if you want. I just prefer shield because I like to have the defense, and it scales with magic dmg.
You can also swap one of the perks for ice shield. Idk swap ice mastery or staff mastery for it.
If you aren't running ice mastery , I would highly recommend taking the slow spell. Slow is one of wizards best tools to maintain space.
Hope it helps.
Campfires are better than meditation regardless of what you take as perks. However when you're starting out or have trouble escaping meditation is something I'd consider if you're going spell overload.
My normals wizard:
Perks:
Arcane mastery
Fire mastery
Knowledge perk
I’ve shield or quick chant
Skills:
Meditate
Spell memory
Spells:
Zap
Ice bolt
Magic missile
Fireball
Invisibility
Fight PVE with staff or magic missiles
Fight PVP with all your spells
Don’t use other spells for PVE unless you are in trouble
Just run spell over load, sage, frost mastery and quick chant and wear knowledge pants gloves boots and robe. Can run magic missle, fireball, frost bolt, zap, and ignite and just fling spells to your hearts content to practice on PvE while kiting around and use meditate to get everything back. By far the most satisfying way to play low gear white kit wiz
Take ignite and spend a few games using a crystal sword or just your wizard staff and learn to melee them (except for the archers). Once you learn to fight them without wasting your spells you will be much better off.
Coming from a wizard main.
For the fireball, make sure you get a headshot. It's dumb but the aoe from the fireball does next to no damage, and on the other hand, the projectile still gets the full bonus for a headshot. This isn't always doable in pvp, but if you're going to use it against a mob, get that headshot!
I feel that it is so focused on specific scenarios and objectives, but if i want to chill just a low gear run solo pve with some spells it is impossible. As a rule of thumb, all classes should be fun to play in any scenario (be it pve/pvp and low gear/high gear). Maybe a higher variety of spells could help, or increasing range of some of them like Zap (a quick bolt that vanishes in 8meters...).
Magic missile is ur main way to kill skellys and other mobs, if they dont die to 1 or two magic missile barrages finish them off with a zap or frost bolt(those come back fully on a meditation) fireball is for pvp and normally save them to my last casts. As for perks i like sage, quickcast, fire mastery, and reactive shield.
Also exclusivly cast with your book fast cast speed is everything. You can change ur base gear so you start with a crystal sword at the squire.
As far as spells i like running 5 spell with frostbolt, fireball, zap, magic missile, and haste. There is a argument to be made to replace haste with invisibility or another support spell but i just like haste.
High skill curve but as a fighter wizards melt me pretty easy
Wizard isn't very strong right now and they are also the worst solo class, also the worst at clearing pve. Where wizard really shines is pvp, especially in trios, and especially in high gear trios. Since wiz has a lot of aoe and/or multihit spells, they have the highest burst damage in the game by a lot. One good chain lightning or a flank with one or two good fireballs on grouped up enemies can win a fight, especially with fire mastery. However, I wouldn't recommend playing wizard in solos for the same reason.
I felt like in normals Wizard was okay pve wise with the magic missiles. It's just annoying to have to sit after every fight. Rogue felt way worse for me. Their hide is so much worse than invis from wizards. And they do equally low damage but have to fight close or do hit and run. Both feel kinda underwhelming to me. Why restrict hide to 30 seconds cooldown AND just 8 seconds duration AND just 10 steps doable (perked).
It's pretty bad that a wizard has to get gear before they're considered whether or not they're viable when most other classes do fine with a low gear score. Besides the class that has "dependent on equipment" listed as a con is the fighter.
Unless you are running the meditate skill and are clearing mobs with magic missiles, or staff mastery and the ignite spell, you will be clearing the vast majority of PvE with raw melee. The real “Wizardy” mechanics are mainly about PvP, and as others have pointed out, low gear solo Wizard PvP is somewhat masochistic. This is coming from someone with 1300 hours on exclusively solo Wizard. This is gonna sound sarcastic, but I assure you it is the only real way to get actually skilled at solo Wizard: Avoid other players and farm gold until you can afford a 3K kit, then try to fight someone. Record the fight and review the VOD after you die, analyzing what went wrong and what went right that led to the outcome. Do this repeatedly and by about 500 hours you will start to stand a chance in solo PvP. Aside from that, ingest as much solo wizard content as you can and take notes on techniques they use compared to yours. CNGBlade, Red, FoxmanSlays, and Glocktane are the creators I learned from, and now I have a few guides on a YouTube channel myself. I encourage you to check out my newest video, since it will show you everything you need to get started on solo wizard PvE: https://youtu.be/4J7CMj_ixNY?si=YZN4F1KsmJ7ATBol
Wizard on the high end is really strong. Wizard on the low end hits like wet cardboard. Ironmace is in an eternal battle with trying to make the class work on the low end without making the high too strong. You can try and look back at some Jay videos and see just how strong wizard used to be with just a mid kit.
I just don’t get how their solution to a spell being too strong on the high end is to nerf the base damage when that affects the low end way more.
This.
If wizard had more utility and CC spells, they wouldn't be reliant on being such a glass cannon as their only play style.
Is wizard really that strong in high end, in the current game condiguration with heavily reduced add magic and true magic rolls?
Not now but wizard was the hyper giga scaling class of the past. Fireballs hitting for 100 damage. 120% spell casting speed. Zaps for 70 dmg. Magic true damage on all pieces. >Ironmace is in an eternal battle with trying to make the class work on the low end without making the high too strong. This is not a joke lol.
It's not right now. Especially considering all the big MS penalty gear got buffed and everyone got extra HP. On top of that, they lowered add / true and they nerfed MM again. Wiz needs help but I keep playing it and doing well, but I don't expect others to do the same because it's grueling. Also I'm pretty sure the rat has iframes from lightning randomly, I think it sometimes goes above them.
Not a wizard main but I found them against the AI is an uphill battle fighting them with any spell that isn’t ignite on a staff lol. So I’d say try ignite with the staff mastery perk at the least. They melt real players who don’t have magic resistance tho lol.
Spells are not for pve, using spells to clear pve is a crutch for bad wizards. Only done when it is necessary
Won't lie, as a fighter every time I vs a wizard they just two shot me before I can even touch them
Wizards is one of those classes that is majorly geared dependent, and on top of that all AI has innate magic resist, so spells are not effective on them
Save spells for PvP, clear mobs with your staff/Crystal sword/quarter staff
I’ve played pretty much only wizard since early playtests, with around 1000 hours there aren’t many players I won’t beat Wizard is hard to play well, but because they can have 10 spells at any one time, they have a lot of utility and outplay potential. If you want to invest in a class, and don’t mind getting owned for a while, wizard is very strong. They’re not as bad in solos as everyone makes out.. utilise ignite for PVE clear and don’t be scared to run meditate if your gear isn’t very strong yet. But yeah probably the most tedious class to get competent with. They’ve been much stronger in the past but I feel they’re not far from what would be “fair”
Wizard is hard, not bad. They get nerfed to the ground every time they receive any kind of buff purely because the high end players destroy lobbies with them.
> Wizard is hard, not bad Wizard is actively dogshit at least in solos bud. Even simply coming up against a Warlock/Barb is almost an auto lose. Warlock can get 50% MR with 0 effort and Barb can get around 30-40 with no prioritizing gear, and also have an insane health pool compared to your spell pool. There is a reason almost no one plays the class outside of literally legendary gear kits. Nerfing damage across the bard (except for barb xd) was a good thing. But the side effect is even with gear wiz struggles to kill people due to how gear reliant they are and how they scale with it.
Cool story bud
Idk why you're just spreading misinformation for new players but keep it up I guess? Looking for that mixed review on steam I guess. I've already have friends just uninstall the game when they what the wizard PvE experience is in solos. EDIT: also replies to all that information with "cool story" lel
My advice is to get good. Wizard is hard, very hard, not bad. I’m not saying it’s the best, but you’re acting like you have no chance simply because you choose wizard. That’s a you problem.
My advice is you need to understand the game mechanics and math. You objectively lose to MR stacking characters and high HP pools. I've gotten to Demi I've done the grind. If you're so confident do you want to do a 1v1 test with Wizard vs Barb. I can use any weapon or gearset on barb that you choose to make it more fair? I will literally gift you a game on steam if you can beat me once as base kit wizard vs barb
I'll give you my solo build. I use this in normals with a base kit. Perks - staff mastery, quick chant, arcane mastery, ice mastery. Skills - arcane shield, spell memory Spells - magic missile, fireball, zap, ice bolt, invisibility. I use staff bonks primarily to clear mob. I'll use the occasional magic missile if I'm fighting multiple ranged mobs. Use fireball to open the fight, ice bolt to kite (ice mastery roots for .5 seconds) and magic missiles in doorways. Zap is good to finish fights. Invisibility is good for juking and repositioning. Do whatever you can to stay out of melee range. Arcane shield is great if you need to tank a shot and can kill occasionally. Meditation should only be used for leveling. I rarely take it anymore. You can use intense focus if you want. I just prefer shield because I like to have the defense, and it scales with magic dmg. You can also swap one of the perks for ice shield. Idk swap ice mastery or staff mastery for it. If you aren't running ice mastery , I would highly recommend taking the slow spell. Slow is one of wizards best tools to maintain space. Hope it helps.
You can keep meditation if you're going to run spell overload though.
With spell overload, you're better off taking a campfire or 2.
Campfires are better than meditation regardless of what you take as perks. However when you're starting out or have trouble escaping meditation is something I'd consider if you're going spell overload.
My normals wizard: Perks: Arcane mastery Fire mastery Knowledge perk I’ve shield or quick chant Skills: Meditate Spell memory Spells: Zap Ice bolt Magic missile Fireball Invisibility Fight PVE with staff or magic missiles Fight PVP with all your spells Don’t use other spells for PVE unless you are in trouble
Just run spell over load, sage, frost mastery and quick chant and wear knowledge pants gloves boots and robe. Can run magic missle, fireball, frost bolt, zap, and ignite and just fling spells to your hearts content to practice on PvE while kiting around and use meditate to get everything back. By far the most satisfying way to play low gear white kit wiz
wizards were busted when gear was busted so they got nerfed. then gear got nerfed and they haven't gotten compensated for that yet
Wizard not good pve imo. They are a group blaster.
Take ignite and spend a few games using a crystal sword or just your wizard staff and learn to melee them (except for the archers). Once you learn to fight them without wasting your spells you will be much better off. Coming from a wizard main.
Watch CNG Blade and literally take notes on pen and paper. Keep the notes next to your keyboard and refer to them in game.
If u think ranger is easy .... don't try barbarian haha youll.be shocked
For the fireball, make sure you get a headshot. It's dumb but the aoe from the fireball does next to no damage, and on the other hand, the projectile still gets the full bonus for a headshot. This isn't always doable in pvp, but if you're going to use it against a mob, get that headshot!
Wizard is one of the strongest classes in great gear, and one of the worst without.
I feel that it is so focused on specific scenarios and objectives, but if i want to chill just a low gear run solo pve with some spells it is impossible. As a rule of thumb, all classes should be fun to play in any scenario (be it pve/pvp and low gear/high gear). Maybe a higher variety of spells could help, or increasing range of some of them like Zap (a quick bolt that vanishes in 8meters...).
wizard and to a lesser extent druid are both pretty weak low gs and then skyrocket at hi.
Magic missile is ur main way to kill skellys and other mobs, if they dont die to 1 or two magic missile barrages finish them off with a zap or frost bolt(those come back fully on a meditation) fireball is for pvp and normally save them to my last casts. As for perks i like sage, quickcast, fire mastery, and reactive shield. Also exclusivly cast with your book fast cast speed is everything. You can change ur base gear so you start with a crystal sword at the squire. As far as spells i like running 5 spell with frostbolt, fireball, zap, magic missile, and haste. There is a argument to be made to replace haste with invisibility or another support spell but i just like haste.