Silverion, you are a higher lvl wizard than I am, and you've made some
very interesting and helpful posts in the pasts--all this to say that I
intend no disrespect with the following. I just thought I'd reply to
your points, some of which I disagree with.
> 1.) Many people hate wizards as kill stealers and think they are too
> powerful with their fast transport by teleport so they don't have to be
buffed
> any more ! (WRONG)
I agreed with you on everything you said in this section, except that
wizards die the most. I've spent the last two weeks in Lake Rathtear going
from about 18 to 23. I died, I believe, twice--once when everyone was
shouting for me to run. (I wanted just one more shot <hehe>) And, in
general, I don't die that often. I'm very careful, I tend to use landscape,
distance, and timing to my advantage, I run when resisted twice (or root and
run) when soloing, and try to group.
Now wizards can die a lot, and that depends on where they are, what they
fight, etc. I have a couple of friends over in Najena and they love it and
have gotten used to retrieving corpse once or twice nightly. But, at the
same time, they tend to earn xp at a faster rate than I do because of the
mobs they take. I think, to a degree, it balances. With respect to Aviaks,
I've found they can be very tough to solo. Depending on which ones you're
fighting, they get multiple attacks, hit hard, and if it wasn't for the xp,
we probably wouldn't go after them. They are not well suited for
wizards--similar to gorge minotaurs, I believe. Even when green they can be
quite dangerous. But plop us next to an embalmer, a high shaman, an evil
eye, etc., and we shine. A lot has been said on this list about carefully
picking mobs when soloing, and I agree. And when grouping, this isn't an
issue.
As to your kill stealing points, I think you are absolutely correct. Anyone
that plays that game is not seeing the large picture (unless they're in it
for the RP element, I suppose, and want to be hated and vilified). And it's
not like they're earning xp at a greater rate, or loot either. I can still
power game a level a day, if I want, by grouping. I can earn 30 to 40 plat
in an evening easily, and I'm not making any enemies--just friends.
> 2.) mana inefficient use !
I'm sorry, but you haven't convinced me of anything here. Yes we get
resisted a lot. And like others have said, I've noticed that when you cast
a spell in a fight makes a huge difference on its chance of being resisted.
End fights with the big blast, don't begin them that way, etc. I think
where wizards have the hardest time is getting used to the shame of running.
If a mob resists two of your blasts, even if it's green, consider running.
Root, then run. Annoying? Heck yeah. But we should almost never die while
soloing, and when our resists don't fail we can take down a mob faster than
anything. I've paired (ungrouped) with many spell casters and done damage
comparisons, etc. Magicians and enchanters run much less often, but they
divide xp with pet. They *should* run less often; they're not really
soloing. Same with necros. Want to see what happens when a magician or
enchanter truly solos? It's a joke. Ever see a magician try to get off a
DD spell when a mob is hitting him? Heh. Heh Heh.
Even though we run a lot, we don't split the xp with a pet. I've matched
other spell casting classes on xp earning rate hour after hour.
Now the obvious rebuttal is the ole, "well, when I was in (location X),
(class Y) was performing much better than I was." Very very true. I'm sure
some of you have seen mid to high teen druids soloing in Crushbone, or out
in N. Karanas kiting, etc. We all know that some classes have leveling
sweet spots (the druids appear to be lvl 1 to at least 20 <grin>). Such as
the 16th lvl necros, and the sand giant slaying that has been common in
Oasis (don't know if it still happens). I'm only lvl 23, but I've noticed
that *most* of the people I know who I started out with, regardless of
class, are still in my level range. It seems to me that even if wizards
aren't especially great at leveling, we aren't particularly bad off. There
is another way to look at this, but I'll get to that momentarily.
> 3.) Resistance of high lvl mobs BUT also low lv ones
Resistance of low level mobs is annoying, but something which I've heard
other classes complain of as well. In my case, it doesn't happen that often
(don't know if it is affected by caster stats), but I don't see this as an
especially big problem. The wizard just has to have an escape route
planned, or know how to get help.
What really hurts is the resistance of high level mobs. I've found my
personal solution, but I guarantee most of you aren't going to like it.
I try and group only when I can be within a lvl or two of top player. Yes
this restricts who I group with, but not as much as one might think. And I
can always, always, always hit the mob because groups in their right mind
don't take mobs 4 or 5 levels higher than their highest player [I should
probably qualify this by saying "sometimes," "almost never," etc., but I
think you get the gist of what I'm saying]. I switch to lower damage spells
to play the resist odds and not attract the mobs attention, and I always
account for my share of the damage (usually 100 to 200 pts damage per mob).
This means, of course, that I won't be going into High Keep or deep into
Najena for a while, because I couldn't do that without joining a much higher
level group. Restrictive? Yes. But Najena, High Keep and Permafrost
aren't going anywhere. I just reset my mentality to visit them 2 to 3
levels later than most classes.
Couple of last points to Silverion's post:
There are several weaknesses to the wizard class. I grant that. But I
think the bottom line that Verant is looking at is the overall leveling rate
(from level one all the way to level 50). If, after a few months, it looks
like wizards aren't getting to the top at the same rate as other classes,
I'm guessing they'll do something. But really, I'll expect modification to
be more in the nature of toning other classes down, not enhancing ours.
Why? Because I think they have a feel for how difficult they want the game
to be, and the difficulty we experience is the desired amount.
I have one other comment. I think it is a bit easy to get caught up in the
whole fairness issue, which is very artificial. After I take my wizard as
high as I want, I'll start another class and play it until I get bored, and
then start a third. Some classes will be easier than others, and I'll get
around to them sooner or later. I personally have no desire to see Verant
spending all of their time trying to make things perfectly balanced for all
classes. [I wouldn't even mind if the game were set up like rock, paper,
scissors--i.e. in dueling (just pulling names from thin air) Wizards of a
certain level are always better than Warriors, who are always better than
Bards who are always better than Wizards.]
Glyphin E'Mondredon
The Rathe