Lowbie Wizards need some Love

[Lyaelan]

I recently returned to the Wizard class after quite a long time. I love SoD. I brings great joy to my life.

However, I remember the Wizard class being "difficult" at lower levels, but with this charisma change, or whatever happened, mobs seem to be resisting spells a whole lot more.

I'm writing this during my death timer (my 10th or so of today)

I don't think it's fair that wizards get such a short stick at lower levels. Something needs to be done.

Sure, I'm not overgeared like many people are at level 12. But, if my main nuke (Shock of Lightning), which does 85 damage, get resisted twice by a blue mob a level or two below me, I can't kill that mob. Why? Because I run out of mana. Each nuke of mine costs approximately 22% of my mana bar, meaning I can cast 4 of them, and then a lower level nuke to finish a mob off.

I maxed charisma as a High Elf, then put the rest of the points in intellect for mana. I then proceeded to put 70 points in Focus/mind, leaving 40 for my Energy/defense.


Why, oh why am I gettting so many resists? I'm incapable of killing an equal level mob with any reliability. When I critical, it's magnificent, but again, that's not reliable. I'm stuck killing light blue mobs in Fearstone. I'll eventually level past this, but for right now, it's miserable.

Wizards need SOMETHING at lower levels - be it a reduced mana cost on their nukes, or a lower resist rate...I'm not sure what would fix it without imbalancing the game. I either a) don't have enough mana to kill a mob that is equal level, or b) I get resisted so often that I need more mana anyway.


*shrug* Is this player error? If so, someone please correct me. Also, realize I played a wizard to 65 back when that was the maximum level (and hit 50 when that was the maximum level). I know I'll be fine at higher levels. More than fine. But for right now, what am I to do?

I specific that wizards need love, because my Magician has a pet to rely on, and my necromancer does too. My bard can keep meleeing, and isn't dependent on mana. When a wizard runs out of mana, they are in a lot of trouble! I stick up my wimpy 3 dmg fire shield, and add the 10 dmg proc to my weapon, and even with my not-so-pitiful melee dmg (I can smack a lizard for 20 on a good hit!), I'm still feeling very underpowered.

 

[Tarutao]

If you can't kill a mob 2 levels lower than you, kill one that is 3 levels lower than you. Your expectations may be unrealistic.

 

[Animand]

Soloing as a wizard from 12 to 15 is pretty harsh, so I suggest not soloing it. A couple resists can be disheartening, but you could also use lower mana cost nukes to lower your chances to a string of resists making you run for the zoneline. Also, keep your Hand to Hand up because you have surprisingly good damage with your fists to help finish off a weakened enemy.

P.S. Nice sig, Taru.

 

[Kirin Folken]

At the very low end... your wis/int casters are better off with a good Mith weapon and just beating the mob to death. Nuke when you can of course but dont count on it.

Groups are also the way to go.

 

[pavowski]

Groups are also the way to go.

This.

I leveled a wizard by doing a lot of soloing up till 35 and I'm' right with ya, it was painful. Until you get your cha up over 200 (and really till you max it) the resist rate is off the charts and it absolutely cripples young wizards who, like you said, can use up 1/4 of their mana on a single cast.

Find some groups. If you have to solo, mobs that are just above light blue will be your best option - they won't resist as much, and they won't require as much of your mana to take down.

 

[Lyaelan]

Thank you guys all so much.

I've started grouping a bit, and I'm up to 14. The light is near! I also bought a bit of gear, which helped with my manapool and char a tad.

 

[Animand]

At the very low end... your wis/int casters are better off with YOUR RIDICULOUSLY GOOD RATIO FISTS and just beating the mob to death. Nuke when you can of course but dont count on it.

Groups are also the way to go.

Fixed. And before you go correcting me, try it. Fists, man, fists.

 

[Allielyn]

When the initial resist changes went in (WAY back in 2006!) Wiz posted the following challenge:

I present a challenge to any one player to prove me wrong about resist rates. Here is what you need to do. Post your character, the mobs you tested your resists on and found an outrageous (like 50% on blue averagely resistant mobs with a normal no resist mod spell) resist rate (post the resist rate here, of course, like "17 turgurs resisted out of 25" like people are doing now).

I will borrow your character and recreate the exact same test. I will then post the exact parsed results here. Here's your chance to either prove to me that you are getting craaazy resists or look foolish because you cherrypicked/exaggerated your sample.

I'll be waiting.

It has been brought up with every complaint about resists thread. As of yet, no player has successfully won a challenge. If you would like to be the first, you are, as always, invited to bring it.

 

[Lyaelan]

I think I'll start keeping a log right now, Allieleyn. Thank you for taking an interest in my topic!


I'll be fighting the Leodriths in South Badlands - (I grouped yesterday, and went from 12 to 25....I realize grouping is definitely the way to go - But for all of those who can't find a group!!!)


So, here goes!

 

[Tecnodoc]

First, im new to the server. Have played EQ on live 10years ago. I made a wizard.

Ok first of... the resists are bad, I use every point of specialization in Focus/mind - Never in "more" dmg as the resists are more then 15% of the time on an blue con. When i solo I do die alot to chain resists, this is mainly a "new" wizards problem as an "older" wizard will have more options.


A fix for the low level wizards could be to lower the cast time on the "free" nukes from level 1 - 29. That way you can still do something when the mob resists 70% of your manabar, and it dosent change anything for the "real" wizards.

 

[Ikaa|LoveYums]

The long cast time is the penalty you pay for essentially a limitless damage supply. How is reducing casting time going to fix what you claim is a resist problem?

Specialization points are only a max increase of 10% when you have 250 points them, so dont put 10 points in it expecting to make a huge difference. it wont. They are bonuses, not the be all end all of anything.

Your figure of 15% is not real high.. this seems to me to be another thread that revolves around "this isnt the way i want it to be/was in live. change it back"

 

[calaran]

... How is reducing casting time going to fix what you claim is a resist problem?

To answer just this question... he's saying that if the 5 mana nuke casted faster, when he goes OOM from resists, he could at least run really far away and cast the 5 mana nuke to get another shot in... and if need be, run around until he has enough mana/room to cast another. That said....

I will agree with Ikaa; having a level 31 untwinked wiz and a tier 7 inherited wiz... The lowbie gets resisted a lot and it's frustrating... but it probably is 15-20% which while it may suck, isn't completely debilitating... or at least I've not found it to be over the course of 31 levels. Seeing what they become later and the fun I've had with the 2nd toon, I think it's an enjoyable class that just has a high barrier to entry. Try playing any melee class on the game from the beginning without any gear/twinkage and you'll see that most of them have a difficult time as well... just in a different way.

It's just a matter of it being demoralizing to see 20-25% of you ability to hurt something (mana in this case) disappear because of a resist, or 60% because you get resisted 3x in a row.

 

[Deacon White]

It's really just part of the learning curve on this server. My first character on this server was a froglok wizard with 75 cha named "Professor". Along with learning that there is, in fact, a naming policy and an attentive and hardworking staff, I found that it was extremely difficult to solo. For a first character, wizard is tough, but after a few levels and a bit of gear you'll be blasting mobs with the big boys. Everyone has the same troubles with resists when they just start out, it's just more apparent with a wizard because all you do is nuke.

I think if anyone was set on playing a wizard, they'd be fine with the spells at their disposal. Sure, it takes a little more work in the beginning, but they don't give new rogues an hp boost just because they don't have backstab yet.

 

[Boehm]

It has been brought up with every complaint about resists thread. As of yet, no player has successfully won a challenge.

I doubt anyone has thought about that challenge in a long time and defining what is supposed to be outside the standard deviation without giving some idea of target area is not very useful. That said, the reason most people get frustrated by resists is event clusters and a lack of understanding on how cha mitigates/penetrates high resists.

The most useful post I have seen is this one;

A series of cha level tests

which if it still obtains, at least shows that increased cha allows increased spell penetration. Further, it shows that cha simply weights the dice roll in a bell curve rather then being some "magic" penetration agent, which may be some players assumption.

Last, what it does show is that low cha is brutal on new players who decide to main a caster. Might a good idea to link this post under the cha section of the stats sticky since it does give an idea of what players who chose this route are in for, and what to expect.

 

[Lyaelan]

This thread wasn't made to whine about how I liked live better.

I don't like live better.

I have to pay for live, making this infinitely better, if for no other reason (and there are other reasons!)

I'm just tossing suggestions out there that might improve this game - making wizards have a balanced newbiehood is an improvement, imo.

It seems like the devs truly care about this game (and the GMs and Admins too!), and I was just making a suggestion that I think will improve the game.

I'm level 30 (soon to be 31!) now, so improving the wizard class from level 1-29 will have no beneficial effect on me whatsoever. I think it'll make the game better though. Even if its only a smidgeon better. Better is better.

 

[Wesell]

I'm just tossing suggestions out there that might improve this game - making wizards have a balanced newbiehood is an improvement, imo.

Low level casters can melee and tank nearly as well as melee classes. It's not until later that class abilities diverge enough to allow a significantly different play strategy. Low level casters can supplement melee damage with spell damage which offsets their lower HP. If you have been avoiding contact with foes and have no defense skill you will probably be in trouble when you run out of mana, but if you have been keeping your skills up you should be able to melee a mob which you have already nuked below 50% health without too much trouble.

 

[Lyaelan]

This was my first character on SoD - I didn't have money to afford a mithril dagger.


The best I could afford was a Staff - which, if you'll notice, I mentioned in my original post. I did melee. With max skills in defense and 1Hblunt. Often, that was all that got me through fights. But it was often not enough.



I'm sure you're not suggesting buying mithril (or better!) weapons for all newbie wizards. But i'm not sure exactly what you ARE suggesting.

At level 10, I farmed the named rats in the sewers of Newport for a bit, to get myself some platinum. At this point, I was level 13 or so. It still wasn't enough platinum to afford myself a mithril dagger. Even if it HAD been enough platinum, that still would have left me in trouble from level 1-13.

 

[Wesell]

I'm sure you're not suggesting buying mithril (or better!) weapons for all newbie wizards. But i'm not sure exactly what you ARE suggesting.

I'm suggesting that newbie rogues don't have money to buy mithril daggers and they don't have nukes. All newbies will have some difficulty soloing blues - it's not an imbalance if it applies to other classes as well.

 

[Lyaelan]

Well, I suppose you're right.

I got through it once, and I'm sure I could again. If there's a will, there's a way.


*********, and therefore Shards of Dalaya, was never an easy game. And I respect that.

 

[Boehm]

Something that most posters forget is that the hand to hand table for classes other then monk and bst, is not bad. Its two off ever level of that table If I am not mistaken. Spawning with a rusty dagger as a level 1 is the disservice.