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BW4 Control Wizard to level 26 INSIGHTS.
brosnan1
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 7 Arc User
Control Wizard played to level 26 for BW4.
Power Synopsis.
My loadout consisted of Repel (Mastery) (rank 3), Encounters - Chill Strike (rank 3), Entanglement (rank 3), Shield (rank 2)
At wills - Magic Missile (rank 3), Ray of Frost (rank 3).
Daily Ice Strike (rank 3) or in a long fight needing more CC ill go with the Orb of Gravity (Rank 3). (can swap this out mid fight with ~8 sec cool down on the ability)
The new point buy system does allow for choices, problem is the obvious choices depend if you are an arcane build or a frost build. Having played both and with the new point buy, tier system, my personal choice is damage with interrupts -most of the early choices are arcane and can be swapped out for slow time and Ray of Enfeeblement later with no impact on the focus. The defining Frost abilities are not available until mid-late game.
I've played with the above loadout predominantly from level 13 or so. I dabbled with Frost - personally find it pointless to buff unless your dealing solo with a one on one tough mob. 5 stacks of Arcane Mastery and then casting Entanglement gives me a better longer single target CC. If MASTERED then it turns into an AOE CC for ~3-4 secs on all mobs in the area of effect. Of course Shield came later (~level 20) but now that I have it, its like an Ice Strike, that does approx 650-750 damage, with only a 14~16 sec cool down. Orb of Gravity and Shield kills all trash mobs and heavily damages medium mobs. All with some nice control in their.
On bosses I don't bother with any other ability except for At Will Magic Missiles. The focus of the fight is positioning for combat advantage and I hold the mouse button to spam MM. The tank holds aggro but spamming MM rank 3 is the best DPS CW can do given the limited options. This was sad specially when the CC abilities tied to those powers are nullified. In groups generally come in at top damage. So the class can DPS very well with the right gear, spamming MM and a focus on positioning for combat advantage - this makes crits rain like crazy - key to dps.
So is their any choice - I guess if one wants to experiment - $5 a respec I would say its not really going to happen in general. The new system promotes mainly a damage role until we get the aoe chill/slow time powers. These happens over halfway through the levelling game - one of them is arcane based...
By then I presume ill be so built for damage I may dabble but ill become a sorcerer that wants to burn mobs instead of bothering to control them. Needless to say all the CWs I grouped with in groups didn't bother with their CC powers and those that did came last on the damage table. This will make frost focused builds redundant until you get ice powers that truly impact the battlefield with effects that truly matter.
My gear focus was crit and power - I dabbled with recovery however because the difference is ~1-2 sec reduction in abilities I figured this was pointless. Specially when you consider my load out consists of interrupts tied to the encounter powers. With the Encounter rotation, I would normally find that the abilities are coming off cool down by the time I was ready to use again. End of tough fights I recast Shield - didn't use every fight and even with the recast time of ~1-2 secs in a fight, the character had the ability to do so with little problems.
I don't like spending money so I went with a Cleric. Only time I used potions after getting her was when I sent her for training to level up and she was on training cool down. Debated taking a tank for better combat advantage - but survival is key in PVE IMHO.
PVP - utilising the loadout above - excellent dps/survival. played a few matches but no class but the rogue bothered me.
Key to the class is teleportation. If you understand this mechanic you wont die often (if at all). In 26 levels I died in PVP - of course and so anyone should. In PVE I died once. I died because I jumped off the Moonstone Mask Island to see if that resulted in death (it does). I never came close once to dieing in PVE due to correct execution of teleportation and my cleric. This was normal gameplay not pushing the limit to much. Just an indication if anyone wants to know regarding survivability. Pushed it once where I took on 3 groups of orcs at once in Tower district. Lived to tell another tale...
Overall I found the class well balanced in relation to the gameplay. Learning curve is correct given progression. Progression will allow you to learn to teleport to avoid damage and pick your moments. I realise the character is not high level yet and end game maybe different - finding the game is not to different for the first 26 levels however...remains to be seen.
Power Synopsis.
My loadout consisted of Repel (Mastery) (rank 3), Encounters - Chill Strike (rank 3), Entanglement (rank 3), Shield (rank 2)
At wills - Magic Missile (rank 3), Ray of Frost (rank 3).
Daily Ice Strike (rank 3) or in a long fight needing more CC ill go with the Orb of Gravity (Rank 3). (can swap this out mid fight with ~8 sec cool down on the ability)
The new point buy system does allow for choices, problem is the obvious choices depend if you are an arcane build or a frost build. Having played both and with the new point buy, tier system, my personal choice is damage with interrupts -most of the early choices are arcane and can be swapped out for slow time and Ray of Enfeeblement later with no impact on the focus. The defining Frost abilities are not available until mid-late game.
I've played with the above loadout predominantly from level 13 or so. I dabbled with Frost - personally find it pointless to buff unless your dealing solo with a one on one tough mob. 5 stacks of Arcane Mastery and then casting Entanglement gives me a better longer single target CC. If MASTERED then it turns into an AOE CC for ~3-4 secs on all mobs in the area of effect. Of course Shield came later (~level 20) but now that I have it, its like an Ice Strike, that does approx 650-750 damage, with only a 14~16 sec cool down. Orb of Gravity and Shield kills all trash mobs and heavily damages medium mobs. All with some nice control in their.
On bosses I don't bother with any other ability except for At Will Magic Missiles. The focus of the fight is positioning for combat advantage and I hold the mouse button to spam MM. The tank holds aggro but spamming MM rank 3 is the best DPS CW can do given the limited options. This was sad specially when the CC abilities tied to those powers are nullified. In groups generally come in at top damage. So the class can DPS very well with the right gear, spamming MM and a focus on positioning for combat advantage - this makes crits rain like crazy - key to dps.
So is their any choice - I guess if one wants to experiment - $5 a respec I would say its not really going to happen in general. The new system promotes mainly a damage role until we get the aoe chill/slow time powers. These happens over halfway through the levelling game - one of them is arcane based...
By then I presume ill be so built for damage I may dabble but ill become a sorcerer that wants to burn mobs instead of bothering to control them. Needless to say all the CWs I grouped with in groups didn't bother with their CC powers and those that did came last on the damage table. This will make frost focused builds redundant until you get ice powers that truly impact the battlefield with effects that truly matter.
My gear focus was crit and power - I dabbled with recovery however because the difference is ~1-2 sec reduction in abilities I figured this was pointless. Specially when you consider my load out consists of interrupts tied to the encounter powers. With the Encounter rotation, I would normally find that the abilities are coming off cool down by the time I was ready to use again. End of tough fights I recast Shield - didn't use every fight and even with the recast time of ~1-2 secs in a fight, the character had the ability to do so with little problems.
I don't like spending money so I went with a Cleric. Only time I used potions after getting her was when I sent her for training to level up and she was on training cool down. Debated taking a tank for better combat advantage - but survival is key in PVE IMHO.
PVP - utilising the loadout above - excellent dps/survival. played a few matches but no class but the rogue bothered me.
Key to the class is teleportation. If you understand this mechanic you wont die often (if at all). In 26 levels I died in PVP - of course and so anyone should. In PVE I died once. I died because I jumped off the Moonstone Mask Island to see if that resulted in death (it does). I never came close once to dieing in PVE due to correct execution of teleportation and my cleric. This was normal gameplay not pushing the limit to much. Just an indication if anyone wants to know regarding survivability. Pushed it once where I took on 3 groups of orcs at once in Tower district. Lived to tell another tale...
Overall I found the class well balanced in relation to the gameplay. Learning curve is correct given progression. Progression will allow you to learn to teleport to avoid damage and pick your moments. I realise the character is not high level yet and end game maybe different - finding the game is not to different for the first 26 levels however...remains to be seen.
Post edited by brosnan1 on
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Comments
Actually not true. You should've noticed that at level 26, you only have access to 5 encounter powers in BWE4 vs. 7 encounter powers in BWE3. You choice of powers is actually more LIMITED.
At level 10, you still only have 3 encounter powers, which isn't even enough to fill out your four encounter power slots, and you don't get your 4th until level 15.
/rant on new power system