Are CW really bad, people exaggerating? (PVE)

jcamps30

Hey. I have one at level 20 and it's pretty slow so far. I keep hearing on these forums how Wizards are a laughing stock. Is this true, or are there classes with higher DPS that are just "bugged" as I've heard GWF and SW are or something?.

Are people just mad that the CC don't work on elites/bosses, or are CW really bad at DPS? (or are they just mad with the PVP side?)

Should I keep leveling him?. I'm not having a good or bad time with it. More mutual so far since I don't really have a insane spell yet as I did on my Warlock with Dreadtheft

Really between my CW and TR right now. Leveling both the same.

ghoulz66

CW starts out slow like the GWF.

Both evolve into monsters. Their feats/class features are what contribute to their DPS.

jcamps30

Ok. That's good to hear. What level around do they start to feel worth while and such?

ghoulz66

jcamps30 said:

Ok. That's good to hear. What level around do they start to feel worth while and such?

Once you dive into the paragon feats. By then you have the class features that set you up for endgame and feats that buff your DPS considerably.

Back when you a low level, conduit of ice was pretty pathetic. But when you've hit the top, it starts getting boosted by spell storm procs, or combined with smolder and thaumaturge DoTs from the tree. Used to be even more stupidly powerful before the lostmauth set was nerfed, but conduit and icy terrain are still powerful. Once your build is solid, those mobs will walk on one of those and watch themselves melt away from the additional DPS sources added to it.

ironzerg79

jcamps30 said:

Ok. That's good to hear. What level around do they start to feel worth while and such?

I would say about level 40-50 they really start to shine.

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jcamps30

Level 70 now. Pretty fun class. Hopefully they do ok DPS in dungeons since I noticed a lot of my AOE damage consists of me being 5ft from the targets which is weird for a range class.

greywynd

CW is my favorite. Had to respec once I got to the end to make him more effective, but overall, always fun.

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niadan

Once you realize the CW is NOT a ranged class, but a melee aoe / ranged single target hurricane of spell twisted ice, you will get how to properly play the class.

jcamps30

niadan said:

Once you realize the CW is NOT a ranged class, but a melee aoe / ranged single target hurricane of spell twisted ice, you will get how to properly play the class.

How is the single target DPS on a CW?. I'm assuming they're really good AOE, but I don't know about Single target yet.

edit: How do you double teleport?. I sometimes do it without having to wait that 1-2 sec CD. Also is there a way to cancel a spell (e.g Steal Time). When I teleport while I'm casting there's a 5 sec CD.

constantmule

jcamps30 said:

niadan said:

Once you realize the CW is NOT a ranged class, but a melee aoe / ranged single target hurricane of spell twisted ice, you will get how to properly play the class.

How is the single target DPS on a CW?. I'm assuming they're really good AOE, but I don't know about Single target yet.

edit: How do you double teleport?. I sometimes do it without having to wait that 1-2 sec CD. Also is there a way to cancel a spell (e.g Steal Time). When I teleport while I'm casting there's a 5 sec CD.

to be honest i have no idea why sometimes there is no cooldown, and i have 3 CW chars lol..same as with my hr, he sometimes does a double multi. lag, glitch, random good luck? the single target dps is pretty good. if you ever start playing with a dedicated group of 2+ of the same ppl though..at least in my opinion its time to stop worrying as much about that and start focusing on assisting the tank and healer do their jobs better, my fav cw build i play, i have the bosses targeted a little less than 2/3 of the time, it goes hit boss , save the cleric, hit boss, adds tele to tank, aoe...save the clerics butt again.....ohhhhh yea and sometime in between revive the HR ( hehe , my poor poor brother, kids always on the ground)

diogene0

niadan said:

Once you realize the CW is NOT a ranged class, but a melee aoe / ranged single target hurricane of spell twisted ice, you will get how to properly play the class.

No it's a mix of both. The CW sometimes does better from range.

jcamps30 said:

niadan said:

Once you realize the CW is NOT a ranged class, but a melee aoe / ranged single target hurricane of spell twisted ice, you will get how to properly play the class.

How is the single target DPS on a CW?. I'm assuming they're really good AOE, but I don't know about Single target yet.

edit: How do you double teleport?. I sometimes do it without having to wait that 1-2 sec CD. Also is there a way to cancel a spell (e.g Steal Time). When I teleport while I'm casting there's a 5 sec CD.

Single target damage is OK, not fantastic, but OK, however, it takes a fair amount of gear and a ton of crit not to get left out in the cold. With AoE you can compensate a relative lack of gear by playing aggressively, casting your aoes at the right time on the right spot, but single target is more or less mindless key mashing so you're going to need a lot of those lovely storm spell procs.

c1k4ml3kc3

jcamps30 said:

Level 70 now. Pretty fun class. Hopefully they do ok DPS in dungeons since I noticed [u]a lot of my AOE damage consists of me being 5ft from the targets which is weird for a range class[/u].

Haha. You're absolutely correct. CW's de facto ranged class given that the Orb weapons are considered to be completely Ranged weapons. But the weird choices in terms of the Feats and Powers arose during the MOD6 up to now and it doesn't really make a lot of sense at all.

metalicum1

jcamps30 said:

Hey. I have one at level 20 and it's pretty slow so far. I keep hearing on these forums how Wizards are a laughing stock. Is this true, or are there classes with higher DPS that are just "bugged" as I've heard GWF and SW are or something?.

Are people just mad that the CC don't work on elites/bosses, or are CW really bad at DPS? (or are they just mad with the PVP side?)

Should I keep leveling him?. I'm not having a good or bad time with it. More mutual so far since I don't really have a insane spell yet as I did on my Warlock with Dreadtheft

Really between my CW and TR right now. Leveling both the same.

Until you get to some mid game or end game gear, CW sucks. It really starts to shine around 3k ilvl, when you start to cap crit chance. both SS thaum and SS renegade works only with high amount of crit hits.

aeolus

Depends on your build, playstyle and encounter choices. You can do dps that's comparable to GWFs or be a decent buffer. You could be bad at both if you don't understand how to play a CW.

If you want to dps with a bit of decent mob control, go with spellstorm and use mainly the thaumaturge paragon and put enough points in oppressor to get icy veins. You have to fight everything close range if you want to do your maximum damage. CWs are not black mages and don't play anything like wizard would.

If want to be a buffer, go with SS or MOF and put choose mainly the renegade paragon path. I would put enough points to get icy veins in oppressor for the control, though.

It's a lot cheaper to be a buff cw than a pure dps cw because you need really good companions, mounts, enchantments, etc to have a shot at top dps. Buff CWs don't need BIS to buff but it would help their personal dps.

armadeonx

Single target damage is lower than that of a GWF so you have to distribute your feat points to boost it: e.g. points in Focused Wizardry, Blighting Power & Arcane Enhancement. I generally out dps a similar level GWF on groups but they make up the difference on boss fights. Obviously though, boss fights are where it really matters so to be competitive you need high bonding stones to seriously boost your power & crit and swap to single target skills before you go through the final door.