How is mod 18 wizard feeling? need advices specially in AoE build

foxxy

I'm currently playing as an arcanist, I felt that thaumaturge was too underbalanced.
In my experience so far the biggest problem is wizard's AoE powers and builds, which lack of strength in that area, which is ironic given the fact wizard class is expert at that.
When running a dungeon with other DPS classes equally geared and equally good at their job, their AoE powers melt everything so quickly that my powers barely do something and there are 3 problems that I think are causing this: 1 is the long cooldowns; a 2 issue is that powers are DoT and low magnitude and compared to other classes AoE powers, they are instant or whose DoTs are more powerful per sec; and last but not least is the storm spell feature: 18 mods later, wizard is still dependant to a medium degree maybe larger of this feature, specially in rotations where Icy terrain and steal time need to critically hit so these powers can show some damage.

Aoe powers need to be updated or increase in damage or behave/ animation be different

lightning bolt has good moments, but sometimes the bolts don't appear, they miss.
steal time when is casting and rapidly cancels, the power goes on full CD and when it is charged up and cast again "apparently", it goes on CD again.
Shield is kinda good when into tab, because it does further damage, but the long cast is annoying as we have to use it 2 times to get to the damaging phase. Wouldn't it better to be able to cast it right away after the temporary points are given like it functioned before its nerf?.

In any case my rotation in pve is:

lightning bolt into tab; icy terrain, steal time, desintegrate to finish them off and oppresive force.
Evocation and storm spell class features .

I don't use shard avalanche, its too awful to play with, so please don't suggest that to me.

thanks to anyone that can share their knowledge with me.

thefiresidecat

https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/categories/the-library you should try posting in here. it's the wizard part of the forum

sandukutupu

I am not trying to be cynical, I don't know why people keep asking about the best build anymore. Since the change over to NW 2.0, all these are the same. But I will be glad to share my status.

Llorna Zorg is a 18,222 il Thaumaturge. She has completed most of the campaigns, so it will be easy to tell you what remains;
Avernus 6%, A. Incorp., 4%, SKT 35%, and Chult 43%
At Wills: Chilling Cloud and Ray of Frost
Encounter: Fireball on Mastery, Entangling Force, Icy Terrain, and Conduit of Ice
Daily: Furious Immolation and Ice Storm
Class Feature: Orb of Imposition and Swath of Destruction
Feat: Relative Haste, Glowing Flames, Shatter Strike, Critical Burn, and Rimefire Weaving

Boon Points: 52
Power: 5, +1,250 Power
Bulwark: 18, +18,000 Hit Points
Marathon Runner: 5, +12.5% Speed
Lingering: 15, +15% effectiveness of healing potions, with 3 chances it will continue to heal for 30 seconds.
Welcome Blessings: 4, +4% incoming healing bonus
Simple Support: 5, +10% companion influence
Focused Retaliation: 2, chance to debuff target accuracy and armor penetration

Her companion is Count Byron Zorg, a rank 40 Renegade Evoker
3 rank 9 bondings, Choke Chain of the Companion, Pearl Ring of the Companion, Plated Belt of the Companion (all obtained in Undermountain)
5 offense slots empowered rank 9, 1 offense slot recondite rank 9
Bolster at +12%

Mounts: 2 Epics, 2 Rare, 1 Uncommon.
Power: Indestructible +5000 defense
Artificer's Persuasion, Warlord's Inspiration, Warlord's Encouragement, Berserker's Rage, Oppressor's Reprieve

She still carries the Lostmauth Artifact set all at legendary. Wizard Class Sigil at Mythic is active, Soul Sight and Charm of the Serpant at legendary.

Honestly all the gear in the game is micro management. Slap on anything you can find in the Auction House, just use the item level 950 or better for your search parameter.

thefabricant

I would play Arcanist with Entangling Force on mastery, Steal Time, Sudden Storm and Icy Terrain, then use Storm Spell and Chilling Presence. For Daily power use Oppressive Force. Wizard AoE is not great at the moment, but this is about as good as you are going to get.

rikitaki

I find Thauma as a better part of the heritage from what CW used to be. Thauma has the feat that adds chill to nearby enemies upon casting an encounter. It is not as good as it used to be, but standing on icy terrain still makes it worth it.

And now there is a Fireball, which is a good choice for opening a combat... Yes, if you struggle with AoE, go for Thauma.
Generally speaking, I mentioned all the important parts of that paragon, so whatever else you choose is either irrelevant, does not work, or is just filling the void.

thefiresidecat

what about single target same as mod 17

thefabricant

thefiresidecat said:

what about single target same as mod 17

Yes.

zimxero

Not a change from Mod 17, but my advice for running Arcanist: Don't underestimate the power of Snap Freeze feat. It's counter feat "Assailing Force" adds 10% damage (approx) to encounters so it is often taken without a second thought by players. Snap freeze adds 40 magnitude to every Icy Terrain cold tic and increases the damage of Ray of Frost greatly, which will add to single target support damage.

My Mod17 preference for skills was:
Mastery - Disintigrate (there just isn't much bonus out of mastery so why not put your fast single target here)
Encounter 1 - Entangling Force (useful and procs well)
Encounter 2 - Steal Time
Encounter 3 - Icy Terrain

Class Features - Obviously, Storm Spell. Since they nerfed Arcane Presence, their is no longer a 'must have' second one.

NOTE: IMO, the most important choice a player makes with Arcanist is whether to go with Striking Advantage or Nightmare wizardry. I prefer running the latter, but it depends on your team composition. Striking Advantage boosts DPS by a good amount more on the right team.

foxxy

zimxero#8085 said:

Not a change from Mod 17, but my advice for running Arcanist: Don't underestimate the power of Snap Freeze feat. It's counter feat "Assailing Force" adds 10% damage (approx) to encounters so it is often taken without a second thought by players. Snap freeze adds 40 magnitude to every Icy Terrain cold tic and increases the damage of Ray of Frost greatly, which will add to single target support damage.

My Mod17 preference for skills was:
Mastery - Disintigrate (there just isn't much bonus out of mastery so why not put your fast single target here)
Encounter 1 - Entangling Force (useful and procs well)
Encounter 2 - Steal Time
Encounter 3 - Icy Terrain

Class Features - Obviously, Storm Spell. Since they nerfed Arcane Presence, their is no longer a 'must have' second one.

NOTE: IMO, the most important choice a player makes with Arcanist is whether to go with Striking Advantage or Nightmare wizardry. I prefer running the latter, but it depends on your team composition. Striking Advantage boosts DPS by a good amount more on the right team.

What about Iced lightning? is the 10% noticeable for storm spell? I feel chaos magic hardly happens.

zimxero

foxxy#4211 said:

What about Iced lightning? is the 10% noticeable for storm spell? I feel chaos magic hardly happens.

I've run both Iced Lightning and Chaos Magic and cannot tell a big difference, but lets reduce Chaos Magic into its averages:

Each time you use an Encounter or Daily you gain one of these effects: [100% chance instead of 5%. All effects divided by 20]
5% increase to At-Will damage for 5 seconds. (if this one was automatic it would boost total dps by about 1%)
A quarter-second cooldown reduction of all encounter skills (if this one was automatic it would boost total dps by about 1.75%)
1% AP gain. (if this one was automatic it would give you about 1.5% more total dps)

On average.. Chaos Magic boosts DPS by about 1.5%

Iced Lightning: (affects these skills)
Lightning Bolt: +15 magnitude (about 100 magnitude over a minute)
Storm Pillar: +2.5 magnitude (if you use it 10 seconds per minute, then you gain 100 magnitude over a minute)
Storm Spell: +10 magnitude (adds 1 magnitude each time you deal damage, so adds about 150 magnitude over a minute)

If you are only going to use Storm Pillar, then Chaos Magic is better than Iced Lightning. If you are going to use Storm Pillar for multitarget situations.. then the Feats are equal. If and when you choose to also use Lightning Bolt... then Iced Lightning becomes superior to Chaos Magic.

Overall, both feats are underwhelming, and they are very close to equal impact.