I'm only a level 30 wizard, and I agree with mostly everything you say. Except for the 5 points at the beginning of the paragon tree. Being a ranged class with our nukes being an 80 yard range, is it really viable for us to stay within 20 yards of our target all the time? I feel like the 5 points would be better off with Critical Power.
Reaper's Touch is an important feat, in my opinion. Yes, 20ft is sometimes very close, but it's not usually a problem and frequently even recommended (e.g. in some fights you want to stand in the cleric's circle, which is typically where the tank and the baddies are). MM is a major source of our damage, and it getting a massive boost of 30% is a substantial DPS increase. The APs from crits is not a terrible choice, even with the internal CD, but I think it really pales in comparison to the consistent extra MM damage through Reaper's Touch. I don't use daily powers on cooldown, outside of bosses, so faster AP gain doesn't have a very strong impact on my playstyle, and consider how many extra MMs you fire in the time between two dailies. If there were 5 more points, I would get Critical Power, but I feel the other feats offer more return for the points that we do have.
How do control wizards do in terms of PVP? Do they feel weak in comparison to other classes? Are they like, the polar opposite of rogues? (underpowered) How do they do on terms of damage?
You know how for the spell mastery there is an icon in the powers section, and it becomes green when you unlock it? Well there is another one that seems to unlock when you spend have "all the preceding powers at rank 3", It doesn't say what it does, is it worth ranking up all the other spells?
How do control wizards do in terms of PVP? Do they feel weak in comparison to other classes? Are they like, the polar opposite of rogues? (underpowered) How do they do on terms of damage?
Control wizard aren't designed to do damages - but the fact that they do is what makes them so deadly - they're designed to CC. It is entirely possible for a good wiz to shut down any class for any length of time with good uses of teleport and knock backs. Nothing beats rooting a gwf or a rogue to the ground and watch your teammate obliterate them in the morning.
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ascawethMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
Hey
I started a few days ago, with basically same build as you, so im glad that someone else thought it too
Although currently im lvl 31, i had whole plan laid out (after some hiccups, which made me to change feats, it turned out almost same as yours). I started as tiefling with 16/16/12 and int/cha all the way.
Even though im not 60 yet (and it will take some time,im kind of slow :P)
Controlling Action (0/5)
More Action Points when damaging controlled targets. Until we know what exactly counts as controlled, there are better choices. (However, you may still prefer 2/5 here than having the two points in Toughness.)
Prestidigitation (1/3)
I had to look at this word several times before I got it right! It's good, and this is where as a human you might consider 3/3).
I had 5/5 in Controlling Action for a while, didnt even notice it being there. Felt as useless as Learned Spellcaster.
With prestidigitation i was thinking that it might not work correctly with some human who would put 3/3 and be with me in party, so instead i put 1 for more hp. Too bad you cant see any buff icon for it. I like having maxed things and not partials.
Wizard's Wrath (3/3)
Awesome feat, all your AoE attacks do more damage! It's a no-brainer, you are an AoE damage dealer!
Focused Wizardry (3/3)
Even more AoE damage! Woohoo! From 1-59, you should really be #1 in dungeons most of the time.
Wrong. Theese are behaving like Evocation passive, with only some aoe powers getting boost. Until now (lvl 31)
the only powers they affect are: Chill Strike when on TAB, Ice Storm and Shield Pulse. When i noticed it i was that at least singularity wasnt affected. Easy way to check it is to put evocation on bar and look at tooltips damage. Those numbers on tooltips seems correct, because i checked some of them on dummies.
Didnt waste a lot of time on that though,needed to get to 30 at least.
I still have it, because there is nothing better and tabbed chill strike (along with ice storm) with evocation and arcane presence do really nice damage.
Critical Power (0/5)
APs for crits. This is good, but we can do better with our points.
Malevolent Surge (5/5)
You are an AoE damage dealer, you kill trash all the time, so why not do more damage as a reward?
My plan is to switch those points, it just felt better. I wanted that when i casted entangled force on dummies, and all ticks critted. So thought it will work even with 10sec cd Just having more ap would be nice seeing how bad was my fiasco with Controlling Action.
When i get to 60 (next week ?) i might add some other things
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nosfehMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
jesus man, i made the same ****ing build in almost everyting... i was shocked reading this guide
imivo, sorry I couldn't quite follow, but why exactly would you prefer to start 16/16/12 instead of 18/13/13? Is CHA that much more important than WIS that you would give up higher final INT (that adds total damage) for it?
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clacksonMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 12Arc User
edited May 2013
It tickles me that you're not a fan of Avalanche, while it's easily my favorite spell!
imivo, sorry I couldn't quite follow, but why exactly would you prefer to start 16/16/12 instead of 18/13/13? Is CHA that much more important than WIS that you would give up higher final INT (that adds total damage) for it?
I'm really curious about this too, it would be really helpfull if you could clarify
Hi,
I play the same build. But which enchantment do you use? In attackslots I put Crit, but in the defenseslot I don't know if I should put Defense or Lifesteal?
My power is atm=3126
Crit=2124
Recovery=925
Defense=817
Lifesteal=0...
All slots are empty except Delzoun-Weapon has a +185 Crit enchantment already.
My stats are with fate hat, tactic robe+6, pvp handshoes, tactic shoes+6, nightmare talisman.
I have a whole fate set and pvp set still in the bank still.
So which enchantment should i use, I think Lifesteal is good for Pve because AoE Dmg, but for PvP is it worst because I make only single target Dmg and get too much dmg...
ascawethMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
@all the ppl who asks why 16/16/12:
The point is to get as high charisma without loosing too much int, nothing else matters.
Charisma increases critical strike chance, which increases chance to proc Nightmare Wizardry (gain combat advantage on crit) which in turn is boosted in damage by charisma. While you are dealing combat adv damage, you get increased crit dmg with Phantasmal Destruction.
Anyway, this is a theory behind 16/16/12. It is the best synergy with mechanics/feats.
If you feel doing something else, then go ahead, everyone got a free will
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violated87Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
You aren't wrong ascaweth, but the real reason to go 16/16/12 vs 18/13/13 is you gain 1 more point in your damage dealing ability scores. Your primary ability scores are Int (% dmg) and Cha (% crit). With the crit feates in Renegade, 1% crit is very close to 1% damage, maybe arguably a bit better (need TC). In any case, they are close enough that you just want to maximize them as a pair vs any single one individually. With 18/13/13 start you have 31 combined points in those 2 ability scores, where as with 16/16/12 start you have 32 (because it takes 1 point out of Wis).
It's really a factor of the rolling system. If we could start 18/14/12, that would probably (maybe) be better than 16/16/12, but that isn't an option.
edit- I'd also point out that slotting Eye of the Storm has somewhat of a diminishing impact on other sources of crit since it gives you a 100% crit chance. Depending on its up time, it could actually be better to go with 18/13/13, but that's way too intricate to tell without strong TC and/or simulations.
What do you think about Snap Freeze in the Thaumaturge tree? Replacing Malevolent Surge. 20% extra damage on Chill Strike, when your targets are not affected by chill. The only attack we use that really apply chill is Chill Strike. And even with tons of recovery, the CD on Chill Strike will not go below the duration of chill. Hence it's basically a 20% increase on Chill Strike?
What do you think about Snap Freeze in the Thaumaturge tree? Replacing Malevolent Surge. 20% extra damage on Chill Strike, when your targets are not affected by chill. The only attack we use that really apply chill is Chill Strike. And even with tons of recovery, the CD on Chill Strike will not go below the duration of chill. Hence it's basically a 20% increase on Chill Strike?
I have a control wizard who's currently at lvl 45. I've been stacking power instead of crit, is this a bad thing? It's worked so far but feel I'm not as high as I could be on the charts so thinking it might be time for a change. I am close to the build you have and want to mirror it. Yeah for respec tokens!
Current stats (ugh, don't laugh at me please haha)
Power: 2281
Defense: 626
Crit Strike: 269
Recovery: 11
Armor Pen: 86
Regen: 0
Health Steal: 330
Deflection: 0
Movement: 0
What do you think about Snap Freeze in the Thaumaturge tree? Replacing Malevolent Surge. 20% extra damage on Chill Strike, when your targets are not affected by chill. The only attack we use that really apply chill is Chill Strike. And even with tons of recovery, the CD on Chill Strike will not go below the duration of chill. Hence it's basically a 20% increase on Chill Strike?
As well as Ice Knife. It's a must-have IMO.
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violated87Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
@turrash, you definitely want to be more balanced than that. Crit appears to have diminishing returns from some limited testing I've done while leveling, but it's definitely stronger than power earlier on point for point. Here's a simple test you can do:
1. Pick a slot to test and unequip whatever item is there.
2. Have 1 item with power and a similar 1 with crit on that slot.
3. Pick a common used ability (I like to use Chill Strike) and take note of the damage.
4. Equip the power item and record how much additional damage it gains.
5. Equip the crit and note how much additional crit you gain.
6. Divide the additional damage gained from power by the base damage of the spell with no item equiped. This is roughly equivalent to your % damage increase. I.E. if Chill Strike does 1500 damage and the power item increases it to 1520, then 20/1500 is roughly a 1.33% damage increase.
I value %crit and %damage about equal, so in the above scenario if the crit piece gave me more than 1.33% crit I would look for more crit in my gear, and if less than 1.33% I would go with power.
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violated87Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited May 2013
Arcane Presence, Chilling Presence, Bitter Cold, and Snap Freeze are definitely being overlooked and I think you should incorporate some or all of them into your build depending on a) what you are doing (solo, dungeons, etc), and b) how you are playing your CW (all arcane, hybrid, etc). I'll go through all 4 of them here:
Arcane Presence
Let's start with Arcane Presence, as I think that's the most useful (particularly until you get Eye of the Storm, but even after as well). Arcane Presence, at 3 points, causes your Arcane Mastery stacks to also affect Cold Spells. Almost all of us agree that Chill Strike is one of our best spells, and we often keep it in the Tab slot. It's also pretty unanimous that Ice Knife is the best daily for single target damage. Both of these are cold spells, so giving them a 15% damage bonus is a pretty big deal. This also buffs Conduit of Ice (which I recommend for heavy AOE encounters).
Chilling Presence
This one is more situational, but I think it's especially powerful on boss encounters where you can keep the Chill effect at 6 stacks permanently. With 3 points in this power and 6 Chill stacks on a boss, you give yourself an 18% damage bonus to all your spells, and it's pretty easy to maintain on a single target boss encounter. Use RoF to build the initial 6 stacks on the boss, and then Chill Strike, Ice Knife, or a tick of RoF (as needed) will keep it refreshed. This also means you can freely use ST and RoE at will without worrying about if a chill effect is up (see Masterful Arcane Theft feat). It's less useful on AOE because 1) it's hard to build chill stacks on multiple targets (unless you tab Conduit of Ice), and 2) most of them will freeze at 6 stacks thus removing chill. Therefore, I recommend this for bosses only.
Bitter Cold*
This is very conditional on how this feat operates. I haven't tested it yet, but if this damage bonus duration refreshes when your Chill stack duration refreshes, it could be effectively be a passive 5% damage boost. If it only applies when a new stack is applied or when the stack is first applied, then it's not very useful with a Chilling Presence build, but could be better with Snap Freeze build.
Snap Freeze
If you aren't going to invest in Chilling Presence and maintain chill stacks for boss fights, then you should probably get Snap Freeze instead. This gives your cold spells a 20% damage bonus when no chill affects are present, and this basically maximizes your Ice Knife and Chill Strike damage, and make your on damage AOE with tab Chill Strike hit even harder than Sudden Storm. Compared to Chilling Presence playstyle your Chill Strike and Ice Knife would deal 2% more damage, but your arcane spells will deal 18% less. You will also need to make sure you use RoE and Steal Time after a Chill Strike or Ice Knife to ensure they receive their 10% damage bonuses from Chill (Masterful Arcane Theft feat).
i just started and am about to hit level 10 and was hoping someone could help me with a couple beginner pointers...
1) i'm looking for help on managing clicking and combat rotation, especially in pve. say i'm about to solo a pack of basic mobs... how to you open and what order do you use your cooldowns? also, what makes you determine whether to use a teleport or say your daily?
2) i could probably figure this out over time, but how "click-y" are you with magic missile? do you spam the <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> out of it each time before you teleport away or do you try to finesse your presses one at a time?
Comments
Reaper's Touch is an important feat, in my opinion. Yes, 20ft is sometimes very close, but it's not usually a problem and frequently even recommended (e.g. in some fights you want to stand in the cleric's circle, which is typically where the tank and the baddies are). MM is a major source of our damage, and it getting a massive boost of 30% is a substantial DPS increase. The APs from crits is not a terrible choice, even with the internal CD, but I think it really pales in comparison to the consistent extra MM damage through Reaper's Touch. I don't use daily powers on cooldown, outside of bosses, so faster AP gain doesn't have a very strong impact on my playstyle, and consider how many extra MMs you fire in the time between two dailies. If there were 5 more points, I would get Critical Power, but I feel the other feats offer more return for the points that we do have.
16s cd, applies 6 stacks of chill over 10s
1+2+3+4+5+6=21
21/6
3.5 stacks average for that 10 seconds, which with maxed chilling presence is 10.5%, so average of 10.5% extra damage when conduit of ice is active.
10/16 = 0.625
0.625 x 10.5 = 6.525 average dps increase
I'm terrible at math so I probably did something wrong, but chilling presence seems like a worthwhile feat to me.
Control wizard aren't designed to do damages - but the fact that they do is what makes them so deadly - they're designed to CC. It is entirely possible for a good wiz to shut down any class for any length of time with good uses of teleport and knock backs. Nothing beats rooting a gwf or a rogue to the ground and watch your teammate obliterate them in the morning.
I started a few days ago, with basically same build as you, so im glad that someone else thought it too
Although currently im lvl 31, i had whole plan laid out (after some hiccups, which made me to change feats, it turned out almost same as yours). I started as tiefling with 16/16/12 and int/cha all the way.
Even though im not 60 yet (and it will take some time,im kind of slow :P)
I had 5/5 in Controlling Action for a while, didnt even notice it being there. Felt as useless as Learned Spellcaster.
With prestidigitation i was thinking that it might not work correctly with some human who would put 3/3 and be with me in party, so instead i put 1 for more hp. Too bad you cant see any buff icon for it. I like having maxed things and not partials.
Wrong. Theese are behaving like Evocation passive, with only some aoe powers getting boost. Until now (lvl 31)
the only powers they affect are: Chill Strike when on TAB, Ice Storm and Shield Pulse. When i noticed it i was
Didnt waste a lot of time on that though,needed to get to 30 at least.
I still have it, because there is nothing better
My plan is to switch those points, it just felt better. I wanted that when i casted entangled force on dummies, and all ticks critted. So thought it will work even with 10sec cd
When i get to 60 (next week ?) i might add some other things
Good write up, mate.
That is really impressive, might have to invest in that spell myself.
I'm really curious about this too, it would be really helpfull if you could clarify
Regards
Losing 1 cha, 1 str and getting 1 wis, 1 dex, 1 con seems like good deal to newbie.
I play the same build. But which enchantment do you use? In attackslots I put Crit, but in the defenseslot I don't know if I should put Defense or Lifesteal?
My power is atm=3126
Crit=2124
Recovery=925
Defense=817
Lifesteal=0...
All slots are empty except Delzoun-Weapon has a +185 Crit enchantment already.
My stats are with fate hat, tactic robe+6, pvp handshoes, tactic shoes+6, nightmare talisman.
I have a whole fate set and pvp set still in the bank still.
So which enchantment should i use, I think Lifesteal is good for Pve because AoE Dmg, but for PvP is it worst because I make only single target Dmg and get too much dmg...
The point is to get as high charisma without loosing too much int, nothing else matters.
Charisma increases critical strike chance, which increases chance to proc Nightmare Wizardry (gain combat advantage on crit) which in turn is boosted in damage by charisma. While you are dealing combat adv damage, you get increased crit dmg with Phantasmal Destruction.
Anyway, this is a theory behind 16/16/12. It is the best synergy with mechanics/feats.
If you feel doing something else, then go ahead, everyone got a free will
It's really a factor of the rolling system. If we could start 18/14/12, that would probably (maybe) be better than 16/16/12, but that isn't an option.
edit- I'd also point out that slotting Eye of the Storm has somewhat of a diminishing impact on other sources of crit since it gives you a 100% crit chance. Depending on its up time, it could actually be better to go with 18/13/13, but that's way too intricate to tell without strong TC and/or simulations.
Yea that's in my build.
Current stats (ugh, don't laugh at me please haha)
Power: 2281
Defense: 626
Crit Strike: 269
Recovery: 11
Armor Pen: 86
Regen: 0
Health Steal: 330
Deflection: 0
Movement: 0
As well as Ice Knife. It's a must-have IMO.
1. Pick a slot to test and unequip whatever item is there.
2. Have 1 item with power and a similar 1 with crit on that slot.
3. Pick a common used ability (I like to use Chill Strike) and take note of the damage.
4. Equip the power item and record how much additional damage it gains.
5. Equip the crit and note how much additional crit you gain.
6. Divide the additional damage gained from power by the base damage of the spell with no item equiped. This is roughly equivalent to your % damage increase. I.E. if Chill Strike does 1500 damage and the power item increases it to 1520, then 20/1500 is roughly a 1.33% damage increase.
I value %crit and %damage about equal, so in the above scenario if the crit piece gave me more than 1.33% crit I would look for more crit in my gear, and if less than 1.33% I would go with power.
Arcane Presence
Let's start with Arcane Presence, as I think that's the most useful (particularly until you get Eye of the Storm, but even after as well). Arcane Presence, at 3 points, causes your Arcane Mastery stacks to also affect Cold Spells. Almost all of us agree that Chill Strike is one of our best spells, and we often keep it in the Tab slot. It's also pretty unanimous that Ice Knife is the best daily for single target damage. Both of these are cold spells, so giving them a 15% damage bonus is a pretty big deal. This also buffs Conduit of Ice (which I recommend for heavy AOE encounters).
Chilling Presence
This one is more situational, but I think it's especially powerful on boss encounters where you can keep the Chill effect at 6 stacks permanently. With 3 points in this power and 6 Chill stacks on a boss, you give yourself an 18% damage bonus to all your spells, and it's pretty easy to maintain on a single target boss encounter. Use RoF to build the initial 6 stacks on the boss, and then Chill Strike, Ice Knife, or a tick of RoF (as needed) will keep it refreshed. This also means you can freely use ST and RoE at will without worrying about if a chill effect is up (see Masterful Arcane Theft feat). It's less useful on AOE because 1) it's hard to build chill stacks on multiple targets (unless you tab Conduit of Ice), and 2) most of them will freeze at 6 stacks thus removing chill. Therefore, I recommend this for bosses only.
Bitter Cold*
This is very conditional on how this feat operates. I haven't tested it yet, but if this damage bonus duration refreshes when your Chill stack duration refreshes, it could be effectively be a passive 5% damage boost. If it only applies when a new stack is applied or when the stack is first applied, then it's not very useful with a Chilling Presence build, but could be better with Snap Freeze build.
Snap Freeze
If you aren't going to invest in Chilling Presence and maintain chill stacks for boss fights, then you should probably get Snap Freeze instead. This gives your cold spells a 20% damage bonus when no chill affects are present, and this basically maximizes your Ice Knife and Chill Strike damage, and make your on damage AOE with tab Chill Strike hit even harder than Sudden Storm. Compared to Chilling Presence playstyle your Chill Strike and Ice Knife would deal 2% more damage, but your arcane spells will deal 18% less. You will also need to make sure you use RoE and Steal Time after a Chill Strike or Ice Knife to ensure they receive their 10% damage bonuses from Chill (Masterful Arcane Theft feat).
i just started and am about to hit level 10 and was hoping someone could help me with a couple beginner pointers...
1) i'm looking for help on managing clicking and combat rotation, especially in pve. say i'm about to solo a pack of basic mobs... how to you open and what order do you use your cooldowns? also, what makes you determine whether to use a teleport or say your daily?
2) i could probably figure this out over time, but how "click-y" are you with magic missile? do you spam the <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> out of it each time before you teleport away or do you try to finesse your presses one at a time?