Title is "Nerfing wizard is always a bad idea". Cannot discuss the merits, fairness and balance significance of a "nerf" without comparing it to other classes, ITHO.
I'm talking from a historic perspective, and this topic is meant to be from a historic standpoint, as history of Neverwinter nerfs to Wizard have always been made as a rash decision that cripples entire paragons into oblivion since no other compensation to make a class viable for the content was being made. What I see now is the same thing going on again, ergo the name "Nerfing Wizard is always a bad idea", which comes from me, a Main Wizard player who focuses on Wizard history and how the class had to change the playstyle throughout the years and MODS, stating that what makes it hard is having to cope up with those types of changes that completely disregard everything constructive till that point, and makes you having to find some tricky alternatives in order to remain viable, rather than having a build that you can recognize and say "This is it, it should be like this".
For instance, imagine if suddenly Barbarians get a power that completely utilizes Control and all powers are Control based. After three mods, they change into BUFF stuff. Then they change into Ranged DPS.
Point is that no other class had to go through such drastic changes, not even SW's with all of their DPS or Heal paragon changes. Another point is that I hoped that with the introduction of MOD16 such things will be something completely left in the past, but apparently it isn't! What I see is that entire decision was made based on TOMM execution and I'm pretty sure that it also took Bilethorn into the equation as part of Wizards being the issue.
HIstory-wise, these nerfs were so severe that the playstyle of a Wizard changed within each 3-4 mods.
MOD 1-2 Control (Arcane Singularity, Shard of Endless Avalanche) MOD 3-5 Glass Canon (Storm Spell focus) MOD 6-12 3rd best Buff/3rd best dmg Proc Machine (Casually switching to Renegade path on MoF) MOD 13-15 Gatling Gun (Devs nerf multiproc on Lightning Weapon ench, Wizards lose a lot of dmg, most viable remains the most boring spell - Disintegrate in combo with Ice Knife - My dislike towards button mashing in all Wizard topics as that shouldn't be the only way to make a Wizard viable).
Huge reset on MOD16.
Thaumaturge (MoF) has Conduit of Ice, Flame combo with Ice deals good damage, overperforms by quite a bit (40% or so). Reasonable fix. Arcanist underperforms by quite a bit, needs AoE powers that make sense to use in combo with Storm Spell (that should be this class' mechanic power same like Rimefire smolder is for Thaum).
Devs completely destroy Rimefire smolder and procs (hurting everything else that used to also proc, resulting in making Thaumaturge path useless and bugged. Everyone switch to Arcanist in an instant.
Arcanist gets a small buff to Disintegrate (history repeats itself, we lean more towards that button mashing playstyle that focuses on recovery the most thanks to both MOD16 mechanics that threw Recovery stat out of the window, that doesn't even reflect what being a Wizard is).
MOD 18: Arcanist overperforms in a single dungeon, nerf powers across the board? Mindbogglingly stupid! Absolutely unacceptable after not only one mod they increased magnitude of powers to Arcanist. So, what gives? "This mod you will deal damage in the most boring way, but another one lol no you are overperforming now"
Same mistake like before, same concept like before, same thing over and over again. This was not the way to do it because with a Wizard changing one or two powers by ruining the way to deal damage effectively destroys the entire paragon.
True Neutral
Left the Game due to heavy Damage Control & Missing Spanish Language
Only you have difficulty to comprehend that I already play it better than you.
Whatever will I do if you play a Wizard better than me in a month in contrast to half a decade I spent. That must invalidate everything that I've written thus far in this topic. Oh, noes. : }
Cookie?
True Neutral
Left the Game due to heavy Damage Control & Missing Spanish Language
0
micky1p00Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,594Arc User
If you are playing as a wizard, you're bound to either play it extremely well or downright bad. Usually, there's no middle ground. The reason being - class is depending upon different stacks that a player needs to build and learning curve is pretty long until one such player figures out that even a few %dmg boosts will make an enormous difference.
Yup. The most difficult learning curve EVA! Depending on so many stacks.... Slap the right build, and do what every other dps class does, just less.
Most Wizard players who are still playing and beating content are notorious for being among the best tinkerers in the game, familiar with mechanics and various ways to increase performance against each and every enemy type. This all comes with testing, of course, and experience. New players will believe the description and complain that someone with less IL made more Paingiver than them. But that's not the issue here.
Who are those btw, now that I"m reading that again. I know plenty how swapped to play ToMM. And plenty who not playing. Who are those notorious people.
Only you have difficulty to comprehend that I already play it better than you.
Whatever will I do if you play a Wizard better than me in a month in contrast to half a decade I spent. That must invalidate everything that I've written thus far in this topic. Oh, noes. : }
In my runs of TOMM I had done more damage than most Wizards I've played with in spite of them having 70.000 more power. Don't exclude the factors such as loadouts, preparation and knowledge of the class. Those are very important and can make a huge difference in the hands of a skilled player.
A pack of cookies please. Because how many times you meet a person who runs ToMM with at most 130k power or so. BTW, I saw you in-game a couple of weeks a go or so, you prefer to not use lion-heart set? Didn't see it equipped.
About the invalidate. It went all to the bin with the first paragraph, and only worse later when you moved to the insults. Credibility < 0.
0
micky1p00Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,594Arc User
- "PPL switched to a Wizard" <- Not only is this 2nd or 3rd hand speech, but this shows that such people do not main Wizard regularly. That is what I got from you. If a Wizard is that easy to play, why they do not main it throughout the years?
- "To beat TOMM" <- Which tells that heard that Wizards overperform and have desperately tried to beat it by switching to a class that performs better in contrast to others that do not perform as well for the given content. Keyphrase here is content, as I'm sure that in other content their classes can outperform a wizard just fine. Furthermore, if they are playing other classes instead of a Wizard just for the sake of dealing more damage, it shows that Wizard was not their main option as it didn't do enough damage to begin with, from which one might conclude that Wizard was underperforming in their opinion rather than something down the line of "they didn't like the class" (which is a more common option). It could also mean that they had Wizards, but dropped them because Wizards sucked for a very long time as a main DPS toon.
- "You won't find people who won't say that Wizard is a spam fiesta" <- In that case they are all completely and utterly wrong, as Wizard is far from a spam fiesta. Wizard needs precise encounters in precise moments to deal precise damage in order to be viable and stay ahead. Wizard who just presses buttons randomly and spams encounters randomly will pale in coparison to a skilled Wizard. You don't just switch to a class and randomly spam buttons, and if you play Neverwinter like that you will underperform horribly even with this overly nerfed system of mechanics... The only time when you can "spam", so to speak, is during the Daily encounter use of Arcane Empowerment, but even at that point you want to use it in the optimal scenario when you can deal optimal damage and not before that. That is the only viable strategy in my opinion. If you use a daily to randomly spawn without having the optimal amount of buff stacks, you will underperform horribly. For a lot of Wizards who do main this class, the only way to play is to be optimal in all scenarios. This is a discipline Wizards rely upon to stay ahead in most scenarios. This discipline exists out of spite towards constant nerfs. People want to play Wizards regardless of just how much this class is nerfed. Playing a Wizard requires you to be observant of all things that happen around you, so that you can figure out the best strategy on the spot and adapt to the situation without loosing your buff momentum. Especially for the Arcanist path that I mained even during the recent Thaumaturge being the most optimal case scenario, until it got nerfed and became useless. Now, ask your "guildies" why they do not bring Thaumaturge to TOMM if the Wizards are that strong. Let's see just how hard it is to play a class that severely underperforms because, guess what, you have it today right with Wizard class. Imagine that, kind Sobi.
- "there is ofcourse a difference between a average to a skill ceiling wizard but no where as much as other classes" Ahaha, an average Healadin with one Polar Bear Cub can dish out great heals (given they critically strike, but it can be spammed and it gives temp HP) with one 12120 Crit Strike necklace, 3x Bondings r13, and a few 1010 items from ME that nearly everyone has been doing for 6 months now. In fact, these can perform so well that they are already LOMM friendly. With 3x r13 and 1x 12120 you have 65448 Critical Strike already, loosing only 10908 Critical strike in comparison to r15s if I'm not mistaken. With current companion equipment an increase from r13 to r15 is around 15.3846%, which makes an average player already rather viable and cheap to maintain. 5% per Bonding Runestone Rank is exactly 2.46913666667% Stat Increase (consider it 2.5%, but it is slightly less). So, one Gold Icon is 12120 Crit, say Pally has 2x gold icon and only r13s that's 130.896 Crit Strike right there, without counting any other gear, companion buffs or similar. You know what that means? Remains VIABLE as a class for at least 4-5 mods based on that only. Can just focus on HP/Outgoing healing and even DPS lol. and that's with the currently available gear, I don't even go into what new mods might bring for the Healadins.
Now, I challenge you to find me an average Wizard that can use 1x (or 2x) 12120 Companion gear and remain viable for the next 4-5 mods. You see, this is the reason why you can't compare healing classes with DPS, like this guy in the topic that wants his Paladin to deal as much damage as a Wizard, if not more lol. And when you say classes, you have to be specific because DPS/HEAL/TANK are all very different in terms of viability and their "starting" points for what they are sought to do in the content the play.
I speak about LOMM because I consider that the average player playground in terms of just how soon you can enter it without even having the optimal gear etc and finish it in approx 20-25mins. </p>
These are my points I expressed and I stand by. I've expressed that sole Paingiver chart in TOMM as a method of rationalization of nerfing Wizards is a horrible idea, as there are many factors at play. I feel that nerfs to Arcanist path were done solely on the premise of TOMM rather than an objective look at the entire content.
I believe that the equation for this took
A: People who know the class better than other people, as TOMM is rather hi-end. These were mostly Wizard players since Wizard players were among the first players to adapt to the new system of changes and mechanics, which is also reinforced by the case in point - Wizard players were nerfed so much and so hard throughout the past years that made them having to rely on tricks to remain viable. Secondly, this ability allowed many Wizard players to gain a leader status in the groups (or so), as they are more prone to theorycrafting in general. In my experience other players rarely have this sort of an initiative, which is why Wizards usually stay ahead of the curve in spite of being heavily nerfed, resulting in other people stating how Wizards have it easy, which is untrue and doesn't negate the underlying problem of having to utilize various tricks to remain viable. Not all wizards are like this, however, and for experienced players it is easy to understand who has knowledge of the class, and who doesn't. B: If Envenomed Artifact (or other ways to gain AP faster) was nerfed yet again, Wizards wouldn't deal as much damage as others believe to be true. That goes for Bilethorn weapon enchantment, too. These are the effective tricks that prove to be a shortcut that makes AP gain easier (in combo with other AP gaining abilities) that lead to the Arcane Empowerment. On average, a Wizard will have 2-3 extra dailies thanks to this option, that result in dealing slightly more damage than other classes. This point also goes hand in hand with previously mentioned point, which results in expert players having extra daily uses and extra damage which they will use in the best way possible (and more often than not) to stay ahead in paingiver charts. More experienced players will focus on debuffing Halaster by whatever means possible, using artifacts such as PvP banners and whatnot. C: A combination of the previously mentioned point A and B results in evident Wizard Arcanist path staying ahead of the curve by a slight margin. Taking away options from point B result in a Wizard who is on par, or behind, other classes on many occasions. Furthermore, Arcanist path is way behind on AoE execution in contrast to at least 3 if not 4 other classes. Arcanist path will excels on Bosses and Boss battles, but underperforms in AoE combat. In terms of balance, this could be seen as a viable and FAIR thing to have. Nerfing Storm Spell yet again will impact AoE properties of Arcanist class more so than single target properties (Icy Terrain, Steal Time and Opressive Force are going hand in hand with Storm Spell).
Quote I made a few comments ago, where I've expressed my concerns more vividly:
Point 1: DYNAMIC CHANGES OVER THE YEARS MADE WIZARDS VETERAN PLAYERS Point 2: SMALL CHANGES ARE EVERYTHING FOR A WIZARD, BIG ONES DESTROY PARAGONS.
As such, should END-GAME content be a role model for everything else in the game?
This is why TOMM shouldn't be used as the defining factor, as having +/- 10% damage in contrast to other classes is actually a very small and insignificant difference that can be attributed to either an artifact, more knowledge of ppl who play as a Wizard, Ranged use, positioning, being a veteran player etc which usually is the truth! HRs have to follow Halaster. Rogues too, Barbarians too. And in 3rd phase it is obvious that Wizard will get ahead, since Tiefling class already deals more damage to enemies below 50%, and Orcus set bonus is rather generous at around that point of enemy HP. With Wizards specced as AP monster, it's no wonder that some get ahead! In fact, Developers buffed up Disintegrate not that long time ago and that effectively equates to that 10% increase in damage in total in comparison to other classes, which for a 20-30min TOMM run isn't really much and can be defined as having maybe one or two more dailies than other class thanks to a heavy orientation to AP gain, for instance, which Arcanist Wizard needs and others might not care about.
In my runs of TOMM I had done more damage than most Wizards I've played with in spite of them having 70.000 more power. Don't exclude the factors such as loadouts, preparation and knowledge of the class. Those are very important and can make a huge difference in the hands of a skilled player.
Just to clarify, Tieflings dealing more damage is a racial trait. In combination to powers such as Arcane Empowerment and on enemies that have a lot of HP, it will perform exceptionally well, especially in combination with Orcus Set that increases damage done per 5% of lost HP on Boss. This is true for Arcanist path, and nerfs to this path make no sense after buffs have been given recently. For melee classes, having to follow Halaster (which they usually end up doing), more stamina is lost, more damage is lost. Wizards are attuned to having to play exceptionally well and pay attention to all details to stay ahead, which is why such things come naturally to an experienced Wizard. As such you will have a Wizard who either performs amazingly, or underperforms by a considerable amount.
True Neutral
Left the Game due to heavy Damage Control & Missing Spanish Language
I feel like this topic is, yet again, relevant. How long did it take to, yet again, nerf (BREAK) wizards to a pulp?
:RANT ON:
Since the recent "Fix" which is more of a breaking of the class' quintessential power, the already underwhelming AoE combat of a Wizard will suffer more. But that's ok, we can just buy Xuna and stack 10 of those, or 9 of those and one polar bear? IDK. This is a joke, by God this is a horrible joke. Can't you just for once leave Wizards alone for 5 minutes? Do you ALWAYS have to nerf wizards? Lowest of magnitudes, lowest in options, horrible animation lags, and, of course, nore nerfs.
<------->
With said "fix", Arcanist path looses around 25-30% in effective force and build capabilities.
Suddenly, Vorpal is not as good as it was before. Suddenly, AoE spells are even worse than they were. Suddenly, slotting Storm Spell looks like a joke.
We're back to, once again, only one way to play a Wizard which is
- Bilethorn - Single Target Arcane build
<-------->
There was no compensation for such a huge damage nerf to Wizards, too.
This whole thing looks more like an error than a fix.
If a feature power shouldn't deal such damage, then some form of boost is needed for Wizard's encounter powers.
- Disintegrate to go up to 600 magnitude, at least. - Repel to go up to 600, too. - Chill Stacks to be instantly available to use from people that wear Frost enchant.
And that is just for Single target powers.
AOE? Thaumaturge is only good in content where there are other, stronger/faster DPS. Storm powers on Wizard are right now almost completely gone.
I wonder, is someone AFRAID of Lightning or just hates wizards in general, and likes to see them nerfed every few months by completely breaking PARAGONS rather than fixing a power or two?
Because to me it looks like that development team can't fix something without breaking it in three other ways. And my posts here will remain viable longer than any Wizard build, which is irony in itself as history repeats itself ever few months it seems.
You could just delete wizard class, too? I think that'd fix having to fix Wizards when all you do is break them completely.
<------->
XUNA'S OP, NERF WIZARDS. Boost whisperknife by 0.5 sec for that extra PF run. Good call. : }
:Rant off:
===================================
True Neutral
Left the Game due to heavy Damage Control & Missing Spanish Language
Also having this problem. My dps has dropped to the point I'm regularly getting out dps'd in rtqs & reqs by people using undermountain gear (compared to my 4 mythic artifacts including a myth envenomed artifact, legendary 1010 rings, leg bulette companion, etc) unless I use the single target spam build. Not bragging about my meager 25k il, & if it only happened occasionally I'd put it down to my lack of ability, but there's something's wrong when a different class running rank 8 enchantments & the bad luck charm artifact are nearly doubling the dps of a wizard running mythic gear in multiple runs of the same dungeon (castle never farming for a newer player).
I've tried running different skills & gear to compensate, but the only thing that's doing decent damage now is single target spam which I have little interest in. Is there a viable aoe wizard build anymore? If not, could the devs please let me know what's the point of all the other skills & powers we have available? Seems like an awful waste of time on their part to make all that fun stuff, but only make one viable play style for wizards.
- Black Ice set bonus is the only consistent thing in these games. - Sudden Storm can't properly handle elevations. - Steal Time keeps getting bugged on UI, messing with rotations. - Using Arcane Empowerment and casting Encounters will break said Encounters at one point, thus making them to reset several times in a row by 1.2sec, messing with every wizard's heart. - Among the lowest of magnitude powers in the game. Where are BIG numbers? When can a Wizard expect to do nearly enough damage like Cleric or Rogue?
Lightning-based spells are not at all viable to use in any end-game content, whatsoever. Someone might jump
--->"But, wait, storm spell is still BiS, we are still good in one dungeon, just keep on holding that ray of frost for 4 minutes, it's FUN" <---
No, it's not. Storm spell is broken without any compensation for a class that already got nerfed by 50% across all important features not that long time ago. And the consideration for that nerf was also due to Storm Spell being "broken", so that's nerfing a class, then fixing it, instead to do vice-versa.. And ToMM isn't everything in NWO. New content will emerge where AoE is important.
This is a plea to NOT MAKE wizards having to play only one viable path, but several. You broke everything down in MOD16, now you want to state how even with everything broken down into smaller segments you can't make 2-3 viable builds that make sense - Fire, Lightning, Arcane? Really? I do not believe that's the truth.
FIXES:
-----------------
Fix 1: Return Storm spell to be able to Crit, and hit for 40% of times. Storm Spell shouldn't build AP gain. Fix 2: Make Icy Terrain + Conduit of Ice to fall in love again at the Arcanist path for the sake of AoE builds. Fix 3: Increase the magnitude of Sudden Storm significantly, something like 600+ would do. Since it is a cone spell, reducing it's timer should also be possible. Fix 4: Fix the bug with the Arcane Empowerment that puts Encounters into reset state instead to active state. Fix 5: Lower the casting animation time on powers by 50% each (aside from Repel whose timer should be increased by 0.3 sec for the animation cast). Casting time is an OLD TRICK to make high damaging powers take longer to hit, back when we had RECOVERY. This doesn't exist anymore. Fix 6: Steal Time hits mag 50 per tick. Steal Time should hit 5 enemies on regular Encounter basis, and 10 enemies on spell mastery basis. For each 5 enemies it hits, 3% more defense should be applied, to a maximum of 6%. If no enemies are hit, gain a 10% speed buff instead. Fix 7: Nightmare Wizardry should activate 20% of times on the first hit only. Not with any channeling powers. Fix 8: Assailing Force should activate 30% of times on the regular encounter use. Special: Assailing Force now activates 50% of times during the Dailies after which it goes on ICD for 10 sec. If your Encounter powers fail to crit three times in a row, gain Assailing Force buff yet again. Fix 9: Imprisonment on Spell Mastery buffs up all encounters by 30% at the expense of losing one extremely important slot for damage (spell mastery).
Any of these would do just nicely and bring some FUN back into the Wizards who nowadays play like zombies. I hold Ray of Frost. That's gameplay. That's all. I didn't sign up just so that I can play MOd15s GWF as a Wizard.
Thanks. Fix.
True Neutral
Left the Game due to heavy Damage Control & Missing Spanish Language
4
thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
I agree that after storm spell "fixing", damage has dropped significantly and we don't get any compensation and fix for other minor and greater issues with wizard builds, many class features and paragon feats are not worth the time, yet we have to pick 1 of either of 2
Wizard has always been a viable class and very often the top class in the game.
That's rather ambiguous and barely true. Just barely.
history lesson:
Wizard was very rarely top Class in the game, and whatever Top Classiness happened was already explained in-detail in the topic before, which is attributed to people's expertise with the class itself. One time I remember Wizard being top class in the game was MOD3 maybe even MOD4. That was the only time when Wizards trully didn't have to work to get their (de)buffs. It was right there, all you had to do was to wait for EoTS to activate, and 6 sec of unreal AoE burst damage commenced.
There was this one period with procs and multiprocs after, but that was just a miscalculation on developer's part of that time (MOD6-MOD7). There was this one period when Lostmauth got introduced and it made Storm Spell to crit per tick of the Lostmauth set. Lostmauth set wasn't nerfed, but Storm Spell did. This is a mistake I commonly see with the Wizard class in relation to Developers. They immediately think that it's a Storm Spell's fault and not the item itself. Some sort of a backward logic there. So Storm Spell got nerfed to the ground, without the ability to crit, which made over 40% of dmg loss for many wizards. And Wizards received Disintegrate as a compensation. That's like giving a pacifier to a baby. They became more single-target than multitarget, which was the biggest change for a Wizard playstyle and the original intent for someone who is an expert in CC.
It's like, you could never really understand what is Wizard's role. You couldn't choose anymore what you want to play, instead it was more down the lane of - Is it to be a close ranged glass canon? Is it to be a DoT monster? Is it to be a Debuff boi? Is it to CC?
All in all I still have NO idea what Developers want with the Wizard class. It is infuriating. And I'd really like some clarification on that part. I think that all wizards want some clarification. Every single time that people made a way for Wizards to work and whenever it was FUN to play a Wizard (and I'm not saying here OP or ez pz, it still required skill and effort) we'd get a nerf + the system itself got a nerf. It's priceless, really. Happened with other classes, too. Happened with Recovery, too. They give us toys, but then take them away like "Oh, you are playing with it far too good. You don't need that much fun in a video game, GG"....... - _ -
What happened recently? "Hey, guys, you heal far too easy and you were collecting Companion Upgrade tokens for years to BUILD all your Outgoing healing pets to legendary, but here is some nerf for all your effort and work so you can't enjoy the fruits of your hard work, GG". - _ - That's why people tend not to believe Cryptic stuff at all. People are afraid to even play or buy something if it looks decent. Not even Good or too good, just DECENT to use. Because if there are like 20 people using something that's decent, chances are - nerf. Trials are looking more to be like some sort of a in-game lockbox, where you have to constantly switch classes in expectancy to even win something worthwhile for all your effort. Why am I getting TIAMAT SASH from The Infernal Citadel? Why is that in the loot table for END-GAME dungeon? Why should I even play The Infernal Citadel? Am I to play only one dungeon with only one viable build and only one button for 20 minutes? And call that "Skill"? I still see people struggle even with the current what I'd refer to as "no-brain builds". And can't understand the very basic behind the class' mechanics. Viability was never superior to other classes, bar one time when Wizards were playing as a Debuff class even though there were supposed to be DPS-only class. This was the only time when people massively played and sought after a MoF debuff. And you only had the need for ONE wizard in a team. Two would already overlap and be a nuisance. And this exists even now, although for a good reason - to prevent RoE from stacking.
What makes a Wizard "Viable" right now? Just one way to play the class?
All DMG% buffs have to be applied separately and by a chance. And they rarely, if ever, can be properly utilized. There is no free 10% or 15% because you stand behind the enemy or you are in a stance or your critical chance increases or similar... There is none of that. You have to sacrifice something only to get something. If I take Nightmare Wizardry, that has a chance to apply, then there is no Striking Advantage, so I'm losing a lot of damage. If Rogue casts Smoke Bomb, well there is some free, nice looking CA. Don't mind if I do. If I take Chill instead of Assailing Force (that has a chance to apply per ENCOUNTER use, which doubles the damage of the said encounter, which again is same magnitude that other classes enjoy by default), then my Encounters won't be hitting 1.2-1.6 mil dmg. Instead, they'd remain lower and rarely go over 1mil dmg. And I can buff up to 260k power in the combat. Meanwhile, with other classes you can pretty much destroy bosses in a single rotation. Two average rogues with 170-180k power by default and around 240k power in combat (w/o horn+Deepcow) with Halaster and Envenomed debuffs can probably kill Despair with ease if they crit. I'm not even going to mention the crazy damage Clerics deal right now both in AoE and Single Target. They are way too good not to play them.
All magnitude powers are crippled across the board. All powers and features that provide some sort of a damage buff have been crippled across the board. Right now, Wizard is in a horrible state. Wizard is, in the fullest sense, the most average class in the game in MOD18. And that is if we take skilled players playing the class. Non-skilled players will lag behind every other class bar maybe Guardian Fighter. And this is the DMG path we talk about. In fact, people are already making plans to play as a THAUM build for MOD19, losing a lot of damage only to offer others a bit more chance to deal dmg itself in the new Trial. As I explained earlier, MOD16 put a hard stop on the viability of the Debuffs that classes and powers had (mount powers, dailies etc). If I'm to compare what sort of FREE damage buffs other classes get in comparison to what bread crumbs Wizards have right now, I can do that too. Or, you can play said classes yourself and check Features. There is a difference between people making it viable for one dungeon or one trial, and objectivity & truth regarding how things stand when you inspect classes a bit closer.
True Neutral
Left the Game due to heavy Damage Control & Missing Spanish Language
It was the time when Warlock class was introduced. I remember some Wizard friends of mine checked Warlock on preview and we were thrilled. A fellow arcane spellcaster! It has so amazing spells. Now we fight together. Now we can help each other. Boy we were so naive...
As I recall the module 4 nerf/rework was 2-3 pages and changed the once ranged wizard to some close quarter dot-based attacker. After module 4 nerf lots of good Wizards left the game or changed to pvp. I was indisposed and refused to play Wizard as buffer. I switched to some buffer-support class by default like DC or GF.
Since then Wizards sometimes have a good times. Like mod15-18. Sometimes they don't. With good gameplay you can have enough dps for any dungeon. The learning curve for the same dps can be much longer than other "easier" classes. The game is tending to make boss fights more important so wizards got good single target damage.
Btw there are classes here indeed where you should maintain Starcraft League APM, perfect ping and PC and others you just overlie their mouse left click occasionally cast some spells and do the same dps. Currently as I heard DC rotation is hard. Haven't find good rotation video though. Unfortunatelly its not common here.
Sometimes I enjoy having fun with wizard and when that is over sometimes I just switch to the the recent Imba Fotm dd class. I believe we're looking forward a barbarian module again right...?
I saw some arguments about how hard the usage of current wizard is compared to other classes. Its probably much more dependent on the person, his experience he participed, and his guild from he can learn from others rather than the class itself. Without getting into this one I just say some member of a class can hardly master their own while wizards are also adept at learning and using others classes better than their so called "main dps"... So incoming GWF/GF/SW buffs huh...? We're ready...
Post edited by commanderdata002 on
stock and stone I can master, but there's a Wizard to manage here!
I see some arguments about how current wizard is how hard compared to classes.
That's cause people tend to only see what they want to see, taking things out of the context and forgetting the importance of reading & understanding what's written. All that aside, I generally agree with you on this. I can't comment on PvP though, as the Oppressor was the go-to playstyle for most PvP wizards I knew. And it is, in fact, people QQing that wizards can perma cc you. In reality it was only good wizards that could do that, and what's more, others didn't feel like using CC counters on their builds. With CC counters wizard would simply die in two hits. Most of the gameplay was trying to push enemies onto spikes with repel or hold them long enough for the DoT's to apply and then stay alive long enough for DoT's to actually down them...
It might be that we remember things differently as I do not recall people that really enjoyed PvP in Neverwinter. And before that, PvP in Neverwinter was mostly hit or miss before SW got introduced. IDK about you, but we had to hope not to get against P2W PVP guilds that swarmed Gauntlgrym, thus denying us the possibility to run some Dwarf King Crypt (known as DK) as only winners had the ability to do it. I vaguely remember it, but it might've changed later on.
But that aside, Wizards were way too ahead and broken with Storm Spell melting everything, which is far from a reason to have them constantly nerfed and not fun now.
As usual, Wizard gets left in the dust with pacifier powers and no-fun mechanics in the vein of Disintegrate whilst others get cool features and stuff. The way I see it rn is 2 Disintegrate spells, one which annoys everyone else except Wizards (Repel), some debuff that's meh at best, and decent AP gain on Thaum that you'd play only to make others feel good about their paingiver charts.
And with that being said, I had more fun playing as Thaum in ToMM than I ever will as Arcanist.
Arcanist is the lowest point of Wizard skill that ever was introduced in the game. Sure, timing is still important etc but it is just boring without storm spell crits.
True Neutral
Left the Game due to heavy Damage Control & Missing Spanish Language
I played wizard since mod4 and left the game and came back repeatedly (because of drastic changes). I totally agree with the point made in this tread but from experience I think it won't be adressed be developers any time soon.
With that in mind I still have few things to say: 1. Nowadays there are classes in game that have either multiple roles for paragons or two of the same (two dps). I think that classes which have no other option than to be DPS (wizard, rogue, ranger) should be more potent in dealing damage than the other classes. So in my mind is ridiculous if cleric or fighter deals more dmg than wizard. Just my opinion. 2. Wizard have been always relying on procs but you had to be able to spam encounters to do it. Now my icy terrain has cooldown of about 17 seconds which is absurd. When I run a dungeon and we clear pack of mobs, by the time we reach the next pack my icy terrain is still in cooldown. Don't know about other classes but warlock and ranger has certain ways to reduce the cooldowns but not wizard (e.g. soul spark recovery). I have to spam ray of frost for at least 10 seconds before I can use encounter rotation again. My mind just can't process it why it is like that. My suggestion would be to bring back old version of Spell Twisting with 10% of cooldown reduction per stack (up to 40%). I think that is not a big thing to ask for.
Also magnitudes of aoe encounters need buff but if they would at least reduced cooldowns or give us old spell twisting back, it would maybe make wizard more competitive and attractive to play again.
I wonder how long i will be able to play this ruined class before leaving the game again.
Damaging potential was never really an issue for me. Any class in the game can be made to have a good damaging potential. Some classes execute this better, others don't. Wizard's damaging potential right now is rather weak. It is behind at least four other classes. For a DPS class this can be an issue.
Main issue is that class is not fun to play, which is a huge deal as this makes this very class rather bland in comparison. It is one thing when this is something said by one or two people, but a whole another thing when this is said in an unified voice of the entire Wizard community (or anyone that actually knows a thing or two about Wizards and Wizard's history in general).
Constant nerfs and ninjanerfs only show that someone actually might hate Wizard class from within the team of developers, because there is no balancing point nor explanation as to why something happens and for what reason. There is a big bias towards Wizards for whatever reason.
If the reason is to make Wizard players leave the game, then you might as well delete the whole class so that we don't wonder when are we going to be looked at by the development team, if at all.
Previous three patch notes on Wizards were old patch notes from previous patches. That is shameful!
True Neutral
Left the Game due to heavy Damage Control & Missing Spanish Language
Here is the thing. Even if Neverwinter survived to have 200 more mods, so even in mod 219 they would still be talking about class balance.
The reason it is "never" balanced, isn't because its difficult, or hard to do. They mess with the classes every time to keep the game fresh.
Imagine if they "balanced" the classes perfectly for 2 years straight? You would get bored of using the same rotation, same encounters. They fu$# with the classes because its a cheap way to keep the players busy messing with their encounters again to find out what is the best to use.
So every couple of mods, they tweak a class or two then the next mod, tweak a few more classes, nerf one or two, rince and repeat. They will NEVER have class balance ever.
I disagree with that as classes have become more "down in line" with M16 (big surprise, no?), but the point is not Class Balance, rather Class Equality.
Class Balance is always (and should always) be defined by what's the current meta for the content. You want to take BiS class based on the Content that you play, which is what we had back in first few mods. For SpellPlague dungeon with many enemies, a Wizard was the go-to class due to DoTs. For eLoL Rogue and Ranged were the go-to classes.
But with Trials we have - Who can outdish more damage in shortest time scenario, so classes are anything but balanced there. Since there are no real benefits of taking different classes in party, you might as well choose people solely based on their mount combat powers, Artifacts & bonuses they might wear in Neck/Belt/Arti slots.
However, differences are starting to show with weapons that are becoming increasingly more potent.
Classes should differentiate in the style of gameplay, skills to use, but their damaging potential should remain same. That's Class Balance on paper.
There is also mechanics class balance i.e. how to manage Melee vs Ranged class balance in relation to how fast someone's skills execute.
Casting animations currently make no sense. Casting animations used to make sense back when those were used with long CD's or how powerful the skill actually was or how long it will last.
Right now casting mechanics are just a mechanic from earlier state of the game, pre-MOD-16. There is a lot of mechanical class balance left to do, however the on-paper class balance is basically just pure math that can be done by fine-tuning until the perfect ratio is achieved.
However, Wizard issues right now surpass all of that. Whole style of playing a Wizard right now is atrocious. Mindbogglingly boring. This is something that needs to change, otherwise nobody will play this class anymore.
Clerics & Rogues right now are most fun classes to play. Rogue Assassin right now is basically what a Wizard should be.
True Neutral
Left the Game due to heavy Damage Control & Missing Spanish Language
Comments
For instance, imagine if suddenly Barbarians get a power that completely utilizes Control and all powers are Control based. After three mods, they change into BUFF stuff. Then they change into Ranged DPS.
Point is that no other class had to go through such drastic changes, not even SW's with all of their DPS or Heal paragon changes.
Another point is that I hoped that with the introduction of MOD16 such things will be something completely left in the past, but apparently it isn't! What I see is that entire decision was made based on TOMM execution and I'm pretty sure that it also took Bilethorn into the equation as part of Wizards being the issue.
HIstory-wise, these nerfs were so severe that the playstyle of a Wizard changed within each 3-4 mods.
MOD 1-2 Control (Arcane Singularity, Shard of Endless Avalanche)
MOD 3-5 Glass Canon (Storm Spell focus)
MOD 6-12 3rd best Buff/3rd best dmg Proc Machine (Casually switching to Renegade path on MoF)
MOD 13-15 Gatling Gun (Devs nerf multiproc on Lightning Weapon ench, Wizards lose a lot of dmg, most viable remains the most boring spell - Disintegrate in combo with Ice Knife - My dislike towards button mashing in all Wizard topics as that shouldn't be the only way to make a Wizard viable).
Huge reset on MOD16.
Thaumaturge (MoF) has Conduit of Ice, Flame combo with Ice deals good damage, overperforms by quite a bit (40% or so). Reasonable fix.
Arcanist underperforms by quite a bit, needs AoE powers that make sense to use in combo with Storm Spell (that should be this class' mechanic power same like Rimefire smolder is for Thaum).
Devs completely destroy Rimefire smolder and procs (hurting everything else that used to also proc, resulting in making Thaumaturge path useless and bugged. Everyone switch to Arcanist in an instant.
Arcanist gets a small buff to Disintegrate (history repeats itself, we lean more towards that button mashing playstyle that focuses on recovery the most thanks to both MOD16 mechanics that threw Recovery stat out of the window, that doesn't even reflect what being a Wizard is).
MOD 18: Arcanist overperforms in a single dungeon, nerf powers across the board? Mindbogglingly stupid! Absolutely unacceptable after not only one mod they increased magnitude of powers to Arcanist. So, what gives?
"This mod you will deal damage in the most boring way, but another one lol no you are overperforming now"
Same mistake like before, same concept like before, same thing over and over again. This was not the way to do it because with a Wizard changing one or two powers by ruining the way to deal damage effectively destroys the entire paragon.
Cookie?
Who are those notorious people. A pack of cookies please.
Because how many times you meet a person who runs ToMM with at most 130k power or so. BTW, I saw you in-game a couple of weeks a go or so, you prefer to not use lion-heart set? Didn't see it equipped.
About the invalidate. It went all to the bin with the first paragraph, and only worse later when you moved to the insults. Credibility < 0.
These are my points I expressed and I stand by. I've expressed that sole Paingiver chart in TOMM as a method of rationalization of nerfing Wizards is a horrible idea, as there are many factors at play. I feel that nerfs to Arcanist path were done solely on the premise of TOMM rather than an objective look at the entire content.
I believe that the equation for this took
A: People who know the class better than other people, as TOMM is rather hi-end. These were mostly Wizard players since Wizard players were among the first players to adapt to the new system of changes and mechanics, which is also reinforced by the case in point - Wizard players were nerfed so much and so hard throughout the past years that made them having to rely on tricks to remain viable. Secondly, this ability allowed many Wizard players to gain a leader status in the groups (or so), as they are more prone to theorycrafting in general. In my experience other players rarely have this sort of an initiative, which is why Wizards usually stay ahead of the curve in spite of being heavily nerfed, resulting in other people stating how Wizards have it easy, which is untrue and doesn't negate the underlying problem of having to utilize various tricks to remain viable. Not all wizards are like this, however, and for experienced players it is easy to understand who has knowledge of the class, and who doesn't.
B: If Envenomed Artifact (or other ways to gain AP faster) was nerfed yet again, Wizards wouldn't deal as much damage as others believe to be true. That goes for Bilethorn weapon enchantment, too. These are the effective tricks that prove to be a shortcut that makes AP gain easier (in combo with other AP gaining abilities) that lead to the Arcane Empowerment. On average, a Wizard will have 2-3 extra dailies thanks to this option, that result in dealing slightly more damage than other classes. This point also goes hand in hand with previously mentioned point, which results in expert players having extra daily uses and extra damage which they will use in the best way possible (and more often than not) to stay ahead in paingiver charts. More experienced players will focus on debuffing Halaster by whatever means possible, using artifacts such as PvP banners and whatnot.
C: A combination of the previously mentioned point A and B results in evident Wizard Arcanist path staying ahead of the curve by a slight margin. Taking away options from point B result in a Wizard who is on par, or behind, other classes on many occasions. Furthermore, Arcanist path is way behind on AoE execution in contrast to at least 3 if not 4 other classes. Arcanist path will excels on Bosses and Boss battles, but underperforms in AoE combat. In terms of balance, this could be seen as a viable and FAIR thing to have. Nerfing Storm Spell yet again will impact AoE properties of Arcanist class more so than single target properties (Icy Terrain, Steal Time and Opressive Force are going hand in hand with Storm Spell).
Quote I made a few comments ago, where I've expressed my concerns more vividly: Just to clarify, Tieflings dealing more damage is a racial trait. In combination to powers such as Arcane Empowerment and on enemies that have a lot of HP, it will perform exceptionally well, especially in combination with Orcus Set that increases damage done per 5% of lost HP on Boss. This is true for Arcanist path, and nerfs to this path make no sense after buffs have been given recently.
For melee classes, having to follow Halaster (which they usually end up doing), more stamina is lost, more damage is lost. Wizards are attuned to having to play exceptionally well and pay attention to all details to stay ahead, which is why such things come naturally to an experienced Wizard. As such you will have a Wizard who either performs amazingly, or underperforms by a considerable amount.
:RANT ON:
Since the recent "Fix" which is more of a breaking of the class' quintessential power, the already underwhelming AoE combat of a Wizard will suffer more. But that's ok, we can just buy Xuna and stack 10 of those, or 9 of those and one polar bear? IDK. This is a joke, by God this is a horrible joke. Can't you just for once leave Wizards alone for 5 minutes? Do you ALWAYS have to nerf wizards? Lowest of magnitudes, lowest in options, horrible animation lags, and, of course, nore nerfs.
<------->
With said "fix", Arcanist path looses around 25-30% in effective force and build capabilities.
Suddenly, Vorpal is not as good as it was before.
Suddenly, AoE spells are even worse than they were.
Suddenly, slotting Storm Spell looks like a joke.
We're back to, once again, only one way to play a Wizard which is
- Bilethorn
- Single Target Arcane build
<-------->
There was no compensation for such a huge damage nerf to Wizards, too.
This whole thing looks more like an error than a fix.
If a feature power shouldn't deal such damage, then some form of boost is needed for Wizard's encounter powers.
- Disintegrate to go up to 600 magnitude, at least.
- Repel to go up to 600, too.
- Chill Stacks to be instantly available to use from people that wear Frost enchant.
And that is just for Single target powers.
AOE? Thaumaturge is only good in content where there are other, stronger/faster DPS.
Storm powers on Wizard are right now almost completely gone.
I wonder, is someone AFRAID of Lightning or just hates wizards in general, and likes to see them nerfed every few months by completely breaking PARAGONS rather than fixing a power or two?
Because to me it looks like that development team can't fix something without breaking it in three other ways. And my posts here will remain viable longer than any Wizard build, which is irony in itself as history repeats itself ever few months it seems.
You could just delete wizard class, too? I think that'd fix having to fix Wizards when all you do is break them completely.
<------->
XUNA'S OP, NERF WIZARDS. Boost whisperknife by 0.5 sec for that extra PF run. Good call. : }
:Rant off:
===================================
I've tried running different skills & gear to compensate, but the only thing that's doing decent damage now is single target spam which I have little interest in. Is there a viable aoe wizard build anymore? If not, could the devs please let me know what's the point of all the other skills & powers we have available? Seems like an awful waste of time on their part to make all that fun stuff, but only make one viable play style for wizards.
- Sudden Storm can't properly handle elevations.
- Steal Time keeps getting bugged on UI, messing with rotations.
- Using Arcane Empowerment and casting Encounters will break said Encounters at one point, thus making them to reset several times in a row by 1.2sec, messing with every wizard's heart.
- Among the lowest of magnitude powers in the game. Where are BIG numbers? When can a Wizard expect to do nearly enough damage like Cleric or Rogue?
Lightning-based spells are not at all viable to use in any end-game content, whatsoever.
Someone might jump
--->"But, wait, storm spell is still BiS, we are still good in one dungeon, just keep on holding that ray of frost for 4 minutes, it's FUN" <---
No, it's not. Storm spell is broken without any compensation for a class that already got nerfed by 50% across all important features not that long time ago. And the consideration for that nerf was also due to Storm Spell being "broken", so that's nerfing a class, then fixing it, instead to do vice-versa..
And ToMM isn't everything in NWO. New content will emerge where AoE is important.
This is a plea to NOT MAKE wizards having to play only one viable path, but several. You broke everything down in MOD16, now you want to state how even with everything broken down into smaller segments you can't make 2-3 viable builds that make sense - Fire, Lightning, Arcane? Really? I do not believe that's the truth.
FIXES:
-----------------
Fix 1: Return Storm spell to be able to Crit, and hit for 40% of times. Storm Spell shouldn't build AP gain.
Fix 2: Make Icy Terrain + Conduit of Ice to fall in love again at the Arcanist path for the sake of AoE builds.
Fix 3: Increase the magnitude of Sudden Storm significantly, something like 600+ would do. Since it is a cone spell, reducing it's timer should also be possible.
Fix 4: Fix the bug with the Arcane Empowerment that puts Encounters into reset state instead to active state.
Fix 5: Lower the casting animation time on powers by 50% each (aside from Repel whose timer should be increased by 0.3 sec for the animation cast). Casting time is an OLD TRICK to make high damaging powers take longer to hit, back when we had RECOVERY. This doesn't exist anymore.
Fix 6: Steal Time hits mag 50 per tick. Steal Time should hit 5 enemies on regular Encounter basis, and 10 enemies on spell mastery basis. For each 5 enemies it hits, 3% more defense should be applied, to a maximum of 6%. If no enemies are hit, gain a 10% speed buff instead.
Fix 7: Nightmare Wizardry should activate 20% of times on the first hit only. Not with any channeling powers.
Fix 8: Assailing Force should activate 30% of times on the regular encounter use. Special: Assailing Force now activates 50% of times during the Dailies after which it goes on ICD for 10 sec. If your Encounter powers fail to crit three times in a row, gain Assailing Force buff yet again.
Fix 9: Imprisonment on Spell Mastery buffs up all encounters by 30% at the expense of losing one extremely important slot for damage (spell mastery).
Any of these would do just nicely and bring some FUN back into the Wizards who nowadays play like zombies. I hold Ray of Frost. That's gameplay. That's all. I didn't sign up just so that I can play MOd15s GWF as a Wizard.
Thanks. Fix.
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1255876/new-cdp-topics
Just yesterday, this: https://streamable.com/k3xou2
It is a combination of three bugs that led to that scenario. Unbelievable.
Born of Black Wind: SW Level 80
history lesson:
Wizard was very rarely top Class in the game, and whatever Top Classiness happened was already explained in-detail in the topic before, which is attributed to people's expertise with the class itself. One time I remember Wizard being top class in the game was MOD3 maybe even MOD4. That was the only time when Wizards trully didn't have to work to get their (de)buffs. It was right there, all you had to do was to wait for EoTS to activate, and 6 sec of unreal AoE burst damage commenced.
There was this one period with procs and multiprocs after, but that was just a miscalculation on developer's part of that time (MOD6-MOD7). There was this one period when Lostmauth got introduced and it made Storm Spell to crit per tick of the Lostmauth set. Lostmauth set wasn't nerfed, but Storm Spell did. This is a mistake I commonly see with the Wizard class in relation to Developers. They immediately think that it's a Storm Spell's fault and not the item itself. Some sort of a backward logic there.
So Storm Spell got nerfed to the ground, without the ability to crit, which made over 40% of dmg loss for many wizards. And Wizards received Disintegrate as a compensation. That's like giving a pacifier to a baby.
They became more single-target than multitarget, which was the biggest change for a Wizard playstyle and the original intent for someone who is an expert in CC.
It's like, you could never really understand what is Wizard's role. You couldn't choose anymore what you want to play, instead it was more down the lane of - Is it to be a close ranged glass canon? Is it to be a DoT monster? Is it to be a Debuff boi? Is it to CC?
All in all I still have NO idea what Developers want with the Wizard class. It is infuriating. And I'd really like some clarification on that part. I think that all wizards want some clarification. Every single time that people made a way for Wizards to work and whenever it was FUN to play a Wizard (and I'm not saying here OP or ez pz, it still required skill and effort) we'd get a nerf + the system itself got a nerf. It's priceless, really.
Happened with other classes, too. Happened with Recovery, too. They give us toys, but then take them away like "Oh, you are playing with it far too good. You don't need that much fun in a video game, GG"....... - _ -
What happened recently? "Hey, guys, you heal far too easy and you were collecting Companion Upgrade tokens for years to BUILD all your Outgoing healing pets to legendary, but here is some nerf for all your effort and work so you can't enjoy the fruits of your hard work, GG". - _ - That's why people tend not to believe Cryptic stuff at all. People are afraid to even play or buy something if it looks decent. Not even Good or too good, just DECENT to use. Because if there are like 20 people using something that's decent, chances are - nerf.
Trials are looking more to be like some sort of a in-game lockbox, where you have to constantly switch classes in expectancy to even win something worthwhile for all your effort. Why am I getting TIAMAT SASH from The Infernal Citadel? Why is that in the loot table for END-GAME dungeon? Why should I even play The Infernal Citadel? Am I to play only one dungeon with only one viable build and only one button for 20 minutes? And call that "Skill"?
I still see people struggle even with the current what I'd refer to as "no-brain builds". And can't understand the very basic behind the class' mechanics.
Viability was never superior to other classes, bar one time when Wizards were playing as a Debuff class even though there were supposed to be DPS-only class. This was the only time when people massively played and sought after a MoF debuff. And you only had the need for ONE wizard in a team. Two would already overlap and be a nuisance. And this exists even now, although for a good reason - to prevent RoE from stacking.
What makes a Wizard "Viable" right now? Just one way to play the class?
All DMG% buffs have to be applied separately and by a chance. And they rarely, if ever, can be properly utilized. There is no free 10% or 15% because you stand behind the enemy or you are in a stance or your critical chance increases or similar... There is none of that. You have to sacrifice something only to get something. If I take Nightmare Wizardry, that has a chance to apply, then there is no Striking Advantage, so I'm losing a lot of damage. If Rogue casts Smoke Bomb, well there is some free, nice looking CA. Don't mind if I do.
If I take Chill instead of Assailing Force (that has a chance to apply per ENCOUNTER use, which doubles the damage of the said encounter, which again is same magnitude that other classes enjoy by default), then my Encounters won't be hitting 1.2-1.6 mil dmg. Instead, they'd remain lower and rarely go over 1mil dmg. And I can buff up to 260k power in the combat.
Meanwhile, with other classes you can pretty much destroy bosses in a single rotation. Two average rogues with 170-180k power by default and around 240k power in combat (w/o horn+Deepcow) with Halaster and Envenomed debuffs can probably kill Despair with ease if they crit. I'm not even going to mention the crazy damage Clerics deal right now both in AoE and Single Target. They are way too good not to play them.
All magnitude powers are crippled across the board. All powers and features that provide some sort of a damage buff have been crippled across the board.
Right now, Wizard is in a horrible state. Wizard is, in the fullest sense, the most average class in the game in MOD18. And that is if we take skilled players playing the class. Non-skilled players will lag behind every other class bar maybe Guardian Fighter. And this is the DMG path we talk about. In fact, people are already making plans to play as a THAUM build for MOD19, losing a lot of damage only to offer others a bit more chance to deal dmg itself in the new Trial.
As I explained earlier, MOD16 put a hard stop on the viability of the Debuffs that classes and powers had (mount powers, dailies etc). If I'm to compare what sort of FREE damage buffs other classes get in comparison to what bread crumbs Wizards have right now, I can do that too. Or, you can play said classes yourself and check Features.
There is a difference between people making it viable for one dungeon or one trial, and objectivity & truth regarding how things stand when you inspect classes a bit closer.
It was the time when Warlock class was introduced. I remember some Wizard friends of mine checked Warlock on preview and we were thrilled.
A fellow arcane spellcaster! It has so amazing spells. Now we fight together. Now we can help each other.
Boy we were so naive...
As I recall the module 4 nerf/rework was 2-3 pages and changed the once ranged wizard to some close quarter dot-based attacker.
After module 4 nerf lots of good Wizards left the game or changed to pvp.
I was indisposed and refused to play Wizard as buffer. I switched to some buffer-support class by default like DC or GF.
Since then Wizards sometimes have a good times. Like mod15-18. Sometimes they don't.
With good gameplay you can have enough dps for any dungeon.
The learning curve for the same dps can be much longer than other "easier" classes.
The game is tending to make boss fights more important so wizards got good single target damage.
Btw there are classes here indeed where you should maintain Starcraft League APM, perfect ping and PC and others you just overlie their mouse left click occasionally cast some spells and do the same dps.
Currently as I heard DC rotation is hard. Haven't find good rotation video though. Unfortunatelly its not common here.
Sometimes I enjoy having fun with wizard and when that is over sometimes I just switch to the the recent Imba Fotm dd class. I believe we're looking forward a barbarian module again right...?
I saw some arguments about how hard the usage of current wizard is compared to other classes.
Its probably much more dependent on the person, his experience he participed, and his guild from he can learn from others rather than the class itself.
Without getting into this one I just say some member of a class can hardly master their own while wizards are also adept at learning and using others classes better than their so called "main dps"...
So incoming GWF/GF/SW buffs huh...?
We're ready...
It might be that we remember things differently as I do not recall people that really enjoyed PvP in Neverwinter. And before that, PvP in Neverwinter was mostly hit or miss before SW got introduced. IDK about you, but we had to hope not to get against P2W PVP guilds that swarmed Gauntlgrym, thus denying us the possibility to run some Dwarf King Crypt (known as DK) as only winners had the ability to do it. I vaguely remember it, but it might've changed later on.
But that aside, Wizards were way too ahead and broken with Storm Spell melting everything, which is far from a reason to have them constantly nerfed and not fun now.
As usual, Wizard gets left in the dust with pacifier powers and no-fun mechanics in the vein of Disintegrate whilst others get cool features and stuff. The way I see it rn is 2 Disintegrate spells, one which annoys everyone else except Wizards (Repel), some debuff that's meh at best, and decent AP gain on Thaum that you'd play only to make others feel good about their paingiver charts.
And with that being said, I had more fun playing as Thaum in ToMM than I ever will as Arcanist.
Arcanist is the lowest point of Wizard skill that ever was introduced in the game. Sure, timing is still important etc but it is just boring without storm spell crits.
With that in mind I still have few things to say:
1. Nowadays there are classes in game that have either multiple roles for paragons or two of the same (two dps). I think that classes which have no other option than to be DPS (wizard, rogue, ranger) should be more potent in dealing damage than the other classes. So in my mind is ridiculous if cleric or fighter deals more dmg than wizard. Just my opinion.
2. Wizard have been always relying on procs but you had to be able to spam encounters to do it. Now my icy terrain has cooldown of about 17 seconds which is absurd. When I run a dungeon and we clear pack of mobs, by the time we reach the next pack my icy terrain is still in cooldown. Don't know about other classes but warlock and ranger has certain ways to reduce the cooldowns but not wizard (e.g. soul spark recovery). I have to spam ray of frost for at least 10 seconds before I can use encounter rotation again. My mind just can't process it why it is like that. My suggestion would be to bring back old version of Spell Twisting with 10% of cooldown reduction per stack (up to 40%). I think that is not a big thing to ask for.
Also magnitudes of aoe encounters need buff but if they would at least reduced cooldowns or give us old spell twisting back, it would maybe make wizard more competitive and attractive to play again.
I wonder how long i will be able to play this ruined class before leaving the game again.
Main issue is that class is not fun to play, which is a huge deal as this makes this very class rather bland in comparison.
It is one thing when this is something said by one or two people, but a whole another thing when this is said in an unified voice of the entire Wizard community (or anyone that actually knows a thing or two about Wizards and Wizard's history in general).
Constant nerfs and ninjanerfs only show that someone actually might hate Wizard class from within the team of developers, because there is no balancing point nor explanation as to why something happens and for what reason. There is a big bias towards Wizards for whatever reason.
If the reason is to make Wizard players leave the game, then you might as well delete the whole class so that we don't wonder when are we going to be looked at by the development team, if at all.
Previous three patch notes on Wizards were old patch notes from previous patches. That is shameful!
The reason it is "never" balanced, isn't because its difficult, or hard to do. They mess with the classes every time to keep the game fresh.
Imagine if they "balanced" the classes perfectly for 2 years straight? You would get bored of using the same rotation, same encounters. They fu$# with the classes because its a cheap way to keep the players busy messing with their encounters again to find out what is the best to use.
So every couple of mods, they tweak a class or two then the next mod, tweak a few more classes, nerf one or two, rince and repeat. They will NEVER have class balance ever.
Class Balance is always (and should always) be defined by what's the current meta for the content. You want to take BiS class based on the Content that you play, which is what we had back in first few mods. For SpellPlague dungeon with many enemies, a Wizard was the go-to class due to DoTs. For eLoL Rogue and Ranged were the go-to classes.
But with Trials we have - Who can outdish more damage in shortest time scenario, so classes are anything but balanced there. Since there are no real benefits of taking different classes in party, you might as well choose people solely based on their mount combat powers, Artifacts & bonuses they might wear in Neck/Belt/Arti slots.
However, differences are starting to show with weapons that are becoming increasingly more potent.
Classes should differentiate in the style of gameplay, skills to use, but their damaging potential should remain same. That's Class Balance on paper.
There is also mechanics class balance i.e. how to manage Melee vs Ranged class balance in relation to how fast someone's skills execute.
Casting animations currently make no sense. Casting animations used to make sense back when those were used with long CD's or how powerful the skill actually was or how long it will last.
Right now casting mechanics are just a mechanic from earlier state of the game, pre-MOD-16. There is a lot of mechanical class balance left to do, however the on-paper class balance is basically just pure math that can be done by fine-tuning until the perfect ratio is achieved.
However, Wizard issues right now surpass all of that. Whole style of playing a Wizard right now is atrocious. Mindbogglingly boring. This is something that needs to change, otherwise nobody will play this class anymore.
Clerics & Rogues right now are most fun classes to play. Rogue Assassin right now is basically what a Wizard should be.