A few short thoughts from a level 50 Beta wizzie

[Traldan Omegafyre]

Ok, so, these are impressions from a 'newbie' Beta wizard.  I'm level 50, just got on Beta a few days ago.  After the initial horror of 'omg my spells are different', combat changes really aren't too bad. I can solo.  Period.  End of story.  I soloed one or two 51 or 52 normal or down arrow mobs today, and sans a few resists, I did fine.  Yes, it's different than it was, but roots work well, and overall I did ok. DPS is nice.  Ice Comet, at Adept III, does 4202-5135 damage with 254 int, a little less when I'm just self buffed.  It also has a knockback/stun effect which makes it a nice pull spell. Buffs are ok, and some spells are now on the same line so they can't be chain cast.  I don't have too much of a problem with it however.  We get a solo evac now (which is damned nice, actually), Protoflame is actually a *bit* useful (although it goes down pretty fast, so I don't usually need/use it.). So basically...no, they're not horrible.  After the initial [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot]ing, and once you play around with your class and learn it some, it's not so bad. <div></div>

[Kalda]

Will protoflame be a viable choice to make a master 2 ? After using  hand of tyrant, vital flow, flamestrike and inferno, which would u pick of those  to make master 2? was one mroe useful then the others? <div></div>

[Traldan Omegafyre]

I don't know about Protoflame, I guess that's updated at level 54 to master II, if anywhere.  I chose Hand of the Tyrant for Master II, and it gives 51 STR and INT. <div></div>

[goboy]

<P>Protoflame is no longer a choice.  It was Hand of the Tyrant (I chose this), immolation, flamestirke, and vital flow i believe.</P> <P> </P>

[Kamuj]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Traldan Omegafyre wrote:<BR>Ok, so, these are impressions from a 'newbie' Beta wizard.  I'm level 50, just got on Beta a few days ago.  After the initial horror of 'omg my spells are different', combat changes really aren't too bad.<BR><BR>I can solo.  Period.  End of story.  I soloed one or two 51 or 52 normal or down arrow mobs today, and sans a few resists, I did fine.  Yes, it's different than it was, but roots work well, and overall I did ok.<BR><BR>DPS is nice.  Ice Comet, at Adept III, does 4202-5135 damage with 254 int, a little less when I'm just self buffed.  It also has a knockback/stun effect which makes it a nice pull spell.<BR><BR>Buffs are ok, and some spells are now on the same line so they can't be chain cast.  I don't have too much of a problem with it however.  We get a solo evac now (which is damned nice, actually), Protoflame is actually a *bit* useful (although it goes down pretty fast, so I don't usually need/use it.).<BR><BR>So basically...no, they're not horrible.  After the initial [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot]ing, and once you play around with your class and learn it some, it's not so bad.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Thanks for the info.</P> <P>Considering the fact that the revamp is supposed to improve the game, your conclusion of "not horrible" and "not so bad" does not cause me any great excitement.</P> <P>Do you feel the new system is better in any ways?<BR></P>

[Traldan Omegafyre]

<span><blockquote><hr>Kamujin wrote: <blockquote> <hr> Traldan Omegafyre wrote:Ok, so, these are impressions from a 'newbie' Beta wizard.  I'm level 50, just got on Beta a few days ago.  After the initial horror of 'omg my spells are different', combat changes really aren't too bad.I can solo.  Period.  End of story.  I soloed one or two 51 or 52 normal or down arrow mobs today, and sans a few resists, I did fine.  Yes, it's different than it was, but roots work well, and overall I did ok.DPS is nice.  Ice Comet, at Adept III, does 4202-5135 damage with 254 int, a little less when I'm just self buffed.  It also has a knockback/stun effect which makes it a nice pull spell.Buffs are ok, and some spells are now on the same line so they can't be chain cast.  I don't have too much of a problem with it however.  We get a solo evac now (which is damned nice, actually), Protoflame is actually a *bit* useful (although it goes down pretty fast, so I don't usually need/use it.).So basically...no, they're not horrible.  After the initial [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot]ing, and once you play around with your class and learn it some, it's not so bad. <div></div> <hr> </blockquote> <p>Thanks for the info.</p> <p>Considering the fact that the revamp is supposed to improve the game, your conclusion of "not horrible" and "not so bad" does not cause me any great excitement.</p> <p>Do you feel the new system is better in any ways?</p> <div></div><hr></blockquote>Once I relearned my class, I found myself enjoying it just as I always have, and perhaps more so.  I do good DPS, I can solo well (although strategy is different than before, you'll have to figure that out for yourself), I duel pretty decently (but I'm not a big PvP guy).  Overall, I'm pretty happy with the changes.  No, I don't like having to relearn a class this far into a game, but the end result is good. I say 'not horrible' and 'not so bad' to quell the [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot]ing about changes, not as the best description of what I think of the changes. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></span><div></div>

[Kalda]

What does everyone think best choices are given the beta experience? lvl 44 hand of tyrant vital flow flamestrike inferno lvl 54 protoflame frostshield ball of incineration fist of the tyrant <div></div>

[Lady Uaelr]

<DIV>Hmmm......I thought some people were saying that ice comet hitting at 1k and the damage was scaled down.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Can you hook up with khalabis and compare damage on various mobs.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Your help would be greatly appreciated by the community.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Also, could you go over what spells you feel are most effective and which you feel are not useful and why.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks for your hard work!!!!:smileyhappy:</DIV>

[Bridgeplay]

<P>I'll stick around and see how the changes work, but this really does sound worse every day.  "Not bad" and "not horrible" are hardly the sort of endorsements that make me look forward to the revamp.</P> <P>I saw this happen in EQ1 where popular classes got nerfed into pathetic remnants of what they once were, while favored classes kept being given more and more goodies.  EQ1 Warriors now have healing potions to go along with their already superior hit points, mitigation, defensive discs, etc.  There are so few Shadow Knights and Paladins left in EQ1 that SoE had to beef up Monks and Rangers just to keep enough tanks around for ordinary grouping.</P> <P>Check out the sad, steady decline of Wizards in EQ1. Then take a look at the huge number of upcoming changes that make EQ2 become more and more like EQ1.</P>

[Traldan Omegafyre]

<span><blockquote><hr>Lady Uaelrea wrote:<div></div> <div>Hmmm......I thought some people were saying that ice comet hitting at 1k and the damage was scaled down.</div> <div> </div> <div>Can you hook up with khalabis and compare damage on various mobs.</div> <div> </div> <div>Your help would be greatly appreciated by the community.</div> <div> </div> <div>Also, could you go over what spells you feel are most effective and which you feel are not useful and why.</div> <div> </div> <div> </div> <div>Thanks for your hard work!!!!:smileyhappy:</div><hr></blockquote>They recently changed numbers on a bunch of our nukes.  I'm really disappointed, I was enjoying it before it was changed.  Ice Comet damage is like between 1500 and 5000.  Ridiculous, I'd rather have the max damage be lower and the damage overall be higher. When soloing, I find both roots very useful.  The recast is shorter than the duration, and the recast is very short if it resists.  Ice Comet (well, pre-recent-changes) worked great as a leadoff nuke, because of the stun effect.  If it broke the root, one would have time to root again before the short stun wore off.  Ice Flame does a little less damage than it used to, but it's still a decently useful spell.  Ball of Flames is, as always, also very useful, damage (pre-changes) was like 800-1500.  I don't find Immolation quite as useful, it's a less-powerful dot rather than a pretty powerful over-time nuke as it kind of was.  Pre-changes, it was a 200-300 nuke, with 100-200 dot.  Protoflame is certainly no longer nerfed, as it does do damage, but I don't find it very useful.  It has low HP, so it can't really tank, and it usually just works better to chain root.  Icy Wind and Fiery Pulse (it has a new name, don't remember what it is, but it's the same spell esseintally) had increased damage numbers, so that in concert they were very useful in a multi-mob encounter. I'm sure there are other good nukes to be using while fighting, but I'm still playing around with strategy, both solo and in groups, and besides, I don't wanna give it ALL away for ya. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></span><div></div>

[Lady Uaelr]

<DIV>Excellent..THANKS</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Khabalis posted some new updates by Smedley that the range has been narrowed on the nukes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Can you verify this?</DIV><p>Message Edited by Lady Uaelrea on <span class=date_text>09-11-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:34 AM</span>

[Magiocracy]

Err, the post was by Scott Hartsman, the Senior Producer for EQ2. The changes haven't been made yet and will be included in today's beta patch apparantly.So we all wait with baited breath......<div></div>

[Lady Uaelr]

<DIV>Oooops.....I just gave you Scott's job Khalabis..LOL</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Keep us posted......the wait is killing me.....If they fixed resistances like someone stated, fixed the range of the spell damage to make it more narrow we should be okay.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anything else you think needs to be addressed Khalabis?</DIV>

[Magiocracy]

Yup, will have to wait and see.On the resist issue, as you can see from Scott Hartman's post they've removed physical and magical mitigation from mobs, so spells should always to damage within the specified range. Debuffing now gives you bonus damage.I would imagine that Wizards will be VERY pleased with this change.<div></div>

[Kwoung]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Magiocracy wrote:<BR>I would imagine that Wizards will be VERY pleased with this change.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>No, I am not pleased at all when my IC lands for 2200 most of the time after Sundays patch... you could say I am EXTREMELY displeased actually.

[Magiocracy]

You misunderstand me, I was referring purely to the removal of magical mitigation from mobs, not the idiotic changes to spell damage ranges. Perhaps I should have been clearer.<div></div>

[Kalda]

are the wizards on test complaining, loudly, about these things? <div></div>

[Kwoung]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Kaldarr wrote:<BR>are the wizards on test complaining, loudly, about these things?<BR><BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Yes

[Magiocracy]

<div></div><p><font color="#cc0000"><strong>Warlock changes:</strong></font></p><p><font color="#cc0000">- Dark Distortion, Nil Distortion, Null Distortion, and Devastation now have reduced variance and increased damage.</font></p><p><font color="#cc0000">- Netherous Realm now pulses as intended on the enemy and no longer infinitely recasts.</font></p><p><font color="#cc0000"> </font></p><p><font color="#cc0000"><strong>Wizard changes:</strong></font></p><p><font color="#cc0000">- Ball of Fire, Ball of Flames, Ball of Incineration, and Ice Comet now have reduced variance and increased </font></p><p></p><p>Will need to check numbers, but at first glance the min damage looks improved by quite a bit.</p><div></div>

[goboy]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Kwoung wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Kaldarr wrote:<BR>are the wizards on test complaining, loudly, about these things?<BR><BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Yes <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I agree, we have been complaining.  But, we have not seen a dev or qa representitive in a long time on test.  All we can really do is bug and post feedback.  I have not seen any response to our concerns in a while.  The only hope I can take from this is that they are listening to the Beta testers.</P> <P>Jaly, 50 wizard test<BR></P>

[Traldan Omegafyre]

<div></div><span><blockquote><hr>goboy wrote: <blockquote> <hr> Kwoung wrote: <blockquote> <hr> Kaldarr wrote:are the wizards on test complaining, loudly, about these things? <div></div> <hr> </blockquote>Yes <div></div> <hr> </blockquote> <p>I agree, we have been complaining.  But, we have not seen a dev or qa representitive in a long time on test.  All we can really do is bug and post feedback.  I have not seen any response to our concerns in a while.  The only hope I can take from this is that they are listening to the Beta testers.</p> <p>Jaly, 50 wizard test</p> <div></div><hr></blockquote>Yes, on Beta, there have been quite a few threads on the matter.  I'm gonna log onto Beta in a moment and check damage numbers (I'll post my opinion on resist changes later when I get a chance, but for now it *sounds* good). EDIT:  Ice Comet, adept3, with 205 int, the damage range is 2574-4781.  Ball of Flames, adept3, with 205 int, the damage range is 773-1435.  While these damage numbers are lower than before, if spells really ARE hitting within this range all the time, then I'll be ok with it.</span><div></div><p>Message Edited by Traldan Omegafyre on <span class=date_text>09-11-2005</span> <span class=time_text>02:47 PM</span>

[Violator]

<DIV>I posted some updated spell dmg numbers in the combat changes forum</DIV>

[Lady Uaelr]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Kwoung wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Kaldarr wrote:<BR>are the wizards on test complaining, loudly, about these things?<BR><BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Yes <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><FONT color=#ccccff size=4><STRONG>KWOUNG- We are counting on you and the other other TEST WIZARDS....you guys need to rally together and keep up the good work. You guys are the voice of an entire community.</STRONG></FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ccccff size=4><STRONG>THANKS!!!!!</STRONG></FONT></P> <P><BR> </P>