So okay...

[TerabithianWhisperwi]

<p>I am trying to plan out a wizard that ONLY solos. That is key. No groups. No raids. JUST solo.</p><p>With this in mind, and with regards to sorceror AA's, do I go...</p><p>1). str/wis  for the catalyst+crits+freehand+brainstorm</p><p>2). agi/wis for the spellshifting+spellshaping+freehand+brainstorm</p><p>3). str/agi for the catalyst+crits+spellshifting+spellshaping</p><p>???</p><p>I notice most of the discussion around here involves a debate between str/wis and agi/wis.</p><p>I am wondering if a str/agi combo would be giving up too much from the wis line?</p><p>Again, this is all about SOLO gameplay, and being able to hit things HARD, FAST, and ensuring my survivability as best as possible.</p><p>I am leaning str/agi, and giving up some freehand+brainstorm action for the speed and the catalyst. *shrug*</p><p>any thoughts?</p>

[Droka]

I solo almost all the time. I went, freehand + brainstorm and manashield. On my other line I went with wards mostly and decrease resists on ice nova. Now I am working my way to manaburn with the last 19 aa's I have left to get.

[TerabithianWhisperwi]

Wow, you maxed out your wis line? crazy. yeah, I'm not willing to part ways with the str line. I want that catalyst. The question becomes whether the agi line or the wis line is a more effective partner for a soloist. I'm thinking that the agi casting benefits would certainly be helpful....

[NightGod473]

WIS is awesome for soloing-mana reduction + damage increase = more killing goodness. Plus, the ward is nice for high-grey/low green heroic killing.

[JohnDoe058]

<p>I'm not some expert soloing wizzie, but I do well enough.  In my experience, you DEFINITELY want str line if ur gonna solo a lot of heroics.  Big hits...take those mobs down fast, before they can hurt you much.  But, if ur gonna kill tons of solo mobs, I recommend agi...works better for me, for that purpose.</p><p>Don't spec defensively.   In my opinion, if ur getting beaten on much, it means that you didn't kill fast enough, or you failed to maintain control.</p><p>And for soloing heroics, Manaburn is a must.  But don't try to use it with Catalyst...I've heard, many times, that it doesn't crit.  My experience reflects this.</p>

[ThyMajesty]

<p>yeah manaburn becomes handy with soloing</p><p>but i honestly do not know why I should go down STR-line for that, i assume this line as being better for long fights as it gives you consistantly more DMG to all spells</p><p>correct me if  I'm wrong, but i think you wanna do some platfarming? then we mostly talk about solo nameds...however, soloing is about taking the mobs down before its does you, yeah thats true</p><p>when you approach a named, you just have to thow in your IN, fusion, BOL..your big nukes, and the mob should be by about 60-70%....depending on your manapool just FH+MB and its dead...having as much mana as you can have is essential -> wis-line-endability helps alot</p><p>okay, so why not STR-wis? well, due to interrupts and fastnukes...i just consider agi-lines AA safer as just crits, crit, crit....and your spells are refreshing faster, too</p><p>with that combo you can take down the mob with 3-5 spells</p><p>some maths...str-lines AA give you 11,7% crit chance ... you don't know what spell will crit, its a gamble...you can force ONE spell to do so, but not your win-button labelled MB</p><p>crits are nice, yeah...but they are not guaranteed...if your 2-3 big ones dont crit, you may loose...and catalyst only enhances ONE nuke....yeah so does FH, but again, catalyst does not work for MB...FH does</p><p>you can have fusion crit (~10-15k -> to about 20k-25k)...or ensure that MB does 30% additional DMG with FH (assuming 8k mana, 7k left when casting: ~30-40k -> ~50-60k, or even more)</p><p> its your decision <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[JohnDoe058]

<cite>ThyMajesty wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>yeah manaburn becomes handy with soloing</p><p>but i honestly do not know why I should go down STR-line for that, i assume this line as being better for long fights as it gives you consistantly more DMG to all spells</p><p>okay, so why not STR-wis? well, due to interrupts and fastnukes...i just consider agi-lines AA safer as just crits, crit, crit....and your spells are refreshing faster, too</p><p>with that combo you can take down the mob with 3-5 spells</p><p>some maths...str-lines AA give you 11,7% crit chance ... you don't know what spell will crit, its a gamble...you can force ONE spell to do so, but not your win-button labelled MB</p><p>crits are nice, yeah...but they are not guaranteed...if your 2-3 big ones dont crit, you may loose...and catalyst only enhances ONE nuke....yeah so does FH, but again, catalyst does not work for MB...FH does</p><p> its your decision <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p></blockquote><p>Well, i'm guilty of oversimplifying in this case.  Sometimes a Cata + IN, then FH + MB, does the job, 2-shot.</p><p>But for harder names...well, maybe AGI is better than STR.  I dunno.  But I do know that I was able to kick some serious butt in groups with STR+WIS setup.  (Did worse in raids tho).</p><p>You know, maybe I'm just not experienced enough with soloing, to be commenting here...I can take down any non-caster named that you can throw at me...but I'm hardly a plat farmer lol.</p>

[TerabithianWhisperwi]

<p>Thanks for the reponses so far!</p><p>Thymajesty, I am far from a plat-farmer! What I am is a guy who can't seem to settle on a toon. I've been playing since launch, and I have a scattered group of 20's to show for it. I kill them off again and again, and I can't get comfortable with one. I don't know, it's the ADD in me, I guess.</p><p>So I decided to roll a wizard, because I want to be able to actually see the KoS content! Seriously, I want to be able to walk into high level zones for once in my life.</p><p>When I get there, I want to KNOW that I can dish out damage if I need to. I am careful, I am patient, but I just can't hack bard-dom anymore. I can't hack standing there taking a beating and chipping away at a mob. I want to hit a mob hard. I want to keep them off of me as much as possible.</p><p>My style is of a soloist. I'll group or raid usually only if I need to in order to solve a quest.</p><p>The STR/WIS combo has the obvious benefits of damage production, however, from everything I've read on here, the AGI line goes a long way towards firing my spells more often in a fight.</p><p>My question was raised by realizing that most of the AGI advocates tend to be raiders and groupers, and I was left with wondering if the net-benefits of the AGI line outweighed the net-benefits of the WIS line with regards to soloability. It really is a "harder vs. faster" question.</p>

[Knomi]

<cite>TerabithianWhisperwind wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Thanks for the reponses so far!</p><p>Thymajesty, I am far from a plat-farmer! What I am is a guy who can't seem to settle on a toon. I've been playing since launch, and I have a scattered group of 20's to show for it. I kill them off again and again, and I can't get comfortable with one. I don't know, it's the ADD in me, I guess.</p><p>So I decided to roll a wizard, because I want to be able to actually see the KoS content! Seriously, I want to be able to walk into high level zones for once in my life.</p><p>When I get there, I want to KNOW that I can dish out damage if I need to. I am careful, I am patient, but I just can't hack bard-dom anymore. I can't hack standing there taking a beating and chipping away at a mob. I want to hit a mob hard. I want to keep them off of me as much as possible.</p><p>My style is of a soloist. I'll group or raid usually only if I need to in order to solve a quest.</p><p>The STR/WIS combo has the obvious benefits of damage production, however, from everything I've read on here, the AGI line goes a long way towards firing my spells more often in a fight.</p><p>My question was raised by realizing that most of the AGI advocates tend to be raiders and groupers, and I was left with wondering if the net-benefits of the AGI line outweighed the net-benefits of the WIS line with regards to soloability. It really is a "harder vs. faster" question.</p></blockquote><p>You and I sound like two peas... (*looks at you strangely*)  What the heck you duin in my pod?!</p><p> Anyway, now that I got that out of my system.  It's funny you mention bard-dom... 46 Dirge... deleted... 40 Ranger... Deleted... 40 Dirge... Deleted... 30 Swash... Deleted (not sure I like the scouts).  My main (by level count) is a 62 bruiser... I also have a 58 conj but the pet engagement bugs just pizzme off to no end.  So I ended up wanting a high lvl toon to raid with my wife's 70 fury.  So here I be... lvl 45 wizard pondering the roles of AA.  Now I said I want to raid with my wife's fury... but that is jus' cos I want to spend sometime with her.  I don't actually like to raid.  I'm a solo artist... Better than Michael Jackson, but not quite Prince (or the artist formerly known as purple rain).  </p><p> I started off on that Battlemage line.  Eventually maxed it out even.  As most of my toons were melee toons up to that point I felt more 'comfortable' with the mob on top of me beating my hairy halfling butt like a dirge's drum.   But the sensibility in that... or lack thereof... became noticable as I entered the 40s.  I traded it off for the AGI line and am now halfway up the WIS line (4 points to Ward of Sages).  As I've been rolling about trying to kill the occassional green heroic to finish up some HQs I've begun to wonder the same thing (might STR / WIS be a good way to go?).  And here is my thought:</p><p>AGI / WIS certainly from a numbers standpoint is the way to go.  I'm sure the parses of a million other wizards probably agree.  I think if I do end up raiding that I'll probably stay AGI / Wis.  In leveling up, however, I think I might get more Satisfaction from STR / WIS.  I realize, if a wizard goes boom in the forest, and no one is around to see it, that it doesn't really happen.  But truthfully, I'd like to see more Crits... and I'd love to have the called shot of Catalyst (I really like Freehand... and being solo I feel like stacking those two jokers on top of themselves and letting it fly on that helpless little creature).  Maybe it is cos I'm halfling (short by tall ppl's means), and I feel like I want to make up for some lost confidence.  AGI / WIS is probably smarter.  but STR / WIS and singed zombie meat really feels good, ya know?</p><p>I guess my point is, that you really can't go *wrong* if you are soloing.  You know what you can handle and what you can't... the question is how do you want the numbers to show up.  I'm beginning to think I want to see the big one for a few levels.  lol </p><p> Cheers! </p>