What do Wizards Need?

I was thinking today… Wizard has always been my favorite class, but it has fallen far behind. And even when it was more powerful than it is today, it largely wasn’t viable to use my favorite abilities.

Here’s a non-comprehensive wishlist:

  1. Disintegrate. It looks awesome. I fell in love with the spell watching the previews before D3 even launched. Disintegrate needs to be made viable as the main damage dealer in a build. Give Slorak a significant legendary power, just for a start.

  2. Signature spells/Primary skills. We have some cool ones. There are even some cool items that buff them. We need a way to actually use them. I don’t see a way to make that happen without a new set + buffs to the items that use/buff our Signature spells.

  3. Firebird is weak, but no matter how many zeroes you add to the end of it, the play style is horrible. Get rid of it to make room for a new set (see above).

  4. Buff the rest of the sets.

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It isn’t just Disintegrate; but the entire Wizard’s channeling skills need some buffs so they can be main damage dealers in potential builds. One method could be to have Death Wish and Etched Sigil buff only the channeling skills themselves while boosting said buff also.

Mostly agree, however I doubt we’ll be seeing another new set. That said, buffs to existing legendaries should definitely be possible.

No need to remove firebird, but it definitely needs a rework or at least have some of its fuctions, such as needing to drag elites, and needing more than one fire skill in order to ignite enemies removed. That said, hopefully we’ll see some fruitful results in the patches after this upcoming one.

Well, Blizzard did say that they’ll be looking at every existing set, so buffs to every wizard set may or mayn’t happen. Hopefully we don’t just see buffs, but also changes that would improve gameplay fluidity.

2 Likes

Absolutely agree with the author!

Blizzard, please pay attention to that. Wizards signature spells look and feel cool but stay completely useless from DPS point of view. Personally my favourite has always been Electrocute :slightly_smiling_face: You could add buffs to some legendaries, in particular Myken’s ball of hate, Velvet camaral and Mirrorball just like you did for DH bows in 2.6.9. I’d be glad even for 100% buffs.

Yep. Slap an extra damage mod on Shame of Delsere, bump up the multiplier on Fragment of Destiny, and add damage mods to Myken’s Ball of Hate, Velvet Camaral, and Mirrorball. They don’t necessarily even have to be buffed to be top tier builds, just add enough damage that it’s an option to use if someone wants to play a wizard generator build.

Early RoS Magic Missile: Conflagrate was a pretty fun build. I know they changed the mechanics of the skill so it wouldn’t be quite the same, but all it would take is a bit of a multiplier on Mirrorball to make it even a fun “play-your-own-way” kind of option. Right now wizard generator builds are just complete trash compared to hydras, Archon, Manald Heal, Meteors, Orbs, Twisters, or Explosive Blast.

Not many people play Explosive Blast, but it’s a fun option because it’s got enough damage to work okay if you just want to try something different. That isn’t even an option with wizard generators, the damage is so bad they just aren’t worth using in comparison to the skills with item multipliers that we have.

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Don’t forget the horrible mechanic that ties your damage reduction to the number of enemies you have ignited.

2 Likes

I would undo the nerfs to the channelling items. Go back to before with no delay. And add a new wand that buffs damage based AP-spent. Maybe something like 5-10% per AP spent.

The new wand wand would push deathwish to A-tier while it would be the new S-tier mainhand along with Chantodo’s I guess. Stats like AP-on-hit and AS would be desirable for wizard. And you can nuke with any of the big mana spenders that also have itemization, like Arcane Orb, Explosive Blast and Meteor.

If you prefer a more chill playstyle, deathwish channeling wizards will be more viable than now.

Would be interested to see how the older under-used offhands might become viable with the new wand. I would proceed to tweak the old ones based on this new mainhand. I could see many of them becoming viable with some small adjustments.

The Wizard class (really, most classes) are a mess. It needs everything. The most we can hope for is targeted, specific buffs. As far as specific legendaries, Serpent Sparker, Deathwish and something for Vyr/Archon should be the priority.

2 Likes

A miracle, but we will likely just have to settle with some doubling values of set mods and maybe that elusive Blizzard buff for the memes

If they don’t want us to channel to do damage on say hydras then that set will have to look like this:

2pc: Hydras gain multi heads and do triple damage
4pc: same
6pc: 2400% per head and double attack speed

SS: 450-500%
Magistrate: 450-500%

I know that sounds crazy but let’s not forget deathwish + etched sigil + channeling alone is a x13 mod

I want an A tier setup that doesn’t require channeling. I don’t like Vyrs playstyle and feel there should be alternatives. I currently go with Hydra but the channeling to get the damage modifiers is very annoying when we have to move all the time.

Our hopes rest in the balancing patch. I’ve pushed hard as I can for DMO 2-piece have Slow Time follow you around, as well as the 6 piece affecting ALL spenders, along with some complementary legendary tweaks like Slorak’s, Woh, Gesture, and moonlight Ward.

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Where to start…

Hydra by far is the dumbest “skill” to build a set around in it’s current form. Press a button, get a Hydra that never moves? How uninspiring.

Hydras need to at a minimum function like a cross between DMO Frozen Orbs and Necromancer Skeletons. Land one on an elite’s face, get huge damage, and then command melee to focus stuff down.

Channeling is dead with this class, too, unless you can move while doing it. If wizards could move while channeling, and skills like Disintegrate and Ray of Frost had some kind of dual usage, it could work.

You could have every channeling skill build stacks, and once you reach max stacks (Similar to Arcane Dynamo), you stop channeling for a split second and then unload for huge damage when you start channeling again, and then immediately start building stacks again.

I want wiz to be the class that rewards you for landing skill shots.

Right now the GoD DH is a spin-to-win barb with dexterity. And yet, it’s by far the best performer.

Wizards need the planets in 5 systems to align to do mediocre damage.