In a game with 8 classes where 4-5% of the population plays Wizard, lowest of any class (Shout out to the Monks at 7% also) , can we talk about how to fix or just completely reset this class. Even these class forums - deadest of any - attest to where things are.
Now I will admit, against a training Dummy (see Post Title) or, better yet, an angry horde of training Dummies, Wizards do OK. With the right gear we can be near the top in AoE damage and middle of the pack in terms of crowd control. Those are offset with bottom tier single-target DPS and survivability.
The problem is you guys didnāt make Diablo III part II. You made a game with essential PvP and PvE content with a merciless hard scale to Combat Rating. PvE AoE damage in this game is nearly worthless as that content is trivially easy at CR. PvE crowd control is also nearly useless outside a few very specific Challenge Rift situations for the same reason - when do you actually need to CC anything, you just donāt.
SO instead we have crummy single-target DPS since real targets donāt freeze and thereās no time for complex sequences or holding mobs in firestorms etc. Our crowd control is completely worthless in PvP now - thanks for that - thereās skill immunity on top of paragon immunity on top of essence immunity on top of gem immunity etc. Even when it does hit, it holds for maybe 2s. Thatās a problem because every other class in the game can kill us in 2s. āWait what about Halestoneā - 6 charges of immunity but every DOT tick, every pulse of blades etc takes one off with no CD in between - a DH, for example, can take all Halestone immunity off in <2s with a single button push. YES, we can also put ourselves into an immunity Ice Block (really?) which allows us to briefly spectate while waiting to die when it breaks - how useful is a skill that protects you but makes you into furniture?
So how do you fix a class that is 8th in survivability, 7th in single target DPS, 6th in crowd control and call it 3rd in AoE DPS. You give us the new āENDLESS WINTERā Build. Teleport + Magic Missile + Frostfield + Scorch with brand new essences. Itās every reason weāre a laughing stock wrapped into a single new spec. Did ever try this junk on a raid boss or in BG before you pushed it out to a server? Not only is it totally impractical under real game mechanics (except on Dummies), its DPS has a brief spike followed by HUGE downtime which leaves you, even under ideal circumstances, about 4th-5th in DPS.
Check your statistics. I only mined my server but out of 500 random players I found 23 Wizards vs 63 predicted statistically. Of 132 Wizard essences, only 51 were used by any of those Wizards and the vast majority (>75%) were using some mix of the same 20. ā most of our essences are garbage due to being completely impractical, totally incompatible with one another, or just plain broken.
I hate posting this - Iāve been devoted to this class since launch and I donāt want to switch no matter how stubborn that makes it. I also donāt want to post a whine without some kind of solution. This thread would be a book if I posted how I thought you should just wipe and revamp the class so hey, if you want to go that route, just call me. For now I will suggest a couple practical tweaks that would really help.
PvP problem: Weāre a disaster in PvP - no survivability and weāve lost the ability to CC and our DPS is too slow for āhit and runā which used to be viable.
Quick Fix: Wizard chill / freeze spells should do 4x damage against control immune targets - YES it needs to be at least 4x, we are that far behind. We need an essence that adds a movement speed debuff to disintegrate. Finally, teleport is almost useless now as you can see by how few Wiz use it - it never actually saves you. We need an essence that makes Teleport an automatic reactive skill. When you take damage, Teleport will engage moving you to a random location at maximum distance. Those three changes could help - a lot.
PvE Problems: Our single target damage is not nearly where it should be.
Quick Fix: You have to give up on these complex sequences to engage Firestorm or Shatter - unless you want to change the whole game itās a dead end - encounters move too fast and mobs move out of area and players are too resistant (and btw I have sky-high potency and it barely matters also). Increase sensitization debuffs - Scorch leaves a 10s āheat sensitivityā increasing fire damage by 2-fold - then you come with Meteor. Disintegrate essence that does the same for Ray of Front for beams. Something like that so youāre not Area or CC dependent for DPS amplification.
Probably no one will read this - since itās in the Wizard Forum - irony - but I hope you guys take a look at the numbers and realize the class really needs some love with a focused and purposeful plan behind it.