Wizardry ~ According to Blue

Wizardry ~ According to Blue

Good and Bad Points about Wizzies | Builds | Skills | Playing your Wizzy (Solo vs Squad) [upcoming] | A Wiz's place in a Perfect World [upcoming] | References

So you are thinking about taking up the challenge of levelling a Wizard?

Why would you want a Wizzy:

1: Very high elemental resistance and elemental damage;
2: One of PWI most effective magic damage dealer;
3: The way your character looks (they generally look ‘normal’ male/female), skills animation, colourful, attitude, etc;
4: To take up a challenging, yet fun experience;
5: Because Wizzies are awesome :O and have an important place in higher level squads!

Why wouldn’t you want a Wizzy:

1: SQUISHINESS!!! (all arcanes are -_-;)
2: Harder to deal with long ranged physical mobs;
3: Aggro management when in squad;
4: Can be difficult to level in the beginning of the game;
5: A LOT of people might think you are simply weak and useless. (meanies!)

IF you intend to choose a build that will make your physical resistance rather Low (like pure magic), you might want to take into consideration ways of playing around with the mobs, dodging and using push-back skills, or protecting yourself with better ornaments and capes. I’ll try to give an idea of what I mean a tad bit later in this guide.

Builds:

Wizard is not a very popular class (proof is, I’m almost the only one in this faction, and my old faction on main had a total of 3 wizzies for all time I’ve been there), especially with the rise of the Psychics, their place as the only pure Magic DD class of PWI has been slightly replaced. Still – the difference between a Psychic and a Wizard becomes clear in terms of skills, gameplay and resistance. Even though wizzies are kind of left behind, I think that’s an even better reason to try one and show PWI what the true power of wizards is!

NOTE: I’ll start this guide/personal experience and impression topic slowly, and post (from what I’ve seen myself) what I think works for a wizzy.

As any “Pure DD” class, your first question will be “what do I want to be able to do with this character?” If your answer is – “be hella strong and crit the hell of these meanie mobs” ... well you will be looking for a “Pure” build.

Blue is a Pure Magic Wizard. Which means that every 2 levels (10 attribute points) I put:

Pure Magic: Attack Rating -5, Defense Rating 2
9 Magic / 1 Strength

OR every even/ pair levels:
4 Magic / 1 Strength
...and on odd/ impair levels:
5 Magic

If your answer to the previous question is “yah I want damage, but I hate being a squishy,” you might be going for different types of builds such as:

Hybrid Build:Attack Rating - 4, Defense Rating - 3
Every Two Levels
Magic 7 Points
Vitality 2 Points
Strength 1 Point

Light Armor Attack Rating - 4, Defense Rating - 4
Every Level
Magic 3 Points
Dexterity 1 Point
Strength 1 Point

Balanced Build: Attack Rating - 2, Defense Rating - 5
Every Level
Magic 2 Points
Vitality 1 Point
Dexterity 1 Point
Strength 1 Point

Since I have not been creating wizzies all over the place to test these different builds, I cannot tell with 100% certainty that these are working. I am the “want to kill stuff fast” type, so I am happy with my Pure Magic! :) I balance my own squishiness out by usually topping my VITALITY to 40 and sharding with a lot of Garnets/Citrines.

NOTE: At level 100+ you are required to have at least 54 STR. Most high level gears are only 54 STR to wear so you could stop putting STR once that amount has been reached. Make sure, however, that you have checked what type of magic weapon you are aiming for as a few of them required more than 54 STR.

Skills:

(for a detailed description of each skill, their gain with levelling and level you can level them; use this link: ecatomb's Skill Database)

Wizards have A LOT of skills. And compared to many other classes they have a lot of USEFUL skills. What is fun with Wizard is how you can vary your attacks and get a fairly good result. In the beginning you cannot play with mobs as much, so it might be a bit hard (which makes a lot of people quit on becoming a Wizard), though once you are past that part, you’ll find yourself doing a lot of damage and enjoying it!

Colour Guide:
Max
Pace – worth levelling slowly
Pace or ignore

Low Level / 1-29 skills: (level you can get the skill in [-])

[1] Pyrogram
[3] Gush
[6] Stone Rain

[9] Pyroshell
[9] Glacial Embrace
[9] Stone Barrier

These 6 skills are worth maxing. Your first attack and defence skills, which will be useful from day 1 to day “you’ll maybe get to level 100+.” The shields are often neglected by many wizards, as defence in general is, but trust me, level 10 of any of these will come in handy when fighting, and perhaps tanking.

However, I would suggest to focus on Pyrogram and Gush BEFORE starting to max Stone Rain, since it has a kind of slow channelling and isn’t very useful when you need to cast something quickly. Though it is a great starting skill on water mobs, and compared to Pyrogram and Gush, Stone Rain has a higher % of weapon damage. You’ll need it, but not when you are starting.

Same thing applies to the shields, Stone Barrier is the one you’ll need most, since it add x % to your Physical Defense, and as a squishy wizzy, you’ll want to have that bonus to fight physical mobs. NOTE that it is one of the most efficient P.Def buff for arcanes, so be proud and wear it! Then, Glacial Embrace will help you recover your MP faster, and finally Pyroshell for the same bonus, but in HP. Arcane gear (if it is the one you are using) should cover you well enough to face magical mobs, so it is not necessary to use the fire/water/earth shield with them, but it’s always a bonus. A Wizard’s strength is his/her ability to survive.

Since your skills are limited to these 3 attacks until you level out of 10, you don’t really have to worry about the elements of the mobs you are fighting, but, if you had to chose which skill to use to finish a mob, take the strongest element against that mob, logically speaking! :)

[13] Crown of Flames
[16] Hailstorm

These 2 skills aren’t that important. You can use them at lower levels if you wish, but I wouldn’t suggest to level them so soon. People debate whether they are strong or not, but as long as your starting, the skills before that are more important. I would suggest to level Hailstorm when you have spare Spirit and coins, since it’s one of your only AoE that won’t cost you Chi. Hailstorm can be both very useful and tricky to use because it is an AoE. However, when going Sage or Demon, it can become one of your best friends.

[19] Divine Pyrogram
[19] Pitfall 


Yei! 19 skills! Divine Pyrogram is very slow to channel, but has a very good weapon damage percentage, so – worth levelling, but pace. You can keep it level 1 for a little while and use it as a starting skills on most mobs. Pitfall isn’t that useful, except for that Slow effect (which Gush can do much better if you levelled it already) but alike Crown of Flames, it is up to you. I’d still suggest to keep it level 1 until you get higher, and use it to finish Water mobs when you don’t feel like spending too much mana and the mob is left with very little HP.

As a side note, Pitfall and Crown of Flames are you 2 DoT skills, meaning they are not strong when you cast them but deal a certain amount over time. It can come in handy, as I mentioned, when finishing mobs with little HP.


[24] Morning Dew  

Your first (and only!) heal!!! Very slow channelling, a lot of Wizard don’t see a point to it and don’t level it. I levelled it – because it saves you money on HP pots. I would say you can level that one, but don’t level it too fast, follow your HP’s worth. So let’s say you have 1000 HP and the heal heals for about 440 + 11% of your base magic attack; you might want to go to the next level, but if you use it 2 times – your HP should be almost full. Worth levelling, but pace. (You can also heal others with it, and something saves someone’s life, they appreciate it :P)

[29] The Dragon’s Breath
[29] Wellspring Quaft
[29] Distance Shrink 
[29] Fire, Water,  & Earth Mastery

DB (Dragon’s Breath) is your second AoE spell, and one of the only Continuous AoE spell of the game (apart from Seeker's Vortex). It is a good spell for AoE grinding, but there is no urgent need to level it too soon. You will need it if you’re thinking about doing Zhen (AoE grinding, can be done in instances). I wouldn’t recommend that you use that by yourself, unless you have very good defence and are at ease with healing a lot (pots, food, apothecary items). It might give you too much aggro, and will result in your death. So another skill to pace.

Wellspring Quaft is your MP buff. Up to you to level it or not, but it’s not a necessary skill. I use it and like it, but didn’t rush to max it. There is a rather good bonus each level, and it’s nice to have in order to save on MP pots.

Distance Shrink is THE skill that will allow you to run around with mobs. Physical mobs, as soon as they come after you (before or after they got one hit on you – depends on your reflexes), you can use it and get teleported far from the mob again. As long as you don’t have any pushback skills, this skill will come in handy. It’s a bit of getting used to, but once you found the way to work with this skill, it makes things a lot easier. You can also use it to “run” faster. You can pace that skill too. Even though it’ll save you a few times, your attack / defense skills require more attention for now.

LEARN YOUR MASTERIES!!! ;p All I have to say about those.

[39] Will of the Phoenix
[39] Frostblade
[39] Sandstorm

Level 39 brings Wizzies another great damage skill, an AoE pushback and their only share-able buff. Also, it is where I usually starts creating skill macros according to my elements because I have enough skills to chain more than 2-3. Sandstorm has very nice weapon damage even at level 1 (165%) and reduces accuracy - to use on melee and archer mobs. 

Then, you will have Will of Phoenix which will come in handy against melee mobs because it will push them back. CAREFUL though, this skill is a FRONTAL AoE, meaning you might aggro more mobs if the one you pushed back was surrounded. I say pace this skill because the knockback effect isn't affected much by levelling, and the damage it does is really low. Use for knockback mostly.

Frostblade is.... completely useless to casters. It is a buff that grants the target more Water damage on NORMAL attacks (thus, useful for meleers and archers, but not for us sadly). However, levelling it may be useful for squad members, so it is up to you if you want to level it.

[49] Emberstorm
[49] Glacial Snare
[49] Force of Will

Level 49 woo! Sadly, the skills at level 49 are getting quite expensive, so most of them should be paced.

Emberstorm is .... just useless in most people's opinion. It is more a danger to a wizzy than a great skill. Learn level 1 to access your 59 skill (Blade Tempest), but even at 100 I have the Sage book for it and I'm not even tempted to learn it; it is still level 1. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

Glacial Snare is a very nice Water skill, however expensive to level, so pace it and keep using Gush to slow down enemies for now. If you have time casting Glacial (I use it as a starter because it has very high weapon damage and slows down considerably). Very good skill, but you can wait.

Force of Will should be your best friend. This skill allows you to interrupt and seal an enemy for a certain amount of time. Levelling it will increase that time. The effect it has on mobs is that they will try to run back while sealed, which allows you to buy some time, heal, receive less damage, or keep a mob busy while attacking another. Very nice skill in duelling as well since it isn't considered as a movement debuff and most classes do not have "anti-seal" skills.

[59] Blade Tempest
[59] Black Ice Dragon Strike
[59] Mountain's Seize
[59] Essential Sutra

FINALLY! Level 59! Feeling like a real mage now eh! This is when you will get your awesome looking AoEs, the nicest AoEs too look at in this game in my opinion. All of them are great, but definitely NOT cheap! D: So all should be paced since you probably won't have the money or the spirit to level them that quickly. I suggest to focus on Blade Tempest before the 2 other since it is your ONLY skill that deals physical damage. Very very very very useful on Inc. Magic Resistance mobs.

Essential Sutra is a little wonder that only has 1 level. It cost 2 sparks for you to have no channelling at all for 6 seconds, meaning you will cast 1 skill after another during that time. I use it to kill faster, of course, but also in combo with Morning Dew when I need extra fast healing for myself or someone about to die.

Special & Additional Skills:

[79] Elemental Shell
[79] Soporific Whisper
[79] Undine Strike

These skills are learned by using a book made from Apocalypse Pages (20) and Medium Ink (10). The ink itself is worth about 100K each, so about 1M for 1 book. They also cost about 1M spirit. 

In my opinion the first one you should get is Undine Strike because it decreases any mob (apart from Earth Immuned mob/boss since the skill is Earth damage based) resistance to Fire, Water and Earth. It makes you hit HARDER so get this book!

Elemental Shell is also a very practical little thing that you can cast on others too. Ups your magic resistances (except from Wood) considerably for a few seconds.

Soporific Whisper will put your enemy to sleep for a few seconds. Always good to buy time. 

[80] Life Reversion
[80] Spatial Reversion

Books acquired in Morai (new map for 95+). Quite useless unless you PK.

[100] Arcane Defense (Order of Shroud)
[100] Ice Prison (Order of Luminance)
[100] Sand Miasma (Order of Corona)

Books acquired in Morai as well, from running dailies in the different orders. I would say start by either getting Arcane Defense or Ice Prison, then Sand Miasma. All useful, just long to get. (I'm still working on Arcance Def. and Sand M. myself) See Morai guide here.

[100] Blinding Blaze
[100] Mortal Reversion
[100] Tactical Reversion

Books acquired from Endless Dragon-Emperor Chest in Advance Endless Universe in Morai. I do not know much about them yet, apart from their requirements. Mortal/Tactical require Life/Spatial Reversion to be learned. More info later...
 
[100] Elemental Invocation
[100] Manifest Virtue

Celestial Sage/Demon skills made from Chrono Page (20) and Medium Ink (10) which can only be learned once one has reached the cultivation "Celestial". More info later...

References:

Wizard Guide for Newcomers