the Bewitched (60Wizard)

[Rain]

Have to say this is so far my favorate toon for now. To make the damage dealing more clear, I did some tests and got a rough result comparing the damage of empowered orb spells and empowered evocation spell. So this it's easier to know on which mob to use orb and which to use those evocation spells like delay fireball, freezing sphere, chain lightning etc. Some of the stats were from the runs, some were tested in the arena.

All depends on the target's concealment, my test monkeys are hell/elysium/aboleth mob, and the percentage is the target's concealment:
from 0% to 75%: orb spell always deal more damage than evocation spells.(eg. pitfiend, malebranche, ichor, serpent)
from 76% to 85%: if the evocation spell has its reflex check succeeded, orb spell does more damage than evocation spell; if the evocation spell has its reflex check failed, evocation spell does more damage than orb spell. (eg. amnizu, brachina, planetar)
85%+: evocation spell does more damage than orb spell. (eg. dogai, swarm, solar)

It's easy to do some calculation to compare this too although Maths is not my tool. I did 20+ spells on almost each target type and divided the concealment gap by the existent mob's possible concealment range. That's also another reason I didnot bother to do Maths trick.

Think the build is done and set for quite a while now after my playing experience. also posted the only two logs I got on this wizard though her killing ability is much crazier on tia/dis/min etc. I havenot played her damage spells much in hell yet cuz I just can't resist insta killing everything in sight.

[gandoron]

However a lot of the evo spells (and vitrolic sphere[conj]) are aoe based, so even if they do less damage to a single target you are better off using them for overall efficiency of Damage/Time right by damaging multiple mobs?

I find my self almost never using orbs in hells. Maybe some Elec orbs for amnizu etc. LSF conj, ESF evo build.

Really it seems like vitrolic sphere should be evo like freezing sphere.

-G

[Rain]

Yes, if it's a swarm of mob that happen to be vulerable to that elemental damage, evocation spells are better. But here my test monkeys were all single target and what I wanted was to make a general view of how evo/conj work on each mob when it comes to a comparison.

However in hell I found myself seldom use evocation spells unless it's Nessus where pitfiends/malebranche/serpent always swarm. So far with my personal play style I always insta kill anything that can be first then do damage to those that cant like pitfiend/malebranche/beruza etc. And these mob are rather rare unless in nessus so I always have some empower orb:cold, empower orb:acid in my spellbook in case they spawn, since they're not likely to swarm unless it's in Nessus/Maladomini.

[Rain]

Got this wizard to x5demi yesterday. the Cania+Nessus were totally leeroy'ed especially that Cania. Didn't have any online log available otherwise I'd definately post the link out.
Empower evade tantackle really did some fantastic damage on most mob including Meph, also the -10%concealment from MSD(mass spell destruction) totally helped the damage on asmo from empower tentackle.
Gate is just too much fun for me on this wizard, making it easier and more fun to pull maze/coil and wall pull.
CoD rocks, crazy dc and faster to take effect than wail of banshee.
So far from reinc to x5demi, she has a total of 3 deaths and always remaining 85%ish dodge rate. So both offense and defense are pretty solid for me.

[Hercules]

What ?? you got COD to work in a wizzarrd ?
I got a wizzy too, and i skipped that spell coz I never seem to hit with it.
I use only ED + disintergrate, sphere, vitrolic, orbs,weird and wail.

If you get the COD to work with it's low DC, i need to rethink my wizzy spell book.
Can a pure wizzy get COD as area spell, or is that prohibited to a PM only ?

I am x5 and got leg. necro, conj, and illusion
2 more schools legendary


Herc

[Rain]

My CoD DC is 58, it's the same DC of a max wisdom half-celestial cleric's implosion. It's the most effective insta spell on this wizard. CoD is circle of death btw which is not a pm spell.

I've no idea what you meant by 2 more school legendary. I have LSF:necro, illusion, conj and trans, which is one more LSF than your wizard. Also I have SSF:necromancy.

Just did an abo pt2 +ely double run yesterday and this wizard totally rocked. 95%dodge rate on aboleth was ridiculous and 91%dodge rate on ely. Think the ely was the fastest I've ever done, altogether 30ish mins on first 3 maps. banishment totally pwned the planetar's summoned devas. Had a really great party anyway and everyone deserved the glory. I've added the abo and ely logs onto the build post too.

[gandoron]

CoD is the bread and butter for a mage. particularly a SSF, LSF necro mage. with stygia robes, the DC is 2 less than wail and equal to a standard 9th level spell. the speed of cast and range are amazing. It's my favorite spell in the game with disint being a close 2nd. Yes PMs are better, but necro mages rule.

This should be caveated with the fact that CoD does not affect as many mobs as implosion. Disint is needed to hit many mobs which PM (and non trans mages) are lacking. Still CoD is an amazing spell, however with the necessity for BT and prayer, it still needs a cleric to maximize effectiveness.

-G

[Rain]

This wizard I mostly played as a PM with disintegrate, gate and fts. damage spells are cool too though I'm just not into it much. Now I'm also quite spoiled by bigby swarm + MSD.

A well prepared wizard is just invincible and can do any fight. well a pm definately can't. It's more of a specialized caster.

Battletide and prayer are nice but I never count on it to cast any of my wizard spells. On one hand you just can't count on every cleric to put bt up and prayer on every single spawn, one the other it's not that you can have a cleric with you on every run. bestow curse solves the sr issue while eyebite solves the save issue. I always have 5 eyebites in my spellbook. Not that I used them every time but it's very handy in that case.

[Rain]

Updated the original build by adding my usual hell spellbook.

Was requested to post a alternative of this build using Spelljammer subrace since it's easier to get than genie, so here it goes.


Race/Subrace:
Gnome/Spelljammer


60 Wizard
Specialization: Necromancy
Barred Schools of magic: Enchantment and Divination



Starting stats at lvl1 :
Str:8
Dex:14 (16 after subby change)
Con:16 (20 after subby change)
Int:18 (24 after subby change)
Wis:10 (8 after subby change)
Cha:8

Stats at double demi with +12items:
Str:24
Dex:32
Con:36
Int:70 (72 with +14int item)
Wis:24
Cha:24


Feats:

before Epic:
Extend spell
Empower spell
Spell focus: Illusion
Greater spell focus: Illusion
Spell focus:Transmutation
Greater spell focus:Transmutation
Spell focus: Evocation
Greater spell focus:Evocation
Spell focus: Necromancy
Greater spell focus: Necromancy
Spell focus:Conjuration
Greater spell focus: Conjuration


from lvl 20-40:
Greater spell penetration
Epic spell focus:Transmutation
Epic spell focus:Illusion
Epic spell focus:Necromancy
Epic spell focus: Conjuration
Epic spell focus: Evocation
Epic spell penetration
Greater intellegence I-VI


Legendary feats:
Epic spell: Greater ruin
Legendary spell focus:Transmutation
Legendary spell focus:Illusion
Legendary spell focus:Conjuration
Legendary spell penetration
Greater intellegence VII - VIII

Tome: Abjuration
Pandect: Shield Proficiency
Consumed artifact: Eyes of Vecna (int arti)


Skills:
Max: Concentration, spellcraft, lore, parry, appraise, craft armor, tumble, search, spot, pick pocket, taunt, heal.

[maljin]

You could still get the evo epic at no loss of dc if you take esf evo instead of lsf necro and specialize in necro. That way you cast evo spells at +6 (normal, greater, epic) and necro at +8 (normal, greater, epic, spec). No dc change, you just get the epic (even if it may be useless).

[Rain]

Yeah, that's a good thought maljin, guess I totally slack not to play with the trick on those spell focus feats. Updated the spelljammer build now to have 6 epic spells available and also 4 LSF.

[phalthallus]

Quick question - By banning Divination, can you still cast Mords from scrolls? I'm deciding if I want to specialize at all or not, and that's a question that just came to mind after talking with a friend who ran in to this.

Thanks.

[gandoron]

If you ban div (same with conj and bbod), you can still cast mord scrolls, but only through UMD. So your umd needs to be high enough.

-G

[redbeard]

I'm getting ready to build the Spelljammer build. I understand most of the skill selections but have questions about two of them. I don't normally want my wizard close enough to a mob to pick pocket them. I also don't want to get aggro on a mob with Taunt. Were these selected as potentially useful skills in some circumstances while the others were all totally useless? Would Discipline be valuable?

[Acaos]

Mords are Abjuration.

Acaos