Wizard vs Mag for old world

You guys are aware classic will not last very long on your new server, right ? If you plan to raid, wizard definitely (and it's a mage who tells you that) in Kunark and Velious. Velious is the Dark Age for the raiding mage, beside coh and mod rods your contribution to the raid will be marginal (resists, NToV). Gets better in Luclin, but remember, no new pets till PoP and epic pet should not be used on raids (even if the aggro transfer is not as bad as it was in 2015-2016).

Wizards are mostly worthless until at least velious. You'll be sitting with the rogues on the LFG bench. If you like being a port ho then Wizard is your class.

maybe on p99 thats true, but a wizard spamming rains isnt completely terrible.

With the high resists on many raid mobs, rains are only moderately useful. When you hit Sky, you're DT fodder. At least mages have pets that can still do damage. Pre Velious, both classes suffer from high resists but mages have the edge with pets. In grouping situations, Mages will almost always be chosen over a wizard for the extra dps/utility of the pets.

As with most classes, each shines for a few expansions before getting hit with the nerf bat and replaced by another class. The exceptions being monks and clerics and maybe warriors.

exactly that, played right (if you like that playstyle= Wizards blast through levels, especially when they can begin to quad kite and stuff that can be root'n'nook'ed is easy

This is really only true in sky. Vox/naggy/ct can all be rained on. The wizard that learns how to rain on belly-casters wins all the parses that nukes can land on, including the 3 I just mentioned. Mage can't touch a wizard classic-pop except in sky...where still their pet receives a massive dps nerf based on the # of pets that are on the mob, making them still basically useless. As soon as wizard hits kunark concussion makes it lights out and mag can't even think about competing on a raid parse.

Wizards are a raid class. They're always a raid class. Mages are a group/solo class, however much later on after MotM is removed they are very competitive in raids.

Thats a pretty good summary. MoTM really screws pet classes, especially mages and especially in Kunark/Luclin era when Epic pet is best pet.

Dont know why people are so down on Wizards in groups.Wizards are fine in groups, they do plenty of damage, and are fun as hell to play. Until you play one most people will assume that they arent all that fun. Sit down, stand up to nuke, repeat, but there is something so gratifying about using those rain spells, and watching the mobs health drop by a good amount 3 seperate times, as they land. They are my favorite class as far as grouping goes, and I have played war, rang,monk,mage. Mages are capable of soloing mobs quite a bit higher then your own level, which is nice, but they cant do it for very long. They really arent that great of soloers as far as actual exp gained, say per hour, because no class has great exp per hour out of group. The bonus is too high. I mean if you are the kind of person that prefers to rarely group, even though the exp rate is terrible without the group bonus , then yeah Mage over Wiz, but their solo capabilities arent worth rolling one over a Wiz imo.

Thats because you don't know how to play a wizard...

This is because you don't know how to play a wizard..

Both at a high skill level are more then viable. They play DRASTICALLY different. They are both equally needed/wanted. CoH/Ports/DPS/Mala/Snare It's yin and yang. I normally hate when people say play what you like because I love playing a druid in a group but hate playing them at raids. So playing what you "like" normally ends up being a double edge sword.

In this case though, they are equally as useful/wanted just in a bit of a different way. So I would play what you like more because both are viable.

Why not buy a cheap second box and play both? Choose which to main later - or "main" them both equally.

Wizard is arguably the best low maintenance box if you are looking to remain after PoP.

DPS boxes will be valuable since 9/10 players will have a cleric/druid/shaman box.

I feel bad for people that come to this forum for advice.

Played both wizard and mage..

Wizard is by far the more fun class in both groups and raids. Mage with epic pet can be pretty fun with a partner.. these servers are so raid heavy that you will spend the majority of your time in that setting, unless you don't have a real job and can sit in game farming Kronos.

Wizards will win every raid parse except mobs in posky in classic. Should do really well in kunark too. If your guild doesn't have wizards doing the most damage on naggy,vox,ct and inny then you are playing with baddies.

You need to max your resists as much as possible to do it and a bard box is a great choice for a wizard. You also need to learn how to not kill yourself with rains. It is very common for bad wizards to walk in and rain themselves to death on a belly caster. You also get the guy that just casts Ice comet and wonders why he is oom and not showing up on the parse.

I really don't think it's that hard to stand on the edge of the giant target circle but apparently it is. It's a fun class and has a lot of upside but it's definitely raid focused

Wiz do high dps in Velious too.

I disagree that they are raid only, they are extremely fun in groups, and especially for AOE groups, which you have to have one for.

I really want to see a video of anyone quad kiting in the gear you are going to be in in classic. People forget how horrible the gear is, how low the mana pools are, and how long it takes to regen mana. You might get a group of 4 mobs down to about 25% HP before you go OOM if they are low hit point. At that point you're on your butt for 15 minutes getting mana back.

Both mages and wizards have some real problems in early expansions. Mages much less so in the group game, but much more so raiding wise. Neither of them are great, or even good, at both. You can however make a ton of money as a wiz porting people, so there is that.

I guess you forgot we already did it back in classic? even more so when Kunark hit, druids did as well...

Just to add some additional pros/cons:

- mages nuke with only magic/fire which really sucks when against raid mobs that are highly resistant/immune to either. Wizards have more variety in their nukes.

- a wizard that's out of mana is useless. A mage can always still contribute with a pet.

- Wizards get ports... mages just have to run

- Wizards get snares... mages only have an earth pet if they overnuke and have to put some distance between you and the mob.

- mobs that summon eat soloing wizards for breakfast. Mages have their pet to keep mobs occupied.

- Wizards can evac a group out of trouble, mages can only hope there's a wizard/druid in group.

- Without spell focus items, wizards are a bit . Mages too are without spell focus items, but they do have a melee pet.

- both classes are desirable on raids. Mages have mod rods, and later on coth. Wizards make things go boom and are great in burns.

- Wizards are desirable for AOE groups. Mages AOE is pretty weak in comparison.

Really it's down to what you want to do and how you want to play. Wizards struggle without mana regen/spell focus items, mages less so, but both bring stuff to groups/raids.

wizard