All flames aside, wizards have never been a hugely demanded class. They're by far the most specialized of all the classes, effectively only having one role in groups. Not only just having one role, but only being capable of filling one role. In terms of group/soloability, most people will chose a druid over a wizard, everything else being equal. You get ports just like a wizard, a whole bunch more utility spells (heh. One would be more then a wizard gets), and probably about 90% of the spell dps of a wizard for *most* of the game.
However, at the high end of the game, wizards become much more useful. TL for the end of a raid all by itself is pretty darn nice. Raid mobs are the only point in the game today where the difference between a mage or druid's bust dps and a wizards burst dps really matters. And the range of offensive spell types ensures that with the exception of totally magic immune mobs, a wizard will be able to find some way to damage the target.
Um. But most players in EQ don't raid that much (yeah. Shocker!). Most focus on groupability and soloability, and wizards just don't stack up in those areas (they're "ok", but other classes really are just better). With the percieved lose of ports as a cash source, very few players make the choice to play wizards.
Heh. Of course, that makes them more valuable for those of us who do play them though. Sometimes, it's just the uniqueness of the class and the rarity that works. I'm actually amazed how often people do want my wizard in a group, even though *I* know that my dps contribution isn't actually that great. But people still have the perception that wizards are the dps kings, and that's enough.
Oh. And porting can still be profitable. Never underestimate the knuckleheads who'll sit in PoK, yelling for a port to someplace stupid. I have never solicited for ports, yet I'm amazed how often people will send me tells out of the blue when I'm in PoK for ports to various places. I recently literally had just logged on my wizard to practice his conjuration skill (freaking familiar summoning is a *****!), and made 1.6k before logging out. Now, most of that was one guy asking for a port to PoS so he could complete his mage epic, but I got about 4 requests in addition to that one. Amazing...
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King Nobby wrote:
More words please