Solo Wizards?Follow

Not sure if i am solo-ing the right way nor do i know if this is the best way. but this is how i have been doing it when I am wandering ard.

root -> all the useful DOT spell you have -> root again -> 2-3 damage spell(HO when possible) -> freeze if mob is moving toward you -> root -> damage spell and the cycle repeats till you are out of mp or the mob is dead.

personally, i love to use ball of fire (adept3) to complete my HO as it gives a great deal of damage. however the casting and recast time is looong.. freeze is good to stun the mob for a while for you to root the mob. again the recast time is ZZzzz....

mage ain't the best class to solo, be prepared to drain 3/4 or all of your mp if you are taking on green ^^

Edited, Thu Feb 17 03:42:34 2005 by mcbao

That's the way to do it. Even HOs just save you power, rather than becoming the difference between life and death.

Best XP I've found is from green-blue ^^ mobs. Probably best if you can find a shaman or an enchanter to duo with. The shaman can Ward in emergencies while the enchanter can not only mez adds [and allow you to go after mob groups for the bonus XP] but also have pretty decent stuns to give you even more time to burn the mobs away.

the main key I belive is to keep the thing you're fighting away from you. Keep an eye on that root icon in your maintained spell window. DoT's and nuke away but keep them rooted.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but as a 47th Wizard, I don't use any DoT's while solo, unless dealing with weak encounters. I use Root, Ball of Flames, Flamestrike, Ball of Flames, Root, rinse + repeat, and I don't bother with Heroic Opportunities. If a root breaks early, follow up with Ring of Cold or Paralyze. I generally get the best exp from white or yellow ^'s this way, though I suppose I could kill white ^^'s alright if I had to.

This is (in my opinion) much less mana intensive than burning mobs with DoT's(Using maybe two bulbs of mana max on a single monster), and provides less chances for root to break, unless there's something about it that I don't get. The only time I use DoT's on a solo monster is when I use Fiery Surge (Added DoT bonus on attack spells), Frostbound Gift (+ cold Damage) and Heat Convulsions (Unresistable as far as I know.) for the pretty much guaranteed blast of damage it'll all do together.

So...

?? Just what makes DoTing such a good idea? If it's something I'm seriously missing out on, I'd like to know. Otherwise I just don't get it.

Everyone pretty much nailed it, though I have to highly disagree with using DoT's early on while solo. I try to do as least rapid damage as I can and as much as possible direct damage. Keep in mind if you choose to use Fiery Convulsions - your doing about the same damage as sunstrike only your giving it 7 chances to break root instead of 1. I can hit a couple DoT's and have my root breaking as im trying to slow my enemy, re-root, run again cause my existing DoT broke the root again etc. I'd rather just root them and use 3 - 6 heavy hitting DD spells and not have them run at me at all. Or if I feel like just burning with DoT's I double root the enemy. Least that way the roots hold a little better, or you can cast the other one back on when you notice one has broken. Small DoT's make solo'ing sloppy though IMO. I try to stick with rending icicles(least its only ever 4 seconds)/glacial wind or irradiate if im going to use them at all.

Double root I feel is also the key if you want to kill ^^^ heroics with a wizard. Anything is possible as long as a wizard has mana and the mob is not able to move. Though when solo'ing heroics I think the key is to never use DoT's. Last thing you need is a ^^^ whos root keeps breaking and running at you LOL. It may take a bit longer but if you just double root a ^^^ and have the patience to hit him with only your top DD hits - its pretty damn easy ^_^


Wizards have to be good solo'ing otherwise, why would all the bots and plat solo plat farmers tend to be wizards? Cause they can grind so damn fast when they put their mind to it.

Surging Tempest saves a wizards life. As if you put that on them, while a mob may break root and is charging you...the magical bolt of lightning will come down and save you long enuf to cast another root :D. I think its very worthwhile to max that spell in your AA wiz tree so its duration is reduced by 9.6 seconds, thus hitting every 6 some seconds.



Future, DoT's are great but, I think they're great for grouping/raids. They are usually the first I hit in those situations. During those times is when ya go ALL out (inferno surge, frigid gift etc) But in situations where we have aggro and were holding with a root..heres some rough comparison.

Irradiate + Fiery Convulsions = ~ 3 - 3.5k dmg over 8 - 14 seconds or so. Alltogether they will hit the enemy about 13 seperate times. (13 chances to break root)
Ball of lava + incapacitate = ~4 - 6k dmg and only hit two times (2 chances to break root)

This is why I think DoT's just plain suck when solo'ing most the time.



Edited, Jan 25th 2007 10:00am by Dakkotaa

DOTS ARE A BIG BIG NO NO!!! With any root based soloers such as mages or wardens. Dots cause root to break so often you will be wasting more power on trying to re root the mob than needed. Stick to stuns, Nukes, and debuffs when soloing and NEVER use dots unless the mob has less than 5% Hp. Heroic Opps will lower the ammount of power but your nukes do enough damage as a wizzy to just plain take the mob out.. Im a 22 wizard but I havea 70 warlock also and on both toons I can solo yellow heroics ^^^ no joke. Its a long process but I can solo named veyr easily non casters that is. But to reiterate my point of earlier DOTS ARE BAD MMMK .

I tend to root, load up dots, root again for good measure, and start nuking. If root breaks, stun and re-root. If I am in reasonably good shape and they don't hit too hard, I'll take it on the chin and not re-root, just burn them down. I don't agree at all that you should never use dots; easier mobs don't need them, but at level 53 I find it makes a big difference in killing mobs fast. You can always double-root too. Seriously, if you are having power problems from using dots, you are taking on too much. I don't find they break root all that much more, and if they do, I just take a few whacks. That won't work with ^^^ mobs, but I wouldn't solo those anyway, unless green. It takes too long - soloing is more efficient with easier mobs, killing as fast as you can. You get more XP for hard ones, but a lot more down time. If you want to kill some harder ones for the challenge, adjust your tactics accordingly ... but I still think dots are a key part of DPS.

I soloed 95% of the way to 53 ... but I have been away from the game for almost 2 years. I haven't yet run into anything that completely breaks my old way of doing things, but it may exist :).

Edited, Oct 23rd 2007 10:01am by Daeanor