Wizard or Warlock?Follow

OK, i know that neither class is better, but i need to know a little bit of specifics before i choose.

I like Soloing and Aoes...which class has better Aoes, and which solos more?

Another thing, is there a way to effectively kite (like quadding in EQ) with either of these classes, or any class at all? I am switching from WoW back to EQII and i want my first character to be a soloer.

Thanks in Advance

Treesock

take the wizard i started both the worlock hit a lot less than the wizard

A warning if you are playing a wizard, Ratonga enemies are very aggravating because they are group mobs and are social. . .

My poor conjurer had quite a few deaths last night because of them. . .

Oh and for another thing the damn rats can run you down quick, I had a sprint spell on and still couldn't run fast enough to escape before getting gacked. . .

Of the mage classes I personally think the conjuror/necro classes can solo better. Of course I say this after never playing a wizard or warlock. But I have heard alot of non-pet caster classes complain about difficulty soloing.

And something to remember about most of the roots/snares in the game is they break almost instantly if you do any damage to the mob.

haha guys, sorry to say this but he wasnt asking about any other class except wizard and warlock :-). but warlock overall has better AOE spells for tackling mobs, while wizard has great just damage spells to take out a single enemy

Every raid needs a wizard, plus their fun to play, cant go wrong.

I'll address a couple things brought up.

Even if you are a Warlock, you will mostly compete with Wizards for loot - for the most part mages will always compete for loot since they all really need similar stats (except master spells of course). Even the new armor sets are listed for wizard/warlock.

Wizards can be tough solo at the start on group mobs but, down the line you get a group encounter root. I have found even if the root breaks and 3 guys charge at you, the group mobs individual enemies are pretty weak and usually you can just stand and kill them before they kill you. Wizards get a few a couple encounter spells and a couple AOE spells (1 including forge of RO that you don't get until lvl 55). Wizards will get the bigger single target nukes and Warlocks will get the better encounter nukes. When deciding I sometimes like to just search for the lvl 55 - 70 fabled spells on broker for that class. Check out what type of spells you will get to use at the top and see if they sound like abilities you would like to have.

(i have a 70 wizard, 18 warlock and 60 conjuror, so most of my info will be on wizzys - i love mages though)

The single target root for wizards has a 15% chance to break when target takes dmg and the encounter one I think has a 20% chance. Sometimes you will just happen to strike that 15% 3 times in a row with constant root breaks. And sometimes i've layed tons of DoT's and still nuked and the root never breaks after taking dmg 10 times. All chance. Also once you get your encounter root as a wizzy, you can double root your enemies if they are that tough. This is how i've easily killed heroics. When the root breaks they are slowed down for 10 seconds or so. With two roots though one is almost always up and its not as hard to keep enemies rooted as some make it out to be.

I have not grouped as a warlock yet but, from grouping as a wizard - I would hold back my encounter DoT's alot. This happens alot more in lower levels but, when the tank is getting aggro - sometimes it seems hes only aggro'ing one target of the mob at once. Cause i've cast an encounter DOT and the other 2 mobs the tank wasn't onto yet, would come running to me cause I dmg'ed them while everyone else is direct damaging the main target. I would think warlocks have even more trouble since they do more dmg than a wizard for a group shot. It's all the same though. A warlock is doing nice (but less direct) dmg to each target in a group so it kinda lowers all the enemies in the mob. While a wizard will just make it so a tank can powerhouse through target after target in a group mob.

Im not sure on warlocks hate debuffs but, wizard has 1 main single target debuff and somewhere down the line, get a spell that upgrades with each level, that decreases threat to the whole encounter. (and its a nice encounter hate debuff, @ 70 mine is like ~1,500 - 1,900 hate decrease on encounter). Wizzys and warlocks just can't go nuts neccesaily on damage and have to stay semi reasonable. Theres no formula or code as to when you start using big nukes, you'll figure out as you play when its too early to nuke for high dmg and when its a good time, without getting aggro in the group.


They are both fun damage powerhouse classes. And I havn't had too much trouble solo'ing my low lvl warlock and solo'ing my wizard was sometimes more efficent than waiting around for a group, traveling to the group, waiting for the group to all meet. Sometimes XP was better if I just got down and did some grinding. They grind quickly, which means more XP and more personal loot to sell. It's not hard to earn yourself a couple plat in a few days by solo grinding if ya need to. Bottom line, not once during my wizard roll did I think - man this class is letting me down, or it could be doing this better. Very pleased and I had a ton of fun rolling a wizard.


You never mentioned this but, if your into some occasional PvP's I think a wizard would by far beat a warlock there. I've seen a totally decked wizard fight a totally decked zerker. Zerker got the wizard down to 1.5 bars of health - then he successes a root. Steps back and basically blows a lvl 70 decked zerker from 100% health to less than 1 bar of health - then finishes him off. If you can learn to master a wizard you're pretty damn powerful and deadly - though this goes with all classes I suppose.

Woo I ramble alot =p. Think I addressed everything I wanted to. Either one, you'll have a good time and feel powerful =) GL and HF

PS. wizards get the spell that teleports them to a safe location (generally the start of) in the zone. It has a 15 min recast time but, if things are really looking like your a dead man - just hit your depart and your saved. That is VERY handy and its what kept my wizard from dieing ALOT less than my conjuror.

Edited, Dec 26th 2006 2:17pm by Dakkotaa

I understand that wizards are a much better single damage than a warlock. But - having a 40 warlock i might be able to give a little more insight then someone with an 18 warlock.

Warlocks - have amazing AE encounter spells. When I was in lvl 20's I was rocking out with 1000+ dmg per mob. This is very handy in raid or grouping instances...or - even solo.

Warlock's also - have roots - I have three in fact. So - when warlocks come to XP'ing - they can surpass a wizard in the fact that most names - come - with a ^^^ or a ^^...now - the rest are, 99.999% of the time - lower ^'s then the nameds. This works out well for a warlock because you root the triple up - throw out some single dmg spells - which i have compared with wizards of my lvl and are of similar dmg - only a small bit lower...root again - throw out your AE's - now everyone but the named dies together. Now - youre left with the name - keep rooting, keep dmg'ing and bam - you get AA'a and XP and loot like nobody's business.

I love my warlock and - concerning the PVP - a warlock could easily beat a zerker there also because of the root...although i do agree that a wizard could beat a warlock of same class and spell lvl's.

Wizards have great dmg and nothing against em - but for everquest II...which is a lot of group mobs - its easier to be a warlock...killing 5 or 6 at once can save you right before you die - its happened several times for me.

Just my 2c input. Warlocks are an awesome breed and also a rare breed. I was able to solo my Warlock till he was lvl 65. This requires a lot of running and screaming through zones with very angry mobs on your butt but it is a fun class to play. Honestly it has been the coolest toon I have ever leveled so far. The real problem is grouping after that... because you instill a lot of very bad habits as a soloist and you have to relearn your character all over again. Warlocks don't start to realize thier uberness till about lvl 62 when they start to finally get some very hate inspiring spells and it just gets better in leaps after that. Tanks have a hard time keeping agro because of the Target Encounter hate you can build up very quickley and due to the fact a Warlock is severly lacking in hate transfer and hate reduction unless you want to spend your AA points to get it and deprive yourself of some of the other beneficial lines available. You get a couple of in combat spells to deal with threat and hate but you have to stay on them because if you wait till you get the hate you will probably die before you can pop them. The Warlock AA "Protection" line has an endline "Vacuous" that will provide you with a 15% hate loss/gain group buff but this makes you have to sacrifice one of the more beneficial lines of "Explosives" with the "Aftershock" endline or "Hastenings" with the endline "Focused Casting". Bottom line, due to the hate/threat problem, if you want to utilize your full potential you have a tendancy to die a lot. And when it comes to the parse you just cannot compete with a Wizard on single target combat because you don't get any spells like Ice Nova in your ******** That being said... if you are in a multiple target encounter and you have a Pally moderating you and an Illusionist putting "Time Compression" on you, you own the parse and the bigger the encounter the better your dps IF you can stay standing. I have racked up as high as a 4k parse in a battle in places like Deathtoll and Lyceum (though they are rare at best) and an average zonewide of 1.6k, but places like Inner Sanctum and Freethinkers I am lucky if I parse a zonewide of 1k. You get 2 true AOE's one is a dot named "Chaostorm" a 10 meter medium damage spell and the other is a 15 meter spell called "Rift" a single shot that when coupled with the AA "Freehand Sorcery" can deliver as much as 6.5k per mob in its range not counting crit hits (you can see how that will buy you some hate if you pop that one to early, lol.) Your truest talents though lie in your Single and Target Encounter dots. A huge majority of your damage is poison based and used with your poison mitt decreasers you can put some serious hurt on mob encounters. You have some decent Single and Target Encounter DD spells as well. The true art is learning how to manage these spells effectively and there is not any single formula to follow because each situation demands its own finesse dependant on group make up and zone and encounter. My best group for raid is usually a Pally, an Illusionist, a Troubador, a Coercer and either a Fury or a Warden.