Best of the Best - Orb Wizard.

[ChaosMage]

You left out the only race that gets both a primary and secondary stat bump on the Taclord poll! I was hoping you would've learned from that mistake.

Sorry, I'm just grumpy because I was really curious whether eladrin or genasi would win in the previous poll.

More on-topic: Echoing other posters, I went with human over deva due to the three at-wills. That is a major bonus for the wizard, and the extra wisdom isn't that important now that there are enough -save items out to perma-stun solos in late epic even with a starting 16 Wis.

Heck, there was a build on the Wizards boards that could do that with a starting 12 wis. Once the secondary stat starts becoming unimportant, humans start looking better and better. I also like humans for Action Surge; being able to get +3 on large AoE powers is a huge boost.

 

[drothgery]

Kzach, I know you "don't care", but you really ought to try and include every race in the CB that has a bonus to either the primary or secondary stat at a bare minimum.

Eh. I think the *setting* Player's Guide races (drow, genasi, changeling, kalashtar, and warforged) ought to be included, because WotC certainly treats them as first-class races that get continuing support, but including races with just an MM-level writeup, or even an MM-level writeup and a Dragon article, doesn't seem necessary.

 

[DracoSuave]

Heck, there was a build on the Wizards boards that could do that with a starting 12 wis. Once the secondary stat starts becoming unimportant, humans start looking better and better. I also like humans for Action Surge; being able to get +3 on large AoE powers is a huge boost.

For the longest time, Elves were considered the best race for Orbizards because hitting with that daily was more important than the human's upside and the extra intellegence.

Deva gives you extra intellegence -and- the accuracy boost when you need it.

No. Contest.

 

[Mengu]

I have to go with Deva as well. While the third human at-will is nice, the extra wisdom and the racial encounter power edge it out. The racial +2 skill bonuses in the right places don't hurt either. And the +1 all defenses against bloodied targets and the resistance to necrotic/radiant are as good as if not better than human defenses. Humans have the extra feat going for them, but orb wizards don't need a lot of feats past a few basics. Overall I think Deva wins.

 

[ChaosMage]

For the longest time, Elves were considered the best race for Orbizards because hitting with that daily was more important than the human's upside and the extra intellegence.

Deva gives you extra intellegence -and- the accuracy boost when you need it.

No. Contest.

Elves were seen as the best race pre-AV because at that time hitting -11 to save (locking down one normal monster) required 28 wisdom, meaning a +wis race and demigod. Elves encounter reroll was seen as making up for the lower accuracy of a race without an int bonus. Post AV, no one made elf orbizards anymore; they were all human because humans could get a high enough save penalty to lock down solos while also having an int bonus (and the int bonus races didn't offer as much as an extra at will and Action Surge).

Devas do have both +int and +wis, but the +wis is pretty much a waste; since you don't need it for -16, the only benefit you get is +1 will (which humans get anyway) and +1 to wis skills. The encounter accuracy bonus is nice, but it's not as good as the elf boost; it can't cancel a 1 and may not be able to help other low rolls. Action surge has that same downside, but applies to every attack roll once every other encounter instead of a single attack roll once per encounter, which is a bigger overall boost in accuracy in fights with multiple opponents. While devas are certainly a competitor for orbizard, it's definately not a no contest, and I'd still say humans edge them out.

 

[LamilLerran]

For the longest time, Elves were considered the best race for Orbizards because hitting with that daily was more important than the human's upside and the extra intellegence.

Deva gives you extra intellegence -and- the accuracy boost when you need it.

No. Contest.

Part of the reason elves were considered good then was because you needed all the wisdom you could get. This was before AV, and so it was hard to get the save penalty up into perma-stun territory (and I *think* it was impossible to perma-stun solos back then). Elves were good because they gave you the Wisdom boost and because the attack bonus from Elven Accuracy on one attack more or less made up for the +1 to all attacks from good Int and the +3 from action surge. (Or the human might boost Wis, in which case it's a simple +3 vs. reroll comparison, and again the reroll wins ... although that's probably close if you include divine oracle).

Now, you have humans who get +1 to all attacks relative to elves, and +3 more on the important ones with Action Surge, and if you want a reroll you can still get one from Divine Oracle. For pulling off the crucial attack, humans are no worse than devas unless the deva takes Lineage feats, and even then the difference is marginal. And for every attack that isn't lolstunlockcheese, you have that extra at-will.

Wizards are strong b/c of their at-wills and their dailies; humans and devas are essentially tied on dailies, and humans have better at-wills.

And I see that ChaosMage beat me to the punch. Oh well.

 

[Mengu]

Devas do have both +int and +wis, but the +wis is pretty much a waste; since you don't need it for -16

If you're skipping playing levels 1-20, sure. But the bonus to int and wis are pretty much golden for most of the orb wizard's career. Certainly not a waste.

 

[LamilLerran]

If you're skipping playing levels 1-20, sure. But the bonus to int and wis are pretty much golden for most of the orb wizard's career. Certainly not a waste.

If we're talking about heroic/paragon, then for a lot of it you can't perma-stun anything, and the +2 Wis just makes a 5 percentage point difference on saving throws that are in the hard-but-not-impossible category for both races. It really doesn't make much of a difference -- certainly not as much as getting an extra at will and action surge's potential multi-target bonus (since hitting that one specific high-value target doesn't matter so much when you can't perma-lock it anyway).

 

[Furion_Thamior]

Eladrin who start with 13 DEX post-racial can qualify for Wizard Implement Mastery, and thanks to the wording of Eladrin Sword Wizardy, they can get a 19-20 threat range while still using a Cunning Weapon. This is cool if you've got a Violet Solitare, because it means more action points. They can also pick up Arcane Reach at Epic, which is useful to have for Thunderwave and Prismatic Spray. You'd probably also fit in Dual Implement Spellcasting in this case. The ability to train Perception out the gate is a small perk but one I think worth mentioning. Granted, most of these are just damage boosters, but if Blood Mage is your paragon path of choice, you might care about it.

The Deva, on the other hand, can pack in obscene accuracy. Gunning for 20 INT with Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes and Terrifying Insight means the control will hit where it needs to: who cares if you're dazed all the time if there's no one around to actually hit you. The ally buffs are cool, and then you can force a crit on your stunned opposition to get an action point with the Violet Solitare that you'll use to recharge your dailies. The skill bonuses and defensive perks are just gravy, Nercotic resistance can be very powerful.

Humans are probably the strongest out the gate, but I think by mid-paragon their benefits start to matter less and less. Who cares about a 3rd at will when all you need are Illusory Ambush and Thunderwave? The free feat gets spent on Action Surge - Devas and Eladrin don't have tempting racial feats for an orbizard anyways. By Epic when you have Spell Mastery, you might be more interested in using action points to nab back daily power, too.

I'm not entirely sure what's best: Eldarin Blood Mages look like a lot of fun since you can tack on a striker-secondary feel, but a Deva Divine Oracle really takes control to the extreme with a hint of leader, wheras I see Humans offering a little more flexibility at Heroic.

 

[Garthanos]

Yeah I get the impression heroic and paragon play is very common keeping humans strong for a lot of folk, including mine. I like Deva quite a bit... there flavor is nicely skinnable for me. We have a tendency to not over optimise and go with fun around here.. but I am going call it a draw in my book....this is a close race I agree with.