TheSleepyKing
First Post
Our 5th level wizard has used fireball three times now. In each case it has been laughably useless, typically doing about 12 damage to each of 4 foes. It was hardly worth doing in the grand scheme of things. As an encounter power it would have been OK, but a daily? The benefit of doing small damage to a large number of foes is over-rated in my experience.
That's my experience as well. Yes, if the stars are properly aligned, the Wizard can do more damage than the other classes, but in practice that only happens when the DM deliberately makes it so. Heck, as DM I tend to throw in bunched minions just to make the Wizard feel good about herself.
More to the point, I think 4e Wizards have a narrative problem that makes them seem less effective than they may be in practice. Fireball is a good example -- you hurl a huge, snarling ball of flame only to find that, if you're lucky, you've just bloodied those level 1 kobolds. Wizards in 4e rarely get to execute satisfying "finishing moves", mostly they just weaken enemies slightly to make it easier for the other characters to do the killing. Does this make them "nerfed"? I don't know, but it does make them less satisying to play in my experience.