Horwath
Legend
This.I've never played a 5E Wizard or Sorc that had Fireball in their arsenal. A few of them did have the spell in a scroll or wand though. Ironically the only caster I played that could cast this spell was a light cleric.
IMO there are so many good 3rd level spells, there is not usually room for fireball.
Also most of my Wizards are controllers looking to limit an enemies options or steal actions. Like you said, damage is not their thing.
I do not know why everyone praises fireball so much. sure, it has best damage for 3rd level spells, but even that is quite low for a limited resource. Also the scaling is horrible, maybe if it was +2d6 per level and +5ft radius it would be worth it.
But there is some utility in fireball, if you can hit 5+ target of which none are your allies, then it's good, but that does not come along every fight.
most damage spells are very bad, with even worse upscaling.
This is more of a game problem.I also almost never have Cure Wounds prepared unless I have it always prepared through the metallic Dragon feat. My Clerics have healing word instead. Using HW to yo-yo downed allies is a lot more efficient than getting into touch range and using an action to heal them for 2 more points.
now it's getting better with +2d8 vs +2d4, but still it is not very good.
There is still yo-yo effect.
maybe remove Cure and buff HW:
Healing word, 1st level spell
Bonus action,
60ft
heal target for 15HP, you can split the healing between target and yourself.
+10 HP per spell level higher than 1st.
in addition, whenever you drop to 0HP you gain exhaustion level, this level(s) are removed when you are healed to 50% of max HP(might be 75 or 100%, depending on how gritty you want your game to be)