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Well, if you are used to playing an old school wizard, the new wizard is definitely disappointing. You are a very weak damage dealer compared to rogues and rangers. It's great when you take out a few minions, but once they die you're back to dealing moderate damage to a single target.
I'm playing a rogue right now. You do insane single target damage better than anyone else when you have combat advantage, especially as a brutal scoundrel though an Artful Dodger has an easier time getting CA.
My buddy is used to playing an old school wizard. He often feels kind of useless in our battles. Once he kills the minions, he pretty much does cruddy damage from there on out. His sleep spell is good for setting up the rest of the party, but doesn't have the bang of old wizard damage spells.
Here is the biggest problem, melee weapons allow other classes to hit easier. At low level alot of monsters have defenses equal to their AC, so they are harder to hit by wizards because they have no melee bonus to hit.
On top of that the rogue often gets Piercing Strike which allows him to hit against Reflex with a melee attack. That means he hits very easy, especially if using a dagger.
I know as wizards level they will become far more useful as minions become more dangerous and plentiful. But at low level they don't provide alot of bang for the buck. I imagine you can get a bit envious watching a rogue or ranger do big damage.
Heck, another of friend of mine gets envious with his fighter. Damage dealing is always the "sexy" role in a DnD group. Everyone loves to get the kill and the strikers are the best at getting the kill against the big, bad guys. Even bow rangers do more ranged damage than a wizard, and that can be hard to take for the wizard.
It will even out at higher level, but at low level it can be frustrating. So I understand why wizard players might become unhappy. They are pretty much forced into the "controller" role, and if they don't like that role and never played it with their old wizard then they aren't going to be happy with the subtle controller role versus the big damage striker role.