I have found the 4E wizard to be somewhat less fun to play than any previous edition's version, primarily because as a class it has been simplifed and "flattened" to be little different to any other class.
No class is different than any other class. Their at-wills are all exactly the same. Twin-Strike is really the same as Furious Smash. They all do the same thing as Eyebite and Thunderwave.
In otherwords... this belief does not bear out the facts.
Other classes do more damage to a single opponent. The laser cleric often has better AE attacks and most of them don't affect allies.
The cleric has zero at-will AoEs. I counted them twice.
The cleric has one encounter AoE through the entire heroic tier.
However, the cleric gets a couple AoEs he can use as dailies. So, twice per day, and once per encounter, the cleric can AoE.
The wizard can AoE every single action he ever does, encounter, daily, or at-will, every adventuring day of his entire life. Many of them are enemy-only, should he need that. Very few of them don't come with additional effects that directly hinder the enemy.
Yes. The cleric is the superior AoEer, until you actually try playing one as an AoEer, and realize his efficacy pales in comparison to the character -designed- around AoE.
The wizard is a superfluous class. It's level of utlity is entirely dependent on battle set up, including factors such as enemy entry and exit points, position of pits and precipices, a number of minions. That is, wizards are probably OK to play if the DM consciously plays to their strengths.
A wizard should actually be playing to the -party- strengths, and making up for holes in their defenses. Things like -prone- and -immobilized- and -stunned- are situational only in that the situation they work in is 'fighting monsters.'
That happens a lot more than you think.
IME the modules H1 and H2 are not suitable for wizards. Fights against solos and small numbers of enemies with high hit points are boring - may as well play 1st edition where the wizard had only 2 spells per day and slinked around the back of the combat until the other characters had defeated the enemies. The only way I have managed to make a wizard interesting is to multiclass into warlock and take Diabolic Grasp in place of one the wizard's encounter powers - given that it slides the target a number of spaces equal to 1 + Int modifier, it's nice for the high-Int wizard. Trouble is, the attack roll is dependent on Con and targets Fortitude, which is often the highest defence bar AC; so I inevitably use the Wand of Accuracy bonus with this attack.
Cheers, Al'Kelhar
Enemy with high hitpoints? Flaming Sphere. Bigby's Icy Grasp. Chill Strike.
Want to create a chokehold? Icy Terrain.
Want to help the rogue get CA? Icy Terrain.
Want to give someone a free move? Jump.
Want to cut off a line of attack or retreat? Web.
There's ways of dealing with a lot of varied situations that hasn't even gotten past level 5, and ways that no other class has access to. Immobilization at range? Knocking an area of guys prone AND making an area difficult terrain? Make an entire hallway impassable while your ranged attacks kill them dead?
There's a ton of utility in that, and a lot of those effects can serve multiple purposes.
