Human Wizard recommendations for a n00b?

[Tony Vargas]

For a Wand Wizard, I would recomend taking Force Orb instead of Burning Hands, it's spell that benefits most from the Wand of Accuracy, since the secondary attacks are dependent on the primary attack hitting, making sure it hits is a big plus. And, it does impressive damage to the primary target, and differentiates between friend and foe. Acid Arrow is similar, but doesn't care friend vs foe, and still does something on a miss - and it's really not much for a daily, I'd prep Sleep most of the time.

Scorching Burst is a straightforward bread-and-butter controller at-will. Try to catch two or three enemies - especially minions - in it each round. If you can't, lay in a Magic Missle for damage. Use the Ray of Frost to screw over skirmishers or lurckers who try to move quickly in and out of range of the party, or to make it easier to catch a fleeing enemy.

Burning Hands, if you keep it, covers a big area, but you have to get in close, it does good damage, but nothing else. Use it if you can catch a number of enemies - preferably a mix of 'real' enemies and minions - but no allies, in it.

Fire Shroud differentiates friend from foe, which is rare in a wizard AE, it's perfect when you're stuck in close fighting, with enemies in amongst you.

Sleep is (and always has been) a pre-eminent 1st level spell. It automatically slows everyone you attack, which is amazing, in itself, so it's great if you roll high on initiative and can keep a number of enemies from closing in the first round. At low level, a /coup de grace/ from a striker has an excellent chance of killing an unconscious enemy outright, so it's potentially devestating in that sense, as well.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I've read this opinion before, and I don't get it.

Most Warlord powers that trigger a basic attack from another player trigger a MELEE basic attack from that player, not a ranged one.

There are better single-target at-will powers to choose from, and I would go with one of those others.

I haven't played with a Warlord before, I didn't realize it was all melee. Ah well. However, you can use Bracers of Archery with Magic Missile to get a +2 to damage. Additionally, with the Paragon feats for Force powers it gains a little utility as well.

However, were I to make another Wizard, I almost certainly wouldn't take it again.

I disagree that toughness is crucial. However I agree leather armor is important. I also personally like improved initiative, since often early in combat the foes are grouped together, which is a great opportunity to hit them with an area attack.

More importantly, your allies aren't tangled up with the enemies, so those large burst area spells are a lot easier to get off without hurting your team. In Paragon/Epic there are ways to ameliorate it, but in Heroic you're pretty much stuck. I think there's one FR feat that lets you take a -2 to hit allies... but that's not much.

 

[keterys]

At paragon you can take -5 to hit your allies and half damage if you do. That's a good good thing

 

[Al'Kelhar]

It's been mentioned a couple of times, but I can highly recommend phantom bolt as your third wziard at-will power. The 1-square slide is exceptionally useful. The wizard in the campaign that I'm DM'ing uses this all the time to position the enemy precisely where he wants it - whether that be between the fighter and the rogue, or over the edge of a cliff.

In terms of feats, Ranged Advantage can be very nice if you've got a big party or otherwise often have targets flanked.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I am surprised that no one is reccomending Storm Pillar, which I think is an excellent wizard control power and can be useful to thunderwave enemies into (albiet at a 50% chance, 'cause they get a save)
Also empowering lightening as an encounter power as it amps your wand of accuracy feature if you use it later in the encounter, and its a pretty good power in itself.

 

[cattoy]

Personally, I would rather have Implement Expertise than Action Surge. (although both is pretty awesome)

+1 all the time vs +3 once/encounter (at most)

I guess it depends on how long you expect the fights will be...

If you're playing in a smaller group, you will need to spend a feat on defense, so leather armor or toughness.

You might also want to consider swapping DEX and CON stats. Your AC and Ref won't suffer because it's being driven by your INT, you'll get an extra HP, +1 to Fort, your surge value will go up 1 and you'll get an extra healing surge. The only things that will suffer is your ability to throw daggers and your initiative.

 

[Nichwee]

Bracers of Archery with Magic Missile to get a +2 to damage.

No you can't, unless you have Bow/Crossbow as an implement. This item adds to attacks with a bow or crossbow, not to Ranged attacks.
Bracers of the Perfect Shot add +2 damage to MagMiss (as it counts as a RBA).

 

[KarinsDad]

Personally, I would rather have Implement Expertise than Action Surge. (although both is pretty awesome)

+1 all the time vs +3 once/encounter (at most)

Actually, Action Surge is +3 one or more times per 2- encounters.

The real advantage of Action Surge is an Area Effect Daily power where the +3 works on every target in the area affect.

Still, if one has 5 encounters with 3 actions surges and each encounter lasts 6 rounds (for a total of ~10 targets attacked by the Wizard per encounter including area effects) and each time it is used with an area effect for 3 targets, that's still +3 to 9 targets and +0 to 41 targets vs. +1 to 50 targets. Implement Expertise is still coming out about twice as helpful, it's just not as helpful when the Wizard player really really wants his Daily or big Encounter powers to hit. And, Implement Expertise is even more useful for longer encounters.

I'm not really too impressed with Action Surge other than the fact that there are very few ways to increase to hit.

 

[KarinsDad]

I am surprised that no one is reccomending Storm Pillar, which I think is an excellent wizard control power and can be useful to thunderwave enemies into (albiet at a 50% chance, 'cause they get a save)

Storm Pillar is extremely situational. First, it is put into an unoccupied square. So, unless it is a 3 or less square wide corridor, anyone in it can merely step out and not take any damage at all.

Pushing and sliding a foe into it requires getting them to the center square for it to be useful since the foe did not "Move" into the square. The control aspect is kind of limited, often just forcing a foe to use up an extra square or two of movement to get out and walk around it.

It's also not a Burst or Blast, so there is no good way (TMK) to increase the area (and even if you could, it should still only be castable in unoccupied squares).

I'm not seeing the good utility here other than as a temporary barrier to prevent flank or something, possibly in conjunction with a Fighter's mark where it gains in utility.

 

[keterys]

Pushing and sliding a foe into it requires getting them to the center square for it to be useful since the foe did not "Move" into the square.

Do you have a FAQ/rules quote? Because forced movement _is_ movement, so I'm wondering if the spell is just badly written.

The real cheese with storm pillar is likely if you allow conjurations to be conjured in midair. Putting one above someone's head makes it significantly more likely to trigger, since it triggers if they move anywhere at all.

I wouldn't really recommend Storm Pillar to any new player or new group.