Magic Missile as a Ranged Basic Attack

[mneme]

ren: I think it mostly goes the other way -- if you're already running MM and its working for you, Wizard's Fury can be a useful wizard-as-striker daily.

The real reason to run MM is the combination of some great ways to boost MRAs with the great ways to boost arcane at-wills; you basically shouldn't take it unless you plan to abuse it. Of course, if you are abusing it, Wizard's Fury becomes, as a 1/day haste on your most powerful at-will, quite effective.

 

[DracoSuave]

I'm aware that there's different ways to build wizards, such as a genasi blaster wizard which is definitely an alt-striker with a dash of controller, but I was just commenting that MM is a fairly weak at-will relative to the others (unless you're a human or have a warlord who grants lots of RBAs) so picking it to grab the 1/day bump in damage from Wizard's Fury (which is nearly the same damage as Flaming Sphere's auto-damage, only 1d4 higher, but it can hit multiple foes each round) is a fairly high price to pay.

MM -seems- pretty lackluster, it's advantages are it's MBAness and it's Range 20ness.

But it's not completely useless as a single-target damager, you just have to go outside the box a little bit.

At Heroic:

Bracers of the Perfect Shot for +2 damage
Superior Implement: Petrified Orb for +2 damage
Master's Wand of Magic Missle to give all magic missles a push 1 component, combining with Petrified Orb for push 2. And yes, Master's Wand of Magic Missile's ability to do so is a property that doesn't mention you must use the wand to attack.

Suddenly, Magic Missle's not so lackluster; you use it as a control spell by pushing enemies, and Cloud of Daggers as your damage/evade concealment-cover spell.

 

[Garthanos]

The real reason to run MM is the combination of some great ways to boost MRAs with the great ways to boost arcane at-wills; you basically shouldn't take it unless you plan to abuse it.

I think boosting things is not necessarily abusing .. there is a point at which the whole thing becomes a horror story... but it seems trading dailies is a price to become more strikery and not a freebie by any throw.

 

[renau1g]

Aye, you can certainly build a PC around MM, but if you go with an accurate staff of ruin, you get +1 to hit and +2 damage to all your spells, not just MM. Plus, that's just 1 item and you still have 2 additional parcels coming your way. I didn't say it was useless, but rather that there are a lot of better (IMO) options for a wizard most of the time. Also, my experience hasn't showed that the 20 range has any advantage over ranged 10. Again, that's my experience where the DM's don't run huge battles where the wizard can set up shop 100 feet away from the fight and pelt away from that range. It'd be cool in a naval battle though as essentially you'd get 1 additional free shot at the enemy.

 

[cdrcjsn]

I saw someone multi-class into Ranger to pick up the Cobra Stance daily 5 power.

It basically allows you to use a basic ranged attack as an OA when opponents approach.

Couple with the White Lotus daily 1 power (use MM as minor once per round), he was basically like a gattling gun. Pretty neat to see.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

I saw someone multi-class into Ranger to pick up the Cobra Stance daily 5 power.

It basically allows you to use a basic ranged attack as an OA when opponents approach.

Couple with the White Lotus daily 1 power (use MM as minor once per round), he was basically like a gattling gun. Pretty neat to see.

There is errata on Spitting Cobra Stance now. It's no longer an OA, but an Immediate action of some sort. Much, much nerfed.

 

[renau1g]

Yeah I saw that same stance picked up by a sorcerer and warlock as well, pre-nerf, actually much deadlier in their hands

 

[UngeheuerLich]

pooh, noone suggested half elf versatile master or windrise ports to become a real gattling gun with wizards fury, that stance and primal eye.

No, you give up a lot, but it is a nice build IMHO.
Also don´t forget to throw in inescapable force and don´t forget your once per day inevitable shot. The cleric will cry when he sees how fast you deal with incorporal (undead) creatures.

 

[renau1g]

Ah....Windrise Ports....so broken...and yet they seem fine with leaving it as is. They should just get rid of it altogether. It's amazing how before that option was released I'm fairly certain 99% of the players wouldn't even know of the regions existance, but now it's an area that is the largest producers of heroes in the LFR world

 

[cdrcjsn]

There is errata on Spitting Cobra Stance now. It's no longer an OA, but an Immediate action of some sort. Much, much nerfed.

Buh.

I guess I need to read up on the errata.