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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5651223" data-attributes="member: 82106">Be aware, even when playing PHB1 wizard with nothing else that there is enough errata to make a fair difference, especially recent errata (the 'Arcanist' errata). That is still 'playtest' for a bit, but it reduces the effectiveness of both Cloud of Daggers (a lot, it is probably worthless now), and Flaming Sphere (more of a control power doing EOT damage now, you will rarely really dish out a lot of actual damage with it, but it is still a good power). OTOH most encounter powers now have miss effects (usually half damage). Stinking Cloud and some other zones are also now EOT damage, plus zones can now only do damage once a turn. This isn't a big difference but can make them less damaging in some situations.You really are very limited with just PHB1 though. More so than most any other class. PHB2 and AP added a LOT of options to wizards, and there are many new good ones in more recent material/DDI too. You kind of have a couple of choices. Staff of Defense and hit on the close powers, T-Wave plus maybe MM or Scorching Burst perhaps. You could work some on CON and AC. You can be fairly durable and get in people's faces when you need to. Otherwise you're looking at Orb. In theory you can then go all over the place with save denial lock down. It isn't as good as it was way back when, and takes a while to mature, but it still works. Even one turn of full action denial with Sleep and OoIC on a solo is enough that you WILL win that encounter. And nothing stops you from blasting effectively either or using zones effectively, etc. I think overall the Orbs are the best implements. Beyond that all your choices are basically what spells to take. Level 1 daily powers you probably want something like Flaming Sphere, the choices aren't earth shaking, but FS is the best by far before this errata and they may not be using that yet <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Icy Terrain at least slows things down and does OK damage. You really can't be a good blaster with only PHB1, so your options are control and control, and just forget direct damage. It is nice when you can do some, but you can't even make the ranger notice you. Icy Rays actually IS a good spell in this context. Immobilize works OK at times (pin a guy down so the striker can get to him, or keep him away from another PC, just doesn't work on anyone with ranged attacks much). Level 5 you have basically Stinking Cloud, Web, and Bigby's. Big Stinky pretty well takes it as always. Web is viable as it WILL stop someone that can't get past it. Bigby's is almost interesting, you can do some decent damage with it, but it takes too long and it is pretty easy for monsters to get loose from. Not really quite up to being a level 5 daily.There is only one utility power that matters, Shield.Any race that can get +INT is fine, noting that races now get a choice of +2 to either of 2 secondary stats instead of 2 fixed +2s. Half-elf is nice, all implements now work for all implement powers, so you can poach from any implement class at-will. Really, the best thing you can do for yourself, is get them to let you use AP <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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