Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kzach" data-source="post: 5651348" data-attributes="member: 56189">Honestly if you've got the old Character Builder then in terms of being overwhelmed, there's very little difference between the old and new so you may as well get the benefits of the new one. Plus having the ability to search through the Compendium for everything is never a bad choice when actively playing 4e.For me personally, the Essentials Mage is simply more... magey. The PHB1 Wizard just never really grabbed me. I never felt like it was a wizard or mage, I just felt like it was subpar at everything and had no real focus (which it turned out that it didn't).The mage, on the other hand, is just really well designed from the get-go. It really FEELS like a mage. The choice of specialising in a school right from the start plus the other little additions it has just make it play a lot better as well, IMO.Also, with the new character builder you'll be able to access Themes. Order Adept is a very nice theme for a wizard/mage because it gives you more spells in your spellbook. Combined with Expanded Spellbook, you end up with a lot of options for your spell choices. Then when you use a Mnemonic Staff and powers like Refocus (both allow you to swap out a spell you have prepared but not cast for one from your spellbook, in mid combat... that's amazingly powerful when you've got a large variety of spells to choose from with Expanded Spellbook and the Order Adept Theme).Hypnotism is a fantastic spell that a lot of people overlook simply because there are so many good wizard at-wills to choose from. But when combined with the Enchanter specialisation (adds 2 squares to any push, pull or slide effect from a spell with the enchantment keyword), you can at-will slide someone up to 5 squares with an attack that targets Will! Or you can make them hit one of their friends with a +4 bonus to the attack roll! Those two options would both be awesome at-wills alone but they're combined into one power? Hell yes!Beguiling Strands is another absolutely great control power. Close Blast 5, yes that's right, 5, only hits enemies, attacks Will, and with Enchanter specialisation, any targets in the blast that you hit, you can push up to 5 squares. Talk about control! The damage is minimal but it still makes a nice minion cleaner even if you don't want the control aspect.Then there's Stone Blood. With Enlarge Spell as a feat, you can make it an Area Burst 2 (which is a massive 5 squares a side) within 10. You lose 2 points of damage from the 1d6+INT roll, but who cares? You slow every single opponent you hit. It attacks Fortitude but that's still better than AC.When you combine it with World Serpent's Grasp (a feat which lets you knock prone any slowed or immobilised target that you hit with an attack), you quickly become the master manipulator of a battlefield.And things only get nastier as you go up in levels. Start stacking damaging zones with difficult terrain, slows, immobilisation, prones and spells that move multiple targets where you want them (try looking up Visions of Avarice if you get Compendium access), and you end up having a really nasty character that really does control enemies.</blockquote>

Verification