O
old.Wildfire
Guest
Having just had the pleasure of an informal testing session in emain with most of the other regular RvR fanatics of the server, I have gleaned a small insight into what it really means to be an earth wizzy.
Earlier this evening I fired up my gorre login and did /respec all on Wildfire. I gave him 48 Earth, 9 ice, 23 fire, which gave me all the top earth spells for testing, maxed my fire with the remaining points to decrease the variance on my base fire DD, and plugged the rest into ice for the PBAOE. My thoughts on the class are as follows:
- As an earth wizard you are no longer the big uber-dmg-dealer of the group. You're a bastard brother of the theurgist, with a great deal of utility in combination with decent hitting power (given the right situation). You have many AE spells but must use them each in the correct circumstances. You also have what may prove for a while at least to be the earth wizard's surprise ace-in-the-hole; their matter-spec bolt. I'll go over each of the spells seperately to go into more detail.
1) Direct Damage (Major Fiery Maelstrom) - Base Fire
Compared to a fire wizard, your damage is nowhere near on par. Against tanks I was nuking for 150-200 and against casters I was still lucky to top 300-350. As I said before, DDs are not your strength, but still pack enough of a punch to take out casters, but you will need to be left alone if you want to have much effect on tanks.
2) Bolt (Lava's Fury) - Spec Earth
While many had criticised the earth spec bolt for not being up to much, I immedietly found after oneshotting a series of elves, lurikeen and kobolds that this was DEFINITELY not the case. Due to low matter resists on most players, this bolt will hit a lvl 50 caster for 800-950 every time. On characters with matter resist (I noted some people were able to put up (-1xx) figures, this will drop to around 700-800, and you can expect 300-400 per bolt on tanks. This is HIGHER than the lvl 50 fire spec bolt, and from what I've seen in RvR, is currently the most powerful bolt in the game by quite some margin. This will of course change when everyone's resists are maxed by spellcrafting, but at least until then, this bolt is THE DADDY.
3) GTAOE (Earth Wave) - Spec Earth
OK this is where things start to get a little funky. When I first tried this spell I thought I had turned into a smite cleric, the graphics r0x. Damage is very impressive, and at present (not sure if this changes in later patches) does not experience fall-off towards the fringe of the blast. You either hit someone or you dont, and The hits I was getting ranged between about 150-300. Also I noted an odd bug where certain players would take two hits from one cast. It should also be noted that if you wanted, you could use GTAOE as a form of PBAOE - it has 350 radius compared to ice PBAOE's 300, and will hit harder than your lower-specced ice spells. GTAOE is going to become a major factor in keep warfare and milegate standoffs, and for me at least was one of the most attractive features of the earth spec.
4) AE Root (Buckling Earth) - Spec Earth
Most likely due to the mass free-for-all duelling that was going on, this spell was not as effective as it would be in a real-world situation. However, with a 2.5 sec cast timer, and no chunky ice graphics obscuring your view of the enemy players, spamming this AE root as theurgists currently do with theirs could provide albion with some nice new crowd control. I say spam it because it's only a root, and casters/archers will need to be interrupted. Nice spell, another very enticing facet of the earth line.
5) DOT (Greater Sheet of Magma) - Spec Earth
While many have praised the DOT of the earth wizard, I must admit I was somewhat disappointed. It ticks away nicely, but will only shave about 1/2 of the HPs off an unbuffed caster (so make that 1/3 if they're buffed up to their eyeballs like usual). Damage is more consistant than a sorc's DOT as it has lower variance, but still can't match up to cabby DOTs for raw power. Another spell that lends itself to keep warfare - something earth wizards are going to be extremely good at.
6) AE Snare DD (Molten Ocean) - Spec Earth
This I think is going to be one of the earth wizard's best toys. Hitting for 100-200 per target, carrying a 30 seconds snare with it, and a nice 350 unit radius, this will hopefully be the spell you see earth wizzies dropping on keep archers and at milegates. 4 seconds is a long cast though, making quickcast essential in most situations.
7) Damage Shield (Exalted Magma Shield) - Spec Earth
This seems to outperform both hib and mid equivilants in terms of damage output (tested by staff-duelling). A 50-60hp backlash from each of your opponent's hits (figures coming from a spearo and a BM) is pretty nice. Surprisingly impressed by this, but then I wasn't expecting much
In conclusion: Wizards now definitely fall into one of three categories. You have the fire wizards, who are going to become top of the DD food chain once again with their reduced casting time. This along with a hard-hitting fire spec bolt makes fire wizzies THE pure damage dealer of the game. You have ice wizards, who although I can't claim to have experience with, seem to be built for PBAOE, and will really need MoC and MoM to be successful. These are the new "shock troops" of albion, who will spend their time either debuffing/snaring for others, or PBAOEing like lunatics. Earth wizards are, in my opinion, now the best siege class in the game. In addition to GTAOE, the ultimate siege weapon, many of their other spells seem to have been designed specifically for siege warfare, and I think this is where they're going to excel, as well as providing some extra (needed) CC for alb forces in general.
As an earth wizard you will not create uber deathspam unless you are inside a keep (and lucky), but you have the capability to cause widespread pain and problems in an enemy force.
Earlier this evening I fired up my gorre login and did /respec all on Wildfire. I gave him 48 Earth, 9 ice, 23 fire, which gave me all the top earth spells for testing, maxed my fire with the remaining points to decrease the variance on my base fire DD, and plugged the rest into ice for the PBAOE. My thoughts on the class are as follows:
- As an earth wizard you are no longer the big uber-dmg-dealer of the group. You're a bastard brother of the theurgist, with a great deal of utility in combination with decent hitting power (given the right situation). You have many AE spells but must use them each in the correct circumstances. You also have what may prove for a while at least to be the earth wizard's surprise ace-in-the-hole; their matter-spec bolt. I'll go over each of the spells seperately to go into more detail.
1) Direct Damage (Major Fiery Maelstrom) - Base Fire
Compared to a fire wizard, your damage is nowhere near on par. Against tanks I was nuking for 150-200 and against casters I was still lucky to top 300-350. As I said before, DDs are not your strength, but still pack enough of a punch to take out casters, but you will need to be left alone if you want to have much effect on tanks.
2) Bolt (Lava's Fury) - Spec Earth
While many had criticised the earth spec bolt for not being up to much, I immedietly found after oneshotting a series of elves, lurikeen and kobolds that this was DEFINITELY not the case. Due to low matter resists on most players, this bolt will hit a lvl 50 caster for 800-950 every time. On characters with matter resist (I noted some people were able to put up (-1xx) figures, this will drop to around 700-800, and you can expect 300-400 per bolt on tanks. This is HIGHER than the lvl 50 fire spec bolt, and from what I've seen in RvR, is currently the most powerful bolt in the game by quite some margin. This will of course change when everyone's resists are maxed by spellcrafting, but at least until then, this bolt is THE DADDY.
3) GTAOE (Earth Wave) - Spec Earth
OK this is where things start to get a little funky. When I first tried this spell I thought I had turned into a smite cleric, the graphics r0x. Damage is very impressive, and at present (not sure if this changes in later patches) does not experience fall-off towards the fringe of the blast. You either hit someone or you dont, and The hits I was getting ranged between about 150-300. Also I noted an odd bug where certain players would take two hits from one cast. It should also be noted that if you wanted, you could use GTAOE as a form of PBAOE - it has 350 radius compared to ice PBAOE's 300, and will hit harder than your lower-specced ice spells. GTAOE is going to become a major factor in keep warfare and milegate standoffs, and for me at least was one of the most attractive features of the earth spec.
4) AE Root (Buckling Earth) - Spec Earth
Most likely due to the mass free-for-all duelling that was going on, this spell was not as effective as it would be in a real-world situation. However, with a 2.5 sec cast timer, and no chunky ice graphics obscuring your view of the enemy players, spamming this AE root as theurgists currently do with theirs could provide albion with some nice new crowd control. I say spam it because it's only a root, and casters/archers will need to be interrupted. Nice spell, another very enticing facet of the earth line.
5) DOT (Greater Sheet of Magma) - Spec Earth
While many have praised the DOT of the earth wizard, I must admit I was somewhat disappointed. It ticks away nicely, but will only shave about 1/2 of the HPs off an unbuffed caster (so make that 1/3 if they're buffed up to their eyeballs like usual). Damage is more consistant than a sorc's DOT as it has lower variance, but still can't match up to cabby DOTs for raw power. Another spell that lends itself to keep warfare - something earth wizards are going to be extremely good at.
6) AE Snare DD (Molten Ocean) - Spec Earth
This I think is going to be one of the earth wizard's best toys. Hitting for 100-200 per target, carrying a 30 seconds snare with it, and a nice 350 unit radius, this will hopefully be the spell you see earth wizzies dropping on keep archers and at milegates. 4 seconds is a long cast though, making quickcast essential in most situations.
7) Damage Shield (Exalted Magma Shield) - Spec Earth
This seems to outperform both hib and mid equivilants in terms of damage output (tested by staff-duelling). A 50-60hp backlash from each of your opponent's hits (figures coming from a spearo and a BM) is pretty nice. Surprisingly impressed by this, but then I wasn't expecting much
In conclusion: Wizards now definitely fall into one of three categories. You have the fire wizards, who are going to become top of the DD food chain once again with their reduced casting time. This along with a hard-hitting fire spec bolt makes fire wizzies THE pure damage dealer of the game. You have ice wizards, who although I can't claim to have experience with, seem to be built for PBAOE, and will really need MoC and MoM to be successful. These are the new "shock troops" of albion, who will spend their time either debuffing/snaring for others, or PBAOEing like lunatics. Earth wizards are, in my opinion, now the best siege class in the game. In addition to GTAOE, the ultimate siege weapon, many of their other spells seem to have been designed specifically for siege warfare, and I think this is where they're going to excel, as well as providing some extra (needed) CC for alb forces in general.
As an earth wizard you will not create uber deathspam unless you are inside a keep (and lucky), but you have the capability to cause widespread pain and problems in an enemy force.
