Wizards Underwhelming in Multi-player

Let me preface by saying I'm not all the experience in multi-player, but from my few games one thing I can say right off the bat is wizards are not all that good.

Lets compare a human wizard vs a human warrior in multi-player. The warrior has 29 health vs the wizard's 21. The warrior has a bunch of armor, and the warrior has an array of melee cards which hit for 10, 11, 14 damage. Not to mention the warrior has chops which hit multiple targets for 5 or 6+ damage.

The wizard on the other hand has almost no armor, and no blocks. With about 30% less health this means he is constantly on the run. What does he get in return for dramatically decreased survivability? Ranged spells which hit for significantly less damage than the majority of high level melee attacks. Getting a spark that hits for 9 damage is a BIG card to a wizard. A 9 damage attack to a warrior is middle of the road damage. Most wizard attacks fall in the 4-6 damage range... like, hello? I die ten times easier and do half the damage of a warrior... umm, why would I take a wizard in my party again?

The simple fact of the matter is a wizards increased range comes woefully short of making up for their lack of survivability and lack of damage. Wizard and warrior damage needs to be on par with one another to make the wizard a viable multi-player class.

I am sure some of you have found creative ways of using wizards to your advantage. I am not talking about gimmicks here though. I am talking about base, raw power. As it stands, if I was building a multi-player party and wanted to be highly competitive I would not put a wizard in my party.

 

Why theorize about it? Go and beat all these wizard-lovers with your superior warriors

 

Ignoring the first part of your statement, I'd still like you to say hello to My Little Friend

 

Skip_Intro, that staff is awesome. I'd be tempted to use a wizard with that thing. And maybe that is the whole issue, the time it takes to build a wizard. As a frequent, though not everyday player my wizard has a ton of medium strength spark and fire cards. I have only one staff that has chilling effects, and most of my telekinesis cards have a lot of random effects/cards paired with them. In other words, for a casual player a wizard has no strength. I also frequently look in all the shops and try to find those powerful wizards cards. Long story short, it is a lot easier to find bruising warrior cards than power/debilatating wizard cards. Perhaps that sums up the issue better.

Funny: I am. Just started an all warrior party. 5-0 so far, with three of those opponents quitting when they realized trying to stand up to my 11 and 14 damage powerful hacks coming from three directions is no fun.

 

1. sparkmages do plenty of single target damage.
2. fire mages do a lot of AoE + DoT
3. well.....you don't like to use ice since it does the least damage.
4. I guess you don't like gimmicks (or is it a gimmick?), so you wouldn't like the ultra cool whirlwind, volcano, path of knives, and telekinesis.

 

Wizards offer a degree of control and mindgames that you can't get from the other classes. If straight damage is all you care about then yes, Warriors are probably more your style. That's generally not what Wizards are for, though it's certainly possible to build a high-damaging spark mage.

Also, don't write off equipment just because it has a bad card or two. Lots of the drawback traits can be easily mitigated or even be a net positive because they give you another card draw.

 

I'm running 3x wizards in multiplayer and doing pretty well with it so far. All those chops and hacks don't do you any good if you're just discarding them round after round because I don't let you get close. Since my range is longer than yours, you have to come to me, and I can back up. When you close again, I can push you back with any number of cards. And that's if you were able to get through all the Encumber effects to begin with.

 

Yes, please come and beat me.

 

Wizards are the offensive utility class, at high levels their attack cards do something besides just damage. Even if you go for the simple damage deck and build sparks you end up countering block cards whether you meant to or not. It's only once you get access to really good cards that this becomes obvious though.

Your choice of high-end wizard weapons (once you have enough to have to choose) comes down to fireball cards, freezing cards (usually frost jolt and cone of cold) and utility cards (terrain attachments, winds of war, whirlwinds, pushbacks, etc). Winds Of War is a pretty incredible card considering all the uses and synergies it has. Fireball is a range 10 spell that can hit up to 3 targets for 6 damage without a direct line of sight, frost cards lock your opponent's characters into place and utility cards get you out of danger or can score a cheap 10 damage from fire terrain. If you go for a mix of these three you get a lot of control over the game.

AoE is also a big deal for the Wizard, slap an Unholy Wellspring on your wizard with a fireball/winds of war/cone of cold deck and you're doing damage and controlling your opponent's moves at the same time.

 

Looking at other items with Fireball (and read the flavor text), I see that Staff Of The Inferno is level 3. Can you imagine an actual level 3 player pulling that from a chest?

 

It can hit as many characters are within the blast radius (friendly and enemy)... so 25. Although, I think you meant vanilla MP oppenents. However, your view on Wizards matches my own for the most party.

Generally, players have strong feelings about which class they believe is the best, and which they prefer to play. I think a party without a Warrior doesn't deal enough damage (although, there are strategy which don't require you to defeat a character or deal them direct damage). Priest are considered by some to be the most powerful class in the entire game, primarily for their buffing abilities. And Wizards are so multifaceted (like Swiss army knives). I personally favor Wizards.

 

I've lost to a few wizard-wizard-priest teams, I don't have the items to try it myself but it seemed quite effective. It's demoralizing getting hit by fireballs on rounds one and two of the first turn.

 

Well it seems that the main arguments are what I suspected: wizards have telekinetics and frost spells. Again, let me say as a casual player who puts in about 10-20 hours a week I simply don't have those cards (well, I have some telekinetics, but I would have to slot out most of my damage dealers to pull them on any consistent basis). I have tons of spark and weaker fire spells (ie NOT fireball, volcano, firestorm). The fire cards and spark cards simply do not deal anywhere near the damage of a warrior.

If cold cards and fireballs were readily available to casual players perhaps wizards would be on par with warriors. So I am correcting my original post so as not to offend the sensibilities of the encumber/telekinetic crowd. Perhaps wizards COULD be on par with warriors, if those types of cards were available in the shops or dropped with more regularity. As for us casual players, we have to roll with a bunch 2-7 damage sparks or 2-6 damage fire spells. I'll take a warrior 11-17 damage hacks, block cards, armor, and more hit points any day.

 

Yeah, I know. Heck I've lost to Melvin who first turn played Unholy Well on his wizard, followed by a Fireball, and then another Fireball. I had no armor or blocks and the map was the Bridge.

Once you finish SP then the shops generally carry items that possess Fireball and cold spells. So, perhaps you should play more SP? Warriors are more straight forward than the other two classes. They deal high damage when you compare the numbers printed on the attacks. But burn and terrain cards deal damage which voids blocks and so should not be overlooked.

It's all about making the most use of what you have available to you.

 

Luck of the draw, I only have 2 weapons that have a total of 3 x 17 damage cards. But a stack of great wizard items. You pretty much have to do the best you can with the available resources.

 

I thought they were. I'm in like week two, just completed the single player, found plenty of cold snap / winds of war / wall of fire items to abuse.

 

Lance: I'm level 19 in single player. Is the Goblin Bazaar the last shop that unlocks? If so, I check that place and Randimar's everyday for chill and fireball items... super super rare to find any.

Generica: I have tons of winds of war cards, with some serious disadvantages/crappy cards paired with them. I could probably get 4 or so winds in my deck, but at what cost? Now I have a bunch of push/slide cards and no damage? Wall of fire is all too common, but lets be serious, wall of fire ain't all that good against skilled opponents. Cold snap on the other hand... in all my looking, I have seen exactly one staff with cold items, and maybe a couple of arcane items with exactly one chill spell.

Kogi: Perhaps you are right. I have tons of large weapons for warriors with punishing 10+ damage attacks. Maybe I just happen not to be rolling the good wizards spells...?

EDIT: The more I think about it and what is written here it seems like rolling with a 2/3 wizard party is viable. With multiple wizards you have enough chills and slides to keep people off your back. But can a party roll with just ONE wizard as a balanced addition? Does anyone successful roll with exactly one wizard, or is bringing only one wizard mean you have to babysit them the whole time without enough movement impairs to keep people off your back? If you can't bring just one wizard as a balanced addition to a party... well, that doesn't seem right.

 

I see your ranked #2 Lance... answer me this... when you are playing at your highest competitive level, do you roll with a wizard?

 

I'm modestly successful (~1300) with one-wizard compositions, wizard-warrior-priest and warrior-warrior-wizard.