Hi everyone! I'm replaying POE once again and I would like to roll a wizard this time. I've never used a wizard in the original game. I disliked Aloth, so I never had him in my party, and other casters (druid, priest) seemed more appealing. Now - it's wizard time. Since I have almost no experience with this class in POE1 I would love to hear some tips on creating an OP wizard. I am mainly looking for a caster, but would also be interested in checking out a melee build (heard wizards were good for those in the original game). What equipment is worth looking out for? I'm going to play with game companions only, full party on hard. 
 

Thanks a lot for any info!

Wizard is very flexible class that can do a lot of thing. Your role can range from offtank to backline contoller. Easiest way to build a wizard is range autoattacker[Delaterious alacrity of motion spell + dangerous implements + Kalakoth's Minor Blights + blast ] Basically you summon weapon and then just spam attack with aoe from blights triggering blasts. A lot of might, a lot of int, dump res, high per

Melee wizards are awesome but they are quite rest intensive as each fight you will burn quite a few spells until you get spell masteries. Melee wizards works on summoning spirit lance so split for stats is pretty much the same as lance is long weapon. Low dex can be easily offset by mastering DAoM

I once ran low might, high con, int, per and res wizard with hatchet and shield. Together with Arcane Wail deflection reach absolutely ridiculous levels which allow you to throw stuff like chillfog with disables being long and critting good.

25 minutes ago, Desmodeus said:

Wizard is very flexible class that can do a lot of thing. Your role can range from offtank to backline contoller. Easiest way to build a wizard is range autoattacker[Delaterious alacrity of motion spell + dangerous implements + Kalakoth's Minor Blights + blast ] Basically you summon weapon and then just spam attack with aoe from blights triggering blasts. A lot of might, a lot of int, dump res, high per

Melee wizards are awesome but they are quite rest intensive as each fight you will burn quite a few spells until you get spell masteries. Melee wizards works on summoning spirit lance so split for stats is pretty much the same as lance is long weapon. Low dex can be easily offset by mastering DAoM

I once ran low might, high con, int, per and res wizard with hatchet and shield. Together with Arcane Wail deflection reach absolutely ridiculous levels which allow you to throw stuff like chillfog with disables being long and critting good.

Thanks! I was concerned that a melee wizard would rely a lot on buffs, and I'm not keen on constantly resting. I am thinking to build Aloth as an autoattacking wizard, as you suggested, and perhaps build my MC as a controller/nuker with some occasional combo-ing with Aloth. I guess same attribute advice would apply for a nuker/CC... (high might, int, per) ?

5 minutes ago, foxinspace said:

I guess same attribute advice would apply for a nuker/CC... (high might, int, per) ?

Yeah. You don't particulary need dex as you have DAoM which is just insane(but do not dump dex, keep it neutral) and if you are ranged user I think you can safely dump res. Con is more questionable as with DAoM and dangerous implements you can burn through your HP(yeah! Hp!) rather fast even with decent healing support.

Check out build list it has some really nice wizard builds.