Bittercut doubt

[grausch]

Oops - I forgot Alacrity. Cast that first.

Actually, you want to cast it last if you have Citzal's Martial Power. If you do not yet have Citzal's Martial Power then you want your last two spells to be DAoM and then Eldritch Aim. Only then should you cast Citzal's Martial Power.

 

I gave the optimal buff sequences in my Frozen Lance build in order to maximize overlap of buffs. I may be wrong, but I do not think the right buffs have any recovery, thus DAoM would not benefit casting time of buffs and having DAoM expire led to a drastic reduction in damage. You would also not be able to recast it immediately upon expiry since Martial Power will still be active and that disables spell-casting.

 

However, the Frozen Lance buffing sequences would have DAoM and Martial Power both expiring pretty close to each other allowing minimum downtime from all the buffs. Not that I ever buffed twice in a fight - if you needed to do that, full nuking was probably the best option and having Martial Power expiring very shortly after DAoM can be a real life-saver.

Edited September 19, 2017 by grausch

[Boeroer]

The problem is that if you cast all those things before Alacrity then it takes a lot longer until you can really start with the fighting. I think it's better to finish the casting more quickly than to have a bit more Alacrity left. Especially in a party you want to be done quickly because else the rest of the party already killed half of the enemies while you are still casting.

 

Solo is another story of course.

[grausch]

The Druid would be the winner there especially if cat shifted with avenging storm.

But if you went down that path (self buffs) a self buffed melee wizard would probably be able to beat a Druid, rogue, barb , monk 4vs 1 and still win .

My Frozen Lance is extremely powerful when fully buffed. However, if I do not put up defensive spells my druid would beat him in a straight melee fight. With defensive buffs in the wizard, the druid would struggle to hit and the wizard would most likely win quite comfortably. The wizard also has fast-cast spells that could disable the druid like Ninagauth's Shadowflame. If either class would underestimate the other, they would lose.

 

However, I don't really see the point in these comparisons. I play both of these characters completely differently once they are high level. Mid-level will see some overlap in tactics and Act I would be played pretty much the same with every class. DPS is only one element and does alone determine which class is more powerful. Rather, just enjoy the game for what it is and try to either make your strategies fit into your party play, or spend a lot of time fine-tuning and researching strategies if you play solo.

[grausch]

The problem is that if you cast all those things before Alacrity then it takes a lot longer until you can really start with the fighting. I think it's better to finish the casting more quickly than to have a bit more Alacrity left. Especially in a party you want to be done quickly because else the rest of the party already killed half of the enemies while you are still casting.

 

Solo is another story of course.

Has anyone ever tested this? As I said, I may be mistaken, but all of my fast-cast buffs seemed to have no recovery, thus DAoM should theoretically have no influence. My buffing sequence never included longer casting spells as I needed to get fully-buffed before I was overwhelmed.

 

It was a solo run though and when I play in a party, I just use Aloth as a blaster wizard as that is more effective. Sure, I could do a melee build, but you're right - the buffs take time and unless you can hit several enemies with the blast from the lance, it is just more beneficial to cast fewer spells and add a ranged blast to the party's damage output. I would still cast DAoM as late as possible though.

[Boeroer]

If I recall correctly, fast casts have 32 frames base recovery. With an armor (melee wizards often wear a thicker one) you should see a noticable difference when casting with or without the speed bonus of Alacrity. Instant casts have no recovery (Disciplined Barrage, Savage Defiance...).

[Lampros]

Basically you cast Citzal's Spirit Lance, Wizard's Double or another defense buff and then Martial Power, then use Arcane + Hardened Veil. It's like an untouchable pike barb on steroids. Usually the duration of Arcane Veil is enough to kill most groups with the lance.

 

Right now my planned party has 4 melees (I've settled on Paladin DW, Fighter DW, your Drake Ambassador tank, Tall Grass Barbarian, your Blaster Wizard with Golden Gaze, and a Priest with the Pale Shades rod), so I've decided to ditch the spellsword-style Wizard. But I would like to try this Gandalf-like Wizard in the future definitely!

 

And as a bonus the lance looks great. These things are important.

 

Indeed, aesthetics and role-play is very important for me.