Rohan Online Wizard Guide

Rohan Online Wizard Guide by sintelion

*WARNING – long post ahead*

It is commonly known in Rohan that each class has one or two major build and all of the rest are just a variation of them with just few changed points. If you have talked with someone about a wizard, they probably have told you the same. If you have read previously created builds regarding wizards, you have most probably noticed that each and every one of them claims that THIS is how a wizard should be build. Its a fact claimed by quite a few of the rated best wizards and people stick to it. And therefore, all of the builds for the wizard are only focusing on one, supposedly best, development of the class.

I however have always been defending the position that there is no “strict” wizard build, since the class is the most adjustable one in all Rohan. The skillset that the wizard has provides various different ideas around which one can build the class. It offers different concepts, different gears and different goals pve and pvpwise. Therefore this topic is not going to be the regular “guide” for a class. Instead, I will attempt to cover the basic IDEAS that stand behind different wizard builds and give example builds for each of them. Creating and using a wizard requires planning and questioning every skill that you get and unlike most of the other classes, if you blindly follow a wizard guide, you will most surely fail. Wizard’s skillset should match player’s playstile, not the other way around.

Since this topic is going to be really long one, it is going to be separated in different posts for easier reading/understanding/searching. Due to my laziness and due to the fact that I got other things to do besides writing this article, it will probably require couple of days until I finish it.

As a start, I should mention few things for those that haven’t played wizard or haven’t seen a good wizard an action

– a wizard is the god of pve. Its as simple as that. You will read a numerous people trying to explain you how good can be a savage or sage with boss drops and epic, how a templar can two hit mobs, how warlocks do 20k magic push… Forget about it. Nothing on this game can get even close to what a good wizard can do. If you have some average gear, some above average knowledge of your toon and you know the timing of the skills and movement, you can probably outdps the savage, the sage, the templar and the warlock… put together. Or, as GodGringer used to say “a wizard is THE party”

– for a long period it was claimed that a wizard can not be properly used in pvp. This is a complete bull****. Before epics and upgradeds, wizard was probably the most deadly pvp toon after the templar. Pity that less than 10 people actually managed to bring their wizards to a full potential at that time. However, even without that, a tank wizard could be very useful for disabling. After the release of the 4 part upgradeds, the wizard became a must-have toon for any serious pvp due to his crowd control and disablers

– a “farmer wizard” is cheep. If you know how to gear your farmer wizard, you will be able to gear it relatively cheap, so you can farm in ronelia/kallistia. Nowadays farming is not too profitable, but still, getting a wizard ready for action isn’t all that hard, especially with the falling prices of aquas and bedron

– a “pvp wizard” costs as much as a good templar. Be aware of that, as much as farmer wizard is cheap, a pvp wizard is one of the most expensive classes in the game. It would suck all your rps only to show you what you could achieve for that much more

– when playing wizard, timing is everything. I have always said (and I still do) that more than 90% of the wizards out there fail terribly. A lot of them have good gears, high dps, insane hp… and they still fail, simply because they don’t know what skills to use, when to use them, and above all else, WHY to use them. Any punk can run around with 2k psy and 60k hp, playing mr.Immortal … and any wizard with x4 32s and 50% hp staff that actually knows what to do would still be much more useful.

So that is my final warning, before you keep on with creating your wizard toon. It might look easy, but believe me, it is not. And unlike a lot of classes out there, it actually requires quite some thinking. But from all the classes I have played (and I believe that I’ve tried almost everything) its the biggest fun.

The following “builds” will include:

1) The wizard before lvl54 (including short review on all the wizard skills) – if you’ve ever made a wizard, you know why this deserves a separate entry. If you haven’t, you are about to find out

2) The cheap farmer – a lot of people create wizards with sole purpose of farming a bit, and yet no one have made a guide for those poor sods. As a result, I literally wanted to scream every time I had to play one of my non-wizard toons in a party with a random wiz

3) The cheap pvp-er – another pretty much ignored build is the cheap but very useful disabler wizard

4) The conventional wizard – more or less the standard build that has been going around the boards for a few years already

5) The INT wizard – the revived with the epics/upgradeds and boss drops INT wizard. With its two variations (with cheap and with expensive gear)

6) The crit wizard – the build that I myself have been playing mostly. I don’t claim to be the author of it, but I do claim to have optimized every skill in it.

Each of the builds will include the main idea behind it, some example skillset (with options for changing) and directions about gear.

That’s it, for the introduction. When I beat my lazyness, I’ll start posting on the mentioned articles

Getting a wizard to 54 is probably the hardest part of the leveling. As every class, the wizard also has its full potential released at lvl62 when all (except the skill reset) skills are available, however unlike the most other classes, the wizard is fairly useless before lvl54.
The main reason for that uselessness is that wizard is a stat based class. The main attribute of a classical wizard is psy and the main damage of the wizard comes from skills that take x% of psy and apply it to the damage (normal magic attack). Wizard’s normal attack is low since it doesn’t have high magical attack.
However the first (mage) tree only includes ONE skill that is based on psy. As a result, before unlocking ring burst, a psy wizard is highly ineffective. Therefore, a common belief is that it is much easier to level until lvl54 as an int mage and then reset to psy. I have always supported that kind of start build. However, as I already mentioned, the goal of this topic is to show different possibilities, so I’m going to look into both possible wizard builds pre-54

Leveling as a psy wizard pre-54

That’s the option for those that don’t really want to bother resetting skills/stats and just want to build the wizard the way it *should* be done from the start. As already mentioned, it is possible, but harder start build. The best option for leveling would be to stick to group of friends that would live with you being useless and help you leech to 54 where you can return then the favour. I myself lvld my psy wizard lowabie doing quests until lvl50, but trust me, you really don’t want to do that.

Stats:
– If you can afford good armor (greatly dlvld plu/edwin), crafted rings and/or full buffs 24/7, you can go full psy
– If you can’t or its your first char, its better to start off with 3 psy/1 vit per lvl

Skills (in order of taking):

– Dark Message -> lvl 2
– Dark Eyes -> lvl 1
– Dark Message -> lvl 5
– Taming Mind -> lvl 1
– Frozen Ice -> lvl 1
– Dispel Magic -> lvl 1
– Wide Pollution -> lvl 5

Skill set at lvl50:

A lot of people would advise you that you “have to” take cure silence, break barrier, dispel magic, taming mind, cold wave, magical reflection, portal warp. That would be your personal choice. I am not giving you a “strict” build to follow, I’m just giving directions and a “base” build on which you can add your modification.
However, in my opinion, no additional skills should be added to this set. Here are few reasons for that:

– cure silence/break barrier/dispel magic/taming mind/cold wave – those are skills only useful for pvp. As a psy mage lowabie, you are squishy, buff dependant and with missing pvpdps. You can’t really go into coli or in a random 1v1 pvp since the best you’ll be able to do is debuff and watch, which is simply lame. You can’t do much to defend yourself if you get attacked, since the situations where your debuff/bb/tm/cs would be a factor in the low lvl pvp are way too few
– magical reflection – useful skill for later on, but generally… you won’t really need it at low lvl, unless you are doing full time questing
– portal warp – its generally not too useful skill. Completely useless at low lvl

– most of the useful wizard skills come after lvl50. You would need to get shield, temper, ring burst, piercing, gmi, destroy to lvl5 streight away and if you are not willing to reset your char, you should keep as much points as possible. Generally, playing wizard, you would want to ensure your pve capabilities first and then concentrate on getting key pvp skills

Leveling as an int wizard pre-54

That is generally the much easier option. It would require you to start with a build for warlock or for int wizard and later on reset your skills and stats. Resetting stats it is not a problem since you get a full skill stat stone as a quest at lvl50. Resetting skills would require to either use skill reset stone from IM (if you do that, I would advise you to do it at lvl54) or use Erase Ability at lvl 65. The int based lowabie build can rely on some damage trough auto attack, on 4 single target and 1 aoe skills.

Stats:
– If you can afford good armor (greatly dlvld plu/edwin), crafted rings and/or full buffs 24/7, you can go full int
– If you can’t or its your first char, its better to start off with 3 int/1 vit per lvl

Skill set at lvl50 (the order of taking depends pretty much on personal preferences)

If you are going to reset on lvl 54, you can experiment with any combination of skills that you like, added to the “fixed” ones.

If you are going to wait until 65 to use Erase Ability, your skillset at 65(BEFORE resetting) should look like this:

IMPORTANT: If you are going to use Erase Ability, have in mind that it removes ALL lvl6 stones! Do NOT use SES before lvl65!

Leveling as a psy wizard with int skillset pre-54

In the old forum, endi’s guide was advising the new players to add 50 base points to INT and add lvl3/4 health/mana coli + lvl5 wide encourage to the mentioned here “psy wizard pre-54” build. The result is somewhat hybridized build which was useful for the times before crafteds. In the current state of rohan, you would need to reset such build at 5x regardless, so you should rather go int.

Wizard skill review (basic)
*to be added at some random future point*

Ask anyone out there about the wizard and the first association you’ll get would be farming. Lets face it – you are making a wizard because you want to grind. Yes, you might end up enjoying pvp-ing with it, but the reason for making a wizard in 99% of the cases is farming. A pretty good number of the wizards are created as a farming alt. Odd enough, for the years of rohan, no one has bothered making a guide for a farming wizard. So here is my vision about what a pure PVE wizard should look like.

The farmer at lvl65

It doesn’t matter what kind of lowabie build you will be following, one way or another, by lvl65 you should have your wizard prepared for the “real” gameplay, meaning you should remove unnecessary stat or skill points.

Stats:
– If you can afford good armor (good pd with good dlvl), crafted rings and/or full IM and/or full buffs 24/7, you can go full psy.
– If you can’t/its your first char/you are starting on the new server, its better to start off with 1 base vit per lvl at least until lvl70.

There is no profit in partying. You can do it ocasionally in order to level, but to farm, you need to solo. If you can’t solo, your wizard is useless. The amount of vit that you need is something you alone can determine. It shouldn’t be too much since you won’t be able to kill stuff, but do NOT fall into the “I don’t want to put vit in my build, that’s fail” trap which in way too many cases produces fail mages. You need to be effective – if that requires few more points of vit – so be it. Its much better to have a slower but working wizard than an “omg see my pollution ticks” type of wiz that can’t take the aggro without 2 priest behind him.

Skillset at lvl65

The required skillset for PVE.

In order to maximize your PVE potential, ignoring the PVP one, you need to have the following skills maxed:

On theory, that build could be achieved at lvl80. However it would mean that by that lvl your char would be completely unable to defend itself. It is up to you weather to go for that or to add some of the self defense skills first.

A possible build at 99

A possible build at 99 that adds some basic PVP skills and some limited chance for selfe defense to the full pve is something like this:

The cheap pvp-er

Despite its massive pve potential, wizard is also fairly useful in pvp. The amount of disablers and crowd control make it a key character in any battle. A good wizard can keep a priest stunlocked while lowering massive hp off the vitties, debuffing everything on sight, throwing random roots… and chat in guild/ally/party/private chats at the same time
Oh, did I mention that he’s immortal as well? I did not? Well, he is

Gearing and getting a wizard ready for pvp however could be quite costy, especially if you are getting it as a side character and not as your main. Alternatively, if it is your first char, getting a good gear that would suit both for pvp and pve isn’t all that easy (nor cheap) and generally its better to just switch gears.

There are two key areas in making a pvp-oriented wizard. So we’ll have to pay attention to both of them.

Survivability a.k.a. stat build

As a pvp based wizard, there are only two things that determine weather you’ll be enemy’s top priority or you’d be some toon that nobody pays attention to. First of them is how much you can tank. Lets get it clear from the start – no matter how good you are, if you can’t tank, you’re useless. If you know what you are doing, your opponents will do everything to keep you down. You will constantly be debuffed, stunned, rooted, netbinded, slept. Odds are, you’ll have every templar in 50m radius on your ass. And in case of bind fights, you’ll also have to tank patruls. Due to aoes, wizard is usually the first char to get pink. Surviving this with 10-15k hp just doesn’t work.

So, before ever thinking about what to do with your wiz, you should make sure to maintain good amount of hp. Definition of “hp” varies on the server you are on and the enemies you are fighting. On “normal” circumstances (epics non included), 25k is the minimum, while 30+ k is recommended. If you are to be fighting people with epics/upgradeds, don’t even think about pvp-ing with less than 50k.

In the “ideal” case, that hp can be achieved with good gear as a full psy wizard. However, in this build we are not talking about ideal build. We are talking about acceptable pvp build. So in case you are not willing to throw all your savings just to have a handy debuffer, you have two options:

– go 1:1 vit/psy – its a build used by few of the good wizards out there (for example TheJoker, rated one of the best wizards of OHN, before he retired). Does provide quite a few additional HP and if you happen to have a priest on follow for gmb, you can even grind somehow. Probably the easiest way to give your wizard the needed tankability. It could be combined with the second option for even more effectiveness

– gear switch – gear switching is and has always been one of the most important things in rohan. Change the 17x psy staff with 5x hp 5x+ vit one, the aquas with hearts/amulets/craftsman, the googles and the earings and your full psy wizard tripples his hp. Gear switching offers quite good flexibility. It could be combined with 1:1 vit/psy build in order to make your toon a really fwat tank

Usefulness a.k.a. skillset

The most common mistake wizards use to make is decide that stats are everything. They are not. They are not even the most important part of the wizard. One of the wisest quotes I’ve seen about rohan was Stimpz’s “I’ve never been the hardest hitter, I just hitted enough” (its not exact quote). It pretty much sums it all about the gear – the gear gives you the base that you need to stand your ground, but from that on, its completely irrelevant. Weather you get 1,8k or 2,4k psy, weather you get 30k or 40k hp (non epic) what matters most is what will you do with it.
I have seen numerous “ultra geared” wizards fail horribly and I have seen quite a few undergeared ones that could turn the tide in a pvp. Which is the reason I am making this particular build – to point out that a wizard with a “base” gear (getting hearts/5x hp staff/2x vit eyes/earings is really not ALL that hard, nor expensive) would still matter, without being a walking screenshot that gets debuffed on 5th second and runs back for buffs.

This is a possible wiz build at 99. I am not going to put too much details on how to get 99, you could either use a pve build or follow this one, taking the pve skills first. You could as well buy a 9x wizard and reskill it. The build is not too different from the “conventional” build, it still maintains most of the pve capability.

The crit wizard

That’s just the build, details and explanations, at a future point