Neverwinter CW Comprehensive Guide

Neverwinter CW Comprehensive Guide by grimah

Hi there, ive been playing my wizard for a fair while now on the beholder server. I participate in PvP and find myself a competant pvper, though i find PvP in this game relatively silly. Cleared all dungeons and ran multiple different types of groups, with or without tanks, double wizards and such. Giving me ample time to experiment and compare damage to various other classes and participate in encounters in different builds and setups.

So I am fairly experienced in different roles a wizard can do for each encounter. Anyways i noticed alot of guides out there speak of only one singular spec, and how this is better than that. Which i wholeheartedly disagree with, not on a technical level but as a gamer, we should be encouraged to play the way we want, and show different ways to be useful, and not have people stop you because so and so said “this is the best, yours is bad”. So I decided to write this guide not like the other guides you may read on the forums, where they show you their builds, or tell you what is the “best”. This is a breakdown and some personal advice, to give you some help to decide what kind of things you want to build your wizard to be, some of the advice may seem forceful but I don’t intend this does not “force” you to down one way or the other, after all, these are only my opinions and experiences. LET US BEGIN!

Wizardry 101

A Wizard’s Role

Well simply put, you do what the group requires you to do, or what you think is best for the group, we excel in many things, single target damage, aoe, controlling adds, pushing things off cliffs. As a wizard you must learn to use more than 1 set of spells to master wizardry and challenge yourself to make any group composition work.

Control:

The primary reason we get invited to parties is to provide control, its in our name after all. Almost all our spells provide some sort of control, whether its a knockdown, stun, slow or knockback. With a full set of controlling spells equipped you can lock down/keep away, and severely dampen enemy monsters, it is common to see groups with two wizards and no tank, using the combined control skills of the two wizards to reduce their threat so even though you are all squishie people, the cleric has sufficient time to keep everyone alive, this includes all T2 bosses/dungeons

AOE:

Wizards have the highest aoe damage of all classes, we have a number of spells that do not have or have a high aoe limit. such as conduit of ice, icy terrain, arcane singularity, shield, oppressive force (steal time has a worthy mention.) what makes some of these spells even more impressive is that they will work over time, applying weapon enchants, class feats and feats multiple times, all at the cost of 1 cast. (Weapon enchant is very important for a wizard)

What makes us excel over say, a gwf aoe, and not just in damage. is the ability for us to force and move mobs to our pleasure, placing them away from a large nasty, or pulling them all in a nice group so you and your team and blast them all in a swift move.

Single target damage:

Because of what people primarily use us for, we rarely get to show off our single target capabilities. Despite what people say, we do a little less than rogues, but more than any other class. In certain boss fights and class setups (such as double wizard) will require one of you to use single target damage, or boss fights like Epic Frozen Heart, Spellplague, GG Dwarven crypts. and other bosses from numerous dungeons, however this all depends on what group composition you play and what their strengths are.

The main strengths that wizards provide when it comes to single target damage, is that we do not have to avoid melee ranged red attacks, and we can continue attacking immediately after a teleport, and we also apply debuffs to help party members. However the downside is, when you need to keep the boss in the same location and you do end up doing the most damage, the boss will start moving around, and you will have to learn how to tank/position quickly without effecting your teammates. As i said before, it all depends on which encounter, what your group is, and whether or not you are more effective doing this job.

Pushing things and Bumping:

You will most likely spend alot of time doing this during high level dungeons. It is an effective way to kill enemies, by grouping them up, (with a tank or arcane singularity daily) and using shield to push the enemies over ledges, cliffs, fences, or using Repel to launch them across the floor and over a cliff.. This saves the team alot of time from having to hack them to death, oh and if the monsters die from a hazardous landing, you also get their remaining HP added to you damage meter! not that it is important, but for some reason those rogues and gwfs hump over that thing.

Now what is called bumping is slightly different, it consists of the combination of arcane singularity and shield (activation). Place your singularity at the edge of within 15ft of the edge of where you want to push off the mobs, once they get sucked up into the black hole, they will spin for a moment and then when you see the black hole expanding, this is when you need to activate your shield, for maximum push, your shield goes off as the blackhole bursts., if you have latency its safe to use your shield as you see the blackhole near/at its biggest (stand on the opposite side of the hole/drop) and this will launch the collection neatly over a ledge/fence, this differs with different types of enemies, what i call fatties or spiders. for these you need to watch them, as they will not get sucked up like regular mobs. once you see them rise into the air (when the black hole bursts) that is when you need to use shield.

If using repel, you should time it the same as i stated, but because of repel’s small radius you need to aim at your target rather than the center of the black hole.

Class Mechanics

Teleport
This is our shift/double tap move, it will teleport us in the direction you point or press using the awsd keys for 25 feet, very useful to move out of red zones safely, and the speed you teleport will allow little break in your casting actions. With a full stamina bar you can teleport 3 times (will some stamina to spare), and only takes 5 seconds to recharge enough stamina to whole teleport at 10 strength. Use it often! and be mindful of your stamina bar when you notice you teleported too many times.

In PvP you want to time this against opponents encounters and/or dailies. to get the most out of it, many smart opponents will rush at you, without even casting any abilities, to force your blinks, because, they all hate our teleport and will take advantage of you when you used all yours up.

Arcane Stacks
Now many new wizards and some old wizards will forget about this, each stack will give you a 3% arcane damage increase per stack. This stacks up to 5 times. These will effect of most of your arcane spells. And provide important and in some scenarios the stacks of your arcane will effect the success of task. For example with max stacks you can afford to cast your shield to regain alot of AP then use your daily and have your shield back off cooldown. You gain arcane stacks from casting arcane spells, and 1 stack from a full rotation/combo of magic missile.

Repel: Push range
Shield: Cooldown Reduction
Steal time: Longer Stun and increased Slow.
Entangling force: Control Duration.
Ray of Enfeeblement: Debuff Duration

Chill Stacks
These will stack up to 6 time, and when the 7th one hits, they will become frozen. once the freeze ends the stacks will drop off and you will have to begin from 0. Each stack of chill slows them by around 10%. they will become unfrozen sooner if they are damaged.

These chill effects are important for certain feats for wizards including damage bonus, mitigation or debuffs. And almost all cold spells apply chill, some multiple times/aoe.

Control Spells
Many of our set bonuses and feats will state “using a control power”
Some of these feats and sets differ in what they class as a control spell. but this is the list of what has been included as one:

Encounters
Chill strike
Entangling force
Repel
Shield
Icy Terrain
Ice Rays
Steal Time
Shard of Avalanche

Dailies 
Ice Storm
Arcane Singularity
Oppressive force
Ice knife
Maelstrom of Chaos

Spells Classed as Damage over Time (DoT):
These spells are classed as DoT Damage, meaning the damage is calculated on spell cast (does not increase from effects afterwards) if you crit on them initially the remaining ticks will also crit, also these DoT effects are not classed as AoE (if they provide that function) so will not benefit from AoE damage increases.

Conduit of Ice
Ray of Enfeeblement
Icy Terrain (Does not crit).
Sudden Storm (Mastery effect).

Statistics

Attributes

Str: +1% Stamina Regeneration and DoT resist.
Con: +2% Maximum HP
Dex: +0.5% Deflection +1% AoE resist.
Int: + 1% Damage and Recharge increase.
Wis: +1% Action point gain, Recharge increase, Control Duration and Control resist
Cha: +1% Critical chance, Companion Stat Bonus, Combat Advantage damage

Wisdom, Int and Charisma are all good choices. Renegade specs makes the most out of Cha due to the combat advantage bonus. However the pet bonus is also useful for all wizards, and critical. You cannot go with with either three stats, for a wizard’s duties.

Recharge increase: Recharge increase does not reduce cooldown by that percentage but increases the number of times you can cast it by that percentage. Here is the formula:

Original Cooldown / (1+ recharge percentage) = Cooldown

For example, Shield has 19.75 cooldown you get 30% from stats, and 10% from feat. it would translate to: 19.75/ (1+ 0.30 +0.10) = 14.1 seconds.

Gear Stats
Recovery and Critical diminishing graph (sorry didnt have the data for 4000-5000 of the stat, but you can see the curve)

Power: Has no diminishing point. However it is argued as one of the less favorable stats. At +154, power will give you. +3 damage on magic missile, +15 damage on chill strike, +11 damage on steal time.
Critical: Increases your critical strike chance, an important statistic for damage output, and proccing certain feats.
Armor Penetration: Most important damage stat for PvE as it will give you effectively a % bonus, in PvP armor can vary so it is advised to shift your ArP stat onto your pet (stone/cat) for maximum efficiency. This stat is capped at 24% for PvE bosses which is 2530 other elites at 22% which is 2230.
Recovery: Arguably the most important stat for a wizard. It gives recharge increase and most importantly action point gain. The wizard suggest around 3000 is suitable for end game, however some would argue more, this all depends on what kind of role you prefer or see yourself in often.
Lifesteal: Give you life back on damage, it is not useful unless stacked, and Regeneration is more reliable way of regaining HPl.
HP: For defensive enchants HP can be useful. some abilities from bosses or even elites at T2 dungeons can take you down in one ability.
Regeneration: A great stat for alot of situations, especially during leveling phase. It will regenerate more based on how hurt you are, if you are in PvP or PvE, and you take a big hit, regeneration can help you get your health back along with potions.
Defense: An overlooked statistic. If you find yourself getting hurt too much and dying too much, defense is a safe investment.
Deflect: The worst stat for a wizard, the % chance is not something that can be relied on to save you.
Movement: We are so slow, this can help in that regard, gained from enchant armor pieces.

For a more indepth and alot better graph than mine, which includes formulas and all other stats (such as defense), take a look at https://www.desmos.com/calculator/3dqpvhuavj

Created by Ohman1336 who kindly used data pulled by the community.

AP Gains

Now here is some important stuff. AP gains is meat of what makes a control wizard do what he does, namely spamming singularities one after the other, though some may already tell you Shield and Entangling Force give you the most, here is a breakdown of data I found posted by Lemandal

At 2039 recovery (+17.1%) :

At-Wills

Magic Missile: 3% from full rotation.
Ray of frost: 9% full channel.
Storm pillar: 4% full charge.
Chilling cloud: 3% full rotation.

Encounters

Steal Time: 12-13%
Ice Rays: 10%
Conduit of Ice: 9-10%
Icy Terrain: 7-8%
Ray of Enfeeblement: 6%
Entangling force: 6%
Shard of the Endless Avalanche: 6%
Shield pulse: 5% per target
Sudden storm: 5%
Chill strike: 3-4%
Repel 3% per target
Shard of the Endless Avalanche 6% when it hits something.

Epic Lewt!

Weapon Enchants:

Vorpal: Greater = 38% Crit Severity Best for single target damage, especially at high ranks, with 35% crit, and eye of the storm. you will see alot of big numbers, less effective in AOE. Some of our abilities do not crit.

Lightning: Greater = 18% weapon damage. chains twice at 50% chance each time.
Best for aoe damage, will proc 6x on conduit and steal time and 8 times on icy terrain. However be warned about using this enchant, you will more often than not, agro adds and freshly spawnned ones before the tank gets a chance to catch it.

Plaguefire: Greater =+7.5% weapon damage and 2.5% per second for three seconds, stacks 3 times and applies 15% reduced defense with each stack. 3.Application procs storm spell, great for all situations the debuff (-15% defense stacks 3 times at greater version)works well even if you have others using it, due to our near limitless aoe application, and multiple applications from a single spell, just like greater lightning. (Does not stack with other player’s plaguefire). This effectively doubles your storm spell proc rate, very nice indeed.

Armor Enchants:

Soulforged: Makes you immune to damage upon reaching 25% health. However it will not work if your health drops past 25% to 0% in one hit. Useful in PvE if you have high defense, but if you are terribly squishie you will often die before it getting a chance to activate, as many hits will drop you from over 25% to death quite easily. However it is still great to use in PvP.

Negation: At greater version it has a 20% chance to increase resistance by 25% for 6 seconds. This is quite good as it will save you during those nasty initial pulls and give you much needed durablity during a fight.

Here is a link that shows all of the enchants and their effects if you want to look for something else
http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Runestone#Enchantments

Companions:

(I have tried different companions, strikers, healers and my lovely Galeb Duhr, however it is sad to say but there are only really two options when it comes to dungeoning, however the Galeb Duhr is a lovely companion to bring along for some foundry missions and soloing gauntlgyrm PvE)

The most benefical companions in almost all situations are Stat augmenting pets. These pets will not cause agro, attack things, and are immune to damage. Which is another reason why they are so great, with rank 7 runestones/enchants and high level items. you can gain over 3000 extra stats by using one of these pets. It is advised if you are yet to make a big purchase, this should be your priority over anything else (gear wise, Gear score can screw itself.)

There are 2 flavours, the stone and the cat. People have been arguing back and forth which one is better, the cat is more expensive and uses a belt slot, which tend to have +HP on them, which is the only stat that does not transfer from pet to your character. However there are blue level belts that give +376 total stats with valuable armor penetration, something that is rarely found on a cleric offhand but a Tier 2 Icon will provide 450 total stats. It all depends on what you want or need as a wizard, they are both fine choices. Below are the details.

It is also advised to use eldritch rune in the defensive runestone, at rank 6 it gives +8% bonus stats, which is a higher contribution of stats than placing another defensive rune there. If you do wish to transfer over a defensive stat (lifesteal, defense, deflection) it is better to use a ring/neckless which provide a defense slot or defensive stats.

Ioun Stone of Allure:

Purchased for 2000 ZEN on the ZEN shop, roughly 670-750k AD depending on the ZEN exchange rate.
2 offensive Runeslots and 1 Defensive Runeslot
Ring, Neck, Icon (Cleric offhand)
Bonus: +150 Power, Critical and Recovery.

Cat:
Purchased from the companion emporium vendor at the enclave for 980k AD.
2 offensive Runeslots and 1 defensive Runeslot
Neck, Belt, Ring.
Bonus: +225 Critical and Recovery.

Armor Sets:

Note: Some of these set bonuses maybe bugged or not working as intended whilst you read this, please check to see if there are any problems with these armor sets, or what spells currently apply to them!!!
With enough AD from extended play, from selling things on Auction or Purchasing zen, eventually when you reach Rank 7 enchants and over, (e.g. +185 or +220 stat enchants). The actual Armor stats will become less and less important unless you are pushing strongly into one specific stat.)

Tier 1

Archmage set:

Total stats (Including bonus)
Power: 1148
Critical: 0
Recovery: 1548
Defense: 495
Deflection: 492
Regeneration: 492

Set Bonus 1: +400 Recovery
Set Bonus 2: Reduce cooldowns of control powers by 1 seconds when using a control power

(One of the best PvE set, most of the powers you use will be control ones, casting steal time will reduce everything by 6 seconds. you will be firing encounters more than your at-wills with this set on)

Works with:
Ice Rays
Entangling Force
Chill strike
Icy terrain
Shield
Steal Time

Focal Magi Set: 

Total stats (Including bonus)
Power: 492
Critical: 1548
Recovery: 1148
Defense: 987
Deflection: 0
Regeneration: 0

Set Bonus 1: +400 Crit
Set Bonus 2: grants 225 power and recovery to nearby allies.

(This effect will stack, hit 10 things with a control spell and thats 2250 power/recovery, to your friends. Pretty handy buff. Though requires alot of things to hit in the first place.)

Fatebender’s Set: 

Total stats (Including bonus)
Power: 1548
Critical: 0
Recovery: 1148
Defense: 987
Deflection: 0
Regeneration: 492

Set Bonus 1: +400 Power
Set Bonus 2: Grants you a charge everytime you cast an At-Will. stacks 3 times, when you use an encounter it will deal 5% more damage and consume a charge.

(Effectively it is a 5% damage increase on your encounters, as long as you use at-wills which you should be/or can easily do.)

Tier 2

High Vizier Set:

Total stats (Including bonus)
Power: 1271
Critical: 0
Recovery: 1721
Defense: 521
Deflection: 574
Regeneration: 574
Set Bonus 1: +450 Recovery
Set Bonus 2: Steals 450 Defense from target and applies to yourself, when using a control spell, Stacks 3 times lasts 6 seconds and is refreshed at 3 stacks when another is applied.

(Stacks 3 times but can be placed on multiple enemies, most control spells will place this debuff but only some will give you the bonus. This stacks with other defense reduction % abilities and other wizards using this set. Arguably the best for PvP and PvE in terms of damage)

Procs Debuff with:
Chill Strike x2 (x3 on mastery on main target, x1 on others)
Icy Terrain x1 per target.
Ice Knife: x3
Ice Storm: x2 per target
Shard of Endless Avalanche x1 per target on roll, x1 on explode.
Oppressive force x4 over the duration per target

Buff and Debuff (buff stacks up to 3 times)
Entangling force x1 (x1 per hit on mastery)
Steal time x3 per target (x1 buff total, x2 on mastery)
Repel x1 (x1 per target on mastery)
Shield x1 per target.

Shadow Weaver Set: 

Total stats (Including bonus)
Power: 574
Critical: 1721
Recovery: 1271
Defense: 1095
Deflection: 0
Regeneration: 0

Set Bonus 1: +450 Crit
Set Bonus 2: When usinga Control powers you grant allies 113 lifesteal. When using Arcane powers you grants allies 3% crit severity. Both stack 3 times and last 10 seconds, When target is afflicted by both buffs they double in value.

(The lifesteal is not as important to most, but 18% crit severity is very nice indeed, just make sure you cast a control spell within 10 seconds.)

Control spells:
Icy Terrain
Shield
Steal time
Entangling Force
Chill strike
Repel
Shard of Avalanche

Non-Control:
Ray of enfeeblement
Sudden storm.
Ice rays.
Conduit of Ice.

Magelord’s Set: 

Total stats (Including bonus)
Power: 1721
Critical: 0
Recovery: 1271
Defense: 1095
Deflection: 0
Regeneration:574
Set Bonus 1: +450 Power
Set Bonus 2: Grants +900 Recovery when striking an opponent over 75% with an encounter.

(Situational but good for trash, and it depends on what value your recovery is, the effects however, are not very noticable)

Powers and Abilities

At-Wills

Magic Missile (Arcane): At-WillOur best single target at-will. Applies arcane stacks which is useful when casting certain other powers. (Recommended)

Ray of Frost (Cold): Great to use to apply stacks of chill, it has low damage however, and takes a while to apply those chill effects.

Chilling cloud (Cold): First two strikes will refresh chill and casts an AoE at the 3rd strike which applies chill. The radius of the aoe is fairly small. and damage is lower than magic missile unless hitting alot of targets, used in certain builds because of feat bonuses/chill refreshing.

Storm pillar (Lightning): Takes along time to charge and will only hit multiple targets when fully charge. However what makes this spell special is that it will charge you AP out of combat, which is very useful to prep yourself before boss fights and other situations (such as in CN). (Recommended at rank 1)

Encounters:

Chill strike (Cold): One of our best single target damage encounter, also does aoe damage while slotted in mastery (Limit of 5), and will stun its primary target. great for clearing our weak mobs, and leveling(Recommended)

Conduit of Ice (Cold): Our best AOE spell when placed on tab because it has no limit, improves its radius significantly and applies chill (from other spells you have, or party members), will tick 6 times and increased damage by 5% per chill effect for both single target and nearby enemies.(Recommended)

Entangling Force (Arcane): Holds the target in the air for duration, Your best single target CC, improving ranks will reduce its cooldown and increase duration/damage. When put on mastery, it is Our best AP generator. as it will give AP for every enemy struck. (Recommended)

Repel (Arcane): May not sound so great, but this spell will make things alot easier in many situations in T2, and almost a must have in certain fights. it has a low cooldown and big range, so you dont need to be near the target to push them. Does even more pushback with arcane stacks. On tab it will push anything within your line but has a small radius, so positioning is required. (Recommended)

Shield (Arcane): reduces damage, and will lose its effectiveness when struck but will automatically refresh itself, the cooldown to recast is significantly reduced depending on your arcane stacks. The resistance can save you from lethal damage, and the push back itself does alot of damage (aoe) and has no limit. this is one of our best ways to regain AP, and push grouped up mobs off cliffs and down holes (coupled with arcane singularity). (Recommended)

Note: This spell’s cooldown is a bit buggy right now it’s cooldown during combat is determined by the first time you use it (until combat ends). If you are able to fill your AP bar using this spell, with or without arcane stacks the cooldown will reset to 0 and your shield casts after will reflect that regardless of the conditions. (this is still being tested)

Icy Terrain (Cold): Will apply chill, has no limit but does not crit. Its damage alone is one of the lowest of all our spells. however it still applies weapon enchants, and procs storm spell class feature. This is best used with ice conduit (tabbed) for combined damage.

Sudden storm (Lightning): High damage and will hit multiple target, does even more damage on tab. however this does not crit, and loses its punch at level 60. Its fires in a tight column ahead of your character, so it requires a bit of positioning to make most use from it. It is great for leveling but arguable at end game.

Ray of enfeeblement (Arcane): Our Highest damage single target encounter, and also reduces target mitigation by 20%. Gives a fair amount of AP when used too. However do not use this on tab, as it will increase its cooldown.(Recommended)

Ice Rays (Cold): Our highest single target ability when tabbed (in one encounter) however it has a lengthy cooldown. Useful only when tabbed, for PvP or single target encounters (as there is limited other choice in that scenario).

Steal time (Arcane): This spell procs weapon enchants and storm spell during its channeling, it slows enemies caught within its radius (including their attack speed). and stun them after the channeling ends. It can do alot of damage, and our best AoE CC encounter. (recommended)

Shard of Endless Avalanche (Arcane): Very cool spell, not many wizards will use it, and some will downright frown upon you. However it is a fun spell and useful. It will knock prone those that it hits and knockback a little and prone again when it explodes, Use it vs 2 or more targets, does aroudn 3k non crit when it hits the first time and around 5k the second time. It doesnt work on anything affected by singularity so use it/ready it just after singularity ends. you get a fair bit of damage and additional control/stun.

Dailies:

Ice Storm (Cold): Our first daily, Does good damage, and knocks back everything it its. Because of this, a well placed singularity can be more useful than using this daily.

Arcane Singularity (Arcane): Our staple CC spell, will suck enemies within a large radius into a black hole and spit them out at that spot, great for pulling things away, holding them in place for AoE damage, and pushing large groups off cliffs to their deaths. There is a limit for this (i think 30) (Recommended)

Oppresive Force (Arcane): Useful Daily that will daze enemies around you, a good oh Sh*t daily, as the activation is fast, with no limit. In most cases singularity is more useful, But this does have its place, will reveal stealthed rogues nearby too.

Ice Knife (Cold): Our only single target daily. It knocks down and does alot of damage. (Recommended)

Maelstrom of Chaos (Arcane): Does alot of damage for an aoe, and will transport enemies near you to the target location. However this radius is rather small, especially when comparing it to arcane singularity.

Class Features:

Orb of imposition: Increases your control spells duration by 5/10/15%. Useful, but not game changing.

Arcane presence: at 3 ranks it will increase your cold based damage by 3% per stack. most useful when using magic missile, and cold encounter spells.

Chilling presence: Unlike Arcane presence, this will increase all your damage output by 3% on a chilled target, chills can be applied very quickly in aoe situations. (with conduit tabbed, or icy terrain)

Evocation: Increases your AoE damage by 15% at rank 3, very useful during leveling phase or solo because of its consistency and does not rely on chill or arcane stacks, or procs. (However only works with Chill Strike mastery, Shield, Steal time.)

Storm Fury: An amusing spell, in PvE it has limited use, because you will rarely stay below 50%, it is more useful in PvP.

Storm Spell: At 60 does around 1700. Feels lower than 10% chance, however it does contribute alot to damage. (Recommended)

Eye of the storm: has a 5% chance to proc when using a any power, At rank 3 it will last for 8 seconds. A great spell during many situations when something needs to be killed. (Currently reported to have an internal cooldown to be confirmed)

Spell AoE Limits

This following information was researched by our fellow wizard itsamepikmario

Arcane Singularity: 15 targets. The targets chosen were those who were closest to the center of the Singularity at any given moment.

Chill Strike – Spell Mastery: 5 targets.

Chilling cloud: 5 targets.

Conduit of Ice: 5 targets.

Conduit of Ice – Spell Mastery: 5 targets.

Entangling Force – Spell Mastery: 1 target for choke, 5 targets for pull.

Ice Storm: 5 targets

Icy Terrain: Infinite targets.

Icy Terrain – Spell Mastery: Infinite targets.

Maelstrom of Chaos: 10 targets.

Oppressive Force: Infinite targets.

Repel – Spell Mastery: 5 targets.

Shard of the Endless Avalanche: 5 targets with explosion.

Shard of the Endless Avalanche – Spell Mastery: 5 targets with explosion.

Shield: Infinite targets.

Shield – Spell Mastery: Infinite targets.

Steal Time: 5 targets with slowing portion, 5 targets with damage cast. Every tick of precast grants a stack of the Steal Time buff, capping at 15, and every tick procs any spell effects that can be procced.

Steal Time – Spell Mastery: As above.

Sudden Storm: Infinite targets.

Sudden Storm – Spell Mastery: Infinite targets including DoT

Feats!

Note: Some of these feats may not be functioning properly, because of bugs which some of you may know by now are a plague in this game, I will consider that these are not applied as patches are being applied some of these are being fixed.

Heroic Feats

Tier 1
Controlling Action: Gain an additional 2/4/6/8/10% Action points when using powers on a controlled target
Useful feat for gaining extra AP, it does not stack additively. so if you gain 20% this will give you an extra 2%. However the amount you will hit, it will become noticable. If you are fustrated that you are only 1 or 2 casts away from a daily, this you can save you those precious seconds. Currently it works with many of the control spells, Icy terrain, entangling force, steal time, arcane singularity. However it is bugged and does not work from using shield.

Weapon Mastery: 1/2/3% chance to crit.
An extra crit boost, additive. Useful to increase your overall damage output, as it becomes harder to get more crit from the stat once you get over the 3000 mark, this feat will give you the edge, coupled with charisma. it can help you push your crit over the 40% mark.

Toughness: 3/6/9% extra maximum hitpoints
Useful feat for all round, works after any item or enchant boosts. give you a bit more durability in PvP and may save you from PvE encounters. Without this or any hp enchancements, and minimal CON your looking at below 20k HP mark.

Tier 2
Fight On: Reduces your encounter cooldowns by 2/4/6/8/10%
Adds multiplicatively, However encounters cooldowns, are all our cooldowns (more or less).

Battle Wise: reduces your threat by 2/4/6%
We draw agro so easily in dungeons it can be a bit fustrating, however even 6% less threat will not make any difference, a 6% less angry target will rarely decide to go bother someone else, over you.

Wizard’s Wrath: Increases your area damage by 2/4/6%
Area damage is where we excel in (over other classes). A helpful boost that will stack with another similar feat further up the tier. This does not apply to spells classed as DoTs. Works with chill strike, shield and steal time.

Tier 3
Blighting Power: Your Cold powers deal an additional 3/6/9% extra damage to targets effected by chill.
We have many useful cold powers, and many of these will apply chill, especially during AoE phases. During the times you do not use chill it is generally when you are not dealing damage

Lightning teleport: When killing a foe you gain 2/4/6/8/10% of maximum Stamina
You will be killing things alot during solo (ofcourse) and also in dungeons. However the times you most likely will be using teleports are during phases where you can not reliably kill anything.

Arcane enhancement: Your arcane powers deal 2/4/6% extra damage.
We have a fair number of arcane powers. However, magic missile is our best single target at-will for damage and just this spell alone will count for a big slice of your contributing damage so this is useful if you use this spell alot. 

Tier 4
Learned Spellcaster: Increases the bonus damage intelligence provides by 1/2/3/4/5%
This is a confusing tooltip, it actually increases your damage by that set amount, so you cannot go wrong with taking this feat, also your intelligence bonus will apply to this bonus too. so if you have 20% from Int, you will get 1.2/2.4/3.6/4.8/6%.

Prestidigitation: You and your allies gain 1/2/3% increased stat rating
Does exactly what it says, increases you and your party member stats by 3%, can be a useful boost, 3000 recovery would become 3090 etc. Also stacks with other wizard’s prestidigitation and has unlimited range (just for party members)

Focused Wizardry: Increases your area damage by 3/6/9%
Just like wizard’s wrath and more but still does not apply to spells classed as DoTs. Works with chill strike, shield and steal time.

Paragon Feats

Oppressor

This tree is more geared towards applying chills and controlling, It is a niche build and usually overlooked by the wizard community.

Tier 1
Severe reaction: When struck you have 15% chance to repel your attacker by 1/2/3/4/5 feet and restore 2/4/6/8/10% of your stamina. This only works on enemies within 20 feet.
There are a couple things bad about this feat, firstly 15% chance, that is 1 in 6-7 hits. And at high level anything hitting you hurts. Secondly, 5 feet is ridiculously small, you will barely notice the distance.

Bitter cold: You gain 1/2/3/4/5% bonus to damage after afflicting an enemy with cold. lasts 6 seconds and does not stack.
You maybe apply chill effect quite often if not always, so 5% extra damage buff that can easily be refreshed is a useful feat indeed.

Tier 2
Brisk Transport: After teleport you gain 2/4/6/8/10% extra run speed for 3 seconds.
10% is noticable, but only slightly, and for 3 seconds this will not get you anywhere quickly.

Chilling Control: Sudden storm has a 10/20/30/40/50% chance to apply chill to enemies hit by its primary strike.
Useful if you are using sudden storm, would be alot more reasonable if it was 100%.

Tier 3
Cold infusion: Foes inflicted by chill deal 1/2/3/4/5% less damage
A nice additional debuff to go with chill. 5% may not be noticeble amount but in some scenarios where your tank friend needs to hold out against many nasties, this can help him/her out.

Glacial Movement: Ray of frost has an additional 5/10/15/20/25% chance to apply another stack of chill.
Only useful if you plan to use ray of frost as your main at-will, as the chance is too low to be relied on.

Tier 4
Alcarity: When you kill an enemy afflicted by chill, the cooldowns of Icy Terrain and Entangling force are reduced by 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds.
Very useful feat, Entangling force is one of our staple spells for generating AP. Just make sure you kill things.

Controlled momentum: After using a control power, your at-will deal 2/4/6/8/10% more damage
Nice damage boost, and lasts for 6 seconds (needs confirmation from an oppressor wizard).

Final Feat
Shatter strike: Your Ice storm daily now applies 5 stacks of chill instead of 1. Your Chill Strike encounter now applies 3 stacks of chill instead of 1.
The icestorm daily can be useful but make sure you apply 2 stacks of chill prior to use it (within icy terrain suggested) as it will then freeze anything you hit.

Thaumaturge

This is a good all-rounder build, works effectively and grants you versitility with your gear choices, as well as provide you good damage. The tree is designed primarily to givr you flat damage buffs and/or apply debuffs, and requires no gear/stat specifics to be used effectively.

Tier 1
Tempest Magic: When your target is below 30% maximum hit points, you deal 2/4/6/8/10% extra damage.
Useful during boss fights, when you must dish out some damage before the end. With the amount of hitpoints bosses tend to have, it can be a useful feat.

Malevolent Surge: When killing a foe you gain 2/4/6/8/10% damage for 4 seconds. stacks 3 times.
Sounds great. however it is very situational, during solo you will have killed most things at the same time. Remember it only works after you kill something it can speed along AoE fights/clearing

Tier 2
Destructive Wizardry: When you strike two or more foes with storm pillar with it charged atleast halfway, you gain 2/4/6/8/10% damage for 6 seconds.
Storm pillar has a small aoe radius (not the pillar). But it can be useful if you are willing to use storm pillar once every 6 seconds in AOE situations, however it could be fustrating trying to hit 2 or more targets. 

Snap Freeze: Your Cold powers will deal 4/8/12/16/20% more damage to targets which are not afflicted by chill.
Conduit of ice (normal) does not apply chill, and opening with ice rays or chill strike could inflicted a nice damage boost, if you are using a build with only one or 2 chill applying spells

Tier 3
Far Spell: Increases the range of your Magic Missile and Chill Strike by 2/4/6/8/10 ft.
Good for that extra poke in PvP, unnoticible in others.

Frozen Power Transfer: Chilling Cloud now grants 1/2/3/4/5% bonus damage for every target you hit with it’s third strike. Lasts for 8 seconds and is reset when hit by the third strike from Chilling Cloud again.
Very nice damage bonus can stack 5 times if you hit 5 targets however the aoe is small though so you will not always be able to gain the maximum stacks for this buff and if you gain 5 stacks first then hit something that is alone, you will lose your 5 stacks and it will be refreshed as 1 stack.

Tier 4
Transcended Master: Shard of Endless avalanche deals 3/6/9/12/15% more damage and Ice Rays deals 4/8/12/16/20% more damage when cast on the same target twice.
Very nice damage increase for those who uses these encounters, especially Ice rays in PvP or single target damage.

Elemental Empowerment: Your cold encounter spells now deal 6/12/18/24/30% weapon damage on your target. Arcane encounter spells weaken your target’s defenses by 2/4/6/8/10% for 3 seconds.
The cold dot lasts for 6 seconds, the average damage of this on the ancient T2.5 weapon is 223.6 and does stack by duration. Overall it is a useful all rounder feat.

Final Feat:
Assailing Force: Your Conduit of Ice now reduces the mitigation of effected targets by 15%.
Useful end feat great for aoe debuffing/and damage, as well as another additional damage increase for your fellows whilst accompanied with ray of enfeeblement. 

Renegade

This is what wizards call the damage tree, however they provide some good buff/debuffs for the team. However this tree is crit dependant to make it most effective, so a great choice for high charisma wizards. get your crit over 40% and slap on a vorpal enchant, and watch rogue’s jaw’s drop in awe.

Tier 1
Critical power: When you land a critical hit you gain 1/2/3/4/5% of your total action points. 10 second cooldown.
Nice feat for gaining those extra action points, but remember it has a 10 second cooldown

Reaper’s touch: Increases your at-will damage by 3/6/9/12/15% when target is within 20 feet.
This is a nice damage boost but situational, since you need to get close enough to your target. In aoe situations you maybe in this zone often, however in boss fights you will need to be touching the boss to be safe, remember that your teleport is 25 ft.

Tier 2
Nightmare wizardry: When you crit you have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to gain combat advantage for 4 seconds.
Useful feat, because us wizards cannot position ourself so easily for combat advantage, which is a 10% damage bonus (+any charisma or feat bonus), however you must take note that you can only gain combat advantage within close range (around 20-25ft)

Unrestrained Chaos: Maelstrom of chaos also applies chill effects to enemies or arcane stacks to yourself every second for 1/2/3/4/5 seconds.
Even if you decide to use this daily, it’s effect is minor considering there are other ways to apply/gain these stacks.

Tier 3
Phantasmal Destruction: when you deal combat advantage damage you gain 3/6/9/12/15% critical severity for 6 seconds.
Coupled with Nightmare wizardry from tier 2, this is a good choice to have especially when you have high crit chance, but also remember you need to be close to get combat advantage working.

Energy Recovery: The third strike on chilling cloud now has a 25% chance to grant you 0.15/0.30/0.45/0.6/0.75% of your maximum hitpoints as temporary hitpoints. this effect is also increase by 0.15/0.30/0.45/0.6/0.75% for every additional target hit.
At 20,000 hp this will give you 150 temp hit-points when hitting one target, and with a 25% chance. I dont see how this will help you in any situation.

Tier 4
Masterful Arcane Theft: Steal time and Ray of enfeeblement deal 1/2/3/4/5% to targets effected by chill and an additional .6/1.2/1.8/2.4/3% damage per arcane stack on you.
With 5 stacks of arcane and chilled target your steal time and ray will deal 20% increased damage. this can easily be achieved by using magic missile, and a cold encounter, (icy terrain with steal time, or chill strike with ray for example). A useful feat if you use steal time and/or ray of enfeeblement

Chilling Advantage: When you have chilling presence slotted, your cold encounter spells have an additional 1/2/3/4/5% chance to crit.
Situational but has its uses when using a cold aoe setup, however to use chilling presence effectively you should use icy terrain, which does not crit. leaving only Conduit of Ice or Chill strike to benefit from this.

Final Feat

Chaos Magic: Your magic missile now has a 33% chance to apply 1 of 3 effects to the target. Only 1 of these effects can be applied at one time, and last for 10 seconds.
Chaotic Growth: Allies near the target are healed for 1% of their maximum hit points per second.
Chaotic Nexus: Enemies near target have their mitigation reduced by 15%
Chaotic Fury: Allies near the target gain 15% bonus power.
Whats not to like here, apart from being random. Each of these buffs are quite useful. 10% hp heal, 15% extra damage to those targets, or 15% more power for your friends.

Spell Builds

To make the most out of a wizard is to adjust accordingly to different situations, because a build maybe useful during leveling phase for example, does not mean it will be effective in a dungeon environment, or PvP. Below I have listed some sample builds that i find can work effectively in a certain scenerios, most are open to customisation, depending on your playstyle.

Solo/Leveling

This is more or less what i used for leveling and still do in foundry missions, its versatile and nothing better to do than clear things out in 1 spell

Mastery: Chill Strike (One hit groups of weak monsters)
Encounter 1: Shield (protection against any damage, pushback)
Encounter 2: Entangling force (almost all solo content elites and bosses can be controlled, use this on those tougher ones and burn them down without having to move.)
Encounter 3: Steal time/shard/sudden storm. (another aoe when chill strike is on cooldown.)
Daily 1: Oppressive force/Ice storm (extra clearing power and control.)
Daily 2: Ice knife (take down tougher mobs quickly)
Class Feature 1: Evocation (aoe is what you will be doing mostly in solo, and you will want to take them out before you even have stacks of chill/arcane)
Class Feature 2: Storm Spell (does alot of damage, and procs often)

Dungeon AoE

Best for AoE damage because there are no limits on its targets (so no spell spells like chill strike) and you will often find yourself having to deal with alot of targets. this also CCs groups effectively due to the chill stacking, just make sure you put conduit on the highest hp target)

Mastery: Conduit of Ice (Larger radius, applies chills, crits and hits everything)
Encounter 1: Shield (Regenerate AP quickly, does alot of damage, hits everything)
Encounter 2: Icy Terrain (applies chills, works great with conduit for quick freezing and increases conduit damage, hits everything too)
Encounter 3: Steal time (Does not hit everything, but its stun and slow is valuable whilst you are close to apply icy terrain, does alot of damage too, and gives you time to recast shield, also applys 6 “hits” so weapon enchants or storm spell procs can go here too)
Daily 1: Arcane Singularity (Use this when there are alot of mobs, bring them together and whack on conduit and icy terrain underneath them, use shield before they get pulled up to regenerate AP and deal damage, they will get pulled straight back up into the hole and drop down in a nice compact pile for you)
Daily 2: Oppressive force (Use it when you dont need to use arcane singularity, though it is more situational)
Class Feature 1: Chilling presence (You will be applying chills alot so this feature will be in effect)
Class Feature 2: Storm Spell (Extra damage, will proc multiple times on these spells)

Single target

This is the most effective single target build i have tried, during times where you do not want to hit too many targets to draw attention. This is what ive used to equal rogue dps.

Mastery: Ice Rays (Does alot of damage when uses on tab, more than most, with debuffs and buffs ive seen this hit for 40k+)
Encounter 1: Ray of enfeeblement (High damage, mitigation debuff)
Encounter 2: Conduit of Ice (High damage total, and also a mitigation debuff if thaum specced)
Encounter 3: Chill strike (High damage, applyies 2x high vizier set debuff if worn)
Daily 1: Ice knife (Single target damage daily, use it after apply any debuffs you have)
Daily 2: Arcane Singularity (incase you need it)
Class Feature 1: Eye of the storm (100% crit for 8 seconds… yes)
Class Feature 2: Storm Spell (10% for 1700 damage at level 60)

Action Point Generator or Control Build

This is what most wizards will be used for, and expected to know/do. We have the ability to generate AP extremely fast compared to other classes. It is mostly down to two spells, shield and entangling force.

Mastery: Entangling Force (Generates 5%+ extra AP for any other enemies hit, and it generates alot, in large waves you can replenish 70-90% of your action point bar in one hit, as it has no limits)
Encounter 1: Shield (Our cookie cutter AP generator, use this after you cast a singularity during the time as you see them get bunched up under the singulrity but before they get pulled up. Or it can be used on bunched up mobs for quick AP. Hit enough with this and you can go from 0-100% in one hit)
Encounter 2: Steal time (Gives a fair bit of AP, but its primary use is to keep things stunned in between singularities or when you need to re-cast shield)
Encounter 3: Shard of Endless Avalanche (Knockback, explosions and damage. It currently doesnt work on targets effected by singularity but using this on them when they drop out puts them down for a couple seconds along with steal time, it will keep those nasties out of combat before you put up another daily)
Daily 1: Arcane Singularity (pulls them all together for and away from you and your team mates)
Daily 2: Oppressive Force(dazes everything around you for a few seconds, useful if your time is in immediate damage and when arcane singularity would not help.)
Class Feature 1: Anything suiting the scenario
Class Feature 2: Anything suiting the scenario

PvP

This is where you will find the most variation, my PvP playstyle is, kill something before they have a chance to react.Rely on blink to avoid encounters (ignore auto attacks)

Mastery: Ice Rays (This is beastly in PvP, because enemies can not dodge it. I usually use this either when i know they will dodge or after ive applied debuffs)
Encounter 1: Ray of Enfeeblement (Debuffs target, high damage. Use first if they are not looking)
Encounter 2: Entangling Force (Holds them in place for everyone to bash on relentlessly, use this before Ice knife for a guaranteed hit, use it before they realise you are there so they do not dodge/evade/block it)
Encounter 3: Chill strike (Short duration stun, and damage. Can be swapped out for repel, to make sure you get room for more nuking and wait for cooldowns, I use this because i have the high vizier set and plaguefire, and i like eating sentinel GWFs and GFs with ease)
Daily 1: Ice knife (Can nearly 1 shot depending on target, use it only when you know they are out of stamina/block or are controlled, or unaware)
Daily 2: Oppressive force (Unstealth those pesky rogues, can use arcane singularity here too, if theres a group of them in a cleric circle, a well placed arcane singularity can work wonders for your team)
Class feature 1: Storm Spell (More damage)
Class feature 2: Eye of the storm (Proc this and they will feel it)