Once you get attacked you are in trouble.  But, if you have some nice tank taking the damage up front you can really kick some serious butt.  The wizard's forte is doing massive amounts of damage in a short time.  Wizards also get the best area of effect spells, though these spells are very difficult to use without drawing a mob onto you.  Other magic classes can do more damage over the long run, but wizards can kill something quickly when necessary.  Wizards also get teleport spells, which make it very easy to navigate to all corners of the world.  One big drawback is that wizards are the most mana reliant class in the game, and unlike the pet classes are virtually useless when they run out of mana.  Wizards are fairly popular and can usually find a group, especially at higher levels where the wizards ability to evacuate a group in trouble makes him invaluable. The wizard is not an easy class to play.  Because he is all attack and no defense, he must approach a battle warily.  But it is really impressive when you take down that monster in one shot that the fighters were battling for five minutes.  Wizards can be soloed, but only if played perfectly, and are not nearly as good at soloing as magicians or necros.  If you play a wizard, be prepared to spend a lot of time staring at the inside of your spell book.

Wizard Resources: