Have had many discussions with guildies regarding this topic. My current belief is that a wizard needs to get his avoidance aas, his crit aas (% of frequency/% of strength), familiar aas (for mana, casting efficiency, resists, and spell focuses), spell casting mastery of course, stat increasers for mana/hp and resists, then your mitigation aas for added survivability. At this point you can start investing in some of the "accessory" aas, (exodus, alt bind point, group port to bind, mana burn line, etc)

Its been argued well on both sides whether to start aas on crits first, or on defensives first. I went the crit path, but I wasnt a big raider at that time, so surviving big encounters wasnt as much of an issue. if you raid, you need your defensives quick, if you dont, then its safe to go the crit route first, but make sure you hit your defensives before you get your accessories.


Edited, May 11th 2007 5:40pm by guitarfingerer

the very first AAs i trained on my wizard was run AAs up to run 5, but that's because i 3 box so he needed it just to /follow me

then I went straight for crit frequency and crit cap AAs with my wizard, almost done maxing them both now. Of course i have a paladin as my main though so I dont need to worry about my aggro very much, some wizards train the spell casting subelty/sleight of hand/silent casting AAs before maxing crits because they might need less aggro from their DPS.. however i reccomend just getting to level 71 first. Because, the level 71 concussion upgrade is Decrease Hate by 4800 , and the regular concussion is only 400, so it's a pretty huge difference in aggro management. (also you can chain cast those 2 concussions if need be, i don't though)

although i put a few AAs into the familiar AAs as well. also i just bought mnemonic retention (OoW 9th spell slot AA) yesterday, also i trained innate metabolism intead of innate regeneration.

after i finish mana fury (already done with crit frequency) i think i might start training Pyromancy, which randomly turns fire nukes into DoTs as well which should be nice for soloing. besides that there is quite a few useful lines that can be trained, it's just a matter of what you think is most useful. I myself tend to pick 1 line or skill and max it, but my wizard is 75 so you may not have that option.

so in my opinion, here are some of the more useful AAs that wizzies should look at first, in no particular order:
-crit frequency/crit cap line
-pyromancy/cyromancy randomly turns DDs into DoT as well, 300hp a tick at max level
-stat cap increasing aa's for bigger mana pool
-gift of mana line
-mana regen line
-spell casting subelty/slieght of hand/silent casting line (makes mobs notice your spells less, so less aggro)
-spell haste AA (quick damage, class tab.. affects DD spells that are over 4 secs)
-frenzied devastation line (short duration buff which increases chance to crit)
-familiar line
-mind crash line (Instant Cast Decrease Hate by 7500 AA at max level, 72min recast, but another AA to lower recast time. Useful for Emergency aggro debuff)
-run speed AA line (good for kiting)
-HP AAs are always good for soloing and for raiding
-same thing with defensive AAs
Edited, May 12th 2007 2:33am by DukeLatan

edit:
i find that , personally, AA skills work best when you choose a Line and Max it. For example, Training a few levels of the defensive skills helps, but a player will obviously notice it the most when it's maxed. For that reason i am like an AA purist because i choose one line and max it then choose another and so on; just my two cents

pyromancy Sucked at first, but once i got it maxed it became much better. At level 1 the skill hardly procs, but at level 3 nearly every mob I hit becomes DoT'ed.

Edited, Jun 2nd 2007 5:57am by DukeLatan

Many other classes have sites that one can visit to find out specific info on their AA (such as the percent increase in chance to crit each point of 'X' gives). I've found those sites really help with choosing the order of taking my AA simply because I don't feel the bite of diminishing returns. It's more rewarding to spend less AA to get the same effect. Does anyone know of any site that breaks down the AA numbers for wizard AA?

I did know about graffes. CastersRealm has the same list, and again no details. Hopefully that isn't all that is available.

disclaimer: i tend to use absolutes a bit too often, which some ppl just cant cope with.
i use them like the philosophy of "rule of thumb" to make a point about not relying on things that have very long odds. if 99.93% of the time you'll die from something dont spend 200AAs to prevent that last 0.07%. go get a rez and move on.


the answer is in the question.
what do wizzys do?
wizzys nuke.
wizzys nuke hard.
wizzys nuke fast.
wizzys shed aggro or die.
wizzys wear silky lacy things.

what do wizzys NOT do?
wizzys dont buff.
wizzys dont heal.
wizzys dont tank.
wizzys dont wear hardened blocks of steel.

a wizzy is the exact opposite of a warrior - nobody tells them they need more mana AAs.
ignore any combat related defensive AAs, you're not a tank, you have no armor, it wont help in ANY meaningful way.
if you die to a mob in 1 tick, 50% more melee everything wont help and ALL your defensive AAs wont even get you half that.
if you die to a mob in 2 ticks or longer you either had some bad luck or your tank sux. or you do. at wizzying at least.
it's not your HP. it's not your dodge. it's not your mitigation.
if a raid mob melee's you, you will not die by "just a lil bit". they'll one round you by double or triple ANY wiz achievable hp/avoid/ac combo you can image.
why are you trying to compete with the tanks that need a full CH rot? you're not even on the their targetbox.
wizzys dont have the skills or AAs or armor class to take advantage of the sissy lil AAs they do have for hp/avoid.
dont bother with them for a looong time - be a WIZ!

wizzy bazaar armor of the past two years at least is easily enough to group/solo, but you'll need nerves of tin.
concussion is your best friend.

1) horse - a mount is the very best mana regen item in the game, also helps with knockback and not making you puke from spinstun.
2) *extra spell slots - this is your weapon, each extra slot makes you 12.5% bad4sser. more or less.
3) *max flappy - best buff in the game, imo
4) *max Subtlety - if they dont aggro on you, you'll live even if your max hp is 100.
5) *max Run - RS 5; dont mess around. if a mob cant catch you it cant kill you (see below). some summon - keep running, it takes time and line-of-sight to summon you.
6) *Nuke - tanks dont nuke, you do. find a tank that can hold aggro and max your damage.
7) max Resists, all of them - if a spell doesnt land on you it wont kill you, even if you're still dancing around with only 100 max hp.
8) Hide - find some giant wearing armor (meat shield) and hide behind him, he's been buying his defensive AAs and not mana regen.
you hope. =)

* AA related thingys

as a wizzy our fights are over very quickly - win or lose.
the only thing that will keep you alive is making your aggro control sing and dance at your whim.
if you cant do amazing that, you cant do amazing at wizzy, try another class, you'll find one that's the magic for you and then you'll post there when ppl give wasteful cr4p advice.


this post is not situation specific nor complete but it outlines the philosophy of wizzing, if you grasp the philosophy you will understand much of the direction you'll want to go.

my wizzy guide would probably be endless, best wait for the movie. =)

edited layout

Edited, Dec 1st 2008 2:23am by NexiCuter

Edited, Dec 1st 2008 2:24am by NexiCuter

Edited, Dec 1st 2008 2:40am by NexiCuter

new Wizard AA search while it does not rank the AA's it is a very good program to view your AA possible paths of what is avalible when
http://eqaasearch.org/index.htm