The starting rank for wizards of course! Now I realize a lot of these skills wont mean much at endgame - what can I say? I’m a fan of optimization, no matter how small. So how exactly should we allocate our skill points with this rank? Feel free to share your knowledge and experience with these skills!
*I will update this post to cover wizard in its entirety when I make a character with all ranks or get input from C3 wizard players!
Energy Bolt
This skill starts off as a decent AOE nuke (the wiki lies, it actually has an AOE attack of 5 at all ranks) for wizard. The damage may look low but the skill hits twice each cast and you can cast it 3 times before it goes on cooldown for a total of 6 hits. The cooldown is also very short (for wizard) at only 9 seconds (though you have to charge each cast for 1 second).
Energy bolt also has a knockback effect on all normal and smaller sized targets you hit with it (within its AOE attack capability), so it can be useful for giving yourself some breathing room or pushing enemies into your AOEs.
Energy bolt quickly loses damaging power as you level up as each hit is reduced by your target’s magic defense - effectively multiplying their magic defense by 6 per cooldown. The energy bolt: additional sleep damage attribute can give this skill up to 120% increased damage, though I’m not sure how good that really is, depending on the order damage is calculated (I’d like opinions on this!).
To make this skill more competitive I think the number of hits per cast should be reduced to one and of course increase the base damage at higher ranks. Perhaps with a percent damage mechanic as well.
Lethargy
Lethargy is an instant (does not stick around) AOE that reduces the physical attack (PATK), magic attack (MATK) and evasion of the targets it hits. It has flat scaling, reaching a maximum effect of -48 PATK, -48 MATK and -32 evasion. Needless to say this doesn’t scale very well into the lategame. You can charge the skill for what seems to be up to 3 seconds, though I’m not sure what benefit this provides (you don’t have to charge it fully or even for one full second to cast it). I’ve not used it once since I got it on my level 71 pyromancer and I haven’t really missed it. I’m not sure if it is effected by the AOE attack/defense mechanic or hit all targets within its AOE. As it stands this skill is only worth getting for the “lethargy: additional damage” attribute that makes enemies afflicted with it take 20% more slashing attack damage (for team play reasons of course).
To make this skill more competitive I believe it should have a percentage based debuff as well as also effecting physical defense and magic attack or a slight slowing effect.
Sleep
This skill seems pretty insane and I feel ashamed that I have not really abused it much. It functions much the same as lethargy but instead puts enemies to sleep, effectively a hit limited stun effect. I think it scales wonderfully, adding an extra hit and second of duration for every rank - that’s huge! At rank 15 it has a hit threshold of 15 and a duration of 17 seconds and with a 25 second cooldown it has pretty good uptime.
I think this skill is highly competitive and could even be OP. It could possibly be slightly nerfed to buff up the rest of wizard’s kit.
Reflect Shield
To be honest this skill is a total mystery to me (come on IMC players need information!). It deals damage to targets that hit you, scaling with your spirit (the damage is garbage). I have no idea how much it reduces the enemy’s damage done to you if at all (supposed to reduce physical attack). It’s interesting to note that you can have 100% uptime with this skill at rank 4 - though it will only absorb 3 hits (near worthless).
To make this skill more competitive I think it would be cool to have it reflect a percentage of the enemy’s attacks on you back onto them and give you a temporary amount of health based on your INT.
Earthquake
Earthquake is a short range skill (basically comes at at your character’s feet) with a huge AOE range in front of your character that gives it OK range. It can knock up a large amount of normal or smaller sized enemies with its healthy AOE attack of 8 (once again the wiki has false information!). The damage is quite low and never gets much better. Enemies don’t fall straight down and get pushed outside the skill’s original AOE, making it not synergize amazing well with other AOEs. An interesting note is that so far this seems to be the only skill with earth type damage for wizard classes, correct me if I’m wrong.
I feel this skill is decently strong due to its knockup effect but I think having enemies fall straight up and down would make it more usable. To make it more than a one point wonder the damage would have to be increased at later ranks. Also it’s kind of weird that it doesn’t knock up ALL enemies it hits (just my opinion) due to AOE mechanics.
So what exactly should a rookie wizard take?
Well there’s a few options I believe but generally:
Energy Bolt 5
Lethargy 1
Sleep 5
Reflect Shield 3
Earthquake 1
Energy bolt is pretty powerful early and can make dealing with crowds a breeze. Lethargy is only good for its attribute. Sleep is really powerful and should be maxed. Earthquake is kept at 1 to keep its SP cost low. Once again I really have no idea with reflect shield, I’d honestly consider putting 0 points into reflect should and saving them for a later rank (is this even possible?), it’s up to you. If hoarding skill points for later ranks IS a thing you could also consider putting only 1 point into energy bolt simply for its knockback effect and with a SP cost of only 15 at rank one keep it very spammable (this could really hurt your early game damage - be warned!).
I’ll leave all of you more experienced players with a few questions.
How exactly does reflect shield work?
Can you save skill points for later ranks?
Is there a maximum amount of targets that can be effected by lethargy/sleep?
Do you think Energy Bolt is worth leveling higher due to its sleep damage boost?
Thanks for reading!