[Preview] Neverwinter: Taking the Control Wizard for a Spin

SBFord

Over this past weekend's Neverwinter beta event, the Control Wizard was added to the class selection for players. We checked out the Control Wizard and have a few thoughts to share. See what you think and then join the conversation in the comments.

It is important to note that, while I did indeed play the CW, I am generally not a caster-type, preferring instead the more direct approach of a Guardian Fighter or Great Sword Fighter to squishy magic. Let’s just say that micromanagement isn’t my strong suit. Regardless, I had a good, if more difficult time, playing the Control Wizard over the weekend.

Read more of Suzie Ford's Neverwinter: Taking the Control Wizard Out for a Spin.

Reizla

Very true what you've written there Suzie. I played the CW as well and I kinda missed the whole C part of the class description. It was more like a regular Elementalist class than a real Control class. Sadly because of that, indeed a lot of foes came up close way too fast and before you knew they were in melee with you With that, the lack of dodging when casting (have to sit through the whole animation) made you quite a vulnorable target. Kiting and teleporting are the key aspects for the CW to survive, but it uses too much stamina.

And the 2 fingers... Yeah, my initial thought was that they imported Q from STo Kidna a dumb pose for any class I'd say...

Doogiehowser

Originally posted by Reizla

Very true what you've written there Suzie. I played the CW as well and I kinda missed the whole C part of the class description. It was more like a regular Elementalist class than a real Control class. Sadly because of that, indeed a lot of foes came up close way too fast and before you knew they were in melee with you With that, the lack of dodging when casting (have to sit through the whole animation) made you quite a vulnorable target. Kiting and teleporting are the key aspects for the CW to survive, but it uses too much stamina.

And the 2 fingers... Yeah, my initial thought was that they imported Q from STo Kidna a dumb pose for any class I'd say...

I agree with you 100%. Didn't enjoy CW at all.

But then again that is what beta is for and i hope Cryptic takes the feedback seriously and work on issues regarding this class.

black_isle

Yeah i hate that pose too, and the animations for the class. It just doesn't look like i'm casting a spell but rather pretending to shoot bullets from my fingertips pretending it's a pistol, you know, like the kids do(sadly).

grimfall

I only played it to level 5 or 6, but can agree with Suzie's gneral assesment.

In particular the ray of frost was disapointing.  The description says that it would "stack" frost and slow your target... it sure as hell didn't slow the movement rate of your target.   A typical Easy fight in NW is 3 minions.  You use... the first encounter power to kill one to start the fight.  Then you use Ray of Frost on a second to in theory, slow it.  But guess what?  That second monster reaches you at the same time as the third.  Just about when he reaches you, he gets incased in ice, and is just about dead anyway.

Now his 3rd buddy is beating on you,so you have to TP away, re-locate the 2nd guy, finish him with one shot, and then hope your first encoutner power is up to finish the 3rd one.

Very little actual control in the early levels of the control wizard.  I understand the design choice that you give the wizard the bulk of the single target damage spells early so that he can,  you know, kill something, but it got to the point where I was drinking heal potions after every other fight, especially when the tougher monsters were included in the groups.

They need to increase the chill effects on the ray of ice, and decrease the damage.  Otherwise it's just better to magic missle everything while soloing.  And then you're not using any strategy.  Magic Missle, 'til they reach melee, TP away, rinse repeat ad nauseum.

Falcomith

I also agree with Suzie. I love mages or wizard classes in mmos, but I felt a bit on the weak side  with the CW.  Not that I died allot, I really didnt. I guess I am just use to having an arsenal of good AoE and CC spells. AoE was set to some of the daily skills with very minimal effect. The CC was basicly the frost beam that took a good 6 seconds or so to freeze one mob in place. But when frozen in place it only lasted 2 seconds. Just like Suzie, I found my self playing in melee range more than at range.

 

Yamota

Sounds like an interesting class, too bad the rest of the game does not seem to be... still I might try this game out, just for the sake of playing a control wizard.

Arcona

you get a companion at level 15 for free

Just choose a good tank companion

insaner666

He moves like a Tai Chi(kung fu) Student, totally out of wizards immersion.... Is it really important to look cool rather than be coherent in action mmorpgs?

jdnyc

The problem for me was that the control wizard didn't start showing its teeth until level 17.

By then you get a push (tab) you get a new at will (level 15) that does AoE damage finally and at 17 you get the most important ability: Icy Terrain.  

You teleport in.  Drop Icy Terrain on all the mobs.  Port back out.  Now hit tab and push them back to the far edge of the Icy Terrain, while spamming AoE at will.  I use the force choke thing and direct DD to burn them down as well.  It's not a perfect system and still needs work, but it's a heck of a lot better than pre level 17.

urriel1970

i found the cw a good choice..yes the two fingers made me clinch a bit...but still the porting was fun..being able to pop around durning combat was nice..and the entangle and chill strike with a combo of repel was a great addition to fighting...the companion was a nice touch..but foudn it a bit odd when he would just stand there and laugh at certian points during the game...i wasnt sure if he forgot his meds or not...the questing was good..the combat nice..really enjoyed it...but the game is linear..thats for sure...there on the right tracki...but need to change a few things !

 

Eladi

I Find the game one big joke, the CW I probaly hated the most, I could write a load of craphere on how bad things are whit this half copy/past game but I just say go play,, go play and find out yourself what a joke this game realy is.  specialy for people who know what cryptics engine can do and are known whit both other games in this same engine (sto / co )

 

Cypeq

I've been finally able to try this game and I'm so impressed there is still tone of work to be done but damn it looks like block buster. It was so fun to play this classes it just blews my mind... and I found tera's combat to be boring as hell

Nanfoodle

I had a lot more fun then I thought I was going to. Little polish problems, like the quest and map could work together better. Also you finish a quest and the trail it shows where to go next is not the next closest quest and sometimes wants to take you out of the zone. Also the map markers are really small and hard to read.

 

Combat was awesome and well done. Would like to see things be a little smarter. Like my HoT on my cleric is hard to land on the person that needs it as it auto targets the closest person. Would like to see something fixed with that. I like what I see but I do have one problem.....

 

Their currency is a mess, zen, gold and diamonds. If I did the math worng I am sorry, but a mount costing 40 bucks from the cash shop is to much, 20 bucks for a pet. Would not pay that sorry!!! If the cash shop is out of wack like that I wont play no matter how good the game is.

 

evilastro

Originally posted by Vorthanion
I didn't like the whole two fingered hand thing either.  I also didn't like the orb thing.  Never read of a single magic-user in the forgotten realms books that mentioned a floating orb being necessary to cast magic spells.  Personally, I like wielding a staff as a Wizard, but that won't happen in this game.  The worst part of the class for me was the complete lack of the most basic spells you would expect a Wizard to have; fireball and lightning bolt / chain lightning.  I didn't have much hope for this game to begin with, but there were many aspects of it that were even more disappointing than I had anticipated.  Class structure being a big part of it.

 In the 4th edition Wizards use 3 types of weapons. Orbs, wands and staffs.

Orbs were for damage, staff was for defense and wands were for accuracy.

They will probably save the other weapons for the other magic users to differentiate them.

Aerowyn

ray of frost should freeze enemies after like 3 seconds.. the 6 seconds it takes right now is way to long imho since it's only a single target spell and you are constantly fighting numerous enemies at once

Vorthanion

I didn't like the whole two fingered hand thing either.  I also didn't like the orb thing.  Never read of a single magic-user in the forgotten realms books that mentioned a floating orb being necessary to cast magic spells.  Personally, I like wielding a staff as a Wizard, but that won't happen in this game.  The worst part of the class for me was the complete lack of the most basic spells you would expect a Wizard to have; fireball and lightning bolt / chain lightning.  I didn't have much hope for this game to begin with, but there were many aspects of it that were even more disappointing than I had anticipated.  Class structure being a big part of it.

Aerowyn

Originally posted by jdnyc

The problem for me was that the control wizard didn't start showing its teeth until level 17.

By then you get a push (tab) you get a new at will (level 15) that does AoE damage finally and at 17 you get the most important ability: Icy Terrain.  

You teleport in.  Drop Icy Terrain on all the mobs.  Port back out.  Now hit tab and push them back to the far edge of the Icy Terrain, while spamming AoE at will.  I use the force choke thing and direct DD to burn them down as well.  It's not a perfect system and still needs work, but it's a heck of a lot better than pre level 17.

agreed ice terrain should be acquired at like level 5

Nanfoodle

Originally posted by Vorthanion
I didn't like the whole two fingered hand thing either.  I also didn't like the orb thing.  Never read of a single magic-user in the forgotten realms books that mentioned a floating orb being necessary to cast magic spells.  Personally, I like wielding a staff as a Wizard, but that won't happen in this game.  The worst part of the class for me was the complete lack of the most basic spells you would expect a Wizard to have; fireball and lightning bolt / chain lightning.  I didn't have much hope for this game to begin with, but there were many aspects of it that were even more disappointing than I had anticipated.  Class structure being a big part of it.

 

The class your looking for is not out yet. If Cryptic does their job and adds more classes, you will see more wizards. 

evilastro

Originally posted by Vorthanion
I didn't like the whole two fingered hand thing either.  I also didn't like the orb thing.  Never read of a single magic-user in the forgotten realms books that mentioned a floating orb being necessary to cast magic spells.  Personally, I like wielding a staff as a Wizard, but that won't happen in this game.  The worst part of the class for me was the complete lack of the most basic spells you would expect a Wizard to have; fireball and lightning bolt / chain lightning.  I didn't have much hope for this game to begin with, but there were many aspects of it that were even more disappointing than I had anticipated.  Class structure being a big part of it.

 In 4th edition magic users can use one of three focus items: Orb, Wand and Staff.

 

Orb focuses on damage, wand focuses on accuracy and staff focuses on defence.

 

They will probably save the latter two for other magic users to be added later on.

 

Also in DnD 4.0 wizards are controllers. Sorcerors are the strikers. So when they add the DPS caster, it will be the sorceror.

 

Maephisto

I started to play one, but couldnt get past the whole boy scout salute and crab walk animations.

Why the hell did they choose those as primary animations?

I can see the control wizard being a pain in endgame pvp though.

nycplayboy78

Originally posted by evilastro

Originally posted by Vorthanion
I didn't like the whole two fingered hand thing either.  I also didn't like the orb thing.  Never read of a single magic-user in the forgotten realms books that mentioned a floating orb being necessary to cast magic spells.  Personally, I like wielding a staff as a Wizard, but that won't happen in this game.  The worst part of the class for me was the complete lack of the most basic spells you would expect a Wizard to have; fireball and lightning bolt / chain lightning.  I didn't have much hope for this game to begin with, but there were many aspects of it that were even more disappointing than I had anticipated.  Class structure being a big part of it.

 In 4th edition magic users can use one of three focus items: Orb, Wand and Staff.

Orb focuses on damage, wand focuses on accuracy and staff focuses on defence.

They will probably save the latter two for other magic users to be added later on.

Well I do know for a fact that one of the sub wizard classes will be something called the Scourge Warlock...I know this because while playing my CW I picked up a strange drop (boots) that I couldn't wear and in the item description was class requirement - Scourge Warlock....

Vorthanion

Originally posted by Nanfoodle

Originally posted by Vorthanion
I didn't like the whole two fingered hand thing either.  I also didn't like the orb thing.  Never read of a single magic-user in the forgotten realms books that mentioned a floating orb being necessary to cast magic spells.  Personally, I like wielding a staff as a Wizard, but that won't happen in this game.  The worst part of the class for me was the complete lack of the most basic spells you would expect a Wizard to have; fireball and lightning bolt / chain lightning.  I didn't have much hope for this game to begin with, but there were many aspects of it that were even more disappointing than I had anticipated.  Class structure being a big part of it.

 

The class your looking for is not out yet. If Cryptic does their job and adds more classes, you will see more wizards. 

I won't be playing the game anyway.  I'm not a fan of the combat system or the plethora of instancing and the lack of an open and fully explorable world.  I have to say though, they really missed the mark if they were going for an enchanter style wizard here.

Vorthanion

Originally posted by evilastro

Originally posted by Vorthanion
I didn't like the whole two fingered hand thing either.  I also didn't like the orb thing.  Never read of a single magic-user in the forgotten realms books that mentioned a floating orb being necessary to cast magic spells.  Personally, I like wielding a staff as a Wizard, but that won't happen in this game.  The worst part of the class for me was the complete lack of the most basic spells you would expect a Wizard to have; fireball and lightning bolt / chain lightning.  I didn't have much hope for this game to begin with, but there were many aspects of it that were even more disappointing than I had anticipated.  Class structure being a big part of it.

 In 4th edition magic users can use one of three focus items: Orb, Wand and Staff.

 

Orb focuses on damage, wand focuses on accuracy and staff focuses on defence.

 

They will probably save the latter two for other magic users to be added later on.

 

Also in DnD 4.0 wizards are controllers. Sorcerors are the strikers. So when they add the DPS caster, it will be the sorceror.

 

 

Wouldn't the sorceror be using the orb, since it's damage focused?  I would expect by your explanation that the control wizard would be using either the wand or the staff.

evilastro

Originally posted by Vorthanion

Originally posted by evilastro

Originally posted by Vorthanion
I didn't like the whole two fingered hand thing either.  I also didn't like the orb thing.  Never read of a single magic-user in the forgotten realms books that mentioned a floating orb being necessary to cast magic spells.  Personally, I like wielding a staff as a Wizard, but that won't happen in this game.  The worst part of the class for me was the complete lack of the most basic spells you would expect a Wizard to have; fireball and lightning bolt / chain lightning.  I didn't have much hope for this game to begin with, but there were many aspects of it that were even more disappointing than I had anticipated.  Class structure being a big part of it.

 In 4th edition magic users can use one of three focus items: Orb, Wand and Staff.

 

Orb focuses on damage, wand focuses on accuracy and staff focuses on defence.

 

They will probably save the latter two for other magic users to be added later on.

 

Also in DnD 4.0 wizards are controllers. Sorcerors are the strikers. So when they add the DPS caster, it will be the sorceror.

 

 

Wouldn't the sorceror be using the orb, since it's damage focused?  I would expect by your explanation that the control wizard would be using either the wand or the staff.

 Perhaps, I would say the main reason for that choice would be animations though. Its easier just to have a floating orb that doesn't get in the way of the kung fu magic missiles.

evilastro

Originally posted by nycplayboy78

Originally posted by evilastro

Originally posted by Vorthanion
I didn't like the whole two fingered hand thing either.  I also didn't like the orb thing.  Never read of a single magic-user in the forgotten realms books that mentioned a floating orb being necessary to cast magic spells.  Personally, I like wielding a staff as a Wizard, but that won't happen in this game.  The worst part of the class for me was the complete lack of the most basic spells you would expect a Wizard to have; fireball and lightning bolt / chain lightning.  I didn't have much hope for this game to begin with, but there were many aspects of it that were even more disappointing than I had anticipated.  Class structure being a big part of it.

 In 4th edition magic users can use one of three focus items: Orb, Wand and Staff.

Orb focuses on damage, wand focuses on accuracy and staff focuses on defence.

They will probably save the latter two for other magic users to be added later on.

Well I do know for a fact that one of the sub wizard classes will be something called the Scourge Warlock...I know this because while playing my CW I picked up a strange drop (boots) that I couldn't wear and in the item description was class requirement - Scourge Warlock....

 Yeah I had heard that the 3 classes ready immediately after launch had been datamined and were Ranger, Warlock and Runepriest. Although not sure how reliable that is. Personally I would prefer Druid, although I am sure they will get to that soon enough since it is a popular class.