Talk:Wizard

The Wizard strategy entry states that daggers are preferable to staves. Why??

Because you will get Magicbane, which uses the Dagger skill, as your first sacrifice gift, throwing expert daggers does more average damage than quarterstaff, you can keep distance from your enemies, and has +2 to-hit bonus. 91.127.41.218 09:13, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Another point is that, once you've offed the Wizard, you'll be subject to random curses, and cursed two-handed weapons are a pain in the neck. You can't open your bag to retrieve your holy water or scroll of remove curse, you can't cast remove curse (it seems spellcasting requires the hands to be free to move), and if you're in Gehennom, you can't pray. About all you can do is try stepping on a magic trap and hope for its remove curse function.--Ray Chason 15:30, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Everytime I start a wizard I die around the mines area (i suck). But more often than not its because I run out of energy first killing all those damn gnomes (as I am an elf, also last game my pet died). Normaly my pet would take care of everything but I feel like I relying on mittens too much. Is their something I should be doing? I'm engraving elbereth alot too.Ha! Showed you! 10:27, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Max all Spell Skills?

I'm not sure I understand why a Wizard might max out all their Spell Skills.

Finger of Death? OK, let's max Attack.

Cancelation? There's Matter.

Escape? Presuming you're shooting for L30, you don't need expert to cast Teleport Away, and 2 Skill points to extend your Jump radius from 3.9 to 4.2 seems excessive to me.

Divination? With no spell over L5 and no effect upgrades at Expert, purchasing Expert in Divination is a sucker punch available to 4 classes.

Clerical? Definitly worth purchasing "Skilled" for the improved Remove Curse.

Healing? Purchase "Skilled" if you've got an aversion to using one of your unicorn horns to restore your stats.

Enchantment? "Skilled" gives an OK upgrade to your Confuse Monster spell. Worth a point?

128.205.85.125 15:14, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Heck, I'll take it a step further: gaining levels is a sucker's game. I used to ascend Wizards at XL 30, but I've really gotten turned on to lower-level ascensions. I did my last one at XL 17, and only because I wanted intrinsic teleport control. Is it worth having to deal with Archons just so you can maximize your magic missile? I didn't advance anything but attack, matter, and clerical...and dagger, of course!

It is still good you can become expert if you really need it: For example if there is a useful high-level spell you want to cast but your experience level is not high enough or you are stuck with metal/mithril armor. I'm thinking of polymorph, charm monster, or (unfortunate armor) magic missile.

Expert attack skill does not improve your to-hit chances, as opposed to weapons skills. Don't waste your skill slots on that.

Other than that, I generally get skilled in divination for monster and item detection, clerical for remove curse, in escape for endgame levitation or perhaps medusa's, and not much else. -Tjr 22:35, 22 July 2009 (UTC)