Why the Wizard?

[Flux]

I'm assuming the people reading this forum are highly interested in playing a Wizard. That he/she'll be your first or 2nd char played, and that you plan on playing the Wiz a lot. So... why?

What draws you to the character? Makes you want to spend your limited gaming time driving a Wiz around, rather than a Barb or a Monk or whatever?

Do you like the lore and the character bio, or do you play casters in every game, or do you really want to embrace the glass cannon approach, or is there some particular spell you're dying to play with, etc?

There are no right or wrong answers to this; I'm just curious.

[Flux]

I've posted this in all the char forums, and this is the easiest one to answer for me. I just like the play style. I was a big fan of the Sorc in D1 and the Sorcette in D2, and I like the fast, blasty, ranged attacking style.

I found the Wiz very easy to get into and very powerful when playing at Blizzcon the last 2 years, and the character just corresponds well to the gameplay style I like best. Rapidly switching between hotkeys, always attacking and moving, constantly whipping out spells with pin point accuracy, etc.

I'm curious if anyone answers this question in a different way. I don't see why else a Wiz would appeal, since all we know about the char thus far in D3 is that they're very glass cannon and blasty. It seems, at this point, that there will be infinite spell combinations, but basically just one play style; cast a lot, quickly, and kill everything.

[Dendroid King]

I like to play characters with powerful magics. Playing as a high damage character but rather vulnerable in terms of hit points makes the game very interesting. Easy to kill but also easy to die.

The Wizard in Diablo 3 is certainly better off than the D2 Sorceress or D1 Sorceror. Thats because the Wizard not only employ elemental magic but arcane magic that warps TIME and SPACE! That is certainly very cool. I hope there are more spells that warp time and space other than slow time though. Maybe the Wizard should be granted powers like time freezing , black hole, force field and the ability to completely remove the Wizard's enemies existence out of time and space.

The lore is also very cool. A cocky and confident character shows alot of strength in the Wizard.

[SeCKSEgai]

If I ever end up playing D3, I would definitely have at least one caster class.

In just about every game I've played I tend to lean towards the casters, as I prefer the glass cannon approach over pure survivability. Typically, it's easier to compensate for "squishyness" than lack of dps.

As far as it being a main, it depends. I know my old ice mage back when I was playing wow was poor for pvp and aside from blizzard, really lacked in dps. My ice/ice blaster in City of Heroes was far more potent and could handle far better. Still my best caster experience to date really.

For d2, been running a 200 fcr lite sorc, and short of unbroken lite immunes she's my fastest overall killer. When you have to clear hordes and hordes of monsters, AoE builds really shine. There's something about having to click on every single minion that bothers me about melee.

I do think people who lean towards casters prefer the damage output over survivability and typically know enough to find ways to compensate for it.

[Leugi]

The Wiz is my second most favorite class simply because I love casters and I like what was done with the spells...

Specially for those "sci-fi" spells, (time stop, disintegrate) I always loved that kind of magic rather than elemental, so yeah the Wiz got me that way...

[The Butt]

SLOW TIME.

That's my answer. I love it. It is an incredibly flavorful, wacky skill. That comboed with other caster skills, it's like my perfect character.

[korialstraz]

Fast paced action, high damage but low life/survivability. It's exciting really. And typically I find casters have MANY more fun and interesting skills at their disposal than melee chars.

[Flux]

When you have to clear hordes and hordes of monsters, AoE builds really shine. There's something about having to click on every single minion that bothers me about melee.

QfT.

I can't play single target chars in D2. I could enjoy the warrior a bit in D1, and the Rogue, but having to hit things individually seems so primitive and plodding in the diablo games, where the enemies come in waves.

I enjoyed the Barb in D2, but only at high levels when I had WW or Frenzy. The 1-30 levels were boring. (D3 barb is more fun early on, since most of his regular melee skills hit multiple targets.)

The only Paladin I enjoyed was a Zealot, and while I liked the idea of a Spearazon, Fend never working right ruined her.

I like MS and Strafe with bowazons. LF with javazons. FO and static and hydra with Wizards. Hitting lots of things at once, herding the monsters into huge mobs, etc. That's what I enjoyed in D2.

The D3 wizard seems designed for my style, since AFAIK, every single one of her skills is AoE, or at least single target with splash. And they don't look so overpowered that you'll just devastate monsters with a single cast. It looks like we'll be using multiple skills, and pretty much nonstop clicking. I like that, and I hope there's something with Instability that makes it rewarding to vary skills. I like having to use multiple skills against the same enemies.

I'd love a system where monsters took more damage from fire then ice then arcane then toxic, etc. Rather than just spamming the same skill or 2 over and over again; alternating damage types would yield better results. I don't expect to see it, but the principle is something that appeals to me and my preferred play style. Maybe Instability could cause the char to heat up, or slow down, or whatever the bad thing is, if you use the same skill multiple times in a row. If you keep alternating between skills, you can keep casting full speed, while you cast slower if you spam? I can hope, anyway.

[MonsterOfTheLake]

Is "the rest of the classes look positively ludicrous" an acceptable answer?

I do like the look of the wizard a lot. Glorious, metal long hair and a backstory of being indifferent and free-willed appeal to me; "No fate, only the power of will" and all that.

So while the other classes are ludicrous, I like the wizard not simply because it's the lesser of two (well, four) evils, but rather because he's, how do you say, metal.

Just for reference, my favorites in Diablo/Hellfire were the Warrior and the Bard, and D2 were the Druid, Necro, and the Barbarian. Until the 5th is revealed, the Wizard is my clear favorite in D3.

[Gagita]

I always loved magic and stuff...so it's a easy choice for meh