How to Play A Wizard (RoF - Current)
This guide is going to talk about how to play a Wizard from the Rain of Fear expansion until current (TBL) EQ. Since so much in EQ changes over the years this guide will not always be relevant; people reading it on a TLP server prior to say House of Thule will not be able to follow this guide since the class changes so much. Maybe one day in the distant future this guide will become out of date too and things will change again, that's the nature of EQ.
Wizards are an extremely easy class to play and they're arguably the best boxing class you can get since they put out a crap ton of DPS and you can do it all with just 3 or 4 keybinds. If you'd like to see how my interface is setup and the way I play, head on over to my Everquest Boxing Guides and you'll be able to view my setup there.
For an example of how much DPS I can do during a full burn I'd recommend you check out my Kissassist/Boxing DPS Guide or just view this parse here.
As for the guide, playing a caster in EQ usually has you use two different rotations. You're going to want to use one rotation while burning (when cooldowns are active) as well as one rotation when you're low on mana/when Cooldowns are down. Everquest is a game completely designed around cooldowns. Every raid and difficult mission is centered around and made easier by when and how you use your cooldowns, if you're wiping it's probably because you aren't burning at the right time or you're improperly using your cooldowns.
If you're doing crappy DPS it is also most likely caused by you using cooldowns improperly. There are of course situations where cooldowns do not matter as much, such as while you're killing enemies in the field and just leveling up or doing mercenary tasks yadda yadda. However, end game EQ has been centered around cooldown usage for as long as I can remember. If you've ever raided in EQ you probably already understand this and that's how this guide is setup - around this concept.
The idea is to get as much DPS out of your cooldowns as possible so you use your highest mana cost hardest hitting spells/abilities while they are active then when they're not active you switch to a rotation that uses a lot less mana & uses Claw so you can keep procing Harvest and restore your mana.
Rotation While Burning:
1. Ethereal Braid
2. Ethereal Skyfire
3. Ethereal Icefloe
4. Frostbound Alliance
+ Weave in Forces
((These are NOT cast orders for spells; just listing the spells to use))
Rotation While Not Burning:
1. Claw of Qunard
2. Ethereal Skyfire
3. Cloudburst Thunderbolt
4. Ethereal Braid
5. Frostbound Alliance
+ Weave in Forces
Reason for burn rotation choices: Your 3 Ethereals are the hardest hitting spells you got for a Wizard, especially Braid. As stated earlier while burns are active you're going to want to do the most damage as humanly possible and to do so you'll have to use your hardest hitting spells.
Reason for 'Mana Conserve' rotation ability choices: Claw of Qunard procs harvest. Ethereal Skyfire is the only 'maybe' ability in this rotation. If you're super duper low on mana you're not going to want to be wasting it on this spell. I keep it a part of my rotation anyway because I switch to the Mana Conserve rotation before I get to 20% mana which means I won't accidentally OOM myself by using this Ethereal. Cloudburst Thunderbolt (RoS version) is an instant cast ability which works well in this rotation - this is the only ability that I personally dispute but all of the top Wizards in the best guilds use this rotation and I trust their expertise over my own. Ethereal Braid One of your most mana costly spells but highest DPS ones. Much like with Skyfire if you're super low on mana you're not going to want to be wasting it on this spell... However if you're smart and you switch to the Mana Conserve rotation at 20 - 30% mana you won't ever run out even while using these two Ethereals.
Harvest to use: Quiescent Gambit. The reason you'll be using this harvest is because when you use the Claw spell it has a small chance of refreshing your Harvest. This is what I call procing harvest.
Now, with all of that out of the way let me show you what I believe is the best way to switch back and forth between these rotations whenever you want. I call it Hotbar Swapping and basically what it is, is setting up a keybind that switches your hotbar. This will allow you to cycle back and forth between different rotations while still using a keybind that you feel comfortable with.
I technically have 3 different rotations on my Wizards, a burn rotation, a mana conserve rotation and an AoE rotation. Ctrl + Num Pad 7 is how I switch to my Mana Conserve rotation, Ctrl + Num Pad . is how I switch to my burn/regular rotation and Ctrl + Num Pad 9 is how I switch to my AoE rotation.
Here is what my Hotbars look like; when I switch between rotations only ONE of these hot bars changes, the top one in each of these pictures. As you can see my forces as well as Frostbound Alliance & Ethereal Skyfire are on the hotbar below the top one. This is because no matter what rotation I am using I still want to use Frostbound Alliance, my forces and Ethereal Skyfire.
Burn Rotation:
Top Bar: Ethereal Icefloe, Ethereal Braid
Bottom Bar: Frostbound Alliance & Ethereal Skyfire
Mana Conserve Rotation:
Top Bar: Claw of Qunard, Ethereal Braid, Cloudburst Thunderbolt
Bottom Bar: Frostbound Alliance & Ethereal Skyfire
AoE DPS Rotation:
Top Bar: Wheel of Flame & Self-Combustion
Bottom Bar: Frostbound Alliance (the downside of putting Ethereal Skyfire on the bottom bar is it would be a part of your AoE rotation; I have some Wizards setup with Skyfire on the bottom bar and some not. I am in a constant state of experimenting)
For those that would like to mimic this setup, this is how my Wizards are setup in Keys under options:
Finally, the last bit of information that I can share with you about playing a Wizard is what burns I use.
Frenzied Devastation (/alt act 308)
Improved Twincast (/alt act 515)
Arcane Fury (/alt act 840)
Fundament: Second Spire of Arcanum (/alt act 1351)
Focus of Arcanum (/alt act 1211)
Fury of the Gods (/alt act 1150)
Silent Casting (/alt act 500)
Arcane Destruction is saved for when Frenzied Devastation is down and is usually combined with regular Twincast & Spire as a mini burn. If you're doing an extremely difficult mission or raid with two fights that you could burn then I like using Arcane Destruction, Second Spire and Regular Twincast in one situation and my full burns in another.
Synopsis of A Long Fight On Wizard
This section will give you an indepth detailed look at how a long fight will go while playing a Wizard. The only fights I know that last this long as TBL missions and raids - those of you reading this who aren't doing end game content will most likely defeat all bosses/missions during your full burn and never have to plan for what comes next. This section addresses what comes next.
After you use up all of your Improve Twincast charges you will want to use regular Twincast. Depending on your mana after regular Twincast fades that is when you will want to switch to the Mana Conserve rotation and start trying to proc harvest. This is also when you will want to use Forceful Rejuvenation and harvest twice as well.
If you get super lucky with multiple harvest procs and you get back up to 80 - 90% mana you can switch back to your burn rotation and DPS heavily again until you're closer to OOM even while burns are not active. To make things easier, here is what you will want to do laid out in some simple easy steps.
1. Full burn the enemy using the burns I mentioned above
2. When Improved Twincast fades used Spell Twincast
3. When Frenzied Devastation fades use Arcane Destruction
4. Whenever you reach 30% mana switch to Mana Conserve rotation