I just completed a solo run as the wizard on hard with no extra lives and no mana regen challenges turned on. The entire run was completed without actually using my mana. While the success of the run was surprising spamming my fireball the entire time, I feel like maybe I was overlooking an important aspect of the Wizard's mana consuming utilities. To shed some light on it, here are my rationals for skipping the extra spells:
FLAME BREATH:
- sucks up mana ridiculously fast
- barely does more damage then the basic fireball
- greatly obscures the view of what enemies are doing
- can't move while using it
Not being able to move was the main gripe, as standing still against enemies is practically a death sentence for every class on hard mode
FROST NOVA:
- No damage
- Snaring never felt necessary
- Good utility effect for the price
- Further upgrades not so good for the price
The advantage of the snare does make sense for lagging online play or a more aggressive/reckless play stile. It's still easily ignored with smart maneuvering.
METEOR:
- High mana cost
- High gold investment
- Must stand still briefly
- Limited boss usefulness
- upgrades come really late
This spell is fun. It's incredibly satisfying to blow up the entire screen. Act 4 especially has many situations where it could be a big help. What feels lacking is the sense of synergy.
The best example I can give is the Priest. At the start of the game, beam has the advantage of higher damage to a single target and better range then the basic attack. The priest also suffers NO movement penalty from this. It becomes clear pretty quickly that that priest is a character that will need to invest heavily in mana to be effective. This is continued with the drain circle, which is a huge boost to offensive power. Even the slow aura has a sense of utility in combination with the rest of the priest's arsenal.
The wizard, however, I was met with an almost immediate sense of "Well this is junk" when trying to make flame breath work. Frost nova doing no damage just made enemies take longer to get into fire ball range, and of course doesn't work the one thing you'd really like it to: bosses. Combine with how fragile the wizard is and having to stand still for every damaging attack, the natural progression focused on the fireball itself and being durable enough to survive a mistake. Then 2/3 to 3/4 through the game you're suddenly introduced to Meteor with basically no investment in mana to use it. In fact, if you somehow never got a two +10 mana boosts through the first half of the game, you won't even be able to cast meteor until you buy a mana upgrade!
The TL:DR version
Flame Breath - Feels pointless because of high mana cost/rooted to cast
Frost Nova - helpful to unlock, poor good investment for further upgrades
Meteor - Holy crap amazing! but really feels like a gimmick super move then an actual combat option due to poor synergy with other mana based attacks, high gold investment, and late arrival.
I'm a habitual min/maxer with a tendency towards sustained DPS, and focusing gold towards fireball damage, combo, and enough durability to survive a mistake keeps winning out every time I try to play the wizard. There you have it.
So what am I missing?
The benefits of team play perhaps so you can be more of a glass cannon?
Have I grossly underestimated the power of flame breath?
Does chill do something else on top of slowing movement speed?
I'd really like to try something else on the wizard, but any attempts to beef up his spells just ends in death, frustration, and relying on fireball anyway because I'm out of mana again.
