AKFrost's Solo Wizard Guide

Classic guides relating to Jobs, many of these are from the TWDomo forums. Please note that these guides are extremely old, and may not be relevant to the current game. They are preserved here for archival purposes.
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Leirosa
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AKFrost's Solo Wizard Guide

Post by Leirosa »

Original Author: AKFrost
Retrieved from Aeria by Angitia. Missing portion retrieved by Leirosa.

September 2017: Images Rehosted.
AKFrost wrote:Why Solo?
Solo has 4 advantages:

More control over your leveling: If something happens, you don't need to say goodbye, ask for a rep, and wait until the team's safe before you leave. (Well, you don't need to in a party either, but that'll reflect poorly on your character). Also, if you party, it is generally expected that you can stay for at least an hour in the party. If you can't devote that much time (and frequently, you can't because you devoted a lot of time forming the party), then you're better off soloing.

More choices in mobs: Your generic AoE mob has high HP, high EXP per mob, and is usually grouped together for an easier pull. There's only a few of such spots in the game.
Grape Globs in Town-Hall (Kinda early for any AoE party)
Caskmasters in Inn (1 -3 spots)
Male Birds of Paradise in PT. (1 - 3 spots)
Crimson Globs and Man-Eating Zombies in NT (Technically, Glob is a low HP mob, but it has a high exp ratio and there's a lot of them). (1 glob, 1-2 zombie spots)
Bandit Chefs in GG (1-3 spots)
Moth Kings in Box (Almost nobody uses this one)
Fugitives in Pandora's Grotto and maybe CC2 (2-3 spots)
Iron Hedgehogs in Foggy (2-3 spots)
Menacing Minotaur Soldiers in TGT (2-3 spots)
Flying Noisy Snakes and Bandit Chiefs in den (2-3 FNS spots, 1 chief spot)

So, not only do you need to find an AoE team, you also need to find a spot. Whereas soloing, there's almost no such concern. Any place can be a solo spot if you're good enough, and many times your solo spot will be nowhere near party spots, rarely resulting in your need to share.

More skill intensive, and thus more challenging and fun: Anybody fighting needs to satisfy 3 requirements: Need to keep self safe, need to deal damage to the enemy, and need to find new enemies to fight as soon as the previous one bites the dust. In a party, that is distributed across 6 people. Merc, doc and muse keeps party safe, aoer does damage, and puller finds new enemies. Soloing, you need to do all 3, which make it a much more challenging and fun experience for those that like a challenge. You can be a decent AoEr if you know how to click the buttons in the correct order, and usually, that's not fun, it's boring.

Not dependent on party skill: When a party is bad, it is BAD. EXP will be slow if at all, you will see meteor showers, and it will feel like pulling teeth.

Why solo wizard?
Yes, wizard is considered one of the best AoErs in the game, if not -the- best. It seems hardly intelligent to sacrifice that to solo. However, like point 3 I have put in the previous section, it is much less satisfying if you leveled to cap just clicking buttons in a party.

Wizard may look like being more party-oriented with its 6 aoe's, however, that doesn't make its single-target nukes any less valid. Scorching Scroll is one of the most efficient damage spells in the game. Lightning Runes and Secret Charm of Searing Flame boast high DPS and DPM, Secret Charm of Rolling Thunder is one of the strongest spells in the game in terms of pure, unadulterated, single-target damage.

Wizard's soloing power is extremely strong, and your nukes will be able to eat chunks of HP from mobs with impunity.

Before Reading on. Keep this in mind:
You're playing the game, not training on the game nor getting played by the game.

Just because I threw some ideas out here, doesn't mean you need or should follow them to the letter. This is your game, it's you that makes it fun.

Stat Builds
There's 3 main schools of thought on this. Before that, however, I will introduce what each stat does for wizard.
If you don't understand my abbreviations, I have them spelled out here
POW: POW boosts the ATK stat. the ATK stat has nothing to do with your skills, only your physical attack. A wizard is not meant to use physical attacks. Not recommended.
PHY: PHY boosts your HP, SHPR, DEF, MDEF, and B in minuscule amounts. It doesn't help you kill faster and only make you somewhat more durable. Not recommended.
WIS: WIS boosts your MP, SMPR, MATK, MDEF, and ATK. Now we're talking. More MP and SMPR means more spells cast. More MATK means more damage dealt. MDEF is extremely useful against caster mobs. ATK is just a bonus, pretty much. Strongly Recommended
AGI: AGI boosts your EVA, MEVA and ATK, and decreases your CT and CD. EVA and MEVA both are defensive stats, meaning if you're going a more careful way, you'd want them. CT and CD reduction means your spells will be cast faster and cool faster (reduce up to 1/3rds of the original time). This has been shown to increase DPS, but will hurt your DPM. Consider Carefully.
DEX: DEX boosts your ACC, MACC, MATK, and CRIT. ACC and CRIT are only relevant in physical attacks. the MATK boost ins miniscule. MACC can be compensated by stats from wand and/or onyxes. Plus Wizard spells themselves have very high innate accuracy. Not Recommended
DUR: DUR boosts your DEF. While DEF certainly contributes to your survival rate, surviving longer without firepower just delays your death, not prevent it. Not Recommended

With that, I'll present the thoughts.
The 3 WIS school of thought
Simply put, you invest all your points into WIS. The advantage to this build is you'll have the maximum amount of MP, MATK, and MDEF possible. The main concerns about this school of thought are slow spells and Low to no physical survivability. Since, wizard spells are by nature pretty slow, meaning while you cast, you're vulnerable to attack. Having no innate DEF, and robes being the weakest in term of DEF, your wizard will be extremely vulnerable to physical attack. The way this is countered is by using some kind of disable skill to prevent the enemy from attacking you, or fight monsters using magic attacks, which will bounce harmlessly off of your high MDEF.

The 103 AGI school of thought
This school of thought invests all points into AGI until AGI reaches 103 and then puts the rest in WIS, which is the maximum amount of CT and CD reduction available. The advantage to this build is you'll have the fastest spellcasting possible, as well as a higher rate of damage not considering MP. Roughly estimated, this build deals ~8% more damage than the 3 WIS build, but conversely the SMPR is ~16% less efficient than the 3 WIS build. It has a higher EVA stat, making melee monsters less of an annoyance. The downside is that because each Wizard nuke (not counting Chant of Impure Thoughts) costs scrolls. Using casting speed to balance the reduced marginal damage will be more costly.

The 58 AGI school of thought
This school of thought invests all points into AGI until AGI reaches 58 and puts the rest in WIS, which is the maximum amount of CT reduction available. The advantage to this build is you'll have higher marginal damage than the 103 AGI build, while having the fastest marginal casting available. Roughly estimated, this build has neither 3 WIS's MP efficiency nor 103 AGI's damage efficiency.

However, everyone approaches the game differently. Ultimately, these builds are not something you should follow to the letter. If you feel your def is lacking, throw in some DUR, if you want more HP or MACC, throw in some PHY or DEX.

Skill Builds
A full list of skills and their stats are provided here: Wizard Skills. I will provide the general comments.
Scrollcasting:
ImageScorching Scroll: Max this one. This is the most efficient nuke you will have.
ImageExplosive Runes: People disagree on its use as an AoE. It's not something a solo wizard would need to consider.
ImageLightning Runes: Max this one as well. This is the most MP efficient nuke you have. It also has a high amount of power even at the early levels, making it easily the MVP of your soloing.
ImageToppling Tremor: This is a must-have for AoE wizard. You may want to invest in this AoE if you want to farm. Not essential, but its movement disable may come in handy if you're getting surrounded.
ImageAcid Rain Scroll: This is the most efficient AoE in the Wizard Arsenal; however, its long CD, overkill damage, and scroll cost make it a poor choice for farming.
ImageSecret Charm of Searing Flame: Max. This is basically another Lightning Runes. It is slightly more costly in both scroll and MP departments and becomes slightly weaker, but don't pass on it. You will want its power when LR is in CD.
ImageSecret Charm of Shrieking Demons: The -worst- spell ever. If you for some reason took Explosive, do not get this one at all. It sounds cool, it looks big and expensive, but the damage and effect is just junk.
ImageSecret Charm of Rolling Thunder (RT): This monster of a spell is basically Lightning Runes and Secret Charm of Searing Flame put together. RT is one of the most damaging of all spells in the game. It however is very MP costly, which means for most of your solo career, it will be overkill and unnecessary. It serves well as a spell of last resort, but will not prove its worth until very late into the game.
ImageSecret Charm of Thorns: This spell is also an AoE, and requires level 4 Toppling Tremor, making it unattractive for solo wizard. It gives a severe ASPD debuff, however, which can save your life if you're getting surrounded.
ImageSpeeding Ticket: A MSPD boost, this spell is not a must have, but since it's a nice effect and eats little SP or MP, recommend maxing.

Spellcasting
ImageChant of Impure Thoughts: It is roughly equivalent to a Shaman nuke. Invest in this spell if you have nothing better to spend on. Note this spell eats a lot of CT, and it requires spamming to be useful, making it not a good choice.
ImageWarning Warble: Berated for its crap damage by many and loved for its low CD by others, this is a spell that you may want to invest in if you use aoe's to farm a lot. If not, it's not really something you need to consider.
ImageStalling Chant: This is a neat little trick. It has a high range, making it a good "mock" for aoe farming. It slows your enemies down, giving you a chance to escape. Investment is not advised, but you might find putting a few points into it will be nice.
ImageCataclysmic Converter (CC): Highly berated for its HP cost and self-targeting nature, this is the most effective MP regen for casters, hands down. Max this spell, and use it often.
ImageChant of Liberation: Level 1 is conditionally useful. Movement disable by mobs rarely last longer than the time for you to cast it, attack disable is useless for you, but might be needed for a friend, skill disable for you means you can't use this spell. Level 2 is good for PvP, for PvE it's no MVP due to the 30 sec CD.
ImageImageImageImageImageSecret of the Spirits: If you get one, you might as well max it. Personally, the most useful spirit is Water, then Wood, Earth, Metal, and Fire.
Magical Skills
ImageEquip Robe: This will help your non-robe classes immensely against magic mobs, but it's not essential.
ImageFinding Enlightenment: Increases your magic damage. Yeah, get it.

Subs
Keep in mind that wizard requires your sub to be at most five levels lower than your main in order to be effective.

Jobs to consider
Shaman: Shaman has the most synergy with wizard. The two jobs have the exact same stat build, and uses the exact same equipment. Practically any situation that applies to shaman applies to wizard as well. The flip side to this job is you practically have to level the same job twice, which is twice as repetitive.

Doctor: All solo wizards needs one doc skill sub, because you will take damage, and you will need to heal yourself. Doctor subbing equip wand and shaman/wizard nukes is also practically the same as a wizard/shaman.

Musician: The ruby pet musician's output at lower levels pales in comparison to Shaman nukes, as the CT is not an issue at lower levels, and you can't force your ruby to cast a spell. In the higher levels however, CT becomes a limiting factor for damage, and the ruby will outgrow Shaman nuke's usefulness. Musician also has Transfusion Tune, which is a MP recovery spell to consider.

Dancer: Different Dances will become extremely useful at later levels. In the early levels, it's not stellar. Fan Dance is a favorite early leveler for Chinese DOMO players. They practically level all jobs to 30 with Fan Dance. Whether it's worth the trouble or not is your call.

Thief: You pretty much only need 2 skills from here: Control Breathing and Rhythm of Life. Premonition and Fighting Foresight gives you slight bonuses which may or may not be useful.

Fencer: Targeted attacks will come in handy early on, as wizard don't have disables like shaman does, however, you will find that the usage for this sub to diminish over time as mobs become bigger and bigger.

Blademaster: To 30 is fine. The only thing you want from this job is Equip Light Armor

Mercenary: To 30 is fine. The only thing you want from this job is Equip Shield.

Full SP Commitments
These are subs that if you decide to use, you must spend at least 80% of your SP in this sub and/or maxed, whichever one is less, in order for it to be useful.
Shaman Seasonal Magic - Get the five spells from the first page, maxed. The AoE's you may or may not want. These five spells will significantly raise your wizard's power. Almost nothing will survive a full volley of shaman and wizard nukes unless it's an AoE mob or one of the high-HP snakes in Dragon's Den.

Shaman Nature Magic - While this isn't a stellar choice given how great Seasonal Magic is, Nature does offer significant damage boosts in the form of summer sun and deep heat. Spring Cleaning will give you another MP regen. Heavy Frost, Malicious Mirror and Choking Climber will keep you safe for the most part.

Shaman Shaman Skills - Mega Magic. Some love it, some hate it. Offers you up to a permanent 40% MP boost for 24 SP, this may allow you to skip over Mega Magic Boost on Doctor altogether. Yin-Yang Transform is free and offers a miniscule bonus to CC, MP pots, and TT. Whether it's worth the trouble to level Mega Magic for it or not is up to you.

Doctor Croakus Pocus - The Quintessential SP eater. This sub alone will drain almost all of your doctor's SP. Skills that you must have are Frog's Leg Soup, Yin Frog, Frog Forcefield, Yang Frog, Prolong Life, and Soup of Self-Preservation. Mega Magic Boost is strongly recommended. There are a few ways to go about this. Many decide to dump all their points into Croakus and deal with not having Inner Magic. Others hold off on maxing Croakus for a more even growth of all spells, saving IM. Still others sacrifice all of Mega Magic Boost until Dragon's Den when they could commit cash to Doctor Springs, as Mega Magic Boost will only be relevant then when you need a higher MP bar to take down a Flying Noisy Snake.

Doctor Medical Knowledge - Equip Syringe. You need this to power most of your Croakus spells and some of the option Medical Treatment spells.

Musician Pet Sounds - As stated before, eventually, the fully buffed ruby's power will eclipse Shaman Seasonals. This is also a strong sub worth investing in. There is no necessity to get Musical Magic at all if you decide to go pet muse, and you do want all your points to maximize this sub's potential.

Dancer Different Dances - Not useful until very late in the game, this sub is useful when fighting big monsters and bosses.

Dancer Fan Dances - As said before, this and equip Fan would practically allow you to raise all jobs to 30 in the exact same fashion. It isn't recommended for soloing, but if you think you want to skip over the lower levels quickly, it's something to consider.

Low SP Commitments
These are subs that you may only want one or two spells.
Fencer Targeted Attacks - You only need the first 2 spells, and you may decide to throw out second page altogether. The consideration is that considering how much SP Elemental Attacks on Fencer will consume, you may not be able to commit many points into this set.

Thief Close Combat - If you're an 103 AGI build (or even 58 AGI), you can boost your MP recovery considerably by investing in Control Breathing and Rhythm of Life. These are skills which a regular thief should have maxed anyway, making this sub something you don't need to tailor to wizard for.

Musician Musical Magic - Practically, the only useful skill in this whole set is Transfusion Tune, which sacrifices a significant portion of your HP and turns it into MP. This is also something to consider with a heavily AGI build, as the CD reduction would make this skill attractive for MP recovery. Keep in mind that TT requires you to raise Mystic Mantra for every level up to Level 10, which is 20 SP on muse that would serve you no purpose, and also requires Equip Musical Instrument, which is another 15 SP commitment.

Doctor Medical Treatment - You only need 1, at most 2-3 spells, from this set. First Aid heals. Regeneration's power diminishes over time as it doesn't scale with your HP, but Level 11 could be very useful as it regenerates 75% of your HP over 30 seconds. Inner Magic is a strong MP regenerator (but not the best). Optional spells are the two heists for additional damage, Detox for certain mobs, and Ultimate Healing because of its fast cast time.

Blademaster Blademaster Skills: - Equip Light Armor will make you somewhat more survivable, however, it's not necessary.

Mercenary Mercenary Skills: - Equip Shield will make you somewhat more survivable, however, it's not necessary. Equip Heavy Armor and Equip Shield is immensely useful on Pet Muse if you choose to not use swipe.

Example Builds
Seasonal Magic + Medical Treatment + Shaman Skills + Medical Knowledge - I diverted points from Spring Cleaning into Shaman AoE's because I have Inner. I also maxed Scrollcasting except for Shrieking Demons. The bonus to this build is it is capable of serving as an AoEr if needed. The down-side to this build is the lack of any kind of mob control, meaning you'll need to use ASWD movement intensively to prevent damage.

Seasonal Magic + Croakus Pocus + Shaman Skills + Medical Knowledge - This was my standard build for a while. I threw out the AoE's completely since now I don't have access to Inner on Shaman. I put most of my points from the wizard AoE's into Spirits.

Pet Sounds + Croakus Pocus + Shaman Skills + Medical Knowledge - Significantly more powerful in the mid 5x range with a similarly leveled ruby.

Seasonal Magic + Medical Treament + Blademaster Skills + Mercenary Skills - More of a Party Build, this makes you more durable than the first build, while taking away Mega Magic's MP boost and the ability to use syringes. If you train at places which you don't need UH or Detox, you may want to consider this build. The down-side to this is still there isn't any kind of Mob Control.

Nature Magic + Medical Treatment + Shaman Skills + Medical Knowledge - Sacrificing the raw damage from Seasonal for Nature's mob control, this build is more "safe" than seasonal builds, however, it will cut your damage output considerably. Having SC and CC at the same time, on the other hand, will save you from having to sit a lot more.

Nature Magic + Croakus Pocus + Shaman Skills + Medical Knowledge - SS is redundant with Soup of Self-Preservation, but this will have Yin to boost your magic power, as well as more defensive spells to prevent you from dying.

Nature Magic + Medical Treatment + Blademaster Skills + Mercenary Skills - Highly defensive build. You will have mob control as well as a high amount of defense at your disposal.

Close Combat + Medical Treatment + Blademaster Skills + Mercenary Skills - AGI build will compensate with the lack of Seasonal by casting more spells, and this requires CB and RoL, which is dependent on only CD. Premonition and Fighting Foresight may come in handy as well.

Close Combat + Croakus Pocus + Shaman Skills + Medical Knowledge - This allows you to deal more damage than the above build and compensate for the lack of def somewhat by offering mob control in Soup of Self-Preservation as well. Having a higher MP pool is also nice.

Musical Magic + Medical Treatment + Medical Knowledge + Bardship - An alternative to CB and RoL is Transfusion Tune. Essentially the same build as above, this build may also allow you to join AoE parties as a muse if you invested heavily into Musical Magic.

Targeted Attacks + Medical Treatment + Blademaster Skills + Mercenary Skills - A more roguish build, This build uses Targeted attacks instead of Nature for mob control. You have more options (3 instead of 2) but the 20% class proficiency also hurts.

Targeted Attacks + Croakus Pocus + Shaman Skills + Medical Knowledge - Pretty much equivalent to the above build. The existence of Soup of Self-Preservation makes Targeted some what redundant, but nevertheless this build will have more damage and more MP.

Other builds are for you to explore on your own. Again, this is a game that you should play and enjoy. Finding out what works and what doesn't is half of the fun.

Job Proficiency
Job Proficiency simply diminishes the duration of any buff by the percentage, and increase HP/MP costs and CD by that percentage.

A chart of Job Proficiencies can be found here

Sub Level Difference Penalty

You may find details here.

Elemental Interactions
Metal > Wood > Earth > Water > Fire > Metal.
Wizard Spells Have very low Elemental Attack.

You may find details here.

Training Spots
Practically, anything you can blast effectively with your nukes without taking much damage will be a good choice. For a soloist without armor equips, consider:

10-15: Anywhere is fine, go around, blast some monsters, have some fun.
16-18: Little Eyes (Farrell Family Crypt). If you're unable to find a safe spot, wander more. EXP is still fast as usual.
19-21: Noddy Stones (Placid Plains), They hit sorta hard, but you can down them easily with a shaman spell or two.
22-26: Female Birds of Paradise (Phoenix Tower)
27-33: Stubborn Stones (Grassgreen Square). If you can find a safe spot, also consider Ice Zombies(NT)
33-36: Audrey Offspring (Grassgreen Square + Blakatoa). It might look tough, but it's slow. A few Scrolls + Seasonal spells should be able to take him out before he reaches you. If you can't finish it off, run a bit. Note that as a blade, even one hit from it will hurt. If you can find a safe zone, consider Ghost (Longstone Woods)
37-39: Junior Wizard (Quintuple Manor). Go to the back door.
40-42: Mid-Wiz (Quintuple Manor). Use Scorching Scroll to pull the Mid-Wiz through the wall and kill him without worrying about aggro.
43-48: Tawny Tims (Town-God Temple). You can consider Female Stonefish in Canute Canal 2, but it's hard to find a safe place.
48-54: Noisy Snake (Dragon's Den).
55-56: Flying Noisy Snake (Dragon's Den).

Mobs to Avoid:
Any Musician Mob (Check the job by clicking on the mob, then hover your mouse over the little pop-up window with the face and the HP bar). They have heavy, heavy MDEF. Your spells will only tickle them, and they don't offer high EXP.
Any Dancer Mob. They have heavy, heavy MEVA, and their EXP is usually not too steller.
Any VIP mob. They have heavier than usual HP, and will take many more spells to take down. Most are physical mobs, and will give you a beating even armored.

Other Concerns
Life Quests
Level 20. Get 6 burial bands. Head to Darkdale and findthe marker on the bottom-left corner. Go there, follow the instructions, pwn the monsters, and you'll be done. This quest isn't easy, so you may want to hold off doing it until later. Your wiz shouldn't be low on points this early anyway.
Level 30. Darkdale again, talk to them, head to Giantwood Forest. Find girl in the middle, talk to girl, kill everything, and you're done. Same as above. You might want to find a tree and a pet to help you out.
Level 40. Same as every other job's. Go to Eversun and find the Wiz Qualfiier, head to Collington and watch cutscene. Head to Copperhorn and fly to the lake, kill rat. Head to Placid and go near heather the florist (to the left), kill rat. Go to Swan Lake Basin and head to near the FFK, kill rat. Go to Blakatoa and head to the bridge, kill rat. Go to Grassgreen Square and head towards Harry Hare, kill rat. Go to Collington and watch cutscene, and you'll be done.

Money
Yes, wizard is expensive. If you care about trivial things such as costumes and such, it is not recommended to start out on wizard unless you have patience. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Scrolls: Buy them from Bennies, seriously. The time you save yourself from farming scrolls and/or browsing eversun or shouting for scrolls will let you farm for more than enough of the money you lost back. Unless you have nothing but scrolls on you, it's not time efficient to run all the way back to town to replenish. There are Bennies all over the place, and 5 for a scroll is not unreasonable. Also, don't save them. You're much better served Searing Flaming something to death than waiting for LR to cool. The durability loss resulting from getting hit more will more than offset any costs you save on scrolls.
Farming: Use either your single-target shaman nukes (if you don't have them, I hope you have a job that can kill for free then), or aoes (Tremor/thorns is fine because of low scroll usage). Keep in mind that you're only likely to get at most 30k per hour unbadged while farming, so money will not just come rolling in with a snap of your fingers.

Weapon/Armor
Any wand is fine really. The Level 33 Family might be a but low on the MATK, but it does give you a hefty MACC and MP boost. There's no wrong way to skin this cat.
Armor, you can pretty much afford to replace every set up to 30. I suggest you then do the field quests for the slotted sets so you can get some onyx power. You can live with level 40 armor if you're lazy, but 45 and 50 will help somewhat more. Highr level gear in this game doesn't make that much of a difference either way.

How to Party
Basically, your generic party build is max all sham and wizard AoE, sub SC, CC, LA and Shield, find party, throw out AoE's non-stop til you run out of MP and/or SC/CC stops cooling, and you'll be good. There's a few tricks here or there like lowering spell levels if your merc can't pull aggro that well, or aoeing before merc mocks, but it's not that essential. If a party sucks, you alone can't do anything to stop it from sucking.

Thanks for reading, and have fun.
Catbark
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2022 8:38 pm

Re: AKFrost's Solo Wizard Guide

Post by Catbark »

Thanks mate, these dusty guides really help
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