Just a few observations (poor SP consumption aside), now that I'm leveling a wizard (solo leveling), after having reached ML on Warrior, Priest, Monk, Beastmaster, Ranger, and Knight:
1. Their weapon min-max damage is consistently half of a Ranger's bow (their closest competitor as a fellow ranged DPS right?) and much lower than all other classes I've leveled, except Priest (yet with the Priest's DoT skills, they seem to far outdamage the Wizard). I bypass the SP issue by spamming pots, but even then, the wizard is the slowest leveling character I seem to have. This could be a cast time issue, but if they cast faster, I probably wouldn't be able to keep up with the SP consumption with pots.
2. It seems to me that Meteor Storm is weaker than Arrow Shower, Brandish Storm, and Grand Cross. I'm guessing this is do to the weaker weapon. On top of that, the cast range seems to be smaller than that of Arrow Shower. I noticed that the Sorc's LoV is centered on them and easier to use, I wonder why Meteor Storm and Arrow Shower are different. The two step process of the latter two isn't fun to use.
3. When the game first came out, I really liked the Flame Explosion animation. I quit for a while and came back to find this new animation...The old one us much better.
4. Since day one, it's annoyed me that mage class (acolytes too) doesn't hold their rod/staff in their hand when casting. They look silly with those 7 foot staffs on their back while they hunch down to cast magic skills.
5. Inferno's range doesn't seem to be the same as Multishot's, though both are listed as 7m.
My suggestions:
1. Rod damage or skill damage should be buffed to compensate for the other. Rangers shouldn't be nerfed, but instead Wizards should be buffed to make them as fun to play as Rangers.
2. Give Meteor Storm a bigger AoE (they're wizards!), a longer range (though I'd prefer the LoV/Grand Cross/Brandish Storm self-centered approach), and let it stun enemies like it does in RO1.
3. Go back to the old animation!
4. I know this is much more involved as it may require completely redoing most of their animations, but c'mon, just do it and let mages funnel magic through the staff in their hand, not through weather vanes on their backs.
5. If it's really a bug then fix it, if not, then it's just on me to become more familiar with it. Maybe it's just that the animation is scaled much smaller than Multishot?
Edit: Oh wow, no one replied yet (though I did get two up-votes). I guess that means the wizard player base is kinda low. Having spent some more time on Wizard. I'd like to qualify/clarify some of my comments:
1. My comments were all based on leveling my wiz to 50 only. Having reached Master Level, I've found playing wizard to be much more enjoyable (double damage from the increase in damage that ML weapons do, and doubled again for elemental weaknesses). However, Wizards still seem to be doing less damage compared to Rangers of the same level. At the very least, I would suggest increasing pre-ML wizard weapons by 50% or even 100% so that reaching ML isn't so tedious.
4. The ML rod is even worse. The node/bone on the rod that tells the engine where to place the rod on the back is way too low on the rod, making it sit way too high on the avatar. When my wizard bends over to cast fireball, the top of the rod is close to touching the ground.
5. Bug or not, Inferno's AoE is way too small and the cooldown is way too long IMO. Even disregarding the miserable DoT caused by it.
Edited by Akin, 02 May 2014 - 10:54 PM.