Haphazard
Sock Puppet
Charles Spurgeon once said "Beware of no one more than yourself" and this rings true in my estimation of the Wild Mage sub class. Of course Sophocles also said "No enemy is worse than bad advice" so take all this with a pinch of salt (edit: The first time I wrote this I wrote "punch of salt" which may be more appropriate).
First a little context. I have tried to keep this write up succinct and accessible but specific where possible. It's relatively agnostic in terms of player experience with the game - hopefully there are some nuggets of insight here for both newbies and veterans alike.
I am levelling a Dragonborn (Red) Wild Mage. I was going to play a Warforged for easy healing but chickened out at the last minute. More on that later.
This first post covers Levels 1-7 (well 3-7 really as I had some xp stones) but I'll add to the post/s as I progress. I play fairly casually so there may be gaps in between write-ups.
I'll be playing a mixture of R1 and Elite depending on my mood/how hard the quest is.
HEROIC
Lvls 1-3
On any build (without racial points) the first few levels are a matter of prudent enhancement point spending and gear is much less impactful. However, the Apprentice's Robe or Robe of Duality from Catacombs with minor arcane augmentation 1 means by level 2 you can have two effective AOE SLAs (CL 4) in your choice of elements and the new Chaos Bolt SLA. Choose Maximise as your feat and away you go. So far so not much different to any Sorc levelling but Chaos bolt is a nice addition to your rotation even if it's on a long cooldown at this stage. Mix in a 1st level damaging spell on a 2s cooldown for clean up like Chaos Bolt the spell or burning hands and you're good to go.
At the top of level 3 things really start to hot up for the Wild Mage. This comes courtesy of the Power in Chaos enhancement. Suddenly you have +2 caster and max caster level but can get bad or very bad surges even with Chaos control. This means your 1st level spells suddenly have a caster level of 6 (or 7 as soon as you can spare points into the savant trees or racial trees). This makes a big difference at level 3 and I found myself blasting through content with just Burning Hands and Acid Spray.
Lvls 4-5
An even bigger bump is just round the corner as, when you level to 4 you can afford to put a point or two in Chaos Sphere as well. Chaos Sphere is a lvl 3 AOE spell like Fireball but you're getting it at level 3 via the WM tree. What's more its a will save so always does some damage. Other savant trees don't have any SLAs at t3 and only level 2 spells when they get them at t4. So suddenly you have a powerful, rarely resisted SLA you can maximise (and maybe empower, I took quicken at 3rd) for room clearing. Very nice at this level.
Chaos Sphere does have a few problems; for those that have played Alchemists it casts a little like spell vials with accelerate enabled and has some weird targeting and collision issues. Sometimes at close range it doesn't go off which can be annoying and dangerous but on the whole it's really good and with Power in Chaos your have a CL7 AOE at 4th level.
Lvl 5 means a bump due to gear via Feywild kit but as that isn't really anything to do with the Wild Mage tree I won't dwell on it other than to say The Ring of Summer's Heat is nice for a Wild Mage using Fire as their main non-alignment element, freeing up weapon slots for other options like The Prince's/Queen's sceptres.
My intention was to aim for an Exalted Angel focused epic destiny build in epics. Most people seem to think EA is a poor tree after the u66 changes but it seems to fit well with WM for alignment/light synergy so I chose red dragonborn and will focus on fire spells as well as light/alignment. I'm heroics however, especially before I have the enhancement points I can be a bit more experimental with elements and acid and or cold feels like an option as well as fire (or lightning). So far, at least, I haven't felt the need for much cc as things die so easily but that will become more important soon. Lvl 5 feels good - slighter better than a normal Sorc for DPS - but I can already see I'll be missing the EK tree at some point.
Tried out cold (which really only means swapping spells and the one enhancement point from Fire to Water savant). Its pretty good. I miss the no aim for Scorch but Snowball swarm is fast and covers a big area. Also means Web is more viable. Niac's with the extra caster levels is pretty potent too. In fact I think it would be possible to get a CL of 9 for Niac's at 4th level with enough racial points. Probably not worth the effort given how quickly levels go by but fun to be able to crit for approx 600 at that level.
Lvls 6-7
Options increase with more enhancement points. 12pts in Wild Mage tree and 11pts in Water Savant allows a 3 ray Frost Lance (CL11). Lightning bolt is possibly still a better choice at this level for single target DPS (due to forking) but the fort save on Frost Lance is nice for high reflex opponents and reapers. The worst wild surges are beginning to grate a bit (especially The Pax).
I tried Prismatic Mind for the Greater Colour Spray damage and it was pretty good. If you're using GCS anyway for cc its a nice extra boost that means you can often use your non-meta'ed spells to finish off a group of enemies.
Lvls 8-11
Have played around with a few different set ups including more of a focus on Illusion/Force through PK and points in Feydark Illusionist. Works pretty well.
I am definitely getting more bad surges than good (see below). Sometimes I will get 5 or even 6 bad surges in a row - that never happens with good.
Lvls 12-13
The usual boost from getting t5 enhancements. A little better than usual given sorc t5 is usually a bit meh but not s much better. Wildstrike is a nice single target DPS and cc. Despite being a red dragonborn I'm specced into Air at the moment for Chain Lightning. CL 18 at Lvl12 which pretty much clears everything on Elite/R1. Chaos Sphere SLA is still effective as well so between the two of them most quests are a breeze. Biggest risk is still my own bad surges.
Have died three more times to bad surges. Once to Dance Party, once to Cat Nap and once to Personal Bad Weather even though I had full hits (on Reaper) as didn't notice my Prot Elements wasn't up. Dance party is the one I fear the most though especially in Reaper.
First a little context. I have tried to keep this write up succinct and accessible but specific where possible. It's relatively agnostic in terms of player experience with the game - hopefully there are some nuggets of insight here for both newbies and veterans alike.
I am levelling a Dragonborn (Red) Wild Mage. I was going to play a Warforged for easy healing but chickened out at the last minute. More on that later.
This first post covers Levels 1-7 (well 3-7 really as I had some xp stones) but I'll add to the post/s as I progress. I play fairly casually so there may be gaps in between write-ups.
I'll be playing a mixture of R1 and Elite depending on my mood/how hard the quest is.
HEROIC
Lvls 1-3
On any build (without racial points) the first few levels are a matter of prudent enhancement point spending and gear is much less impactful. However, the Apprentice's Robe or Robe of Duality from Catacombs with minor arcane augmentation 1 means by level 2 you can have two effective AOE SLAs (CL 4) in your choice of elements and the new Chaos Bolt SLA. Choose Maximise as your feat and away you go. So far so not much different to any Sorc levelling but Chaos bolt is a nice addition to your rotation even if it's on a long cooldown at this stage. Mix in a 1st level damaging spell on a 2s cooldown for clean up like Chaos Bolt the spell or burning hands and you're good to go.
At the top of level 3 things really start to hot up for the Wild Mage. This comes courtesy of the Power in Chaos enhancement. Suddenly you have +2 caster and max caster level but can get bad or very bad surges even with Chaos control. This means your 1st level spells suddenly have a caster level of 6 (or 7 as soon as you can spare points into the savant trees or racial trees). This makes a big difference at level 3 and I found myself blasting through content with just Burning Hands and Acid Spray.
Lvls 4-5
An even bigger bump is just round the corner as, when you level to 4 you can afford to put a point or two in Chaos Sphere as well. Chaos Sphere is a lvl 3 AOE spell like Fireball but you're getting it at level 3 via the WM tree. What's more its a will save so always does some damage. Other savant trees don't have any SLAs at t3 and only level 2 spells when they get them at t4. So suddenly you have a powerful, rarely resisted SLA you can maximise (and maybe empower, I took quicken at 3rd) for room clearing. Very nice at this level.
Chaos Sphere does have a few problems; for those that have played Alchemists it casts a little like spell vials with accelerate enabled and has some weird targeting and collision issues. Sometimes at close range it doesn't go off which can be annoying and dangerous but on the whole it's really good and with Power in Chaos your have a CL7 AOE at 4th level.
Lvl 5 means a bump due to gear via Feywild kit but as that isn't really anything to do with the Wild Mage tree I won't dwell on it other than to say The Ring of Summer's Heat is nice for a Wild Mage using Fire as their main non-alignment element, freeing up weapon slots for other options like The Prince's/Queen's sceptres.
My intention was to aim for an Exalted Angel focused epic destiny build in epics. Most people seem to think EA is a poor tree after the u66 changes but it seems to fit well with WM for alignment/light synergy so I chose red dragonborn and will focus on fire spells as well as light/alignment. I'm heroics however, especially before I have the enhancement points I can be a bit more experimental with elements and acid and or cold feels like an option as well as fire (or lightning). So far, at least, I haven't felt the need for much cc as things die so easily but that will become more important soon. Lvl 5 feels good - slighter better than a normal Sorc for DPS - but I can already see I'll be missing the EK tree at some point.
Tried out cold (which really only means swapping spells and the one enhancement point from Fire to Water savant). Its pretty good. I miss the no aim for Scorch but Snowball swarm is fast and covers a big area. Also means Web is more viable. Niac's with the extra caster levels is pretty potent too. In fact I think it would be possible to get a CL of 9 for Niac's at 4th level with enough racial points. Probably not worth the effort given how quickly levels go by but fun to be able to crit for approx 600 at that level.
Lvls 6-7
Options increase with more enhancement points. 12pts in Wild Mage tree and 11pts in Water Savant allows a 3 ray Frost Lance (CL11). Lightning bolt is possibly still a better choice at this level for single target DPS (due to forking) but the fort save on Frost Lance is nice for high reflex opponents and reapers. The worst wild surges are beginning to grate a bit (especially The Pax).
I tried Prismatic Mind for the Greater Colour Spray damage and it was pretty good. If you're using GCS anyway for cc its a nice extra boost that means you can often use your non-meta'ed spells to finish off a group of enemies.
Lvls 8-11
Have played around with a few different set ups including more of a focus on Illusion/Force through PK and points in Feydark Illusionist. Works pretty well.
I am definitely getting more bad surges than good (see below). Sometimes I will get 5 or even 6 bad surges in a row - that never happens with good.
Lvls 12-13
The usual boost from getting t5 enhancements. A little better than usual given sorc t5 is usually a bit meh but not s much better. Wildstrike is a nice single target DPS and cc. Despite being a red dragonborn I'm specced into Air at the moment for Chain Lightning. CL 18 at Lvl12 which pretty much clears everything on Elite/R1. Chaos Sphere SLA is still effective as well so between the two of them most quests are a breeze. Biggest risk is still my own bad surges.
Have died three more times to bad surges. Once to Dance Party, once to Cat Nap and once to Personal Bad Weather even though I had full hits (on Reaper) as didn't notice my Prot Elements wasn't up. Dance party is the one I fear the most though especially in Reaper.
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