Druids vs. Wizards

[Green Raven]

It seems to me that druids just outclass wizards in every way.
1) More variety of spells, including AOE, healing, and summons
2) Shapeshift form.
3) No reliance on grimore

[MattStriker]

Druids don't get anywhere near as much in terms of crowd control and debuffs, which seems to be the main niche of the wizard.

[Macro]

hmm even a high level wizzard is kinda useless compared to a Druid.

the high level spells of the wizzard aren't that impressive.

it feels sometimes your wizard is missing something while the druid rocks.

[†Diablo†]

I like the druid also much better, he just has much better damage spells and a pinch it can also transform into an animal and go into combat ... the sorcerer class, the developers have screwed up really, rarely seen such a bad magician class makes no fun to play with.

[Sugam]

I dont know about the druid, but my mage goes into the frey with 140 deflection and murders whole groups. Ill say this much though, the wizard is the hardest class to use correctly.

[katzenkrimis]

A wizard? What is that?

Never seen one in my party before.

[Set]

Confusion is reason enough to have a wizard in your party.

[CyrilSneer]

Yeah I love my wizard too, took me a while to accept that he is not the damage dealer I hired him to be but he is very nice when it comes to debuffs.

[>_o]

I don't understand the Wiz hate, my Wizard is amazing. I think people are just picking the wrong spells or something. For a start, Combusting Wounds ability can win any fight by itself. All you do is use that on the main targets and then have everyone auto attack them and they drop dead in seconds. The level 1 spell Jolting Touch does not even need to be aimed and will jump automatically to other targets and does good damage. The most OP spell in the game is the level 2 spell Ray of Fire. You cast it on an enemy and then you can walk your wizard around making sute it hits the maximum number of targets that get stuck in the ray of fire, and it does huge damage. And then 3+ they get even better stuff still, Fireball etc. Boom. Are you picking Might on your Wizards? I don't see the issue.

My Druid is good too but the first 3 levels with him give you no targetable spells, only AoE's which you have to be careful with and often aren't as useful. And the shapeshift is useless because he can't cast spells while shapeshifted and yet he can't even tank in that form either. He takes slightly less damage than normal so it's better than nothing but Wizard's have mirror image and equivalents anyway.

I'd say the two are pretty even. That's why I have both in my team.

[Matthew]

1) Variety of AoE's is pointless, you'll end up ignoring most of them. The large, foe AoE's are weak on damage; the decent AoE's are bound by the same limitations as Wizard AoE's. Using summons means not using Blizzard, Calling of the World's Maw, and Moonwell. Why would you gimp yourself?
2) Arcane Assault > Shapeshift
3) Minor annoyance.

Tier 1 Wizard is comparable to Tier 1 Druid.
Tier 2 Wizard is not that great, but a paraylize and will check blind makes it serviceable. Tier 2 Druid is amazing.
Tier 3 Wizard dominates Tier 3 Druid.
Tier 4 about equal.
Tier 5 and 6 Wizard is pretty damn good. In fact I was pretty disappointed with late-game Druid--felt like they peaked early, then tapered off rather quickly in power. Sure, Plague of Instects and Rot Skull are decent, but then you look at stuff like Sunlance vs. Piercing Blast. Like WTF? Minus the 20m range, it has longer cast time, less damage, single target, no DR bypass. What is this doing on Tier 6?

Really, the two classes are much more equal than people seem to realize. Against basic trash mobs they both do similar amounts of damage and similar status effects. Against big boss type encounters, Wizard falls into a damage/debuff role (which they do far better than Druid, which lacks in the single-target damage) and the Druid falls into more of a support role with Moonwell and heals.

[feralgal]

Originally posted by JD:

My Druid is good too but the first 3 levels with him give you no targetable spells, only AoE's which you have to be careful with and often aren't as useful. And the shapeshift is useless because he can't cast spells while shapeshifted and yet he can't even tank in that form either. He takes slightly less damage than normal so it's better than nothing but Wizard's have mirror image and equivalents anyway.

I'd say the two are pretty even. That's why I have both in my team.

I don't get the wizard hate either. I think they are very good. However, I can cast with my druid when she's spiritshifted. I often do. I don't have any problems with the AoE spells and use them frequently in hard fights (the only time I use spells from any of my casters). The cone ones require positioning, just like the wizard's cone spells, but other than that I don't see the problem, especially if you have high intellect (so a large foe only area). Casting while spirtshifted helps that bc I'm in melee anyway and near the foes I want to target. The bear is a decent tank if you want to build your druid that way.

[Ranfle]

Do druids have petrifications spell? If not, I'll take wizard anytime.

[zorlag]

Do druids have risky cheese like Rolling Fire or Crackling Bolt? You know, rebounding spells that can deal damage multiple times if you bounce them at right angle over enemy groups. Of course, these spells can also crush your own group with some bad bounces... :)

[Handbanana]

I do feel like the wizards spells need to have a little boost to their damage. I mean thats what wizards are supposed to do blow ♥♥♥♥ up but they don't feel like thats what they do in this game.

[feralgal]

Originally posted by Ranfle:

Do druids have petrifications spell? If not, I'll take wizard anytime.

I'm not that far into the game but I only know of one and it does not always petrify so the wizard's is better. However, there are scrolls of petrification (and rolling flames, fireball, fan of flames, confusion, moonwell, insect swarm, stag's horn, and quite a few others) that anyone with a lore of 6 (maybe 8) can use. Durance had 7 lore when I got him so even if it takes 8 Lore, it would be easy to get him to 8 if you don't have it on your main. Kana has very high lore if you have him in your party.

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by feralgal:

I'm not that far into the game but I only know of one and it does not always petrify so the wizard's is better. However, there are scrolls of petrification (and rolling flames, fireball, fan of flames, confusion, moonwell, insect swarm, stag's horn, and quite a few others) that anyone with a lore of 6 (maybe 8) can use. Durance had 7 lore when I got him so even if it takes 8 Lore, it would be easy to get him to 8 if you don't have it on your main. Kana has very high lore if you have him in your party.

Well you can make scrolls for divine spells too. Petrify is pretty broken. It's basically an instant win.