Waffle_Goblin
Waffle_Goblin How do wizards have the highest APM in the game? I hope you're not talking about runes because those are optional.
The Incantations are indeed optional. However, if you're really trying to play at the class's higher ceiling, I would argue they are not as optional as you think. And I've already discussed how many buttons per mob you're pressing on average for that anyway; let's dive deeper into this then.
At first glance, yes, they look optional. But we have been given a number of nukes and spells with the rework. We also got 4 debuffs for magic, fire, cold, and electric. These are also the 4 spell schools and damage types we utilize, among others. In a scenario where you want some standard spells on your bar, I would argue you'd miss out on useful spells if you tried to fit everything on there.
1 - Arcane/Fire Volley (You need to cast this fairly often, so it needs a space)
2 - Fireball/Iceblast (This is your big nuke; the DPM on it is very close to surge/volley so you should have it on the bar as a primary damage source)
3 - Arcane/Lighting Surge (This should be your "workhorse" mana-efficient nuke line, even though it's not really that mana efficient compared to Fireball/Iceblast/Volley; it's useful for the interrupt + spell casting speed debuff on mobs while nuking them)
4 - Insidious debuff (You need to break their resists, and in this setup there's really only room on the bar for one of these now. You could leave off Fireball/Iceblast, I suppose, and put a second one on your bar, but then you're taking away from your DPS, which is your only role)
5 - Root (Rooting + Knockback are how we help CC things when needed; this needs to stay on the bar)
6 - Blink (This will save you more often than you think; it also can buy time for members of the group to assist)
7 - Knockback (Another useful CC ability that wizards have and need to use to help out when things get hairy; even if there is an ench in the group, it's helpful. Use it)
8 - Reclaim Magic (30 sec CD, and we need it for being able to keep mana regen and for that silly 10 min buff mechanic)
9 - Evac/Exodus (It's one of the primary utilities you bring to any situation and will save you and your group from a CR; it should always be on your bar.)
10 - Invocation (You should have this on your bar; it's important for our mana regen)
With that setup, you're missing 2 or 3 insidious resist debuffs. Which means one or more of your spells might not have the appropriate debuff. If you choose Insidious Magic, your fireball/iceblast/lighting surge/fire volley spells will miss more often because you didn't debuff them. You can argue about dropping one of the other utility spells, but I don't see a good trade there, personally speaking. You do you.
The other spells you're missing are the flash of ice/lightning spells. The flash spells are really good for interrupting casters trying to nuke you or your group, or quickly slowing a mob that has agro on you if your knockback or blink are on CD. You also don't have access to the AOE spell line for PBAOE or AOE if the situation calls for it. You also don't have access to the fire/ice storm spells for chip AOE dmg to the group; these spells are typically not used because they break mez/cc too often to be viable, but for groups and situations where you can, it's nice to have access.
You're also missing out on the dispel and purge line of spells with that setup. Those two spells are useful, as I mentioned in my previous post about resists, because purging their buffs can help you land your nukes. You might also want dispel to clear magic effects from you or your group. And then, of course, you will have to clear everything out every 30 minutes to reapply buffs when you don't run glyphs, but the amount of tedium it takes to buff a full group with 4 resists- I typically just mem those 4 resist buff spells on my bar and do it that way because 96 button presses for a full group buff situation is just too much. Any other class in that 4-buff scenario is only pressing 24 buttons to buff everyone, which is substantially less.
And for 60+ named mobs with really high resists, you also don't have access to your fire/ice spike spells for those tougher, more resistant mobs.
Can you just put the spells on the bar and click them with your mouse? Sure...but I would say you're playing sub-optimally, and while it will be less APM, you are less effective and not playing the class to its potential.
At the other end of the spectrum, though. On high-end raid content with 2-3 groups, the incantations break down. The lag (and I have a really good computer, so I know it's not the hardware) makes it really difficult to perform incantations smoothly. Often, when I press buttons to combo the glyphs in those big fights, they don't register on the server or client side, and you end up hitting the catalyst, and the spell casts something else, even when I review the combat log on my screen to show what glyphs I hit. Sometimes, when you get enough people together, the inputs you are giving are even more delayed or unresponsive. I am pretty sure also, because this happened on Pustulax, when you max out the number of buffs on a wizard, that there are no available spots for the glyph buffs to land, and then you're stuck only being able to use 2 glyphs because you're missing available space on the buff bar for them to land.
