The frustration with the Glyph system and the Wizard rework is coming from a few different directions, and I think it's important to separate them.
GLYPHS
First and most importantly, using Glyphs feels unintuitive and requires a massive increase in inputs to achieve the same result.
For example, say you're quadding four mobs and want to apply Insidious Magic to each of them. With normal casting, that's 4 consecutive keypresses—one cast per target.
Using Glyphs, accomplishing the same thing requires 24 non-consecutive inputs to cast those same four spells.
That's a huge increase in complexity for an action that was previously very simple.
Server lag can also mess up a Glyph combo, as can fizzles or being interrupted. This can leave you in a situation where you have a Glyph active with no easy way to simply "clear" the cast. Instead, you're forced to cast Catalyst and then quickly move to interrupt the spell yourself.
There are certainly situations where Glyphs can give you access to a spell you didn't have memorized when you suddenly need it. Purge or a dispel are good examples. But realistically, the added complexity and extra points of failure can get you killed just as easily as that flexibility can save you in niche situations.
This is also where the supposed quality-of-life benefit of Glyphs feels paradoxical. You no longer need to swap spells around every hour to rebuff, but in exchange you've made the process of casting individual spells significantly more complicated. You're potentially tripling or quadrupling the number of inputs required while also introducing more points of failure during moments of stress.
Glyphs are also introduced far too late in the class.
The level ranges at which you gain new Glyphs are so spread out that players don't naturally learn the full system and become comfortable with it over time. This also makes the system somewhat deceptive while leveling, because many of its more frustrating aspects don't become apparent until you have access to the full toolset.
SPELL GLOBAL COOLDOWNS
Currently, spells have a 2-second global cooldown that begins at the end of the cast.
This means that after you finish casting a spell, you're unable to do anything for another two seconds. It can make the class feel extremely unresponsive in situations where you need to react quickly.
For example, you cast Root. It gets resisted. You know immediately that you need to respond, but the game prevents you from doing anything for another two seconds.
Interestingly, the Glyph system is able to bypass this problem entirely because casting Glyphs isn't limited by the normal global cooldown. I think this is one of the main reasons some players prefer Glyph casting: in this specific context, Glyphs simply feel more responsive than normal casting.
My question is: Why doesn't the global cooldown begin at the START of the cast, similar to how martial abilities work?
A long-casting spell would naturally consume most or all of its global cooldown while being cast, allowing the Wizard to immediately react once the spell finishes.
RECLAIM MAGIC
One of the defining features of Wizard before the rework was recovering spell cost on a killing blow based on efficient damage.
That was replaced with Reclaim Magic, which consumes your Marks of Magic to restore some mana.
The problem is that the new mechanic creates a strange incentive: if you want to maximize the mana you get back, you're actively encouraged NOT to kill your target until you've used Reclaim Magic.
It almost feels like a reverse execute.
Instead of being rewarded for efficiently finishing an enemy, you're rewarded for keeping it alive long enough to extract your mana from it first. And even when you do that, the amount of mana returned is small enough that it rarely feels particularly rewarding.
There's also something mechanically strange about applying a debuff that can benefit your party, only to immediately rip that debuff away because you need the mana.
The previous system also created some interesting and genuinely fun interactions.
For example, if you landed an AoE spell that killed four targets, you could receive the spell-cost refund for each enemy killed. With the right setup, that could make the spell effectively free while potentially giving you a substantial amount of mana back.
It wasn't necessarily easy to pull off, but that's part of what made it fun. You were rewarded for setting up the situation correctly and landing the killing blow efficiently.
A SHIFT IN IDENTITY
On the Monsters & Memories website, Wizard is described as "Arcane Artillery."
Traditionally, Wizard is also a class heavily centered around mana management. Optimal play means figuring out how to squeeze the greatest amount of damage possible out of a limited mana pool.
The old spell design reinforced that identity.
Your most mana-efficient and hardest-hitting spells tended to be long casts with substantial mana costs but BIG damage when they landed. That also complemented the old mana-return-on-kill mechanic: carefully choosing and landing those large, efficient spells could reward you with mana when they finished an enemy.
The newer spell design seems to fundamentally change that relationship.
Now the Surge line contains some of the Wizard's most mana-efficient spells while also being some of its fastest-casting spells.
That creates a strange situation where there isn't much of a tradeoff anymore.
Why spend more time casting Fireball when repeatedly casting Surge gives you excellent mana efficiency, faster casts, and more opportunities to react?
The current cast time and damage of Fireball simply don't feel worthwhile compared to spamming Surge.
And that's where I think the larger identity problem comes from. Wizard used to feel like Arcane Artillery: carefully managing your mana and committing to long casts in exchange for huge, efficient hits.
The current design increasingly rewards rapid-fire spell spam instead.
