On the Control Wizard

• MMORPG

• Neverwinter

I got my Control Wizard to 60. It’s really easy to level in Neverwinter, by far the easiest game to level in I’ve seen (after WoW, of course). I think it literally took two weeks (maybe it was three). Admittedly I played a lot in that time, but still, pretty fast.

Side note: What is the deal with the class names? Why is it “Control Wizard” instead of just “Wizard?” Why “Trickster Rogue” instead of “Rogue?” What other kind of rogues are there? None, that’s what. At least not yet.

I picked the CW to run with first mainly because of one feature: It’s the only class with any AOE damage, and NW has tons and tons of AOE encounters. I mean tons. Did I mention there are tons of AOE encounters? Pretty much every encounter from start to finish in the game has minions to deal with. There’s a ton. Don’t even get me started on dungeons.

Overall I like the CW, and their CC skills are pretty invaluable in group situations, but toward the very end of leveling, I found it inadequate for soloing. The last two zones, Mount Hotenow and Whispering Caverns, were difficult. Especially the ones where you had to go into a solo dungeon and defeat a boss - a lot of times it took multiple tries to kill that last boss. You have to drink like 50 potions to get through them. In fact I haven’t been able to finish off the quests in Whispering Caverns. I just got hammered, so I basically gave up on the class in disgust and started again with a Devoted Cleric. (Not a Regular Cleric, mind you, a Devoted Cleric.)

Now admittedly, a lot of it could be because I don’t have a proper tanking companion. I haven’t bought a blue or purple tank, so I had to make do with the Rank 15 guardian, who tends to die in roughly 2 seconds toward the end of the game. I’ve already spent too much on this game for horses and bags so I decided to skip the companion. In retrospect, I should have bought a companion instead of a bag. You really are going to need a tank greater than Rank 15 in the last 10 levels.

P.S. I tried to do the Tailoring profession and in the entire time of leveling from 1-60, I never once was able to craft anything useful for my character. (Not counting a shirt and pants.) Admittedly I only got to Rank 10, though, since I didn’t spending any AD. My conclusion: Professions are worthless time sinks in this game.