(4E) any suggestion for a wizard orb oriented?

[meet shield]

Hi! I would like to play a wizard in the next adventure I start, probably late heroic level.
I used to get the others roles in my previous games, so I came bowing to others' knowledge and begging for advice of any sort.
I was thinking to choose the orb as implement becouse it seems the more "controlling" one, I would like to focus on the single target full condition power more than the mass slaying, becouse sorcerers are better at it, and probably we'll anyway have one.
So...

any suggestion?
Some feat I must look for?
Powers I should check?
Object I should not miss, even in later levels?

Plese tell me even the book in wich I can find them...

[Meek]

Despite it being multi-target, Sleep manages to be pretty good starting at paragon where you'll likely have enough ways to debuff saves (and high enough Wisdom hopefully) that you can knock people out for very prolonged (if not nigh-infinite) amounts of combat time. I've heard say that Sleep sucks at heroic tier, but I've always had good experiences with it.

[NeoVid]

Orbizard is probably the best controller when played at all well. Just stack save penalizing abilities and items and you're set.

Feats that generally are good for wizards are Enlarge Spell, Improved Initiative, Leather Armor Prof, and the slightly annoying Implement Expertise.

[Gralamin]

Orbizard is probably the best controller when played at all well. Just stack save penalizing abilities and items and you're set.

Feats that generally are good for wizards are Enlarge Spell, Improved Initiative, Leather Armor Prof, and the slightly annoying Implement Expertise.

Or, you know, don't break the system in half with badly thought abilities that is the Orbizard

[Mando Knight]

Feats that generally are good for wizards are Enlarge Spell, Improved Initiative, Leather Armor Prof, and the slightly annoying Implement Expertise.

{table=head]Feat|Book
Enlarge Spell|Arcane Power
Leather Armor Proficiency|PHB 1
Improved Initiative|PHB 1
Implement Expertise|PHB 2[/table]

Object I should not miss, even in later levels?

Never forgo the Orb of Ultimate Imposition (Adventurer's Vault) if you need to utterly cripple a single target for an entire encounter. The only character build I can think of that can cripple any targets anywhere as severely as an Ultimate Imposition Orbizard is a Strength Paladin with the Champion of Order Paragon Path, which has a highly accurate encounter power that dazes and weakens the target until the Paladin's mark is released... and Divine Challenge stays on the target until the end of the encounter or until the Paladin fails to engage the target.

[Sipex]

Don't forget a good staff or wand (or both!) to wield as a backup implement.

Wait what? You say.

Having a backup implement, even if it prevents you from accessing your wizard class feature when you wield it is absolutely key.

Stick an encounter ability on a wand and as long as you're willing to use up a daily item power you have an extra spell handy.

Get a staff with a power that activates when a spell of a certain type is cast and you have bonus options. I know the wizard in our group likes his Blizzard Staff + Ray of Frost combination. Immobilize everything around you after casting an ice spell regardless if said spell hit?

Yes please.

[tcrudisi]

The Wizard is such a weird class to play in 4e. I've seen four people play one. They all tried to play it as a "blast everything possible", and it just didn't cut it when compared to what a Sorcerer can do. In fact, I daresay it was horrible. I then managed to convince one of my players to change it up just a little bit. "Try these other spells," I begged him. Those other spells were the "controlling" ones that I gave him. (I created their characters since they were all new. I gave him 1 controlling spell per level and 1 damage spell per level).

He tried it. I know I'm the one that made the characters, picked the powers, and had far, far more 4e experience than he did, but I cannot believe how powerful the Wizard is. Let me repeat that: He seriously started turning the monsters over and spanking them for being naughty. I'm floored by how gosh-darn good the Controlling Wizard is.

What was the difference? Well, he changed his way of thinking about the class. He went from, "Try to do as much damage as possible," to one of "Try to cripple the bad guys and let my allies take care of the damage." And cripple them, he does.

My suggestions are as follows (and spoilered because of length):

Spoiler

Show

Deva. Period. +2 int and +2 wis ... and a butt-kicking racial? Yes, please.
16 Int / 16 Wis / 12 Cha to start off (so it becomes 18/18 after racial and you'll get access to Spell Focus at level 11)

Illusory Ambush (AP) is a great choice (especially at paragon when you can get Psychic Lock to give a mob -4 to hit instead of -2)
Thunderwave (PHB) is not my top choice, but many Wizards love it. It is a great one to get you out of trouble, though.
Storm Pillar (AP) summon this up in the air, 1 square above where you would normally put it. Punish enemies for moving into an area where you don't want them.

Grasping Shadows (AP) decent damage, but creates a zone that also slows. Bonus: If you get Psychic Lock at level 11, this is a psychic spell.
Orbmaster's Incendiary Detonation (AP) Awesome power, and the kicker screams "I win".

Sleep (PHB) The best power in the game.
Grease (AP) It's not sleep, but it is lots of fun! Oh, and pretty darn good at control, too.

Shield (PHB) Really good defense and it's an encounter power.
Guardian Blades (AP) Good when combined with White Lotus Riposte.

Maze of Mirrors (AP) Immoblize in a burst and give them a huge attack penalty. This one is the winner.

Grasp of the Grave (Dragon 372) Auto-dazing zone that you don't even have to sustain.
Visions of Avarice (AP) I've seen this power rock an encounter. It's not as good as GotG above, but you can't beat it for flavor: The illusion of a fabulous treasure appears out of thin air. Your enemies throw aside caution to sieze it. And then they start moving towards it and become immobilized, seemingly to guard their treasure? Hahahahahaha.

Wizard's Escape (AP) A power to escape from a melee attack for free, 1/enc? Heck yes!
Levitate (PHB) Make yourself immune to melee attacks for a whole encounter.

Twist of Space (AP) Awesome control power. Ranged burst 1 that teleports enemies 3 squares and then slows them, so they can only move 2.

Face of Death (AP) Not quite as good as Sleep, but it's close as it does the same thing.
Visions of Ruin (AP) The flavor text is almost as good as Visions of Avarice. Plus, this one nullifies enemy archers.

Illusory Wall (AP) Stops enemies from attacking and allows your allies to keep attacking. Even when it fails, you've still forced their archers up to the front ranks. Win/win all around.
Arcane Gate Lots of "out-of-combat" potential and kinda neat in combat.

Feats:
Armor Proficiency (Leather) (PHB): +2 AC for one feat? Too good to pass up.
Enlage Spell (AP): The trade-off is worth it.
Implement Expertise (PHB2): A necessary evil.
White Lotus Riposte (DDI): So cheesy I hate recommending it. It really is that powerful.
Dual Implement Spellcaster (AP): The extra damage is nice.
Improved Initiative (PHB): Going first is important.
Battle Intuition (DDI): Are you a Deva? If so, this slaughters Improved Initiative. Take this instead.

[Kurald Galain]

The trick in being a controlling wizard is to not care about damage, but instead play the action denial game. If you can stun, prone, daze, and/or immobilize every enemy around you, you're doing it right.

Good races include Eladrin (teleportation is very wizardly, not to mention extremely useful), Elf (the accuracy ability is beyond compare) and most definitely Gnome (who get the best racial feats for a wizard).

Thunderwave is the best wizard at-will by far. Even if your wisdom isn't higher than 14 (and it should be) it's still awesome. A very effective strategy is to (1) set up a zone, and then (2) spend the rest of the combat pushing things into that zone. Guess what Thunderwave does.

Don't take Illusory Ambush: it's the proverbial Trap! Wizards get so many area effects (and also, enlarge spell) that you shouldn't bother with single-target spells. Furthermore, giving one enemy a -2 to hit sounds decent but compared to other things a wizard can do, this is pretty much at the bottom of your list of priorities.

Speaking of control, consider the utility power Jump. Why? Because it lets you give your move action to an ally (and you're a ranged character so you often don't need yours). Ok, it's more leader-y than controller-y, but still very useful.

Level 3 offers the excellent Color Spray, which is a huge area effect daze. That means that anyone you hit can't take minor actions or opportunity attacks and offers combat advantage.

Don't fall for Maze of Mirrors, which is another trap. It's small and can't be enlarged - you can get two enemies in there but three is stretching it. On average you'll hit one, and on average you cause him to miss his attack half of the time. Those are not good odds: you're spending your action and your encounter power, and as a result half of the time one enemy misses one attack. Bad idea.

Don't forget your wall spells, they're very controllery. At level 6 you get Wall of Fog, although admittedly it's hard to pass up on Wizard's Escape. Level 9 has Wall of Fire, and level 10 has Illusory Wall. All of them are very good (and pushing people through Wall of Fire really hurts).

Also, don't overlook the L10 power Mass Resistance, and the L5 Stinking Cloud. Both are entirely capable of winning a combat just by themself.

Enlarge Spell is probably the best wizard feat. Since going first is important, Imp Initiative is nice, although Quickdraw may be an alternative. Familiars are good, Jack of all Trades is excellent if your game has lots of non-combat scenes, and picking a multiclass feat (but not the power swaps) is always recommended.

Armor Prof Leather was a good feat back in the PHB, before the Arcane Power book was released. Now, it's hard to justify compared to the other heroic feats you get, and frankly wizards don't need the defense boost. You should probably pass up on Dual Implement because it's only useful for blaster wizards, and White Lotus Riposte for the same reason. Pick powers and feats that mess up your opponent, not for a minor damage boost.

Storm Pillar (AP) summon this up in the air, 1 square above where you would normally put it

Careful: the rules don't actually say that you can do that, so YMMV as to whether your DM allows it. This is one of the most frequent debates over at WOTC. No, the rules don't say that you can't do it either, hence the confusion.

[greenknight]

Thunderwave is the best wizard at-will by far. Even if your wisdom isn't higher than 14 (and it should be) it's still awesome. A very effective strategy is to (1) set up a zone, and then (2) spend the rest of the combat pushing things into that zone. Guess what Thunderwave does.

Thunderwave can be awesome, but it doesn't really come into it's own until the character takes Arcane Reach (PHB1 Feat). There also needs to be a few zones or walls around to really make good use of it, and there usually aren't enough of them on the battlefield until Paragon. Until then, Scorching Burst is preferable.

If you have a party with more than one Wizard (or some other character who can create zones/walls), it might be worthwhile taking Thunderwave earlier than Paragon, but even then it's probably not worthwhile until you can guarantee some kind of zone or damaging wall for most encounters.

Don't take Illusory Ambush: it's the proverbial Trap! Wizards get so many area effects (and also, enlarge spell) that you shouldn't bother with single-target spells.

I disagree. One area effect at will is all you really need, the other one should be dedicated to single targets for when your area effect will injure allies. And Illusory Ambush helps to defend the defender when fighting a Solo.

Speaking of control, consider the utility power Jump. Why? Because it lets you give your move action to an ally (and you're a ranged character so you often don't need yours). Ok, it's more leader-y than controller-y, but still very useful.

It can be ok, but I prefer Shield, since Wizards don't get a whole lot of hitpoints and there are times when an enemy will target them.

Level 3 offers the excellent Color Spray, which is a huge area effect daze. That means that anyone you hit can't take minor actions or opportunity attacks and offers combat advantage.

Don't fall for Maze of Mirrors, which is another trap. It's small and can't be enlarged - you can get two enemies in there but three is stretching it. On average you'll hit one, and on average you cause him to miss his attack half of the time. Those are not good odds: you're spending your action and your encounter power, and as a result half of the time one enemy misses one attack. Bad idea.

That's probably the pick of the Level 3 Encounter powers from the PHB, although Icy Rays is situationally better. But I still think Maze of Mirrors is better than either of them because it's a ranged area effect spell, and it goes against Will. You'll probably hit more than half of the time, and it covers nine squares, so if the Wizard uses it early in the combat, it can hit several enemies.

Don't forget your wall spells, they're very controllery. At level 6 you get Wall of Fog, although admittedly it's hard to pass up on Wizard's Escape. Level 9 has Wall of Fire, and level 10 has Illusory Wall. All of them are very good (and pushing people through Wall of Fire really hurts).

Once you can start moving an enemy around, Wall of Fire can be very useful indeed.

Enlarge Spell is probably the best wizard feat. Since going first is important, Imp Initiative is nice, although Quickdraw may be an alternative.

Mage Hand can usually substitute for Quickdraw, so Improved Initiative is the one I'd go for.