The Wizard is a powerful, chaotic, yet fragile class in Dark and Darker. Wizards are a volatile class that can spell doom for themselves or for the enemy time, depending on their spell-casting experience. The Wizard is one of the most challenging classes to master in Dark and Darker, with very few melee options. Thus, relying on their powerful but slow magic has a lot of damage potential, which is the main attraction for this class.
This guide will cover the best Wizard builds in Darker and Darker for new or casual players, including perks, passives, spells, and other gameplay tips.
Wizard Build and Guide Overview
The Wizard is a powerful and wonderful class in Dark and Darker, who struggles in solo play but excels in groups. There are many different ways to play the Wizard, from the number of spells to choose from, on top of your perks, and passive options.
With all these Perks, Abilities, and weapons combined, this is our Arcane build for the Wizard. This build focuses on primarily using Arcane to deal tons of consistent burst damage while drastically lowering the cast time for our spells and increasing their damage.
Wizard Pros
- Lots of AOE Spells
- A few buffing spells for themself/ party members.
- Crowd control options.
- Can regenerate spells without requiring a campfire, unlike the Cleric.
- Deals tons of burst damage and can potentially be one of the strongest classes in the game.
Wizard Cons
- Fragile, small health pool.
- Low movement speed and interaction speed.
- Struggles when left alone or when played solo.
- Requires downtime to regenerate spells, making a wizard weaker in longer fights.
- Extremely weak in melee, typically dies once a Rogue or a Barbarian gets too close.
- Almost all spells are AOE; thus, reckless aiming will harm yourself or your teammates.
All Wizard Perks for Your Dark and Darker Build
| All Perks | |
| Quick Chant | Increase spell casting speed by 20% |
| Sage | Increases knowledge by 10% |
| Arcane Feedback | Dealing arcane spell damage increases your cast speed and base magic damage by 1% per stack. Max of 5 stacks. Bonus duration lasts for 7 seconds and resets with each successful attack. |
| Arcane Mastery | Increases magic damage of arcane spells by %5 and reduces cast time of arcane spells by 1 second. |
| Melt | Fire damage reduces the target’s physical reduction bonus by -10% for 5 seconds. |
| Reactive Shield | Create an arcane shield that lasts for 3 seconds. Can absorb 10 total damage. |
| Fire Mastery | Increases magic damage of fire spells by 5% and increases burn status by 2.5 seconds. |
| Mana Surge | Increases magic damage bonus by 5%. |
| Ice Shield | Increases Armor Rating by 20, and inflicts Frostbite on melee attack targets for 0.5 seconds. |
All Wizard Class Abilities in Dark and Darker
| All Abilities | ||
| Meditation | Cooldown: 45 seconds | Sit on the ground and revive spells at a rate of 40 spell costs over 10 seconds. |
| Spell Memory 1 & 2 | Cooldown: Zero | Allows additional spells to be memorized. |
| Intense Focus | Cooldown: 18 seconds | Reduce casting time of next spell to 0.1 seconds. |
The Best Wizard Perks and Abilities
For our arcane balanced build, we take the following Perks & Abilities:
- Meditation
- Spell Memory 2
- Quick Chant
- Sage
- Arcane Mastery
- Arcane Feedback
At the time of writing this, our best Dark and Darker Wizard build is a well-balanced arcane build. For this build, we stick with the default Meditation and use the Spell Memory 2 slot since regaining your spent spells is vital for all Wizards, and you don’t need additional memory slots.
For Perks, we start with Quick Chant at level one for the increased spell-casting speed since a lot of Wizard Spells take a long time to cast without this passive. Next, we take Sage since increasing our base Knowledge will allow us to equip higher-tier spells.
Our third Perk is Arcane Mastery, for improving our magic damage and reducing the cast time of all Arcane spells. Lastly, we take Arcane Feedback for more spell damage and casting speed.
All Spells You can Use in Your Dark and Darker Wizard Build
| Tier | Spell | Cost | Cast | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zap | 1 | 5 | Deals magic damage and burns the target for 1 second. |
| 1 | Light Orb | 1 | 6 | Create spheres of floating light to illuminate your surroundings. |
| 1 | Ignite | 1 | 5 | Set the target’s weapon on fire, dealing 5 additional magic damage and burning enemies when they hit. |
| 2 | Slow | 2 | 5 | Slows the target’s movement speed by -40% for 2.5 seconds. |
| 2 | Ice Bolt | 2 | 5 | On hit, deals magic damage and reduces the target’s movement speed by -15% for 1 second. |
| 3 | Magic Missile | 3 | 5 | Fires up to 10 homing missiles that each deal 12 damage. Moving will interrupt the spell. |
| 3 | Haste | 3 | 4 | Target gains a 14% and Move Speed bonus for 12 seconds. Casts to self if no valid target is found. |
| 4 | Lightning Strike | 4 | 5 | After 4 seconds, a bolt of lighting falls in the targeted area, dealing spell damage. |
| 4 | Fireball | 4 | 5 | Shoots a fireball that causes 30 direct damage and 10 splash damage and knockback effect to nearby targets. |
| 4 | Invisibility | 4 | 4 | Target becomes invisible and gains a 10% Move Speed bonus for 4 seconds. Casts to self if no valid target is found. |
| 6 | Chain Lightning | 6 | 3 | Electrocutes, dealing spell damage and fires lightning that is transferred to others within 400 meters and shocks up to 3 times. A target can only be transferred to once, and if you are nearby, the lightning will jump to you. |
The Best Dark and Darker Wizard Spells
For our arcane balanced build, we take the following spells:
- Chain Lightning
- Fireball
- Magic Missile
- Haste
- Invisibility
Chain Lightning
Chain Lightning is next, and it’s our most powerful spell. This ability can zap an entire squad of enemy players dealing tons of burst damage. It’s great in small corridors or when facing multiple targets.
However, it does have a long cast time, becomes incredibly difficult to hit on distant targets, and will kill you if the target is too close. Chain Lightning can also damage your teammates, so use this spell cautiously.
Fireball
Fireball is the only non-arcane spell on our list because it’s iconic and deals a lot of damage. Its AOE splash damage is a bit underwhelming, but it’s easy to use, does a lot of impact damage and knockback, plus inflicts a small DOT. However, it is hard to land direct hits at long ranges, and it can hit your teammates like Chain Lightning.
Magic Missile
Magic Missile is our first pick, primarily used for PvE combat. Since Wizard lacks in melee power, Magic Missile will be your main spell for taking down hordes of undead.
Magic Missile does require you to stand still while casting, but you can land consecutive headshots on zombies and skeletons to quickly dispatch them from afar. Plus, it’s a good zoning tool in PvP, but it isn’t great since you must remain still while casting.
Haste/Invisibility
Lastly, Haste and Invisibility are amazing spells for your team and yourself. Haste is a wonderful spell to help slower classes pursue enemies or help retreat from fights. Invisibility is also great for repositioning or saving your teammates from monsters or other ranged threats.
What Armor/ Weapons to use for Wizards
Wizards can equip the following armor and weapons:
- Frocks
- Oracle Robes
- Mystic Vestments
- Spellbooks
- Crystal Balls
- Crossbows
- Rondel Daggers
- Crystal Swords
When it comes to armor, Wizard builds in Dark and Darker should rely on whatever has the best defensive stats and offensive stats, meaning they don’t heavily prioritize specific armor like needing Plate Armor.
When it comes to weapons, things get a little more complicated. Here are the best weapons for Wizard:
Spellbook: The Spellbook is the best option for all spellcasters. The Spellbook offers the most movement speed and casting speed. If you can use a Spellbook, instead of a Staff, always take the Spellbook.
The increase in movement speed is what’s mainly important since you need to constantly reposition after casting a spell, plus the increased casting speed is also an incredible blessing. The Spellbook offers no melee alternative like the staff, but you never want to be in melee when playing as a Wizard.
Crystal Swords: If you must equip a melee weapon, it should be the Crystal Sword. This weapon is restricted to Wizards, and the sword acts as a spell catalyst, allowing you to cast magic with it. However, its casting speed is exceptionally sluggish, and we mainly use this weapon to kill zombies and spiders.
Crystal Ball: The Crystal Ball is similar to the Spellbook but restricted to Wizards. The Crystal Ball sacrifices a bit of movement and spell-casting speed in exchange for being one-handed. It’s a good alternative if you want to wield a Rondel Dagger with the Crystal Ball. Otherwise, only use this if you don’t have a Spellbook or it has amazing stats.
Wizard’s Best Stats in Dark and Darker
Speaking of amazing stats, every class in Dark and Darker prefers specific additional stats found on weapons and gear. These random enchantments make some items worthless or highly sought after by certain groups. Here are the Wizard’s best stats:
- All Attributes: Increases all stats of your character.
- Additional Magic Damage: Increases the bonus magic damage dealt by your spells.
- Knowledge: Increases spell casting speed + spell Count + Item Identification Speed.
- Magical Power: Increases your overall spell power.
- Max Health: Increases your character’s maximum health.
- Will: Increases spell power, increases Buff/Curse duration, and increases your Magic Resistance.
- Spell Capacity Bonus: Determines how many or the level of spells you can memorize and take into a run.
These are the best stats for Wizards, and specific items with any of the aforementioned enhancements will sell a lot on the market. It’s your decision if you wish to keep any well-stated gear for yourself or sell it on the market, but these are the stats Wizards will be looking for.
Dark and Darker Wizard Tips
Ultimately all classes in Dark and Darker will take time to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Here are some tips to help you avoid some early game mistakes that can save a few of your runs.
- Have Proper Positioning: A Wizard thrives and suffers based on their positioning. Positioning at the proper range for a spell to connect is what you’re looking for, but not so close to where someone can close the distance and get into melee range.
- Be Careful With Spell Casting: Almost all Wizard build spells in Dark and Darker are AOE. This makes them great for dealing with grouped players and monsters but difficult to use when your teammates are in melee. So be mindful of your Fireball or Chain Lightning spell when using them in close proximity to your teammates or yourself.
- Make Spell Callouts: If you are in a group, be vocal about what spells you’re preparing to cast. If you’re going to cast Chain Lightning, but your Fighter is in the way, make a callout for them to back off so you can get a cast in, rather than holding the spell until they back off.
- Aim Carefully with Buff Spells: Haste and Invisibility can affect enemies and players if you mistarget them. So if a Rogue is stabbing your Cleric, and you think it’s worth casting an Invisibility spell on them, be careful knowing you can hit the Rogue instead.
- Replenish Your Spells: one of your greatest strengths as a Wizard is getting your spells back through Meditation. Using this ability slowly replenishes all spells at once, not one at a time. Also, lower-tier spells will recharge significantly faster than high-tier spells, so take breaks often.
Wrap Up for our Dark and Darker Wizard Build and Guide.
That’s our Wizard Build and Guide for Dark and Darker. Wizard is undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable and explosive classes to play, but they feel balanced with having lots of downsides in exchange for such destructive power. Hopefully, once Dark and Darker fully releases, we will see more interesting Wizard spells added to the roster to see more diverse builds, such as a fire or frost build.
If you enjoyed our look into Dark and Darker and want to learn more about the game, check out our tips and tricks to get better and Dark and Darker for more helpful survival tips.
For now, Good Hunting!
