First dungeon run last night: We encountered a locked door that neither I nor my cleric hireling could open. No problem. Once we had killed all the monsters we headed back to the nearest shrine and after a quick rest I swapped out "Melfs Acid Arrow" for "Knock" a spell which allows me to open locks.
In a second dungeon we were stopped by a door which had a minimum strength requirement to open. Again no problem - another visit to a shrine allowed me to swap in "Bulls Strength" a buff spell which gave me the strength I needed to open the door.
Versatility is the hallmark of a Wizard. Without question Sorcerers are better at casting spells. Both Wizards and Sorcerers can choose from the same list of arcane spells but sorcerers cast faster and they have more spell points which allows them to go on casting longer. Sorcerers cannot however swap spells mid mission. In fact they can only swap spells once every few days and they pay dearly to do so. Wizards can swap their spells freely in any tavern and they can swap after resting at a shrine during a mission. Shrines are on a fairly long cooldown but in an emergency there is the option of leaving the dungeon, popping into the nearest tavern and legging it back before the dungeon resets.
If you have any one job you want doing a Sorcerer can probably do it better than a Wizard. The Wizard on the other hand brings the advantage of far greater flexibility. That flexibility is a huge advantage to a solo player. As a wizard I can use spells that help make up for the lack of a rogue or a warrior in my party but a sorcerer would be unwilling to waste a valuable slot on such rarely used spells.
In a second dungeon we were stopped by a door which had a minimum strength requirement to open. Again no problem - another visit to a shrine allowed me to swap in "Bulls Strength" a buff spell which gave me the strength I needed to open the door.
Versatility is the hallmark of a Wizard. Without question Sorcerers are better at casting spells. Both Wizards and Sorcerers can choose from the same list of arcane spells but sorcerers cast faster and they have more spell points which allows them to go on casting longer. Sorcerers cannot however swap spells mid mission. In fact they can only swap spells once every few days and they pay dearly to do so. Wizards can swap their spells freely in any tavern and they can swap after resting at a shrine during a mission. Shrines are on a fairly long cooldown but in an emergency there is the option of leaving the dungeon, popping into the nearest tavern and legging it back before the dungeon resets.
If you have any one job you want doing a Sorcerer can probably do it better than a Wizard. The Wizard on the other hand brings the advantage of far greater flexibility. That flexibility is a huge advantage to a solo player. As a wizard I can use spells that help make up for the lack of a rogue or a warrior in my party but a sorcerer would be unwilling to waste a valuable slot on such rarely used spells.
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I ended up creating a Rogue on my son's account and that works well with my Cleric, but the Rogue is not an especially great Soloing class as unless he's in Stealth (at least at lower levels) his attacks do minimal damage. When Stealthed he can one- or two-shot unsuspecting Mobs, but against a group of Mobs, if he gets pulled out of Stealth, he usually doesn't fare so well.
Actually that brings to mind an interesting facet of a Rogue's Stealth in DDO. It's not like in WoW, and it's not like a Mage's Invisibility spell. If a DDO Rogue can take out an opponent while in Stealth, he stays in Stealth. It's only when the opponent fights back that the Rogue gets pulled out of Stealth.
On Korthos Island there is a fire pit with 3 Saughin sitting around it. There have been a few times where my son's Rogue has taken out all 3 Saughin and remained in Stealth. It's kind of immersion breaking when it happens because when the first Saughin keels over the other two don't react at all. They just sit there as if nothing happened while you waltz around behind them and dispatch the second one. Even then the third Saughin still just sits there, minding his own business, in spite of the fact that two of his companions have just died right in front of him. Immersion breaking...but very fun ;)
MBP, I think I've asked you this before, but what Server/Realm are you on? Is it Khyber? I'm on Thelanis.
I'm also on Thelanis Cap'n John my wizards name is Autwind Horogood. My time zone is 8 hours ahead of you so it could be tough to meet up in game but drop me an in game mail so I know who your characters are.