Your Only Move Is Hustle – Wizard Guide for New Players

I’m going to explain exactly what to do when you pick up the wizard for the first time.

Newbies Guide to Wizard

All credit goes to Letitmyth!

Start of the Match

When starting the match as a wizard it important to look at your opponent move.

Here is the basic start move for all character:

• Ninja: they are like to dash in or away from you.
• Cowboy: horizontal slash.
• Wizard: mana strike.
• Roboto: vaccuum.

The starting move you should use is depended on what the enemy use but here how to counter the most commonly seen starting move.

• Ninja: a good mana strike with the correct range or magic dart can put you in a advantageous position.
• Cowboy: dash back. do not risk being near cowboy early. they could use their gun but it better to dash back then being combo and lose half your health bar.
• Wizard: dash back. mana strike is extreamly fast and you could try to high block but if you whiff you will have to waste a whiff cancel early on.
• Roboto: high block. you have no move fast enough to dodge vacuum.

These are not gurantee to work but will likely work in most of your fight.

Neutral

Neutral is incredibly important for wizard since we have incredible advantage game but horrible disadvantage option. i’m going to explain the move that are good during neutral.

1. Stay away. This does not mean to be across the map but put enough distance between you and the enemy allowing you to set up projectile and punish a wrong move.
2. Magic dart is your friend. Magic dart is a very easy move to use during neutral with it low frame count and are very good at poking the enemy allowing you to build super meter.
3. Get the orb. The orb is wizard most important tool allowing you to have a very safe escape or extending your combo so stop getting the lightning ball and save up for orb. This does not mean to pull it out whenever but I will address this in another section.
4. Flame wave. This is a very long lasting hitbox allowing control of the area right in front of you limiting approach possibility.
5. Draw moisture. Use this move only when the enemy have no way in to reach you in 2 turn. This allow you to use geyser which is a very strong ability.

The most important thing during the neutral is setting up projectile and ability you need to punish the enemy during advantage.

Punish

Wizard have a wide variety of punishment tool to make the enemy feel like an idiot. these move are likely very bad in other situation but incredibly good if they made a miss play.

• Zephyr – this move pull the enemy in the air toward you for a grab. This does not move grounded enemy at all so only use it when they are in the air close to you.
• Conjure weapon – this move is your strongest melee attack but with a slow animation it should only be use when the enemy can’t react back at you or with a free cancel.
• Kick – this is not a commonly use move but if you know the enemy will dash at you it is a very safe move to use.
• Icicle – this move is fast and is your best combo starter with it upward knock up. It is quite lacking in range so use it when the enemy is close and is going to do a slow move.

These move have quite a downside that is very punishable when use incorrectly but it give huge potential reward so use it cautiously.

Advantage

Now here where the fun begin. wizard advantage is insanely with the potential for long combo chain that will leave your enemy stuck for a long time. I want to note that cowboy have a better combo chain as it can be started anywhere but to be expected for what i consider the most op class.

The most advantage position for a wizard is the enemy being in a corner as it is almost impossible for the enemy to escape if play correctly. It is hard to explain advantage position in word but i will give you a short summary of what you should do if you manage to get the enemy into a corner.

1. Cover escape route. This could be in the form of a wall of projectile or a using move that send the enemy back into the corner. Make sure to always watch your enemy possible move as a good cowboy will just instant teleport out of the corner and murder you
2. The orb. The orb is super important in advantage as the it allow for a easy way to keep sure the enemy can’t move out of the corner.
3. Flame wave. It multi hit nature give it incredible value and with the enemy stuck in the corner they will take full damage from the flame.
4. Zephyr. If the enemy manage to launch into a air and none of your move can hit them just use zephyr to bring them back. This can also be use to catch an escape attempt if you predict the enemy move correctly and can make the combo be super drawn out.
5. Geyser. You should have at least 1 geyser charge by now and it being your fastest projectile, it allow you to cover the air if zephyr is not fast enough.
6. Vile clutches. This move is normally useless but if they are in the corner it will be the enemy worst nightmare with it low upward knock allow you to keep the enemy juggle with the enemy unable to attack or di out.
7. Lighting orb. Now you can use this without having to save for the orb. This is a slow moving homing projectile that explode once it hit the enemy. It can deal a lot of damage and it explosion quite a big area. It downside is the slow speed but once the enemy are in the corner this downside is not very important.

It is important to put enough distance between you and the enemy so that they try to roll out or attack you or escape you can react correctly.

The Orb

Now it is time to explain the wizard best tool. the orb is a permanently active, controllable, projectile shooting, active hitbox. the orb have many function and 2 mode.

• Sword mode – this happen when you use conjure weapon or icicle. It will spawn 4 swords that spin around the orb that deal high damage and can hit the enemy multiple time. This mode make the orb hitbox a lot larger so it extremely useful during advantage as you can stop the enemy from leaving the corner by going up and if the move you use it conjure weapon it now have double function as it also cover the space in front of you and bounce the enemy back into the wall.
• Lighting mode – this happen when you use conjure storm. It will make the orb shoot out lighting right under it and cause the orb to be push upward. It not as useful as sword mode but can be use for mix up or getting a mid air enemy in some situation.
• Orb lock – this allow you to lock your orb position. It can be useful if you simply want an area of the map to be off limit to the enemy. With a good positioning of the orb you can also lock out the enemy chance of leaving the corner although it is very precise.
• Orb tether – this will pull you toward the orb. It not very useful but can be use for some repositioning while hovering or quickly closing distance while still able to act.
• Orb teleport – this is the most important ability of the orb. It allow you to teleport to the orb location but in turn the orb will disappear. It the wizard most reliable escape tool and if you are confident, it can also be use to instantly close distance between you and the enemy for a combo.

The orb can also be use to juggle the enemy. simply make sure the orb is on the other side of the enemy and with good understand of the wizard kit you can recreate the ice climber from smash melee.

The orb require planing and good judgement of the situation to use but it is very powerful in the right hand.

Movement

The wizard ability to have control over their position in the air and from the ground allow for some nasty combo and mix up from the enemy attack.

• Hover – allow you to stay in the air until the hover meter run out. This can be useful for neutral if you want to back away from the enemy while attacking as your momentum is more retain while hovering than on the ground.
• Fastfall – make you fall to ground very quickly. This allow you to dodge midair combo or chase an enemy that is falling quickly. As you would almost always reach the ground first and you can also attack while falling.
• Missile form – this move turn you into a hitbox and launch you quickly in a chosen direction. It have short start up so it can be use to escape or chase an enemy that is moving away quickly. Combining this with hover allow for a lot of distance cover. Be careful as it sometime it will leave you vulnerable to an attack after the jump.

This is a very powerful tool in the wizard tool kit but it require a creative mind to make the most use out of it so just experiment with it a little bit.

Combo

Wizard combo may not be as easy to do as other class (specifically cowboy) but it here are just some basic combo

• Icicle + bolt of magma – a basic combo that deal good damage and can be also combo into zephyr but it could be risky so make sure the enemy can’t react first.
• Kick + flip conjure weapon – another basic combo that deal good damage.
• Tomb slap + (conjure weapon, grab,kick, flame wave, tomb slap, icicle) – tomb slap low knock back allow for a variety of combo with the safest be flame wave or grab. Choose what you follow with depending on your situation.
• Mana strike + (tomb slab, bolt of magma, flip conjure weapon, zephyr) – this only work if the enemy is send toward you. Tomb slap obviously allow you to chain into other move and zephyr is good if you want to throw your enemy into a wall but bolt of magma will come out fastest so choose carefully.

These are just some of the easier combo to go with but obviously throw in your own variation and always consider the enemy option such as a burst.

Final Note

These word are not of an expert with a 1000 hour into this game but i hope this will help some people out there with their journey for being a better wizard.