What's Your Favorite Wizard Subclass? D&D 5e Arcane Tradition Ratings

I loved reading your articles and now I'm hooked on your videos!

Necromancy surprised me. Most people rate it lower.

Divination is my favorite i played one to 20 being able to count on them failing saving throws is amazing

Couldn't agree more on Graviturgy wizard. I wanted to love it, because I loved the Chronurgy wizard so much. Graviturgy just missed the mark and could have been so much more. Good subjective analysis, and I enjoy how your expectations morph as you learn more about the class (i.e. the Transmutation)... our previous campaign we had a Divination and a Chronurgy pairing of wizards.... it was nice for saving our groups butt from time to time...

Love the article + video combo!

Minor conjuration was a gamechanger with variant encumbrance rule, but these uses work regardless.
Any tool or mundane item.
Sheet of paper: it glows, it floats, can be used to drop into dark holes or folded into an airplane to illuminate a corridor up ahead. Eliminate the light by conjuring another object in your hand.
An ever-burning torch that adds no weight to your pack and glows even when not lit.
Container: satchel, backpack, pail, cup.
A lead object to block divination attempts.
A key that you have recently seen.
Fool or distract NPCs with a glowing, visibly magical object.
Point is, as a wizard it's satisfying to walk around with nearly nothing on you and still be able to pull out anything you need without using any spells.

I think the critique of the Graviturgist was a bit harsh, but it's really hard to defend that class when every Wizard is noticeably better. And it is strongly compounded by the fact that its sibling is probably the best Wizard that's been published so far. All of that said, I think the exclusive spells are fantastic and while the class features are very situational, they definitely fill a niche of manipulating the battlefield like it was a game board, so it does make you feel powerful and impactful.
Other than that, I'm really glad you ranked some of the more creative and interesting choices (mainly Enchantment and Illusion) as highly as you did.

Having played an Illusionist in 1st edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, I approve of your rating for the Illusionist school. 🌈

Currently playing a war wizard every week for almost a year. as a multiclass it might be better, but at low levels, the arcane deflection is almost useless. the bonus to a save is really good, but the AC bump only applies to a SINGLE attack, at at the cost of only being able to cast a cantrip on the following turn. I would love if at level 10, you could gain a power charge on a short rest too, and spend a power charge to instead cast a levelled spell instead of just a cantrip after using it.
I just want to see a couple of tweaks to make the arcane deflection a bigger part of the subclass identity, cuz the 14th level feature is super thematic for a wizard on the front lines, it just feels like it costs too much to use it with any frequency. It's like last ditch effort you might use once/adventure when you're out of low level slots for shield/absorb elements and you NEED to keep haste on the barbarian (or yourself).
Durable magic is insanely good, and with war caster (which i have not yet picked up) concentration and opportunity attacks will get so much better.
I have picked up a cleric level for med armor and shields which is really the salvation for me in combats. You really need some durability on this class because you're so heavily incentivized to shut down other spellcasters, that most intelligent creatures will decide you're a big ol' threat that needs dealing with. This is another class that can make great use of Tenser's Transformation or Tasha's otherworldly guise. With some buff spells up (mirror image, or any concentration spell w/ durable magic) and a bit of armor, the subclass becomes a monstrous version of the Eldritch Knight.

Depends on your campaign tbh.

As a wizard guy, all I do in my free time is evaluate wozard subclasses. For longer campaigns, Necromancer is easily one of the strongest. Divination is great... For save or suck; portent is a GOOD ability, but having extra damage resistances and expanding your action economy are objectively superior. If you go Divination, you HAVE to exploit your divination spells for spell slots. Subjugation is ludicrously powerful in mid to late campagins thanks to both magical resistance and improved labourer for better counterspells (make a simulacrum and you can become a blaster caster real quick). Chronurgist is incredibly strong just for the additional concentration spells. Illusion spells are some of the strongest in the game. Conjugation has some of the strongest spells too. But True Polymorph is, arguably, the strongest spell in the game, very closely followed by Wish, if not being over taken, unfortunately, your party should have a healer, so Transmuter goes out the window (imagine if your 14th level ability was changing elements at will, for free? That would be amazing instead of what we got). You can actually set up a network using simulacrum, wish, clone, and simulacrum again... Over and over again (but watch out for possible Maruts brought down on you by Death gods, unlikely, but still). Enchanter is absolutely amazing because of the domination spells. And graviturgy is... underwhelming? Bladesinger has good features, but EK fighter is better, and Fighter has even stronger subclasses than that. Evoker has 1 good ability: sculpt. Empowered is iffy because it HEAVILY depends on how your DM rules the magic missile spell (which is easily negated if your DM throws enemies with special immunities).

Again, necromancer has the strongest 14th capstone for a campaign with ANY undead.
You want a mummy lord and have a healer? Cast Hex and bane on it, have your simulacrumand yourself cast 2 mind slivers (possibly more if you have MORE spellcasters lower in the initiative order), then use your 14th and you have a 60-70% chance at a permanent undead follower that can expand your action economy. Wanna keep a permanent zombie with 20+ AC? You got it. You want free 21 hp? Cast finger of Death and get ANOTHER free zombie that has extra HP and damage per hit. Get an army of magen without worry. I can't stress enough how incredibly powerful necromancers get in the end game; there are reasons some of the biggest bad guys in DnD are primarily necromancers, and these are just some of them.

My favourite is the school of abjuration. An abjuration wizard let it be at whether low or high level is one of the most potent surviving class of all.

Interesting. Not poop.

This is another one where i disagree with alot of your rankings and ratings. I wont rank chronurgist and graviturgist as i don't have play experience with them as they are excluded from our table but i do agree that chronurgists are the best wizard. when ranking caster classes i generally look for strong "build around" abilities (such as the bladesinger's extra attack) or reasons for other classes to dip wizard (such as the war wizard's tactical wit and arcane deflection) as spell access is generally the same across the subclasses. I think you highly underrate scribes, evokers and bladesingers then overrate illusionists and enchanters (i do understand why though on enchanters since they are one of your faves/biases).

i'm also stingy with giving top ranks (5* for your system). I typically give the top rank to only 1 subclass to show off which i think is the best subclass. Here's my own:

5*-scribe
4*-bladesinger, abjurer, war, diviner
3*-enchanter, evoker, necromancer (maybe)
2*-conjurer, illusionist
1*- transmuter

if you're curious, i can share my reasoning why a certain subclass is ranked a certain way. oh and anything i rank 2* or below i consider bad subclasses. it doesn't mean however that let's say a transmuter is bad compared to other classes. wizards at base are a top 1-3 class in the game.

i put necromancer in the middle as it's the swingiest of the subclasses as the whole minionmancer playstyle is very powerful that it could be the best subclass here but since most DMs shutdown this type of playstyle (no armies at the table), they could also be one of the worst. animate dead is a spell i commonly see nerfed or banned. there's also RP issues at tables who view necromancers as evil and don't want an "evil" PC at the table. necromancers are similar to the assassin in that way. let them shine and they are OP. counter/nerf/ban their core mechanics and they suck.

Bladesinger is by far my favorite wizard subclass I am playing as a Hobgoblin Bladesinger in Candlekeep Mysteries and Call of the Netherdeep one is more of a bookworm from Emon she is a Lyceum scholar but the other one is a cold blooded mercenary veteran she was a member of The Chill mercenary band

Ok, thanks - now I'll have to test out the other sub-classes (arcane traditions), since my main mage character that has been around for about 6 months is a chronurgy wizard who I enjoy very much (he's kind of fragile however) and my secondary wizard is a war magic wizard...I am kind of interested in abjuration (having a wizard that is not fragile and can defend the party? That sounds fun!) and blade-singing...and the collector-wizard (Order of Scribes)! Spells are pokemon after all! Gotta have 'em all! :D
Especially since my main DM is STINGY with spells! I've found ONE scroll during a campaign that's been running for half a year now (we are currently level 7!) and that was given to us out of mercy, because a character had gotten cursed and we don't have anybody who can dispell a curse -.-

Looking into doing a Chronurgy Wizard/ Armorer Artificer multiclass for my friend's one-shot coming up, that Momentary Stasis feature sounds absolutely busted but I love it lol. Now I just gotta figure out which of the two I wanna lean more into 👍🏼

Bladesinger and chrono-whatever lol