Joppa hopped into the Wizard forum to add to a discussion around the Wizard reveal recently made in the August newsletter. His post is definitely worth a read because it shows us how much thought is going into the game and how each class (such as the wizard) is not a mundane activity for players. There's so much more depth and more ways to play than the days of old..
The idea here is to answer the age-old problem of Wizards unloading a spell or two, then sitting down for the rest of the fight to keep Mana up. Now, Wizard's can stay meaningfully involved in combat through their Arcane school (damage, roots, stuns, etc.) and actually generateMana while doing so, building back up to another "burn" phase.
Even cooler though, is the type of progression players can anticipate for their class as revealed through Joppa's next comment. I'm including the whole quote here because it's an awesome read. Definitely great to see this level of detail being put forth by the team on the Pantheon Forums!
Let me put it in the context of a "player story":
As a Wizard, I learn Smolder at level 1, let's say. Then let's say at level 14 I'm fighting the Wraiths in Halnir Cave and the Wraith boss Tyrassura drops Scroll Fragment: Char! I win the roll against another Wizard, loot the fragment and then open my Living Codex. I notice I can't scribe Scroll Fragment: Char in a normal slot like other spells, so I read the description on the Fragment:
"Woven from Smolder to inflict increased Fire damage to your target with an X% bonus to critically land."
I remember that this Fragment is connected to smolder, so I flip to the Smolder icon in my codex. I notice that it's different from the other icons (this is not currently implemented, but will be soon). Instead of being a complete icon like the others, it appears to be torn in half. In the space where the missing half of the icon should be, there are two small, empty squares. I click one of those small squares with the Fragment on my cursor and it begins scribing. When the scribing is complete, I get a message saying, "You have learned how to weave Smolder into Char."
Now how does this work? My group pulls the next Wraith and we begin combat. I stand and cast Smolder which casts and fires as it normally does. But now, as soon as Smolder fires, the Smolder icon on my bar flashes and there is a new icon instantly in its place: Char! I activate Char which immediately fires on my enemy (instant cast, mana free) doing significantly more damage than Smolder. Once Char fires, the icon returns to the Smolder icon and begins Smolder's cooldown.
It's also worth noting that Animation, Audio and Visual effects will play a big role in "selling" this mechanic and making it feel like actual spell weaving. But trust me, it will be an awesome, visceral feeling when it's all said and done :)