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The Attack Workspace and Damage Workspace are mostly useless later on, but it's worth calculating anyway. For a Wizard, the Basic Attacks section is entirely worthless, you have no Str and are using an Orb which isn't a melee weapon, so your Melee Basic Attack is not worth anything, and your Ranged Basic Attack, if you have it, is Magic Missile, which automatically does a fixed ammount of damage.

All powers that require an attack roll tell you what Ability to use, for most of your powers it will be Int, but not all of them (Specifically, Melee Basic Attacks use Strength). Weapon Attacks add the Proficiency Bonus from the weapon you are using, but you have to be wielding the weapon (if you are holding your Orb, you cannot make a Weapon Attack with your Staff because a Staff requires 2 hands to wield); Implement Attacks (ie. your spells) do NOT add the Proficiency Bonus.
Normally it's 1/2 Level + Strength Mod + Proficiency Bonus + Enhancement Bonus + Other Bonuses. For you, this will be all of +3 if you Wield the Dagger in your Off-hand. For a Fighter with a Longsword, this will be roughly +8.
Damage is 1[W] + Strength Mod + Enhancement Bonus + Other Bonuses. 1[W] tells you to roll 1 of whatever is listed in the Weapons damage entry. So for you with a dagger, you will deal 1d4+0 damage, and a Fighter with a Longsword will deal 1d8+4.
At least until you go up in levels, and the difference between someone with a good MBA and someone with a bad MBA will dramatically increase. At high level I don't even bother rolling MBAs on my Wizard.

Page 274 of the Players Handbook or 216 of the Rules Compendium covers how to figure out your Attack Bonus pretty well

Implements are rather different from Weapons though they serve the same function for casters (Staffs are both Weapons and Implements, but that only matters for 1 or 2 classes). You get bonuses to attack and damage from Magical Implements you use, and there are feats (and your class feature) that give you different benefits for using Implements, such as Orb Expertise which gives you a +1 to hit and +1 to push/pull/slide distances when you attack with an Orb.

The supposed "balance" is that you are attacking Fortutude, Reflex, or Will (collectively called the Non-AC Defenses, or NADs) while Weapon users attack Armor Class (AC), and the NADs are typically 1-3 lower than AC on monsters.

Aug 5, 2012 -- 7:15PM, n0ahhh wrote:

Aug 5, 2012 -- 5:49PM, Felorn wrote:

Aug 5, 2012 -- 4:15PM, n0ahhh wrote:

So I have to be wielding some sort of implement (orb/staff/wand) in order to cast any spells, correct? I can't be empty-handed?

No, you can cast empty handed, but you won't get magic item enchanment bonuses to attacks and damage.

Okay so since I'm first level, and I have a quarterstaff, if I equip that quarterstaff do I get the proficiency bonus to my spells? Sorry, I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around this.. -_-

Implement powers *never* get a proficiency bonus to attack rolls.

Implement powers NEVER get a proficiency bonus to attack.  Never never ever EVER under ANY circumstances.

Here's what you have, for (as far as I can remember) all wizard spells:

Your ability modifier, which is INT for all your spells.  For you, that's a +4.

That's probably all you got right now.

Later on, when you increase in level, you'll add half your level as a modifier to attack rolls.  At level 2, it will be +1.  At level 4, +2, etc.

You'll eventually acquire a magic implement.  You'll add it's enhancement bonus to your attack rolls.

At some point, you'll want to take an Expertise feat with your favorite implement.  That will add a feat bonus to your attack rolls, based on your level (1-10, +1.  11-20, +2, 21-30, +3).

There are other ways to get bonuses to attack rolls, but these are the most common.