What is your lvl 8 spell?

[Zartuul]

Not that many good choices to choose from. Irrestible dance seems pretty good but I already have a lot of CC spells. Dancing ball, Hold Monster, FtS, FoD. Swapping out a lvl 8 spell is hugely expensive so I'm holding off leveling up until I can get some feedback.

[Lorlack]

I first chose incendiary cloud but later switched to irresistable dance. The cloud kinda sucked because it blocked the vision of friends. Irresistable dance sure seems to be resisted a lot. Quite often I cast it and the mob does nothing. So I guess I'm in the same boat and want to know what others have chosen and why.

[Merkinsal]

Huh, only red named have resisted mine.

[Auran82]

I first chose incendiary cloud but later switched to irresistable dance. The cloud kinda sucked because it blocked the vision of friends. Irresistable dance sure seems to be resisted a lot. Quite often I cast it and the mob does nothing. So I guess I'm in the same boat and want to know what others have chosen and why.

The only things that should stop this spell (other than red/purple immunities) would be SR (it will likely be 2 less than your other spells due to the lack of Spell Penetration VIII (or IIX) items) and the enemy moving out of the way or out of range.

At the moment my Sorc has the cloud as well, works well in conjunction with grease to annoy guildies.

Have tried out Trap the Soul and polar ray as well.

Trap the soul is rough with the material component and Polar ray isn't too bad, mainly because it has no save, you just miss the 40/50% from potency.

[Kraldor]

I picked Greater Shout, but I'm not going to touch 8th level spells until they put Mass Charm Monster back in

[Pyrothraxus]

Polar Ray currently. Works well enough on most fire resistant and u wanna bounce back an forth between this and Cone of Cold. Also use it at #4 and #5 Shroud where most of my spells dont quite hit as hard. Desinth seems to get resisted alot and does 80-100 dmg. Cone is ok with the fiend but youve gotta get up close and personal and end up taking a bit of dmg. This spell to randomly thrown in when ur bored does 200 - 700 Dmg a pop. Thinking of trying out Greater Shout as ive heard some good things with it. I ran with someone using Sunburst in Necro and it was a great spell there.

[Auran82]

I forgot I tried greater shout.

Not a bad spell, half CC, half damage. Because it does damage it doesn't need to bypass SR which is good. And the 6 second stun can be handy.

[Elleron]

Using polar ray - there is enough fire type things running around that it makes itself useful. Yes I dont get the +50% from an item - still get +40% from enhancements. Although I looked at the dance, but I'm not really into touching the monsters - already have the lower dancing ball spell - which you don't have to touch anything

[Solmage]

I selected irresistible dance. Some creatures do have saves that are too inflated to hit with anything else reliably, but they are far and few. I selected I.D simply because everything else sucked worse for me.

The only other lvl 8 spell I consider useful (aside from trap the soul for crafting, but the wizard can do it) is sunburst. Everything else is a waste of breath, in my opinion. Cone of cold or ball of cold, if you're really that paranoid about getting close, work just as well, and travel a lot faster. (Worst case scenario they hit for the same damage, but usually they hit twice as hard)

I tend to rely on disintegrate quite a bit, which is why I also have several debuffs loaded. I always debuff bosses and then proceed to disintegrate with abandon, and it makes quite a difference. As a side effect, melees usually take less damage so everyone wins.

Once superior glaciation/potency VIII comes out, I'll swap for polar ray. Unless they also release an actually neat spell in between.

[Strakeln]

The only things that should stop this spell (other than red/purple immunities) would be SR (it will likely be 2 less than your other spells due to the lack of Spell Penetration VIII (or IIX) items) and the enemy moving out of the way or out of range.

Enemy moving out of range is the big issue for me.

Back when I had resistable dance, there seemed to be less of an issue with visible mob location as compared to actual mob location. So very rarely did I deal with the old "you must be facing the XXX" problem.

Now, it's a constant issue, to the point that irresistable dance is somewhat useless.

Horrid wilting is fun, but not very effective for the same reasons someone listed above: no superior potency items for that level of spell.

Certainly the saddest level of spells for casters.

[Solmage]

Certainly the saddest level of spells for casters.

Pretty much. Give me the option to swap a level 8 spell slot for a level 1 slot (never mind the juicy ones, 2, 4, or 7) and I'd jump on it in a heart beat.

Maybe they can implement an arch-magi like enhancement line, swap a lvl 8 slot for a lower level spell-like no-mana ability .. drool..

[Deragoth]

I thought it kinda sucked at first, but Sunburst rocks undead. Seriously.

Blackbones - Instakill - only doing 200ish damage, so must be instakill.
Vamps - Instakill
Shadows - Instalkill
Wraiths - Instakill

All my most unfavorite baddies, and they almost never save against it.

I wish the animation was faster... more instantaneous, you know, like the speed of light maybe?!

Works well as a group debuffer too.

[Solmage]

I thought it kinda sucked at first, but Sunburst rocks undead. Seriously.

Blackbones - Instakill - only doing 200ish damage, so must be instakill.
Vamps - Instakill
Shadows - Instalkill
Wraiths - Instakill

All my most unfavorite baddies, and they almost never save against it.

I wish the animation was faster... more instantaneous, you know, like the speed of light maybe?!

Works well as a group debuffer too.

Sunburst is .. ok. But imho it casts a bit too slow for a damage spell, and it doesn't hit the shadows when they're in 'invisible' mode. Frankly firewall does the job very well. My main use for it is for vamps. In fact I don't even bother casting it when I'm running my wizard, except vs said vamps.

As for the blackbones, many of them have very low hit points, I don't think this is insta killing them at all, but I suppose I could be wrong.

[Merkinsal]

I forgot I tried greater shout.

Not a bad spell, half CC, half damage. Because it does damage it doesn't need to bypass SR which is good. And the 6 second stun can be handy.

Shout, Greater
Evocation [Sonic]
Level: Brd 6, Sor/Wiz 8
Emits an ear-splitting yell that deafens and deals 10d6 sonic damage and stuns targets in its path. A successful Fortitude save halves the damage and negates the stun.

I would have thought this would have a SR save for the stun portion up front, then a fortitude save, something like PK and FOD, both of which do damage as a portion of the spell. I would appreciate if spell descriptions ever said anything about spell resistance. To any Devs out there, the check is in the mail.

[Strakeln]

I would have thought this would have a SR save for the stun portion up front, then a fortitude save, something like PK and FOD, both of which do damage as a portion of the spell. I would appreciate if spell descriptions ever said anything about spell resistance. To any Devs out there, the check is in the mail.

To be fair, they do in game.

[Venar]

I use Sunburst.
It allows me to keep soloing Temple of Vol since they gave shadows immunity to fire.
I mostly use it as an AoE blind for the rogues (kind of a lvl 8 glitterdust)

[amysrevenge]

Like some others have said - I'm using polar ray. I'm still going into the Shroud a lot, and it helps with the reds and purples in there. I have the elemental (fire/ice) enhancements all maxed and a sup ice lore, so it still does respectable damage even without Sup Pot VIII, and makes a comparable combo with Scorching Ray/Fireball against fire immune/resistant mobs.

Once I'm done with the Shroud with my Sorc (and if they make promised fixes to the Abbot), I might move back to the Necropolis, and swap to Sunburst for a while.

[Brandall]

Given the lack of a clear choice for an 8th level spell, i have initially chosen summon monster...for the sole purpose of soloing my way thru the lower favor quests i need, he works decently as an aggro grabber, as for what i will swap it out with eventually depends a lot on if they add some more interesting spells and items in the next mod.

[arcticwolf666]

Polar ray and grtr shout. Absolutely love grtr shout, mixed on polar ray. Great if and when it crits though