Wall of Fire vs Ice Storm....

[deliph]

Im sure this question has been asked somwhere....but I cant find it.

Anyway, my sorc is near leveling and I will ofc be taking polar ray for a boss beater.

My sorc is air savant and will stay so.....currently have the fire line maxed so my firewalls do enough damage when I need to drag and drop a mob mass. Am finding I very rarly use it these days tho.

Soooo as I will be taking polar ray I will be dropping the fire enhancments for ice....question is should I swap firewall for icestorm?

Both seem to do sameish damage and duration. Anyone any experiance with comparing the two spells?

[Silent-Death]

Well, Firewall is GREAT for leveling, but as you head towards endgame, alot of the mobs tend to be resistant or immune to fire.

Ive played 3 Casters to around level 18, and I will say that Ice Storm is better. It does TWO types of damage (Ice and Bludgeon), very few are resistant and it slows down targets. And, IIRC, theres no save entering it, but dont take my word on it. The only bad thing about this is, if you have an old/bad CPU, it will cause lag. And sometimes, mobs dont take damage when they pass through it.

But overall, for me, I find Ice Storm is more useful.

[Trillea]

Ice storm is good, but not as good as Acid Rain IMO. And this is coming from an Ice savant.

[redraider]

I HATE the sounds that go with Ice Storm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mikesharpshooter]

i Hate The Sounds That Go With Ice Storm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

+1

[danotmano1998]

As an ice savant, I can say that I carry both firewall, and ice storm.

Even though my secondary line is force, I still find firewall to be occasionally useful. Against anything immune to cold, it's still one of the best spells out there. I have zero fire enhancements, though I do carry a sceptre with greater potency VI. With that alone, the ice creatures roll damage in the 70-100's regularly. Even with the whopping fire penalties that ice savants get.

Not a bad spell to keep around for those occasions.

[ndiana10]

As an ice savant, I can say that I carry both firewall, and ice storm.

Even though my secondary line is force, I still find firewall to be occasionally useful. Against anything immune to cold, it's still one of the best spells out there. I have zero fire enhancements, though I do carry a sceptre with greater potency VI. With that alone, the ice creatures roll damage in the 70-100's regularly. Even with the whopping fire penalties that ice savants get.

Not a bad spell to keep around for those occasions.

Ice Storm I say Its just For Slowing Down Monsters FW For any Occasion But Icestorm I would say is good for Fire Stuff But whatever PS. How do You pOST A thread ??? I have a Few Builds

[Luxx0r]

Ice storm is good, but not as good as Acid Rain IMO. And this is coming from an Ice savant.

I never tested this one. At first sight it does a lot more of damage, but only last 8 seconds vs. half a minute of the other two options mentioned.

Can some habitual user comment on this spell?

[Blank_Zero]

I never tested this one. At first sight it does a lot more of damage, but only last 8 seconds vs. half a minute of the other two options mentioned.

Can some habitual user comment on this spell?

While lvling, I greatly enjoyed acid/fire spec. You can stack acid rain and fw.

Once I got coc and otilukes sphere, I went fire/ice. Then, after the orchard, to cold with secondary in electricity.

[Llewndyn]

I am an air savant too. How did you go air savant but have enough points to "max out fire"? I can't see any way that is even possible?

Anyway, I struggled with which one to choose as well, and decided ice storm was better for the bludgeoning damage it offers, meaning I hit a greater range of stuff. No, it's not super strong, but it does annoy stuff and puts them in a tidy little conga line for when I cast chain lightning, which is all I wanted them to do in the first place.

Not being a Summers Eve but really interested in how you got Air Savant Enhancements and still had points to max out anything else. I wanted to go lightning/ force but the cost to get ANYTHING going for force was too high to get the bare essentials - toughness feats, spell pen feats, yada yada yada.

[bradleyforrest]

I am an air savant too. How did you go air savant but have enough points to "max out fire"? I can't see any way that is even possible?

Anyway, I struggled with which one to choose as well, and decided ice storm was better for the bludgeoning damage it offers, meaning I hit a greater range of stuff. No, it's not super strong, but it does annoy stuff and puts them in a tidy little conga line for when I cast chain lightning, which is all I wanted them to do in the first place.

Not being a Summers Eve but really interested in how you got Air Savant Enhancements and still had points to max out anything else. I wanted to go lightning/ force but the cost to get ANYTHING going for force was too high to get the bare essentials - toughness feats, spell pen feats, yada yada yada.

There are plenty of points to be able to max out two damage lines as a Sorc. Personally, I have Air and Force with a few in Ice, Repair, and Fire.

You might be spending points on racial stuff that you don't need. I don't know.

[goodspeed]

For mass **** around me like the vale, I hit the all the meta's and let ice storm go with a displacement. Really tears into everything around me.

For ledges that I need provision on, then I use firewall. And in the rare cases where I find something that's both ice and lightning immune, or just ice based. It doesn't do alot of dmg with the tone down it got and my savant taking it down levels, but it's still handy to have now and then.

So until you hit around lv 12 when you start GH and vale. Id go main firewall. After then I'd switch to ice storm.

[Lithic]

Ice storm has one major flaw compared to firewall. It lacks the "entering" damage that firewall has (though that was nerfed a bit due to the reflex save for half). This makes firewall much more effective against phasing critters (shadows, scorpions, wraiths, anything that goes away and pops back in) as they take entering damage immediately upon unphasing. For icestorm, its pretty easy for mobs to not get hit by any damage as they phase in and out pretty fast occasionally.

[deliph]

Well thx for the replys folks, given me a bit to ponder over. Guess I'll just do a revamp and see how it goes....good point on the critters that disapire and pop back up again tho.

[licho]

1. Ice storms wins, if there is two casters, one throw firewall and other icestorm, water extughuis fire. ;-)
2. If you are going to spend a lot of time in undead heavy area like sand or necro then firewall has better dmg base 4d6+n.
3. In all other ice storm wins since its 2d6 bludgeon +1d6 ice +n. And bludgeon part is unstopable it break much more dr/immunites. You can hit shroud portal with it. ;-)
4. Better is spell with more AP spend, if you are going to play a lot with polar ray (or other cold spells) then its easier to max only shock&cold line than split in 3 or more. You can take a look at other cold spells like cone/sphere/lance i personally find them more interesting than fire.
5. Ice storm is no save. which is nice from both sp conservacion and effectivness point of view.
6. Ice storm makes life of melees more miserable. (im not sure if count that as con or pros) The only thing which could hit them more is adding some grease and hypnotic patern to the mixture. (it obsucure vision of fellows, and not all like it).

Ideally would be if you can keep for a while both, and then see which one you use more often.

[Xioden]

1. Ice storms wins, if there is two casters, one throw firewall and other icestorm, water extughuis fire. ;-)

However unless they changed it since U8 (haven't played with either really since getting back a couple weeks ago), if you position them properly, you there is an area where both are actually damaging anything between them.

[richieelias27]

However unless they changed it since U8 (haven't played with either really since getting back a couple weeks ago), if you position them properly, you there is an area where both are actually damaging anything between them.

Good luck coordinating that between two players.