A quick question about PM gameplay and tactics

[Sircowdog]

I understand that at some point at the higher levels, you start using web+wail to kill masses of monsters, but I'm still at the midpoint using a 2rog/18wiz build. I'm currently at 9th level wiz, levelling so far using Archmage until I hit lvl 12 and make the swap over to PM. Wraith form and the other nice perks that come with 12PM, such as necrotic bolt, should be nice.

But having never taken a caster to this level before, I'm starting to get into unknown territory for how it'll perform. Specifically I'm wondering how a PM deals with undead, especially those pesky blackbones that are immune to firewall. So far I've been using the blunt effect part of icestorm since I didn't feel like acid rain was doing enough(maybe I'm doing it wrong?)

I'm sure there's all kinds of enemies I haven't encountered yet that are going to give me fits. Ranged types are always annoying because they seem to have a habit of sitting just outside the range of my AOEs, although low cost spells like scorching ray, melfs, or MM take care of them quickly. But what about things like beholders? Are there any particular enemies I should be especially concerned about as I move into higher level content?

Also, if there's a guide for general PM tactics and strategy that I'm missing, just call me a noob and point me in the right direction. Not stuff like build strategy, but actually using the class during quests. I'm pretty sure I've got the basic to moderate skills of an arcane down pretty well, having solo'd longer quests like The Pit, Stormcleave, Tear of Dakaan, and the entire Co6 chain all on hard. What I need is more advice on specific and advanced techniques.

As always, thanks in advance!

[-Zephyr-]

Acid rain is *that* good. It lasts much less than firewall/ice storm, but it does good damage. Try to have mobs gathered before using it.
Ranged mobs who don't move at all... Don't be afraid of just ignoring them. They can be a waste of SP to kill, so either let other party members deal with them (melees?) or ignore them completly when soloing, unless they're giving you yellow or above alert (they usually won't as they lose aggro on you when you get far away, and because they don't move).
You aren't really a PM until you get finger of death. Until then, you're a sorc, but weaker. Fireball/acid blast, firewall/ice storm/acid rain are all you need.

That's just how I've done lately, and it worked pretty fine for me

[Viren1]

Don't underestimate circle of death or undeath to death either, mobs may have 2 saves to fail but with heighten its essentially a ranged wail of the banshee that can be used on living/undead targets respectively.

If your going into an archer heavy area, consider Invis and and just run past them - if you keep your distance they shouldn't aggro on you at all.

[Beethoven]

How do PMs deal with undead? There are various ways to address the issue. AoE damage spells (ie: firewall against non Blackbones) work. Other spells of note:

* Web like you already said.
* Halt Undead; many undead are considered non-intelligent (ie: most skeletons) and the spell does not allow a save for non-intelligent undead (ie: most skeletons). So, in these cases it can be easily scrolled and still is quite effective. I'd recommend to carry at least scrolls of that spell if not the spell itself for undead heavy quests as it is generally superior to Web (targets are considered "Held" and thus take more damage).
* Disrupt Undead: it's a level 1 spell that still can do decent damage.
* Undeath to Death is another excellent spell. It's basically your mass insta-kill for Undead. I still use it in epics for quests like VoN 5.

Blackbones? The probably easiest way dealing with them is Web and/or Halt Undead and let melees clean up. You don't have access to melees, like someone already said, they take Acid damage.

Beholders? Beholders have bad saves. Given a decent enough DC Phantasmal Killer already can take care of them just fine. Later use Finger of Death. The easiest way is insta-killing them before they see you. Most the time a careful enough approach works just fine. You also can use sneak and/or invis, or - if you can spare the feat - Enlarge. They see you, duck and weave (or use the run around like a headless chicken tactic) to get out of their anti-magic ray and use (possibly quickened) insta-kill the moment they expose their side to you. All it really needs is get out from being in front of them.

Named beholders are a bit more difficult to tackle; the traditional tactic used to be Acid Fog (because unlike Firewall it also slows them down and they tend to move a lot). Disintegrate used to be another good spell. However, now that we have dots things got a bit easier.

Others? One enemy I think deserves special note and that's arcane oozes. Arcane Oozes come with magic immunity, meaning they are immune to /any/ spell that allows for Spell Resistance. They get healed by magic. Electrical attacks haste the attacker. They have 50% Energy Absorption for all Energy types. This includes: Cold, Fire, Sonic, Light and even Force damage. Use Spells that do /not/ check for SR. Do not use Acid spells.

[DarkForte]

Something of special note about ranged enemies: they don't count towards dungeon alert, so you can ignore most of them without being harried endlessly.