Which Spell Focus for leveling?

[The_Mud_Man]

I just rolled up a wizard and not sure about the spell focus I chose. I plan on leveling as AM til at level 12 and switch to PM. I chose conjuration and going with an acid/electric damage focus. Just having second thoughts, thinking I should've went with evocation. This will be the character's first life. Thoughts?

[Jeromio]

Up until before Vale content, almost all mobs goes "poof" in a combo AOE of WoF and Acid rain (sometimes use Ice Storm instead of WoF).
Personally, I don't need evocation focus for this while levelling. Instead, I just pick necro focuses to easier get rid of casters etc that don't want to enter the AOEs... and for Wail later on.

[sirgog]

I also second going Necromancy.

You will throw more damage spells than anything from 1-12 or so, and on those spells it really does not matter much what your DC is. Sure Acid Rain does a smidgen more average damage at 22 DC than it does at 21, but the difference isn't much.

On the other hand, when you get Finger of Death, there's a big difference between a 24 DC and a 25 there.

[The_Mud_Man]

What about extend? It seems to get some negative feedback since it was changed to not work on Wall of Fire but I do enjoy longer lasting buffs.

[AtomicMew]

If you're going for PM, you don't really have a choice, since necro focus is a pre-req. If you're going for AM, for pure leveling purposes, evocation is probably the strongest overall IMO. Sure, a instadeath DC is nice, but wail and circle of death are on 30s timers. On the other hand, fireball/otiluke's/chain lightning are on 6 second timers and one or two AoEs basically do the same thing for almost all <20 content.