Elemental mastery?

[Such755]

At level 18 now, once I get two ranks in it (For lich form) I will reset my enhancements.
Right now I am speced for fire and ice, full base damage amp and about equal distribution between crit chance and damage multiplier.
Though not amazing, my evocation DPS is pretty good.
Now it's time to change, mostly because fire begins to turn useless.
A few things I have in mind:

-Ice and Electric.
Pros:
Good damage output.
Two of the best DOT (Niac's and Eldars), which are my main source of boss DPS.
I have the tier 3 level 16 ornamented dagger, so I have greater lore in both electric and ice (and fire)

Cons:
Electric spells are heavy on DC, and I only have 1 sorc PL for that mission. No evocation item (At least for now... hopefully I'll get the epic staff of inner sight someday) and no evocation feats.

Ice is good either way, it has mass spells with saves, and no save spells which deal great damage (Polar ray for example)

-Ice and acid.
Pros:
Acid has good AOE spells
. . .
Can't think of any more

Cons:
Will have to wear an entire item for acid lore.
Acid spells are conjuration, my DC on those spells will be 1 lower than evocation.

As you can see I am both concerned about AOE spells (So far I have ice storm and firewall) and DOT spells (Niac's is my main, I kick in Endar's if I can spare the SP)

QUESTIONS!:
1) What do you think is the overall best elements to choose?
2) Will sonic damage amp also raise my untyped damage? (Cyclonic blast, Disintigrade)
3) If 2 is "Yes", is it worth taking?
4) How should I distribute AP across elemental amplification? (I.E. 5 pts into base damage, 2 into crit chance, 2 into crit damage... just an example)

Thank you for your patience

[xoowak]

I like Ice/Acid, with a few points in Electric (for Eladar's) and Force (for Disint). Acid works on everything and has a good damage/mana ratio. Ice/Electric is better burst DPS, but the lack of a persistent electric AOE makes it expensive. Nuking with electric spells is best left to sorcs, imo.

I'm not 100% with the spell power changes, but I think 7/1/1 is still the best setup.

[Kinerd]

One secret of Acid is Black Dragon Bolt. It is very much like Polar Ray: no save, high base damage, high spell level. The differences are it has 3 ticks instead of 1 and it is Acid instead of Cold, so if you happened to be fighting a target that was immune to Cold, Electric, and all spells below level 5, it is pretty much the best thing ever. It is also quite useful in general, as there are comparatively few targets outright immune to Acid.

There is no sonic damage enhancement. Electric will raise Sonic. Force will raise Untyped (Disintegrate) and Physical (Ice Storm, Meteor Swarm). For this and other reasons Force is an interesting option, but for general use I have been happiest with 7/1/1 Cold and Electric, 1/0/0 in everything else but Acid, x/1/1 in Acid.

Regarding Acid slotting, consider the Rock Boots from the Cannith challenges. (The spell power Corrosion value is a mostly useless 90.) I have found the guards surprisingly effective given how infrequently my wizard is hit and how low the saves are. You won't see them constantly, but the Earthgrab especially crops up.

To the 7/1/1 point, I did some math demonstrating why 7/1/1 is still the optimal way to spend 9 AP for a given set of initial conditions. You could re-do the math with whichever base conditions you expect to have, but I doubt it'll change anything.

[erikbozelie]

for heroic leveling, it doesnt matter much.

for epic, go ice or lightning, id go full since you can only take,.. one burst, one aura, and one breath weapon. going 7/6/6/ instead of 7/1/1 is better.
i went for ice and love it.

take a look at my dracon ice lich here

had crits up to 13k with it, that ofcourse with a 7/6/6 ice setup,
but should aswell work with 2x 7/1/1 setups, even get 1 point to spend in one of them.