Originally Posted by
EllisDee37
My wizard doesn't take empower, and rarely uses quicken. Otto's Sphere of Dancing and Negative Energy Burst are both set to always use quicken on my hotbar, but otherwise I don't use quicken at all.
I take Improved Maximizing III (the complete enhancement line) and wear an Efficient Maximize II item. This makes maximize cost 12 spell points.
Consider a damage spell that costs 25 spell points as the base. For me it costs 37 spell points, since I keep maximize on all the time. From what I can gather it would cost you 75 spell points, which is double what it costs me. (25 base + 25 maximize + 15 empower + 10 quicken = 75)
Let's compare level 20 spell power, let's say for cold:
100 frost manipulation VII enhancement
90 glaciation 90 item
15 implement (+5 enhancement bonus)
150 maximize
----
355 spell power = 455% damage
75 empower
----
430 spell power = 530% damage
75/455 = 16.5% more damage from adding Empower Spell
455/530 = 85.8% effectiveness when turning off Empower Spell
When you run with multiple metamagics active, it's hard to justify taking the improved metamagic enhancement lines because they are so expensive. If you only take maximize, it's much easier to justify maxing out the improved meta line as well as equipping an efficient meta item.
For half the cost of casting the spell -- 37 mana compaed to 75 -- I get 86% of the effectiveness and a slower casting animation. Seems well worth it to able to cast twice as many spells.