fireball sucks stop casting it

[MisterT]

i'm getting pretty tired of arcanes dropping fireballs and I thought I should tell them that scorching ray is a waaaay better spell, and firewall rules them both. So if you are entertaining the idea of fireballing something, you should think of firewall for all your AOE needs and scorching ray for your "need to nuke" needs.

P.S. Arcanes need to haste like Divines need to heal, remember that :P

[Blazer]

i'm getting pretty tired of arcanes dropping fireballs and I thought I should tell them that scorching ray is a waaaay better spell, and firewall rules them both. So if you are entertaining the idea of fireballing something, you should think of firewall for all your AOE needs and scorching ray for your "need to nuke" needs.

Do you like it when people tell you how to play whatever class it is you play? Yeah, I didn't think so.

P.S. Arcanes need to haste like Divines need to heal, remember that :P

Based on this comment, I'm guessing you are a fighter at best, a barbarian at worst.

[Mercules]

i'm getting pretty tired of arcanes dropping fireballs and I thought I should tell them that scorching ray is a waaaay better spell, and firewall rules them both. So if you are entertaining the idea of fireballing something, you should think of firewall for all your AOE needs and scorching ray for your "need to nuke" needs.

P.S. Arcanes need to haste like Divines need to heal, remember that :P

P.S. If you are melee and telling me to Haste you you can just go buy some Haste potions. Alternately you can listen when I tell you to pull certain mobs back to my CC/Firewall to save me those SPs I spend on hasting you.

P.P.S. If you see a Fireball coming out of my Sorcerer it is from a Wand(I have about 5 on me at all times ranging from level 5-10) and it is too effective in that it is adding damage to a large number of mobs without costing me any SPs. Usually it will be thrown out AFTER the firewall has been dropped. Don't assume Fireball casting = waste of SPs and/or "newb".

[Mad_Bombardier]

Methinks you don't play a caster or just not very well. Each and every spell has its place in the game. I've seen a low level Sorc basically solo Tangleroot with Fireball.

Blanket statements such as yours sadden me as to player knowledge of the game. I'm willing to bet that in the right situation (you know, those 1 or 2 cases in 100), my Burning Hands does more aggregate damage than your Scorching Ray. And you bet, in those few cases I'm gonna use it!

[MrCow]

I'm willing to bet that in the right situation (you know, those 1 or 2 cases in 100), my Burning Hands does more aggregate damage than your Scorching Ray. And you bet, in those few cases I'm gonna use it!

Reminds me of when I did a test for spell damage stacking with wands in Arachnophobia by gathering the 30 little spiders and whipped out a burning hands wand to fry each and every one of them in a single click.

Burst Area of Effect damage like Burning Hands and Fireball definately have a place and time. The sad thing is they are most effective when you have swarms of critters and most parties don't seem to like watching the arcane caster hightail it after launching a big fat fireball or other damage spell. It gets kinda hard for the melee to melee running things.

[Qzipoun]

Fireball is probably the spell i use the most on wands. The wands drop so much for me that everytime i'm out of sp or just need a nicely placed fireball i switch to wands and cast it. I had it on my spell list twice and took it off both times (im a sorc) I don't find it that useful on higher levels but on wands it's great.

Also, if you want haste then gather around me when i cast it, if someone doesnt get it when i say gather for haste then you're out of luck...

[Aranticus]

i'm gonna take my emp max fireball (180 dmg) and scorch ray (100 dmg x 2 ray) for damage calculation purposes

senario 1: group of mobs (8-10), avg 150 hp, spell used? fireball, all 8-10 will die

senario 2: group of mobs (4-5), avg 400 hp each, spell used? scorch ray, 2 shot will kill 1, a fireball will need 3 shots but will get you 4x the agro

senario 3: 1 mob 600 hp, spell used? scorch ray, no point wasting sp on 1 mob

[Varis]

haste is so I can run faster, fireball is to kill things fast no matter how many there are! If there is another use for those spells, let me know.

[kensihin_Himura]

Wow, that may be your suggestion but most people dont like people telling them that they should stop using a spell that they like. Next time keep you idiotic suggestions to yourself.

[Staedtler]

MisterT has a point a lot of people are overlooking

Against a single target scorching ray is superior. SR does 12d6 (4d6 x 3) which does not grant a save. Fireball maxes out at 10d6 and has a reflex save for half. Reflex save for 0 if you're fighting anything with rogue levels.

Against multiple targets wall of fire is superior. I really shouldn't have to go into gory detail as to why the damage output over time and damage per sp is greater for wall of fire. Wall of fire has the added bonus of being able to be used with other forms of cc. Wall of fire + solid fog is an excellent combination. You can also drop a heightened web, catch things and then drop your wall of fire. The web usually does not break and you've immobilized your target inside the wall of fire.

I've yet to see a situation where fireball would outperform these two spells. Delayed blast fireball will bring in a new dimension to this discussion with its max damage of 20d6. However, for it to pose any real advantage you'll have to be fully equipped to use it with potency and inferno VII items. I don't think those will be too easy to come by.

[Eryck]

Best scorching ray to date about 3 beams for a total of about 550-600 points total. Best fireball to date about 380. Yes Scorching ray for those onesy twosy things but as a fully fire spec'd Wiz there is nothing quite like a nice tasty monster BBQ. FB and SR and FW all have places. FW is a waste then the tanks cannot bottle the mobs or move them all over, FB is a waste on 1 mob and SR when the boss is beating down the tanks and 100 weenie mobs are in the way is a waste also. Fast feet, a nice agro catching FB and running in circles has saved many a sure wipe.

To everything there is a time and place. If you are lucky you are there if not.. release and retry

[Khalai]

I must say that the best use for fireball that any wizard/sorc I have played up was for breaking doors that i didn't have the strength to break down on my own

[Olaustt]

i'm getting pretty tired of arcanes dropping fireballs and I thought I should tell them that scorching ray is a waaaay better spell, and firewall rules them both. So if you are entertaining the idea of fireballing something, you should think of firewall for all your AOE needs and scorching ray for your "need to nuke" needs.

P.S. Arcanes need to haste like Divines need to heal, remember that :P

Sniffs the air....."I smell a Troll!"

[Strumpoo]

Haha!

I have personally watched one of the casters in my guild hit a pack of mobs for 1500-2000 points of damage with a single fireball. Yep, it is worthless..

Scorching ray isn't going to hit for anywhere near that amount of cumulative damage.

Scorching ray is good for sniping though as it is easier to manage aggro..

Firewall is fantastic as well, but the fireball is better for the big quick burst damage when you need it. Like to clear out a room full of ice reavers??

[kafromet]

i'm getting pretty tired of arcanes dropping fireballs and I thought I should tell them that scorching ray is a waaaay better spell, and firewall rules them both. So if you are entertaining the idea of fireballing something, you should think of firewall for all your AOE needs and scorching ray for your "need to nuke" needs.

P.S. Arcanes need to haste like Divines need to heal, remember that :P

Why don't you worry about your own game play and keep your arogant opinions to yourself.

[Missing_Minds]

I've yet to see a situation where fireball would outperform these two spells. Delayed blast fireball will bring in a new dimension to this discussion with its max damage of 20d6. However, for it to pose any real advantage you'll have to be fully equipped to use it with potency and inferno VII items. I don't think those will be too easy to come by.

Emm... how about you are a lvl 5 or 6 wizard or a lvl 6 or sorc?

lvl 5:fireball: 5d6
lvl 5: SR: 4d6
lvl 5: WoF: you can't cast yet.
lvl 6: fireball : 6d6
lvl 6: SR: 4d6
lvl 6: WoF: You can't cast yet.

SR can not break down doors, fireballs do... and keep going.

WoF against things with saves and resistance... You'll be doing maybe 10-20 pts of damage. Fireball way beats this if the issue is taking it down fast and now.
Fireball is not restricted to "line of sight". I have aimed, and been in the direct line of sight of mummies in Wizard King. I was 0 for 5 with SR. (Yeah, I was ticked by the game's cheating, and no, 1 of my SRs would have taken down all of his fire protect. Mummy never cast/didn't cast it again either.) Fireball didn't have any issue hitting and killing this cheater. Their pathing (currently) is such there is no guaranty you can get them back into the WoF.

The point is, Scorching Ray, Fireball, Wall of Fire, each has their strong points and weaknesses. Use the spell that works best for the situation and have fun.

[Mindspat]

Fireballs rock!

Scortching Ray rocks!

Firewall rocks!

Each one has its place.

What upsets me is the fool who's spamming their fireball wands of scrolls of Firewall on-top of my web'd mobs. That ****es me off more then anything else. When I see this happening I send a polite tell informing the offender I will be holding off from controling the mobs for the fighters to wack on - then send a tell to teh cleric to be mindful on who's effectively using spell points for potential DV - then let the fighters know who's spaming useless or counterproductive spells so they can let agro take due course.

My Fireballs hit for 300-600 points of dmg, per target, when I use them, which isn't terribly often due to circumstances. Are you sure you'd want me to not dump that kind of dmg into 4-10 mobs with a single button press?

[MisterT]

my very first character was an arcane caster, so you folk who think I haven't played one or don't play one are sadly mistaken my current main is in fact a fighter, but I also play a cleric all of which are in the 9 - 12 range. I think I need to tell you what "job" an arcane caster should be performing while in a party, his "job" is to buff fighters, do CC and to single shot high end mobs (because his dps vs. a single target is far greater than any combat class in the game) and from time to time yes he can drop a firewall to assist in DPS vs. large groups of monsters ( I say firewall because the SP - Damage ratio is far greater with that spell than any other AOE in the game) That in my OPINION is the proper way to play an arcane caster, I feel I should tell you why I don't like seeing fireballs thrown about, A)they break things, like doors (yay more mobs) they break coffins (great now we HAVE to fight that mummy) B) they grab massive amounts of aggro (great now we have to rez the wizard) or if he's got some shake n' bake skills (we have to chase mobs all over the place to get them off him) its funny that everyone is throwing out fictional numbers about how much dmg a fireball can do. I don't care how much damage it does, lvl 12 casters Scorching Ray does more, doesn't grant a reflex save and doesn't aggro everything in a room.

[quickgrif]

I killed Helos with an empowered and maximized fireball in one shot and his cronies were smears as well. HAs anyone else done this? It was on Elite.

[Blazer]

my current main is in fact a fighter, but I also play a cleric all of which are in the 9 - 12 range. I think I need to tell you what "job" an arcane caster should be performing while in a party, his "job" is to buff fighters....

/looks at post #2 in this thread.

Yep, I was right.