Liquifaction  

I was a fire/earth spec wizard in beta(EU guy here ;) ), and i believe now i unknowingly gimped myself by splitting spec. It was ok, i had 2 bolts and some good DD and from time to time i had that AE. I only got it to level 15 before i really gave up on it.

In Retail i started with an armsmen and later decided to make a caster, but because of RvR advice i decided to become an ice spec caster. There have been changes implemented recently that altered the effectiveness of Ice spec in RvR, mainly dealing with keep defense(a definite strong point prior). The keep doors became targettable for AE nukes so that if i go PBAE nuke behind the door their casters can AE nuke me back from a range. While true, a high level PBAE will hurt lots of attackers once/twice until they get you, a Fire AE has a good range so you can stay back, get a target(stand near the door if you can handle a hit or two, far off, with target clear, and the first AE attacker will get selected), and nuke like they do(btw, you should be able to cast through the doors, my armsmen could attack through them).

The other thing i found lacking in ice was resists. While yes you have a resist debuff its more of a chain cast-type spell. The more you cast the more damage you should do until the target dies. However, a good deal of the creatures i fought had ice resistances and also my spells were prone to being resisted when fighting anything yellow+. I did have maxed ice spec, and it didnt help. The PBAE does *massive* damage, but invariably you get resists on it too. In a mithra group we accidentally got aggroed by 4 oranges/reds in a group of 4. I went mad PBAE nuking and cast about 4 times before i died, usually hitting for ~200 damage (total) each time. Its really a suicide cast. Another group of guildies accidentally pulled about 15 filidh and sacrificers in Salisbury when we meant to get two. There were 2 fire spec and one ice(me), while they were AEing from distance i had to wait until the mobs got close, and used PBAE twice before some new arrivals got tapped by it and came after me.

As i seem to be finding fault with ice and fire is recieving more bolts in subsequent patches, i will be rerolling my wizard soon. Please dont take this as an anti-ice attack, see the very excellent post ^^^^ up there that suggests what will be best for your type of person ;)

GL, HF, and Glory to Albion
SunTzu, level 15 wiz(beta)
Fightersuntzu, level 31 armsmen, prydwen
Middryn, level 10 ice spec wiz, prydwen, waiting for delete
Augustus, level 6 infil, prydwen

Does anyone know at what levels you the Broiling Cloud spells? I got the weekest one at 14 and have yet to see another one yet.

Does ice now have ranged AOE?

HAHA IceWizard there AoE doesnt have no ****** range which = GAY

IceBoi

if you look at the fire skill i'ts a rvr and pve
bolts do almost little damg compared to other spells pve. but the intas take less time to cast and use LESS mana. beside you ever notice that when you cast a bolt that it can MISS it's target completly! so thats what 255 damg out the tubes.

Getting alot of questions in game about fire vs ice.

so here it is argue if you wish.

Ice for PvE and quick lvling.

Fire for RvR

Ice AE has no place in RvR I never use it. I have killed maybe 5 people with it. Insta con debuffs, insta mezz, insta stun, insta this, insta that, insta death mostly, usually gets you before your AE goes off.

Fire AE at least you can defend a keep half way decent.

well anyway thats my point of view. I have about 50hrs into RvR and about 24 days into DAoC.

I shelved my wizard btw for a smite cleric they nuke harder where chain and can rezz.

Fire AE is the way to go for RvR. I am 100% ice and until they fix the doors in keeps so you can't attack or target through them Ice wizards will have little to do.

OK, don't know what's wrong but the "Searing" line seems to ADD to ice buffing, even if it does resistance debuff. I tried to cast searing first before kiteing with "ensnaring" and it definetly makes ensnaring hit for LESS afterwards, not more. Even if monsters do ressist less it seems that the only use would be if you attack some purple guys and cast it first so they dont resist as much.
Please someone comment on this, what is really going on here?

In my spell skills tab, the path of fire is green. The others are... don't remember - but I know they're different. I have put most points into ICE, none in Earth and some in FIRE. The question is: Did I inadvertantly choose Fire as my main specialization - maybe because I chose it first? I don't remember where I put my first pts. I hope this makes sense to someone - I think I just confused myself...

Hail confused wizzy,
The instructions for us are not exactly clear but i think i have the hang of it now.
3 paths - ice,fire,earth
each level u get a new spell (nearly every level) no matter what your skill is, these base paths are linked to level.
Now the skills - When u specialize in a path you, increase spell vs resist of target and i beleive dmg.
When you reach a skill level of 5 in one or more of the paths, you get a special path - skill 5 in ice you get liquification.
Finally the special paths are the only ones, that are effected, int he way of spell availability, by skill points.
So to sum up 3 paths ice, fire, earth - spells received via level and the quality of those spells matched with skill.
The 3 special paths are matched directly with skill level.
Hope this makes sence after ya ears stop bleeding ;o)

Alright, if i am right you get 1 spec point for each lvl right? so when i hit 30 i get 30 points to put into a spec spell. say im going all ice, i only need to put points in ice each time im going to get a spell right? the lvls im not going to get a spec spell in ice i can put my points into say earth or fire and still get all the ice spec spells right? if im wrong please make a note, i want to go all ice and get the 50th spell. thanks