TheMeInTeam wrote:Even IMB is usually more practical for multi-hits than dazzling spray, in situations where you can't make good use of prism like corridors/odd terrain. I spam searing ray the most in the early goings as Cj though.
Dazzling spray is a viable stabbing tool and it's odd to have it in the Cj playbook, since Cj use magic that can't be resisted. Still, no currently existing level 2-4 spell would make MORE sense in its place, and making up a new pure damage spell in level 3 is also silly. I can see why it's still in this book. The other route would be to drop it and add battlesphere back, but I think that was deemed too strong?
FWIW, IMB has a 1:6 chance of hitting more than one creature if the one you're targeting is adjacent, it's better when your target is further, but it's not ever really reliable as a multi-target spell (Also dazzling spray can hit things that are spread further apart than can be targeted with IMB, which is more likely when they are further away from you). Also IMB's damage is really inferior to f.Prism's, and if you're going to use f.Prism, you aren't spending any XP you wouldn't otherwise, so it only costs spell slots (which you can recover later with amnesia)
However searing ray is *really really* good for it's level, so it's totally feasible to skip dazzling spray, with only minimal loss in power.
It's worth pointing out that dazzling spray does more damage than searing ray per-hit (obviously at a much larger MP cost per turn) so if you're looking for *strictly maximum damage per time* dazzling spray is better (it does damage comparable to stone arrow but to more than one target, and only slightly less damage than IMB, although at the expense of another school) Also, searing ray is obviously only single-school, so it takes more XP to get dazzling spray online.
For the curious:
Searing ray: (2/2/3/4)d(5-7ish)
Dazzling spray: 2d(13-20ish)
Stone arrow: 3d(7-11ish)
f.Prism: 3d(12-24ish)
IMB: 2d(11-23ish)
Force lance: 2d(11-23ish)
where "ish" implies enough spellpower to cast the spell at the minimum (20 for the level 3 spells, 30 for the level 4 spells), and a not-over-the-top investment for the high side (100 spellpower, or spell cap)
The real loser of the bunch, damage-wise, is force lance, it's the same as IMB but takes an extra spell school (and one that's not shared with the rest of the starting book).
Dazzling spray is actually pretty good as a damage spell, it's not as efficient as searing ray for the majority of cases where you can draw the group you want to kill into a nice line, and it's not as much damage as f.Prism for the large chunk of cases where you can employ it reasonably (and don't mind the noise), but it's fine as an in-between spell for those two.