Oz Refrig vs Freezing Cloud

[Lantier]

Hey folks,

I have a merfolk IE (but played more as a melee hybrid) going into the the V8/Zot stage. If I monkey with my INT rings, I can get level 6 spells to 0 hunger. So I was trying to decide between staying with Oz Refrig or going Freezing Cloud as my smite/AoE spell. (I don't have any significant Air or other elemental skills.)

I have read lots of posts saying Refrig is good, but the loss of pots is annoying. I have a preserve cloak and can stack a conserv amulet on top (tho I doubt that does anything). Even so, my pots go pop a lot.

Any suggestions here? Just suck it up on the pot losses and use Refrig? Or dump it and just use good ol Freezing Cloud?

Thnx.

[XrBob]

I'm not exactly sure, but I do think multiple sources of conservation do stack. At that point in the game I'd actually say that while pots are useful, they're not near as important as early in the game. For healing, you're much better off with a wand of healing. If you don't have one, then now's the time to use the scroll of acquirements you've been saving. The most important pot in late game is cure mutation, and you'd want to keep those in your stash until you need them. How much cold resistance do you have, is the self-damage not an issue?

They're both good spells, but I usually think of ozo's as a spell to use with lots of small-medium enemies, while cloud I use when I can get some stronger enemies stuck in a corridor. Throw icicle and bolt of cold are still important though, I'm sure you've got access to those.

[jejorda2]

Fridge is much easier to cast well, because it only has one school. And it can hurt widespread enemies on the same cast.

But cloud can hurt things for multiple turns while you run away or focus on another enemy, and it usually doesn't hurt you.

So learn both, and cast cloud or some other air spell to start learning Air, then keep using Fridge until you can cast Cloud well.

[Kate]

Conservation from the amulet and cloak doesn't stack. If you only carry fairly small stacks of potions you usually won't lose very much at all, though.

[KoboldLord]

It's well-worth using both. Freezing Cloud is for stacking damage on monsters you've funneled through a choke point, and Refrigeration is for assassinating monsters that haven't even noticed you yet. There's nothing quite like killing an entire pack of draconians without waking even a single one up.

Learn to accept routine potion losses. Only carry around a couple emergency potions, and you should have plenty of replacements back in your stash whenever you need one. Monsters start throwing more elemental attacks later on anyway, so by the time I'm running through the post-endgame I don't really expect to actually keep any of my consumables long enough to need them anyway. You might make a mini-stash near where you expect combat to take place, so you can more quickly replace losses without having to run all the way back.

[Frandu]

Anyone know if ice form stops the potion loss? Or any other form?

[XrBob]

I can report that I've lost potions in ice form, but really doesn't happen often enough to not use it.

[galehar]

Anyone know if ice form stops the potion loss? Or any other form?

It doesn't protect against refrig, but it does give immunity to freezing cloud (icemail does too). Which includes no shattering potion. This is probably a bug though. It's fine for icemail to protect your stuff (I guess), but I'm not sure if it's appropriate to have a form spell which gives equipment protection.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Icemail == OzoArmour?

[jejorda2]

Icemail == OzoArmour?

I think it is the Demonspawn mutation.

[dolphin]

+1.

[Waywinkle]

I think item destruction is a nice way of teaching new players not to be pack rats. Why not use my scrolls of blinking when I'm likely to lose them later on anyway.

People are still going to stash items due to weight restrictions.