Firestorm or Tornado?

[Lantier]

I've never played with Tornado before. I have used Firestorm and am familiar with its awesomeness. So for a spriggan conjurator, which would be better?

As I understand it:

<Tornado pros/cons>
Range of 5 (6 with Vehmy?) - do I want to get this close to a Fire Orb?
Apparently does less damage in enclosed spaces - how severe is this? Zot/Slime/Tomb has lots of enclosed spaces...
Damage is irresistable - no idea what the actual amt of damage done is, is it comparable to Fire/Ice Storm?
Provides you a moving zone of death
Free Flight!
Spriggan Air is only -1
If I die while using Tornado, I can come here and whine about how it is underpowered and needs to be buffed

<Firestorm pros/cons>
Blast the bejessus out of everything from out of LOS
2/3rd damage is irresistable
Pet mini fire elementals - free meatshields!
Smite targeting - never a bad thing
Spriggan Fire is -2
If I go this route, then I may never get a chance to abuse Tornado before the devs nerf it

I kinda want to make a choice before I go dumping a whole mess of xp into Fire/Air. Thanks!

[KoboldLord]

I've never played with Tornado before. I have used Firestorm and am familiar with its awesomeness. So for a spriggan conjurator, which would be better?

When you heard people say that Tornado is overpowered, they really meant it. It's brokenness is really far worse than your most ridiculous imaginings.

As I understand it:

<Tornado pros/cons>
Range of 5 (6 with Vehmy?) - do I want to get this close to a Fire Orb?

An active Tornado will kill that fire orb in about three or four turns. You'll be fine.

Apparently does less damage in enclosed spaces - how severe is this? Zot/Slime/Tomb has lots of enclosed spaces...

If the damage is less, it isn't so much less that I actually noticed the difference. Basically, in enclosed areas the radius is smaller. It still mulches everything it catches.

Damage is irresistable - no idea what the actual amt of damage done is, is it comparable to Fire/Ice Storm?

My experiences in Cocytus suggest that Tornado deals more damage to ice fiends than Fire Storm does. My response at the time basically boiled down to, "Wait, what?" The character in question was one that I was using for the specific purpose of comparing the two, so fire skill and air skill were equal. Turns out there is no comparison.

Provides you a moving zone of death

This is not hyperbole.

Free Flight!

I do not recommend this usage, because the duration is still short. Spring for some real Levitation or Flight.

Spriggan Air is only -1

Aptitudes are basically irrelevant for high-level spells.

The biggest drawback of using Tornado is that any ascension using it will forever have an asterisk appended in your own mind because you'll never know if you could have done it without using Tornado.

[Daydreamer]

I've never played with Tornado before. I have used Firestorm and am familiar with its awesomeness. So for a spriggan conjurator, which would be better?

When you heard people say that Tornado is overpowered, they really meant it. It's brokenness is really far worse than your most ridiculous imaginings.

Maybe I just have a contrary nature but the more I hear people say things like that the more I really want to try it for myself.

[Jenx]

I keep playing air elementalists for no other reason than to be able to cast this spell. Still haven't gotten one to live long enough to do it though.

[galehar]

kilobyte's take on tornado (he's the dev who coded the spell)

For some uses overpowered, but it's not clear cut in general. For example,
Firestorm does have much better stopping power: thrice the damage per turn,
can start blasting right away rather than only after closing in, etc.
Tornado has an edge in damage/mp and that you can cast other spell when it's
on. For the latter, you'd need to invest in other schools so it's a concern
only for Zigs, as only Airstrike is really usable among Air ones.

Ball lightnings and air elementals could be rotated like clouds are, so this
could be a fun side nerf.

In general, I agree that Tornado is overpowered, it's just tricky how to
nerf it without making everyone revert to Firestorm only.

[pratamawirya]

Let me just say this: Tornado is the ultimate spell for ordinary, sloppy players who make a lot of mistakes and get killed a lot. Use Tornado, and suddenly you don't make any mistakes no more!

[acvar]

All I can think of is "should I choose the red nuclear bomb or the blue nuclear bomb?" Does it really matter? Both spells mostly trivialize the game once you can cast them.