Turukano wrote:So the question is for a caster build worshipping Sif Muna, which is generally better?
Have a look at the
top scores if you like.
The top five scores are either Su or Wz/Ne branching into summonings. That's because summoning was heavily overpowered until 0.11.
If you look at the followings scores, many of them are FE. In fact DEFE, should you survive the early dungeon, is a strategically easy combo. Once you got fire storm castable, you should be able to win the game with 15 runes.
Shatter and tornado are strong but not as easy as storms:
- Shatter will do little damage vs specific foes
- Tornado takes some time to start
Concerning ice storm:
My usual plan with a caster is to go with ice spells to get ice storm. I like that it does more irresistable damage.
Nevertheless fire storm is considered to be better because it's smite targeting, if you run a DEFE you'll see it's more easy than a DEIE.
Firestorm is the superior spell, however Ice magic is probably the superior Magic School, which makes going for ice storm more efficient in the long run.
Allow me to take a moment to compare the 2 magic schools and explain to you what makes Ice magic so good:
Although fire magic has the leg up in early game with sticky flame and fireball(Bolt of fire is also technically easier to find) a lot of those spells become not nearly as useful versus a lot of enemies by mid-late game since fire resistance becomes more common. Here is a list of powerful offensive spells for fire magic that you would usually see yourself using by late-mid game:
>Fire Storm(duh)
>Fire ball(for the occasional evasive enemy)
>Bolt of Fire
And here is a list of powerful offensive spells for ice magic:
>Ice Storm
>Freezing Cloud
>Bolt of Cold
>Ozokubus refridgeration
>Simulacrum(becomes pretty useless in ext-end-game unless you follow Kiku)
Freezing cloud also trains up air magic, which is one of the magic schools for deflect missile(another very useful spell) and poison cloud, and Simulacrum uses necromancy, which is used in BR, Dispel undead, Necromutation, Haunt, and deaths door(this one might be a little trickier, though). Also, most characters able to cast ice storm are able to cast Fire ball at high power as well, but most characters who are able to cast Fire storm are NOT able to cast any of those spells Efficiently(except maybe Simulacrum).
Fire magic makes the world go BOOM, but ice magic is better for making a well rounded and efficient character. However, despite all of this, fire storm still IS the superior spell because it can be used as a defensive spell(vortexes block enemy fire), and fire magic is still more effective against zombies and skeletons(whom are extremely common late game). Be careful not to give people the wrong idea, nothing you said was incorrect, just not entirely clear.
They are both good, but I personally prefer ice magic because of its flexibility and laughably easy mid-game.
To all new players: Ignore all strategy guides posted on the wiki, ask questions in the Advice forum, players with lots of posts normally have the best advice.
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