Low Level Spells VS. High Level Spells (firebolts, thunder bolts, ice bolts)
 

So I need some insight on this. What is better and why? Lower level mage spells that have low cast time and weaker damage, or the higher level mage spells that have high casting times, and higher damage?

IMO I think that the higher level spells are good for party play for higher levels and the low level spells are optimal for the role of soloing.

I'm not a mage, but from what I've seen... Higher level spells give far more damage per second. Lower level spells pretty much never draw aggro from an enemy though. So if you have a non-fighter tanking (i.e. a cleric that has no skills to draw aggro due to being a cleric), you can ensure that he/she tanks by using lower level ones.

First of all, as far as Ice and Lightning bolts go, there's no change in cooldown regardless of what level you use, so I'd pretty much always use max level on these, unless you're desperate to save that tiny bit of SP.

The ones that change cooldowns are Magic Missile and Firebolt. For Firebolt, I ended up using level 1 up until probably low to mid 20s, and had no problems killing. For Magic Missile, I really haven't found any use in having anything above level 1. It'll basically be your basic attack, so low cooldown is a must.

the damage difference between lvl 1 ice bolt and lvl 3 ice bolt isn't very much. its about 10pt of damage on a yellow mob, same iwth lighting(well 20 with the debuff). imo save yourself the cash and just use lvl 1 spells, except for firebolt always use highest lvl fire. unless you got tons of silver to burn i wouldn't bother with the higher level ice/lighting bolt or magic missile.

Flyingsnow,

Generally would be a good idea to look at it like Weaver said. Firebolt, you always want to use the latest of, any empowerments to the spells damage really show when you use the latest, upgrade Icebolt if you depend on the slow down effect in your strategy, Magic Missile.. just like he said, no point buying any upgrades for a while.

Speaking of spells I'm thinking Thunderbolt might be nice if it had it's effect empowered, not sure if you can or how much of a difference that would make, but it would be fun to test :rolleyes:

To answer the question, i'd say use a good mix of both low and high spells, for all situations.

mb, i meant high level spells as in level 50+ ones, not like level 1 or 2 magic missle >_<! sry.

Haha, well that changes everything~

At the end of CB2 Lune was lvl 50 mage. Speaking to him, i understand Magic Blast will be your new bread and butter (but that's at lvl 49!), but MM1 remains the most SP/DMG efficient spell you'll have.

I have spent 10 points empowering MM1, some on Firebolt, but will now save for Magic Blast empowerments.. we'll see how it goes. :rolleyes:

This is the routine I usually use that seems to work:
Icebolt (highest rank) -> Magic Missile (highest rank) -> Fire bolt (highest) -> Lighting (highest) -> MM1 x however many hits until the mob dies (reusing the routine starting at highest MM when FB and LB cooldown if mob has a lot of HP)

highest rank MM is helpful to use before FB and LB bc they take up the cooldown time and it does a lot of dmg when you have it empowered.

To save SP, if a mob is really no threat to me I might not use this strategy as it does use up more of it. But if it's life or death, I live by this.