Is there any reason NOT to upgrade your passive skills for PVE?

[Sorcerie]

I am only level 15 at the moment and am pretty new to the game (started on friday), and haven't even seen what an elite map is.

As far as normal ones go; I can solo most campaigns (aside from that level4 dungeon.) and am not afraid to use pots. I ran a test soloing runs with four skills and no passive and it seemed very effective:

Fireball, lightning, life giver, gale force.

Literally the only time I would use life is between mobs. I just couldn't bring myself to waste time in a fight with a selfish use of my skills that won't really benefit my team. I would rather just go powered up fireball to stop them in their tracks, powered up gale force to damage and stun the already frozen mobs (it seems like If you just gale force right away the mobs scatter like nuns at a rock concert, but if you use fireball to stun them first, gale won't launch them away).

Also I can't justify using the good chunk of mana needed to cast the spell especially when I am spamming my other three skills.

So I think I have made up my mind to go on my quest sans any healing skills.

My goal is to be a magical powerhouse. I have every point in INT right now to boost my mana and bonus damage, and will probably throw in some DEX to up my damage and DPS and CRIT more than INT can. The way I see it is if I can kill these monsters before they can land a finger/claw on me, then what's the point of health pots, healing skills, and armor?

Just with my limited skill in this game, I have found that using my method jist described, most low to mid level mobs will die before I even hit my regular casting. And with a party of a good tank and rogue we can kill a group of ten without anyone losing a hit point.

And keep in mind this is all just with various green gear that I have looted on my travels - no pinks or anything crazy.

By the time you hit lvl 31-35 I guarantee that you will have to respec your toon. Especially if you plan on running elite maps which have all the best loot.

Last night I spent plat and respec'd for the first time since I started this game. I was running with Ice 4/5, Fire 4/5, Time 4/5 and Heal 2/5 with the rest in passive skills. But after having run elite for a few weeks I noticed that this build, while good for some pretty decent crowd control, is not optimal for running elite maps which pretty much demands having lightning for bosses and shield in your build to be of any real use to a party as most mobs and bosses can kill you nigh instantly without it.

And if you plan on running an all attack build you better stock up on pots and gold cause you're gonna be chugging them every couple seconds. It's truly difficult to run on an all attack build, trust me I tried during the last free respec weeked and i was spending serious gold on pots to stay alive and active.