Frost Bolt skill

[utpal]

i ran through quite number of sorcerer builds here in forum.
now my build consist of fire ice time and shield.

now only ice skill is confusing me.
the very first ugrade of this skill (forgot the name)
that has 20% chance to deal AOE and dmg nearby enemies when charged.
so while experimenting ice skill (only 2 upgrade, viz the +3s stun and DoT when freeze or slowed) i m able to do AoE freeze bt only when enemies are close to each other.
so wat advantage will be there if using first upgrade?

[utpal]

also do DoT of ice skill stacks?

[drgrimmy]

With the upgrades you have the mobs adjacent to the main target will be slowed or frozen and will take DOT, but only the main target will take the initial damage of the attack. I believe with the AOE upgrade you have a 20% chance of the mobs adjacent to the main target also taking the initial damage of the attack.

[utpal]

thanx for replying

so this mean that when ice skill with this upgrade it has 20% chance to do damage around the main target+ other Effects.

hmm thats good bt 20% chance is too small. need to be like 40%

[katish]

In my experience the effect goes off very often.. Like pretty much all the time! Love this skill

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[Psykopathic28]

Well your build is pretty good except lightning instead of ice is best hands down. Lightning should have all points except kill on strike scatter crap. The crit from lightning makes it the go to kill shot for any skilled Mage in pvp or against elite boss.
I've better for tombs and mobs only.

[JaytB]

With the upgrades you have the mobs adjacent to the main target will be slowed or frozen and will take DOT, but only the main target will take the initial damage of the attack. I believe with the AOE upgrade you have a 20% chance of the mobs adjacent to the main target also taking the initial damage of the attack.

That's exactly how I thought it works too.

Well your build is pretty good except lightning instead of ice is best hands down. Lightning should have all points except kill on strike scatter crap. The crit from lightning makes it the go to kill shot for any skilled Mage in pvp or against elite boss.
I've better for tombs and mobs only.

Lightning is single target and does only 15% more damage than the impact damage of ice (unless it crits with the 250% dmg upgrade but that crit chance is pretty low). During elite runs all upgrades on lightning would be wasting skill points IMO. Only the +15% normal dmg and +250% on crit are worth it. Lightning is only good in boss fights and then it still seriously pales in comparison to a rogue's aimed shot.

Ice also has added crowd control properties and its dot goes through armor and shields. Way more versatile as lightning while sacrificing not all that much dmg (if talking about mobs killing/control, not single target).

[Taejo]

Well your build is pretty good except lightning instead of ice is best hands down. Lightning should have all points except kill on strike scatter crap. The crit from lightning makes it the go to kill shot for any skilled Mage in pvp or against elite boss.
I've better for tombs and mobs only.

It really depends on what you spend most of your time doing. For me, I do a lot of elite maps, so frost is paramount for keeping archers/necromancers CC'd along with the 5-target freeze effect if you charge it. Ice does adequate damage for bosses and PvP as well. In light of your suggestion to the OP, I would swap out clock for lightning, if anything. In my experience, fireball's stun upgrade + frost bolt is enough CC to get through an elite map. Clock is better for crypts, in my opinion.

[Psykopathic28]

I did state frost was better for mobs. The 250% crit isn't the only thing good about lightning.

1) I don't know about other mages but I run a 17% crit + 8% crit from hammer or +15% from Colton
17-32% change of crit is pretty good (more for you ribbit noobs) though I will admit it isn't as good as aimed obviously.

2) the 3 second stun 25% chance may as well mean death for rogues or mages in a 1v1 encounter.

3) Even though without crit the initial impact is only so much more than ice. That lil extra makes a huge difference in how many pvp kills you take in a mob. The ticks will not get you many kills from ice except the occasional lucky from the grave kill.

4) the slow / whatever from ice isn't doing nothing the 2 other fireballs 3 slags and the other 50 stuns thrown out in every pvp match.

So I still stick with previous statement
Pvp + elite boss - lightning
Tombs, mobs, etc - ice

[JaytB]

I did state frost was better for mobs. The 250% crit isn't the only thing good about lightning.

1) I don't know about other mages but I run a 17% crit + 8% crit from hammer or +15% from Colton
17-32% change of crit is pretty good (more for you ribbit noobs) though I will admit it isn't as good as aimed obviously.

2) the 3 second stun 25% chance may as well mean death for rogues or mages in a 1v1 encounter.

3) Even though without crit the initial impact is only so much more than ice. That lil extra makes a huge difference in how many pvp kills you take in a mob. The ticks will not get you many kills from ice except the occasional lucky from the grave kill.

4) the slow / whatever from ice isn't doing nothing the 2 other fireballs 3 slags and the other 50 stuns thrown out in every pvp match.

So I still stick with previous statement
Pvp + elite boss - lightning
Tombs, mobs, etc - ice

I was talking purely about PvE.