Chill Fog the most overpowered level 1 spell ever?

[zinenko]

Especially considering the other level 1 spells are pretty useless.

I cast it at the choke point or even simply just beyond my tanks, and by the time I'm done with the front line the rest of the mob is down to nothing. Blindness prevents the mob from doing anything effective in the meanwhile, and makes them easy prey to Blast.

[knownastherat]

Ever? Probably not. Seems you are having fun with it. Indeed, what would AoE be for if nobody stand in it?  There are other spells and combos you might want to try as you progress.

[Luckmann]

I can't help but to think that the blindness should be easier to resist, but it should've been a Hazard AoE (and so should Slicken).

[knownastherat]

That is matter of balancing, difficulty. Why you cant help .. maybe because it seems powerful to you. There are not inherent "ought's". Up difficulty is one approach, nerf the other. Either way is fine with me because I was not using it much anyway (rather cast Aim for example).  

Edited April 23, 2015 by knownastherat

[Enexemander]

Not really. It's in good company, I would say. Most of the level 1 spells are good for the entire game.

Eldritch Aim, Fleet Feet, Fan of Flames, Jolting touch (great for being foe only), Slicken, these are all great all-around spells.

Parasitic Staff, Spirit Shield and arguably Wizard's Double are all great if you want to play a more melee style.

Chill fog gets taken down a peg in my opinion because you can get blinded status from lots of different sources. Why blow a wizard spell on it when they've got all the rest of that going on?

[mazeltov]

Of a piece with Afflictions being too strong in general. For all the flak Balance Man got for supposedly hating Wizards, nerfing them etc., it sure is easy to trivialize most of the combat by using their CC judiciously.

Edited April 23, 2015 by mazeltov

[b0rsuk]

Fan of Flames, Winter Breath are so much better than Boiling Spray ! Boiling Spray is a level4 spell, yes it has 90 degree cone instead of 60, but both level1 spells deal as much damage last time I checked. Winter Wind also knocks back like Boiling Spray. Balance ?

 

Eyestrike (level1 Cipher) is area blindness + daze. No damage, so it perhaps doesn't sound THAT overpowered, but with the way Focus works you can keep it on enemy rangers/priests/wizards for the entire fight.

 

Antipathetic Field attacks Reflex (worst defense on tough monsters) and deals Corrode (the least resisted damage) for 12 seconds.

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What are the worst level1 spells ?

Vile Thorns - 15-25 damage, sickened vs fortitude, cone targetting 6m. And it's Pierce damage, one of the most commonly resisted.

 

Talons' Reach - 25-40 slashing damage. That's it.

[MadDemiurg]

Talons Reach is actually decent in specific situations once you reach level 9, since it's a foe only aoe with fast cast speed.

[Idleray]

Nope. The honor of most overpowered level 1 spell goes to Slicken, the AOE stun/interrupting workhorse that makes any fight against casters and ranged mobs a breeze. It also works very well with chill fog, but can set up any number of other AOE combos.

[Idleray]

It's weird, both Chill Fog and Slicken seem too good to be level 1 spells, and on the other hand many level 2 and 3 spells are crap. Necrotic Lance I'm looking at you.

 

Perhaps a rebalance is in order

[Enexemander]

It's weird, both Chill Fog and Slicken seem too good to be level 1 spells, and on the other hand many level 2 and 3 spells are crap. Necrotic Lance I'm looking at you.

 

Perhaps a rebalance is in order

 

That is an opinion with some merit. Why use a lvl 1 Wizard Spell (all of which are very useful), when you can use a lvl 2 Wizard spell for blinding, and it's foe aoe as well? Trading a lvl 2 spell for a lvl 1 spell in this instance can make a lot of sense.

 

I personally like some of the lvl 2 spells because they're fun and interesting (the ray and the rolling fire ball of suicide), but they're generally niche spells.

[Zenicetus]

Slicken is more effective than Chill Fog, because after it fires, your melee characters can run in and whack the enemy with no downside. With Chill Fog, I often have my melee guys accidentally running into the AoE while it's still active (with auto-attack on), where they take damage.

 

I'm not sure I'd consider either one overpowered for a level 1 spell. Slicken is very helpful for keeping a party alive in the early levels. And while it's still useful late in the game, there is an opportunity cost for using it, when a more powerful spell might be a better choice. 

 

 

[Emptiness]

It's weird, both Chill Fog and Slicken seem too good to be level 1 spells, and on the other hand many level 2 and 3 spells are crap. Necrotic Lance I'm looking at you.

 

Perhaps a rebalance is in order

 

Necrotic Lance is great for killing enemy spellcasters.

 

Edit: Er, wait, I mean Necrotic Lance is great for enemy spellcasters to kill mine.  It is terrible when I cast it.

[knownastherat]

Level 2 and level 3 spells are hardly crap. Necrotic Lance targets Fortitude, is per encounter later, and its decent spell if used correctly but  I suspect those who cast only Chill Fog and Silcken would not know because how?

[MaxDamage]

There is also slicken...

[knownastherat]

Yeah newbie gets the game, discovers doors, discovers Chill Fog and we have something to talk about slicken included

[ibanix]

What?

 

Good use of stealth and you can fire off several volleys of the 1st level Magic Missile clone spell before anyone gets in range. The 3x missiles allow for more hits. Has worked nicely for me.

[Razorchain]

Especially considering the other level 1 spells are pretty useless.

I cast it at the choke point or even simply just beyond my tanks, and by the time I'm done with the front line the rest of the mob is down to nothing. Blindness prevents the mob from doing anything effective in the meanwhile, and makes them easy prey to Blast.

 

Slicken is one of the best 1st level spells, you can get everybody on their backside and run in and flank and throw in a fan of flames, which is also a very good 1st level spell.  

 

In my first run I had 2 wizards, my main and Aloth and the standard procedure at level 9 was Aloth cast Slicken and PC wizard Chill fog.  Aloth would bombard with his arcane assault and spam slicken as needed, while PC wizard would flank and spam fan of flames.  

 

At lvl 11 Aloth would throw in some blindness spells just for the fun of it as the blindess duration for Chill Fog is pretty low in comparison.

 

I'm actually pretty happy that lower level spells remain useful through out the game and high might wizard with scion of flames can easily turn a hard encounter into a cakewalk with a couple of well placed Fan of Flames.