Frozen Orb- Mastery vs Synergy

[IShiva]

The topic is pretty self explanitory, I think, but let me ask anyway-

For a Sorc using Frozen Orb, which is better to invest points in: Ice Bolt for the Synergy, or Cold Mastery?

Assuming targets of varying levels of cold resistance, is the +%damage going to be more or less effective than -resists. And where would the effectiveness of each skill overlap or exceed the other?

Thank you.

[moget?]

Hi,

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that cold mastery is downright better. It will have the same effect as enhanced damage (in essence). Optimally, you would want to split your points between the two. It will not work on cold immunes no matter what, so its really only useful against standard monsters - which arn't necesarily going to have a lot of resists. I'm really tired. I need to sleep. wow. :ph34r:

[wsbchicago]

The topic is pretty self explanitory, I think, but let me ask anyway-

For a Sorc using Frozen Orb, which is better to invest points in: Ice Bolt for the Synergy, or Cold Mastery?

Assuming targets of varying levels of cold resistance, is the +%damage going to be more or less effective than -resists.  And where would the effectiveness of each skill overlap or exceed the other?

Thank you.

The only place where ice bolt would be better is when you are with a conviction pally and perhaps a necro with lower resist. If both of those spells are working, its possible that cold mastery would be redundant, thus useless. (It could have a good chance of being redundant in PVP, if you were on teams. On PVM, it would depend on monster resists.)

[adeyke]

According to the Elemental Skill Calculator

With 20 points in frozen orb and 20 points left to spend, the best arrangement would be:

Against 0% resistant monsters, +0 skills:
3 synergy, 17 mastery

Against 50% resistant monsters, +0 skills:
0 synergy, 20 mastery

Against 0% resistant monsters, +10 skills:
13 synergy, 7 mastery

Against 50% resistant monsters, +10 skills:
3 synergy, 17 mastery

So it would just depend. With more resistance, more cold mastery will be beneficial. However, +skills will boost the cold mastery, so you don't need as much investment in it it then.

[naturelover]

As a rule of thunb (and adeyke's calculations only underline it) it's a good idea to shoot for (at least) 17 points in CM (after +skill items).
If you have a necro or pala in your group who decided to lower the monsters resistence CM might become suboptimal though since there's a lower cap of -100% res for monsters.
So if you know you'll always partied with a conv (?) paladin go for the synergy since it's relatively unlickely you'll encounter monsters who get their resitence broken by the aura (CM would be superiour then though).

Everything unclear now? ;)

[ryan4nayr]

Somebody had already mentioned the effect +skills bonuses. I should also add that +cold tree means more mastery AND more FO, making the base value affected by the +% a bit larger & the mastery more effective.