03-29-2003, 02:44 PM
Well at level 20 Ice Blast costs 15 mana, does 255 damage, and freezes for 6.8 (though of course this is cut down in later difficulties). At level 20 Glacial spike costs 19, does 165-173 damage, and freezes for 4.2 (again lowered in later difficulties). I don't know the exact numbers off hand, but back when I looked up higher levels of the two skills on chippydips site Ice Blast did more damage still, so its not a case of Glacial Spike doing more at higher levels.
Now as to Glacial Spike damaging the whole group. I've always read it as if it only damages the one you hit, but does freeze th ones around it. I don't know if this is the case or not though, thats just how I have thought of it from the description.
Also as to why I say that I am going to only be using my cold attack on single targets. In my first post I meantioned that it would be my third attack skill. I didn't list all the skills cause this isn't the place to talk about the whole build really, just specifics about how certain things act in the game. My second attack will be a lightning one though, so the plan is to use it for the fire immunes. This just leaves the fire and lightning immunes for the cold spell, thus just single monsters. If you are curious about the details there is an old thread for it when I first was playing with the idea. I won't have the items I meantioned there since I've decided to just play with what I find, but overall you can see what the idea of the build is. The link is here: The build discussion
So I guess that leaves two questions now.
1: In what way is GS faster? You say it is 20% faster and since Elric said that he/she thinks it casts at the same speed then I will assume that you mean it travels 20% faster? I'm not sure how much the speed it travels will really effect things. A slower travel speed can make it harder to hit moving targets, but more often than not monsters are coming towards you so its not too hard to hit them even with a slower travelling speed. So is that what you mean by faster and how important do you find that to be?
2: Does GS's splash do damage or does it just freeze things around it. I do note on rereading the arreat summit that it says "does an area Freeze attack that Freezes monsters within a radius of 2.6 yards." and the word "attack" does tend to make one think of it doing damage. Does the splash actuall do damage though and also is it the same amount as done to the actual monster it hits or is it some lesser amount?
Also I would like to say thanks for you both replying. : )
Now as to Glacial Spike damaging the whole group. I've always read it as if it only damages the one you hit, but does freeze th ones around it. I don't know if this is the case or not though, thats just how I have thought of it from the description.
Also as to why I say that I am going to only be using my cold attack on single targets. In my first post I meantioned that it would be my third attack skill. I didn't list all the skills cause this isn't the place to talk about the whole build really, just specifics about how certain things act in the game. My second attack will be a lightning one though, so the plan is to use it for the fire immunes. This just leaves the fire and lightning immunes for the cold spell, thus just single monsters. If you are curious about the details there is an old thread for it when I first was playing with the idea. I won't have the items I meantioned there since I've decided to just play with what I find, but overall you can see what the idea of the build is. The link is here: The build discussion
So I guess that leaves two questions now.
1: In what way is GS faster? You say it is 20% faster and since Elric said that he/she thinks it casts at the same speed then I will assume that you mean it travels 20% faster? I'm not sure how much the speed it travels will really effect things. A slower travel speed can make it harder to hit moving targets, but more often than not monsters are coming towards you so its not too hard to hit them even with a slower travelling speed. So is that what you mean by faster and how important do you find that to be?
2: Does GS's splash do damage or does it just freeze things around it. I do note on rereading the arreat summit that it says "does an area Freeze attack that Freezes monsters within a radius of 2.6 yards." and the word "attack" does tend to make one think of it doing damage. Does the splash actuall do damage though and also is it the same amount as done to the actual monster it hits or is it some lesser amount?
Also I would like to say thanks for you both replying. : )