{crawl} thoughts on fireball?

> Against swarms of Yaks, Ogres, etc., Fire Bolt or even Bolt of Magma is
> better for crowd control: more damage at a little less cost.

I'm hearing so much about the coolness of Firestorm that I wondered if
it were better to save levels for some better spell.

> Against bees, area-effect spells can indeed be nicer than bolt spells.
> They're fairly useless when you're surrounded, though. Mystic Blast can
> supplement or replace them.

Yeah, my situation was a small lake flanked by upstairs stairs and
swarms around both stairs and no alternative stairs up than those 2. I
YASDed but in retrospective I ought to have teleported/blinked and
handled the crowd piecemal. Had a hard time deciding between the bolt
and fireball. I also had the young poisoner handbook. It really
unnerved be that despite being a DeFe, I could not kill imps all the
way down, which is really annoying.
 >> Stay informed about: {crawl} thoughts on fireball? 

John Doe wrote:
> > Against swarms of Yaks, Ogres, etc., Fire Bolt or even Bolt of Magma is
> > better for crowd control: more damage at a little less cost.
>
> I'm hearing so much about the coolness of Firestorm that I wondered if
> it were better to save levels for some better spell.

Firestorm is very cool, though a little annoying unless you plug in the
patch features for ignoring vortices during travel if they're at a safe
distance.

It's quite possible to win as a fire elementalist without ever using
it, but it's really fun to watch. If you want to avoid learning
Earth, you can use it to kill fire-immune targets, but the cost per
kill will be very high.

> > Against bees, area-effect spells can indeed be nicer than bolt spells.
> > They're fairly useless when you're surrounded, though. Mystic Blast can
> > supplement or replace them.
>
> Yeah, my situation was a small lake flanked by upstairs stairs and
> swarms around both stairs and no alternative stairs up than those 2. I
> YASDed but in retrospective I ought to have teleported/blinked and
> handled the crowd piecemal. Had a hard time deciding between the bolt
> and fireball. I also had the young poisoner handbook.

I often ignore Fireball, but here I'd've learned it too. Fire Bolt a
bad way to go, as you learned -- very inefficient, and
turn-inefficient, against swarms of bees, because they dodge it too
well. With high casting power, it gets a bit more accurate, I think,
but it's still often not the best way to go.

Sticky Flame might've been the way to go. I'm not sure offhand, but I
think its accuracy fares well against bees. And it doesn't suffer the
pointblank problems Fireball does.

Poison is indeed nice against bees, but low-level poison magic is too
slow for a low-midlevel DeFE trying to take out a swarm before dying in
the process. Mephitic Cloud could've helped, though.

Teleporting on an almost entirely uncleared level, especially when
you'll bearing a big HP loss at the moment of arrival, is a very
dangerous tactic, only for desperation.

> It really
> unnerved be that despite being a DeFe, I could not kill imps all the
> way down, which is really annoying.

It's a fairly normal problem for a DeFE, but there's no law against
parking them by the stairs down from levels you've already cleared.
Even the parking process itself can be annoying, though.

e.
 >> Stay informed about: {crawl} thoughts on fireball? 

erisdiscordia schrieb:
>
> John Doe wrote:
> > Should i learn it or not? Are there alternative means of crowd control
> > (i.e. swarms of yaks and ogres + bees). I know for bees poison is the
> > way.
>
> Against swarms of Yaks, Ogres, etc., Fire Bolt or even Bolt of Magma is
> better for crowd control: more damage at a little less cost.
>
> Against bees, area-effect spells can indeed be nicer than bolt spells.
> They're fairly useless when you're surrounded, though.

Except for the someone-or-other's Refrigeration. You should have at
least one level of cold resistance and good ice magic skill, but that
spell will take out the entire Vaults:8 welcome committee in four or
five shots.

If you're thinking about learning fireball, you're not likely to have
10+ skill in Ice Magic, though.

I generally like fire bolt better than fire ball. Doesn't cause noise
and can be used at point blank range. This may be just my perception,
but it also seems to do more damage on a single target than fireball.

--
Se on Jumalan sana, sanoi mies,
kun akkansa raamatulla löi.
 >> Stay informed about: {crawl} thoughts on fireball? 

John Doe wrote:
> Should i learn it or not? Are there alternative means of crowd control
> (i.e. swarms of yaks and ogres + bees). I know for bees poison is the
> way.

If you have selective amnesia, it's worth learning. Otherwise, skip it
for Firestorm for only 2 slots more. IMB is good enough to take out the
Hive and it stays useful all game long for High EV creatures or
resistant creatures you don't want to waste an LCS on.
 >> Stay informed about: {crawl} thoughts on fireball?