Cast tier list?

[420 Soldier]

Hey guys,

I'm trying to get heat 32 with all weapons, Bow and Fists down so far. Looking at the Sword next, and it seems hard. I'm looking at using the Poseidon sword (as it offers a cast focused playstyle) so looking and thinking about the best casts to hunt for during my runs.

In your opinion, what would your tier rating of casts be? Duo boon casts are allowed.

I haven't spent a huge amount of time on cast focus builds in this game, so based on my limited experience I would say something like:

S Tier
Crystal Beam with Crystal Clarity (Arti/Dem duo)
Ice Wine (Dio/Dem duo)

High Tier
Hunting Blades (Arti/Ares duo)
Flood Shot
Trippy Shot
True Shot
Blizzard Shot (Dem/Pos duo)

Mid Tier
Lightning Phalanx (Zues/Athena duo) <- unsure about this one
Crystal Beam (all other versions)

Low Tier
Crush Shot
Phalanx Shot
Freezing Vortex (Ares/Dem duo)

♥♥♥♥ Tier
Slicing Shot
Curse of Drowning (Ares/Pos duo)

This list is made assuming you take boons that upgrade your cast when available

[Ash]

Crystal Beam with Glacial Glare is good, with Glacial Glare and Crystal Clarity it's positively worth S tier, but without Glacial Glare it's meh even at Heroic rarity - too slow, too weak and cannot apply Chill. It becames even worse when you turn on '+ enemy speed' condition. Phalanx Shot, on the other side, at least mid tier thanks to deflection.

[420 Soldier]

Originally posted by Ash:

Crystal Beam with Glacial Glare is good, with Glacial Glare and Crystal Clarity it's positively worth S tier, but without Glacial Glare it's meh even at Heroic rarity - too slow, too weak and cannot apply Chill. It becames even worse when you turn on '+ enemy speed' condition. Phalanx Shot, on the other side, at least mid tier thanks to deflection.

Fair comments re: Crystal Beam. I'm assuming in this tier list that the relevant cast buff boons are in effect for each cast, i.e. Blown Kiss for Crush Shot, Glacial Glare for Crystal Beam etc.

[Husker_85]

I think Scintillating Feast should be in at least High tier if not S tier.

[Grrwaaa]

Crush shot loaded into the bow just wrecks. On my last run it was 2K damage per hit without crits (I did get it to level 12 by the end). It all depends on the rest of the build.

[Husker_85]

Also Exit Wounds + Poseidon sword is a flat ~400 dmg boost to your special.

[MULTIPASS]

In my experience, crystal beam is the best followed by hunting blades - all the others don't even come close to how strong those can be.

Crystal Beam
Crystal Clarity (Duo: Artemis)
Glacial Glare
Ravenous Will
Killing Freeze

Get crystal beam asap and stack poms on cast and glacial glare.

Also, I'm a fan of Stygian Soul for this build, especially if you can get +cast boons from chaos or Hermes.