ice elemental freeze barely triggering?

[Lord Farquaad]

I have four spell level 6 Ice Elementals in Southern Windwall Mountains (the map before Stoneblade Mountain) so reasonable high summoning level for that map: and their freeze effect barely seems to trigger on lvl 6-8 enemies (seems to fizzle). In contrary Fire Elementals while not particularly strong do trigger fireburst on enemies regularly. Is this just the enemies in Southern Windwall that are resistant to ice magic or is Ice Elemental just a worse summoning spell than expected?
And how does Earth Elemental perform with its decay effect, does that proc often?

[janthailand]

every unit is given some specific resistance to various elements,
so it just might be that those have higher ice than fire resistance.

decay effect are useless, there is a grand total of 2 reasons to use earth magic,
clay of feet and petrify, its spectacular when combined with death magic,
on groups you cast clay of feet and then peacefully pestilence the lot of them, and on bosses use petrify and suicide death.
the drawbacks with this build is it doesnt become powerful until lv 31,
and you need to have been diligent to have it high level to have the latest lv spell,
and in fact need modded maps to always stay on top with spell level

[Lord Farquaad]

Originally posted by janthailand:

every unit is given some specific resistance to various elements,
so it just might be that those have higher ice than fire resistance.

decay effect are useless, there is a grand total of 2 reasons to use earth magic,
clay of feet and petrify, its spectacular when combined with death magic,
on groups you cast clay of feet and then peacefully pestilence the lot of them, and on bosses use petrify and suicide death.
the drawbacks with this build is it doesnt become powerful until lv 31,
and you need to have been diligent to have it high level to have the latest lv spell,
and in fact need modded maps to always stay on top with spell level

, hi, are you sure Decay is weak? Spellforce Fandom suggests that it skills up to 46% armor reduction which sounds quite good especially since high enemy armor is an issue in SotP expansion. Now I would be too lazy to cast Decay myself but if Earth Elementals can proc it reliably, than it sounds like a good deal to me if combined with physical damage and high strength.

I did a test between Iceburst and Freeze and noticed Iceburst fizzles less. I think that seems one of the issues (or maybe the issue) here why Ice Elementals are dissapointing in my example. I remember a similar difference in chance to fizzle between Pain and Death spells. Maybe the chance to proc will get better with high levels(?).

[Arii]

I've played Earth Mage several times in both SF1 and SF2 and I must admit that Decay spell in both games has always felt too gimmicky to me and more like an unnecessary tax on Rock Bullet spell tbh.

[Lord Farquaad]

Originally posted by M4LICE:

I've played Earth Mage several times in both SF1 and SF2 and I must admit that Decay spell in both games has always felt too gimmicky to me and more like an unnecessary tax on Rock Bullet spell tbh.

, yeah I do not like Rocket Bullet too except in the beginning. But it sounds nice when combined with eg Heavy Combat Arts. I have not yet tested Earth Elemental enough yet but it seems the chance to trigger Decay is slightly higher than Freeze. Maybe a mix of both is best since multiple Decays cannot be stacked, hmm.

ps: according to Spellforce Fandom wiki Decay starts starts at a meager 15% reduction in armor, it is at higher levels that it seems to become more interesting. While Freeze already begins at 3 seconds (increases 0,5 sec per level).

[Farlon]

Originally posted by Lord Farquaad:

hi, are you sure Decay is weak? Spellforce Fandom suggests that it skills up to 46% armor reduction which sounds quite good especially since high enemy armor is an issue in SotP expansion. Now I would be too lazy to cast Decay myself but if Earth Elementals can proc it reliably, than it sounds like a good deal to me if combined with physical damage and high strength.

I did a test between Iceburst and Freeze and noticed Iceburst fizzles less. I think that seems one of the issues (or maybe the issue) here why Ice Elementals are dissapointing in my example. I remember a similar difference in chance to fizzle between Pain and Death spells. Maybe the chance to proc will get better with high levels(?).

Decay by itself might be good on higher levels but earth elementals inflict only level 5 decay which has only 17% armour reduction.

[Lord Farquaad]

Bummer, that's quite bad lol. Shame that Ice Elementals do not trigger Icestrike, that would have been more useful although Freeze is still okayish. I do not have Fire magic with my current character but I think that might have been a better combo. Oh well back to spamming Wave of Ice. ^.^

[Lord Farquaad]

Small update: in howling mounds the freeze effect is triggered more often, its quite good against the undead and it freezes miniboss Korshar. :)

[Lord Farquaad]

I am now in SotP where the freezing effect is good too. It can freeze the guards in Empyria map (even those pesky lvl 45 ones, lvl 14 ice elemental) and freeze effect is longer now. As a side note; Ice Shield is pretty awesome at higher levels. And Iceburst / Wave of Ice make more sense now too in combination with melee since enemies are frozen longer by that too.

I am not sure yet though if Ice Elementals are better or Golems. It seems that only the elementals can freeze enemies but the golems deal more damage (especially with War Cry).