Is Ice the weakest of the three magics?

[Tank017]

low damage? does it freeze/root enemies at least? Seems like everywhere I read people either go magic bullet or fire.

[Konnan]

No Fire is the weakest...

[Konnan]

Yep it Freezes them

[Tank017]

seems like fire is the strongest off the bat (all my magic right now is lvl 1). Fire does more damage per hit.

[lionhart]

Ice magic, at level 10, can freeze any enemy for a good 15-20 seconds. It does decent damage as a ranged spell, but it works best for a melee focused character who wants to fight one enemy at a time while keeping the others frozen.

Fire magic does the most damage per hit, and it also does splash damage, so it seems like it would be the most powerful. However it requires a brief charge-up animation before it can fire, and the delay can get you killed in the later chapters when you are fighting tough enemies underground with very little room to maneuver.

Magic bullet, in my opinion, is the best overall offensive spell. It does less damage per hit than fire magic, but you can rapid fire magic bullets with no animation delay. It also costs less mana per bullet, so you can fire more of them before having to drink a mana potion. Magic bullet at max level basically turns Risen into a shooter.

[SKN The LISPer]

This is more incase someone from the future stumble upon this, with the same question:


I think magic damage is scaled off of Wisdom stat(though I haven't done enough test to verify), which is relevant for Ice magic.

I disagree with Lionhart a bit, but his overall take is mostly right:

Ice Magic Causes the lowest amount of damage, but will freeze enemies, duration depend on how much of their total damage is reduced. You need to deal at least 20-25% damage to cause freezing(anything less would be no duration of freezing, thereby they aren't frozen). At level 8 Ice Magic(with 80-90 wisdom) you'll be able to freeze everything except Ogres and Ash Beasts. At Level 10, with 100 Wisdom, you'll barely not be able to freeze Ash beasts and Ogres(you do just barely under the minimum threshold to freeze them for a second).


Fire Magic is the only "AOE" option in the crystals, and causes splash damage. It's good if you can get enemies grouped up, and manage to keep a healthy distance between you and enemies(conjured skeleton to tank, while you spam the groupings with fireball works wonders, as the skeleton does not take friendly fire).


Magic Bullet does the lowest pr-hit damage, but has the highest DPS(you'll get 6 bullets out by the time you get 1 ice\fire out. ending up doing 10-15% more damage than fire\ice at level 1). By level 10 in Fire\ice, you'll get 3 bullets out by the time you get 1 ice\fire(as their charge up time is halved at 10), however bullet probably has a more favorable damage scaling to compensate at level 10(though I haven't tested, so can't confirm).



Freeze(after level 8) or bullet are the strongest Solo(no summons), fire is pretty good against big groups of enemies when not solo, and not having non-conjured allies(as other allies 'do' take friendly splash damage, and will aggro you). Eitherway, the crystal magic is very well balanced against each other, and is a matter of personal taste, and playstyle preference.

[Sloul Des Tucs]

Ice imo is the best of the three.
There are a few tidbits that makes it overall better than magic bullets.
Fire is good, but it's more situational, if you are trying to save an npc who is being attacked, the aoe of your spell is going to be an issue. Also it's the less potent of the three in dungeons.

Ice allows
- Mana saving by pairing it up with melee/range attacks
You do loose some mana points, but you make it up for it by going full dex/strength (I don't recommend weapon spec. here)
- Because you can play your char as a melee char, it means you can spend your points in strength early (it's a good idea to reach 100 str before joining the order for the +6 bonus).
This means that the early parts of the game are far easier for this mage.
- If you want to save a npc being attacked by monsters, you can freeze all enemies, the npc will stop attacking them and you can proceed to one, two shot them.
Easy peasy.
- If you are facing Lizard priests with other lizardmen, or multiple priests (not sure if that happens) you simply freeze them. Preventing any retaliation (basically easier than with bullets).
- There is a little bug that is almost of non interest but it does make everything, maybe, even a little bit easier. For big targets such as ogres for instance, if you freeze them from mid distance, they will forget about you when they unfreeze.

[SKN The LISPer]

Originally posted by Sloul:

-snip-

Imo, I think specialising in 2 crystals is the way to go. Focus on Ice first(but use Bullet on frozen targets, rather than melee), then bullet or fireball after. Fireball is nice when you do not have non-summoned allies(summoned skeleton does not take friendly fire). Frozen enemies resets friendly AI, meaning the chance of enemy to aggro you is far, far higher(as you have to hit them to unfreeze, or wait, which get tedious fast), the fact that you have easy access to summon skeleton, midway through chapter 2, negates any issues with CC \ group management.

However, as magic bullet stun-locks, it gives ample time for your summoned skeleton to get in a few good hits, and re-aggro the enemy. They are capable of tanking everything, including ashbeasts(though you'll need to actively heal it quite a bit, so bring 30+ scrolls, lol).


Here's what I'd do(if I were to replay the game):

Get prospector as quickly as possible, then mine ores(hoping to get gems to make some strenght rings\amulets), followed by getting +3 smithing. I'd also go hunting for ogre-plants(whatever they're called, strength raising one) and eat them(as the +1 is more useful than wasting the hero crown on this, as I'd use hero Crown primarily for mana and health increase potions), rather than 'wasting' AP on strength increase.

Monestary I'd join The Order(not mages, rune magic takes until almost end of the game to be truly useful, and by that time there's no need for it anymore... both Order and Mage can mage scrolls, thereby you're better off just making the 3+ sealed scrolls, which you'd do as a mage anyway, as you can't get enough wisdom until mid ch 3 for seal 3), and then put all my focus on raising frost crystal first, followed by magic bullet(Not learning any staff fighting, instead rely on sword \ shield technique I've mastered through using the early game, only time you need this in monestary, is the arena fights). Combat wise, I'd start it with throwing the frost spell, if it freezes the enemies, I'd focus on freezing everyone, then hit the first one frozen with magic bullets(3-4), followed with refreezing, then potentionally refreezing everyone as they'd thaw by now, or, if not, magic bullet 3-4 on second, and repeat.


Also, never, ever trade the (real\big) sapphire to reduce cost of ice-crystal. You'll need it to make an amulet of mage, which'll give a +2 to all crystal magic, meaning you only need to increase Frost to level 8(unsure if over 10 gives additional damage, but even if it does, I'd argue 10 is enough, unsure if level or wisdom scales damage of spells, eitherway, you'll be freezing everything by end of ch 3), then bullet to 8.