Fire, cold or lightning spells?

[voehringer_nitron]

Just wondering what people prefer their mages, warden and/or party members, to learn.

[neil]

all three
supa storm is well supa :-)

[Amanoob105]

When first starting off, cold all the way.

The first one does good single damage and will often freeze the target. Later game it can still help do some damage but will mostly just help slow the target.

The second one just helps your non-spell using friends do more damage. For just you it's useless.

The third one will freeze anything it touches. Mix up with spells like Stonefist, Crushing Prison and/or Death Hex with help from a friend (or anything that can make a hit crit really) for an insta-kill of most mid-to-low level enemys.

The forth one explains itself. If you know where they are (or think you do) zoom out land this on them, it doesn't need line-of-sight to cast.

Not much of a fan of earth, so I left it alone. Fire always sounded fun but never got taken by me. Lightning is seen as the weakest of the four by most from what I could tell but can have some great symmetry with cold at the later levels.

Other schools I never leave home without are;
Hexes. Everything hurts (them) more. Except the one that makes them hurt (you) less.
Telekinesis. Two of them are great panic buttons. The other two give people reason to panic.
Sleep. The first spell on this list is not very good. The other three more than make up for that.
Mastery. The first helps you kill stuff. The second one helps stop stuff killing you. And the third makes your staff (more) useful so you don't need as many spells to kill stuff.
Spirit Healer. Full party heal, on sight resurrection and a "heals when needed" insurance? Yes please.

I'm also fond of the spells;
Mana Drain. Is there an enemy mage? If so, free mana.
Walking Bomb. Cast it on the middle guy in a group of ranged attackers, give it a damage boost to see it on its way. Laugh as they explode and (with luck) kill of their fellows.
Death Syphon. The longer the battle lasts, the more they die, the more mana I get back and the less mana potions I use.

And finally there's the "thing" that happens when you combine the spells;
Spell Might - Blizzard - Tempest.

[_TheBunnymaster_]

This might not be popular, but none of them for the main character (assuming it's a mage), until later on.

Getting Spell Wisp early will help in this strategy. Getting Heal if Morrigan doesn't get it also will help.

Best party to help: Leliana and Zevran for flexible melee and ranged and either Morrigan or Wynne. I also like using Leliana and the three mages together.

Arcane Bolt (starting spell)
Drain Life
Vulnerability Hex
Glyphs of Paralysis, Warding and Repulsion

Here's where you can vary based on skill etc. If you have good help in the party already you can skip getting the arcane tree until later, but I find that getting arcane mastery can really help with spellpower. Either do now or after the next line.

The last three hexes, then the last three drains including Death Cloud.
Glyph of Neutralization
Drain Mana
Mind Blast

Get Drain Mana first if you've obtained the Power of Blood. Otherwise get GoN first.

Specializing in Spirit Healer is a good idea. Leave the other point for Keeper (use DLC Power of Blood) or Blood Mage (not using DLC Power of Blood or want to use both)

If you haven't read up on spell combinations yet, do so. It'll help in figuring out what this list is good for.

-Strategy of this mage is to find choke points to throw a Repulsion Glyph at (dungeons, castles and large battlefields with small clearing ramps are excellent for this but after awhile you can see opportunities on any battlefield. While you're throwing the glyph, run the rest of the party out of range (draw their bows at the same time if available)
-immediately throw a glyph of paralysis on the Repulsion Hex. (if Wynne is with you and out of immediate range she can throw this at the same time you're using repulsion)
-Spell Combo shenanigans ensues, everyone in the blast radius is paralyzed. Those who have run to the opposite side of the room now can concentrate fire on the closest baddie down. If Morrigan is in the Party she can -sleep- the stragglers in the original direction or any flanking directions if the attack is coming from multiple sides. The more spells she has in the "Sleep" line for crowd control, the better. She'll already have Mind Blast.
-Immediately cast Affliction Hex on an enemy near the leader or the leader itself. Skip if you know there isn't anyone that spirit-magic resistant.
-Immediately cast Death Cloud. Your friends are happily sticking arrows and spellbolts into single enemies one at a time while you're doing this.
-Immediately cast Death Hex on the most powerful enemy still alive assuming there is a lieutenant in the group. If he's not dead, follow with Mortality Curse.

By this time the main group is completely messed up, the leader is possibly dead and whomever is still alive in that cloud is down to 10% health assuming they haven't already died to pointy arrows.

As enemies leak into your room from the carnage, use Leliana and/or Zevran's melee powers to isolate as they get near. Morrigan can use the full spectrum of her available spells if your light fighters are in trouble. Keep these in reserve if you either need to assist or if something is looking to squish you.

Arcane Bolt, (Bloody Grasp*), Vulnerability Hex, Drain Life.

You can build on this from there. In massive battlefields where two or more paths exist you can literally use the main character to hex-bomb an entire side while the rest of your party blitzes the weaker end (or opens up an avenue to escape and regroup). I've found that as the game goes on there will be enemies that develop quite a lot of resistance to a single element but not a lot to spirit, and the hexes will also help to remove that as well. Later on as the party has reached the mid-upper teens Morrigan has blizzard so that'll help, but the main focus with the party is crowd control.

**Edit - I'll endorse the post above mine as well, because Tempest is awesome even on vanilla**

[LukanGamer]

there all good in own right

[voehringer_nitron]

Well, my first character was a Mage, but I specialized as Arcane Warrior. Not a lot of nuking spells, mainly had things combat magic, mind blast, miasma, force field, shield and such. Although I did have flame blast, flaming weapons and crushing prison. And I didn't experiment with combos much, aside from force field/crushing prison, and paralysis/repulsion. I doubt I made optimal choices.

Right now I'm working on a Rogue/Duelist. I got the respecialization mod and was rearranging some of Morrigan's spells, and was looking at some for Wynne too, since I just finished the tower.

[Qwesar]

Fireball is king on Nightmare because knockdown duration doesn't go down and its massive radius, range and damage can flatten enemy waves.

Cone of Cold is a reliable spell for aoe crowd control but does less damage and has lower stun duration on Nightmare.

Lightning is pretty garbage.

Also Inferno is usually considered the better of the 3 aoe spells too cuz it does the most damage.

[Qwesar]

when I play mage, I go frost first, cuz winter's grasp is amazing for getting you through beginning and is useful all game, then I get Heal & Regeneration, then Fireball