Frost magic seems terrible compared to other fire

[majskolven]

Foreword: I messed up the title of the thread and now I cant change it, ignore the "other".

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To me it seems like frost magic is just bad when compared to fire magic. Let's make a small comparison between the two. Here is some strengths and weaknesses just from the top of my head:

Frost
Strong against:

• Flame Atronaches

Weak against:

• Nords - Which are the majority of all NPC:s.
• Undead - Which are extremely common in dungeons.
• Frost Creatures - All the strong frost variants of creatures like: sabercats, wolves, trolls etc which you will meet quite often when you level up a bit.
• Frost Atronaches

Fire
Strong against:

• Trolls
• Frost Creatures - Not sure if they really take extra damage from fire, but I assume so.
• Frost Atronaches

Weak against:

• Dark Elves - A small minority of NPC:s.
• Flame Atronaches

Take this strength/weakness list which heavely favors fire and combine it with the fact that fire spells are designed to just do more damage overall and we should come to the conclusion that frost is just plain bad compared to fire.

But dosnt frost also slow enemies and drain their stamina? Yes, but I have always found the slow to be close to nonexistent (or even nonexistent with some frost spells). As for the stamina drain, it is not very often that a good mage will let melee enemies that are being focused hit him. The stamina drain just isnt worth it.

I know I didnt include shock magic, it is mostly because I dont really have much experience with shock. But the main point of this thread is that no one should ever chose frost because fire is superior in almost every way.


I wrote this thread just from anectodal evidence so much of it is probably wrong. What's your opinion on this?

[Ruiner82]

I'm using Fire more and more, I use it pretty much exclusively. I'll switch to Shocks for casters or when I want to instant hit something fast (Flying dragon etc.).

I have to disagree with this totally. I am not sure how long you have been playing but I have 130 hours in playing a strait mage .. no battle mage look alike here

You have to know your spells and all of the advantages and which is best where... it is NOT about damage.

Many tombs in the game have huge oil spills ~ fire will set them off and kill you. I had it happen a few times at lower level until I got used to looking for the oil. This *can* be used to your advantage but if you have a follow it usually turns out badly.

Also if you have the range and a melee is coming at you, ice SLOWS them so you have more of a chance to throw off other ranged spells. It also takes out stamina and a dumb melee jock without his steroids is in big trouble!

Storm is one you totally over looked. This is GREAT when dealing with mages. Some of those mages hit REALLY hard. Storm does damage but also wipes out magika. A mage without magika is a dead mage

[Tigerhawk71]

I use Shock magic almost exclusively. It messes up mages, i can stunlock people to death with the Impact perk and dual-cast Lightning Bolt, i can annihilate groups with Chain Lightning, and i have had minimal use for the other elements. Frost magic in an area where most things are resistant to frost is kinda derp, after all. It's useful for slowing people down and draining the stamina of melee people but... i find sending them reeling with a hitscan blast of shock is a much more entertaining solution.


Now if only i could find the bodies..

[frost b1te]

Since I'm not a mage, I can't really say how bad ice magics are but the ice shout? It's terrible! I have no idea why anyone would use it. Even the level 3 ice shout just deals a tiny amount of damage and that's it. No freeze effect, no stuttering.

[Valdorganos]

Originally Posted by majskolven

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I wrote this thread just from anectodal evidence so much of it is probably wrong. What's your opinion on this?

In your list you forgot cases where Ice is good:

• Humanoid characters using close range, good damages, slow down and eat their stamina.
• Fire dragons, better damages.
• Cat saber, good damages, slow down and eat their stamina.
• Against anything fast it's an option to not forget to slowdown.
• Against anything for which stamina is important, it's an option to not forget to eat their stamina.

For Shock, it's good against anything using magic (and not protected against shock). And it can be handy against fast moving enemies.

Also as pinpointed Ice and Shock can be handy to avoid unwanted fire explosion like the oil in dungeons.

I definitely use a bit more fire but I would be handicapped to not have the two other.