Firebolt OR Lightning Bolt?

• Absol wrote on 2010-06-24 12:34
  I just got r1 WM and Taming and I'm bumping CM to 1 ASAP. After CM I plan on getting r1 Smash and r1 Magic Mastery and a bolt. I'm only getting Icebolt to r9 for the speed boost. Now, I was wondering, which is more useful? Firebolt or Lightning Bolt?
  
  I saw another player hit 1.7k crit with 5 charge Firebolt on a Shadow Fighter, which is making me anxious to get it. But I also saw a guy spamming Lightning Bolt r1 with 3xx damage each time which is also pretty pro imo.
  
  I'm clueless :T_T: What to do?!
• Fumy wrote on 2010-06-24 12:49
  Lightning Bolt has higher dmg at 1 charge and is faster than Fire Bolt :S I'd say go LB because You'll probably be melee and it's easier to pull of a LB than a Fire Bolt and LB stuns longer than IB
• Absol wrote on 2010-06-24 12:51
  I am melee... Btw if it's important or not I have r2 Crit. Btw, Firebolt's speed at r1 is equivalent to Icebolt speed at ranks below r9 right?
• starpaw7 wrote on 2010-06-24 12:52
  Lightningbolt is the fastest, most powerful bolt with 1 charge, stuns a bit longer than ice, and can attack multiple targets but with reduced damage. So good for spamming with it's 1.5 seconds
  
  Firebolt is the most powerful with all charges and is the slowest to cast (with the exceptions of an upgraded wand which makes it the fastest with 1.2 seconds), most importantly it knocks down almost anything with just 1 charge. High damage you can use for chaincasting
  
  In my opinion, get LB first with high crit/INT
  
  Though someone else will know about this topic more than me :what:
• IceBlade wrote on 2010-06-24 13:16
  LB is good for a melee player, because of it's good stun time and 1,5 sec charge time. It does require allot of INT to stabilize its dmg though. And an other thing you should remember is that having Lb at rA or higher will give you -10 Dex penalty if you're using the Stiff Enchant.
  
  5 charge FB is pretty powerful and has guaranteed knock down, but you'd probably do the same or more dmg with r1 Smash with allot faster load time. An other thing about FB is that you can load certain skills while the casting animation is in process, wm being one. And yes FB has a 2 sec load time from r5, the same as IB below r9.
  
  I'd say you should go for LB, you can get some easy/cheap INT from Music Knowledge and Composing to get some stability from it and it's easily mixed into melee combos with longer stun than IB.
• Absol wrote on 2010-06-24 13:20
  I'm not really looking forward to getting r1 Music Composition and Composing because they cost a crapload. I'll get them, but idk whether to get it before or after Lightning Bolt (if I take that path). If I choose LB though I heard that it has to be ranked along with high int-giving skills because it needs magic balance to be efficient.
  
  If this makes any difference, I have +4 CC Fire wands (I run a wand-proffing service in Tarlach) and a +2 CC Ice wand. I also have a +1 CC Lightning wand. Right now my fighting style is melee entirely. Later on I plan on getting r1 Thunder (and other ADV magic skills) I'm not going range because I hate the idea of missing a lot. It's quite annoying.
• Fumy wrote on 2010-06-24 13:35
  You'll have to switch between Fire Wand and Swords all the time and you have to mp pot everytime you want to use FB so it's not really efficient with Wand + Swords :S You should get LB r1 and rank some Musical Knowledge(rF->r9 is only 1AP because you get 5 AP back)
• Justified wrote on 2010-06-24 14:22
  Abusing the Chaincasting bug makes CC+4 efficient. Unless you use magic bolts a lot in your routine, you'd be able to switch to your CC+4 wand, charge with ~5 mana, and then switch back to your swords without needing to pot. Optional whether to shoot with the wand (+dmg, +range) or with your swords (no dur usage). Passive regen gets you 5 mana per ~30 seconds at night.
  
  Personally, I don't see the need for the use of bolt magic in melee combat. No matter how you use it, magic will always result in a loss of DPS for melee focused players (meaning, other skills or combos that work in any situation where a bolt has the time to load will deal higher amounts of damage). The way I see it, using bolts is like saying "oh crap I don't know what to do next so I'll just stun it with this."
  
  The exception is Firebolt which gives you room for a following Smash (unless you're an elf) if you have low ping and close distance/a wall to reduce the gap. Otherwise, bolts used as finishers or party support don't need to be high ranked or deal high damage.
  
  All that being said, I side with Firebolt. It's only 30 base damage lower than Lightningbolt but doesn't require as much balance. It chaincasts far better than Lightningbolt and is also able to handle PD mobs for both melee and magic that might otherwise give you trouble, as well as opening up Wyvern Hunting as a possible activity.
• IceBlade wrote on 2010-06-24 14:27

  Quote from Absol;74664:

  I'm not really looking forward to getting r1 Music Composition and Composing because they cost a crapload. I'll get them, but idk whether to get it before or after Lightning Bolt (if I take that path). If I choose LB though I heard that it has to be ranked along with high int-giving skills because it needs magic balance to be efficient.
  
  If this makes any difference, I have +4 CC Fire wands (I run a wand-proffing service in Tarlach) and a +2 CC Ice wand. I also have a +1 CC Lightning wand. Right now my fighting style is melee entirely. Later on I plan on getting r1 Thunder (and other ADV magic skills) I'm not going range because I hate the idea of missing a lot. It's quite annoying.

  
  
  Because you're melee I'd advice against using wands. The only time I use my +4 CC Fire wand is when I'm ballooning, I don't even own a CC Lightning wand and I hardly ever use my CC Ice wand anymore. Wand repairs are also very expensive. I spend over 150k each week just on wand repairs on my speed casting Crystal lighting wands :/
  
  

  Quote from Fumy;74665:

  You'll have to switch between Fire Wand and Swords all the time and you have to mp pot everytime you want to use FB so it's not really efficient with Wand + Swords :S You should get LB r1 and rank some Musical Knowledge(rF->r9 is only 1AP because you get 5 AP back)

  
  
  I agree totally with Fumy. And the Musical Knowledge won't cost you that much. Worst case is 121k and you could get the first book (80k) for "free" if you become good friends with Aeira. So it would be around 41k gold and 1 AP for 35 extra Int.
  
  You do need high int to get consistent dmg from LB, but having low int won't affect the stun, which is the main reason you'd be using it in a melee combo any way. The extra dmg is nice, but you can still get by at lower levels with out it.
• IceBlade wrote on 2010-06-24 14:54
  I was writing a long response, but I got ninja'd by Justified :/ (And here I'm taking a long ass time again :/ ) Though I think his answer is the best one.
  
  I'll only add a bit to the Wyvern Hunting. r1 FB with +4 CC fire wand hits about 1,6k normal dmg on the Ice Wyverns, basically one shotting the normal ones and leaving very little HP on the tittled ones. So it's a very effective way to gain stars quickly.
  
  Bolt have their advantaged, but 9 times out of 10 you'll find a better skill for the job and it'll probably do more dmg as well.
• sakraycore wrote on 2010-06-24 16:03
  I would say lightning bolt, noone really carries around +CC wands for example. That slot is 90% of the time better used up by a bow , mace+shield, or even a 2h.
  
  Lightning bolt deals the highest damage for a single charge, and as a melee that's what you'll be using, if you use any bolts at all.
• Okami wrote on 2010-06-24 16:34
  I'd say lightning bolt. For all the reasons above.
  
  Highest damage/Fastest
• EndlessDreams wrote on 2010-06-24 16:39

  Quote from Justified;74669:

  Abusing the Chaincasting bug makes CC+4 efficient. Unless you use magic bolts a lot in your routine, you'd be able to switch to your CC+4 wand, charge with ~5 mana, and then switch back to your swords without needing to pot. Optional whether to shoot with the wand (+dmg, +range) or with your swords (no dur usage). Passive regen gets you 5 mana per ~30 seconds at night.

  
  
  Doesn't seem to be a very flexible combat strategy at all. It isn't efficient at all either. If you are depending you have only 5 mana (especially after waiting 30 seconds at NIGHT), then that means you lost all your mana in your mana pool beforehand. Not to mention, you used up a switch slot for such an useless strategy. Also, it kills the mana pool for mana shield unless you pot.
  
  For melee, Lightning Bolt will be the better of the three bolts if a person need some sort of stun to buy time since it is fast. (Like versus archers while a person and pets is dealing with other monsters or something) Also, at r1, it can deal a decent amount of damage. If a person is going to use the r5+ Lightning Bolt for stun, might as well give it a few more ranks to get the most damage out of it. I
  
  t is still wise to invest in r5+ firebolt for rare situations though like ballooning or a quick guarantee knockback. Giants can smash after firebolt better than the other two races as well.
• pinkkea wrote on 2010-06-24 16:55
  r1 Lightning--I saw someone hit a bear, charge, hit bear, charge, hit bear, etc. etc...
• Syrphid wrote on 2010-06-24 17:48
  I used to love firebolt because it made killing karu shiny golden ghosts super easy. cc fb spam w/mp 10s makes killing any single non-mana refrac3 monster very simple. Maybe you have some such monsters in mind that you'd rather not engage with your melee.