Best Newbie Fire Spell?

[Zing]

As a newbie Cleric/Mage I believe I have three "Fire Type" single target, spells available. Burning Hands, Fireball, and Flame Strike.

Since the Flame Strike comes later (CL 14) does that mean it can cause more damage? Or perhaps is Fireball more potent since it has a higher minimum mana requirement.

Wanting to hit hard and save my mana, any advice is appreciated.

Zing

[12345]

Several factors apply to the calculations for that... let me list a few:

1) Mage spells do constant damage, regardless of your mage level
2) Some mage spells benefit from +spelldam equipment
3) Cleric spells grow stronger as the cleric levels
4) Spells get cheaper as you level
5) Fire/cold spells can be resisted by fire/ice mobs, in addition to normal saves

Having said all that, a level 40 cleric does about the same damage with flame strike as a normal fireball without +spelldam. So, a level 14 flamestrike would be considerably weaker. If you're paying 50 mana for fireball though, it's not really worth casting, which is why many mages will stick with lower cost spells (in this case colour spray) until its economical to cast them. If you mem the high cost fireballs, you can still cast them for 0 mana in battle.

So... final answer is, I would use colour spray until the cost of fireball is close to the minimum to cast it, burning hands is much less powerful than colour spray and flamestrike will never really be practical for you to use.

[Zing]

Now that was a good answer!

Zing