Minor Steam

[Winter]

I've noticed that most people (including the super duper capped) use this spell almost exclusively in DR arena and to quest with , fantastic damage factors, great AvD, only 4 mana and a godsend for the early levels. In DR arena I use 903 and 910 but for everything else my go to is steam. For those above lvl 50 that mainly use steam what would it take for you to regularly switch to the other elements?

Also if the acension skill Mana Adept (reduces spell cost) becomes a thing would that tempt you to use Hurl Boulder or Major Shock more often?

[Elgrim]

My wizards (36 and 58) hunt exclusively with it unless there is a really good reason to use something else, fire for trolls for example. My regular routine is throw a few steam bolts, leech if needed, and continue until the thing drops. I've not yet found a situation where I'd consider using 910 on anything, even with the increased mana pools. It just doesn't seem to kill as quickly, and I don't hunt in areas that regularly swarm too bad. I know some people swear by 917, but I haven't found a an area where it yields better results than a couple steam bolts. I will say the only thing I find steam lackluster against is incorporeal undead, and might end up trying some other options on those.

[Fryinhades]

As a ranged mage I used to use 910 mainly because of the fact that I didnt have steam available. Now at 75 I have steam and it works similarly to to 910 depending on the critter. Yetis, 910 would crit more often but you use less mana with steam. All depends if you have to kill something with the fewest casts possible or not.

I do believe 910 versus metal type armors, ie full plate, and the likes it's still better. Same with hurl boulder

[Methais]

I've noticed that most people (including the super duper capped) use this spell almost exclusively in DR arena and to quest with , fantastic damage factors, great AvD, only 4 mana and a godsend for the early levels. In DR arena I use 903 and 910 but for everything else my go to is steam. For those above lvl 50 that mainly use steam what would it take for you to regularly switch to the other elements?

Also if the acension skill Mana Adept (reduces spell cost) becomes a thing would that tempt you to use Hurl Boulder or Major Shock more often?

Elemental weakness or immunity is about the only thing that would make me use something other than Steam.

Can't rely on spells that crit hard due to randomization of both the crit and the location, so you might as well just bleed them out with 2-3 shots of Steam instead.

Bolting, at least for wizards who are supposed to be the "masters of the elements," is still a mind numbingly boring piece of shit system overall and dev has no interest in making it more interesting. Which is probably a good thing, because they're incapable of working on anything without nerfing everything.

My wizards (36 and 58) hunt exclusively with it unless there is a really good reason to use something else, fire for trolls for example. My regular routine is throw a few steam bolts, leech if needed, and continue until the thing drops. I've not yet found a situation where I'd consider using 910 on anything, even with the increased mana pools. It just doesn't seem to kill as quickly, and I don't hunt in areas that regularly swarm too bad. I know some people swear by 917, but I haven't found a an area where it yields better results than a couple steam bolts. I will say the only thing I find steam lackluster against is incorporeal undead, and might end up trying some other options on those.

917 is better on stuff that has stupid high bolt DS, but not much else.

[Menos]

My wizard pretty much exclusively uses 917. Pre-cap he used a lot of acid, but I switched completely out of spell aiming to get more wizard ranks... Someday I'll have enough Post Cap experience to add it back in.

I guess that's not exactly an answer to the question because I don't use minor steam. But it explains what it takes to get me using something else. The cast and forget nature of 917 is really nice, and never having to come up in stance.

[Methais]

My wizard pretty much exclusively uses 917. Pre-cap he used a lot of acid, but I switched completely out of spell aiming to get more wizard ranks... Someday I'll have enough Post Cap experience to add it back in.

I guess that's not exactly an answer to the question because I don't use minor steam. But it explains what it takes to get me using something else. The cast and forget nature of 917 is really nice, and never having to come up in stance.

What do you do about swarms?

[Taernath]

I will say the only thing I find steam lackluster against is incorporeal undead, and might end up trying some other options on those.

Steam does massive HP damage though. I would think it would be ideal on something that can't be critted.

[Methais]

Steam does massive HP damage though. I would think it would be ideal on something that can't be critted.

^ This.

[Menos]

What do you do about swarms?

950 410 917, or run away.

I should probably do something with rapid fire and target next, but I never remember to.

[drumpel]

My capped wizard doesn't have fire lore to cast steam. Always went with 904 with his high EL:E ranks he almost always got the DOT from it to trigger - sure the DOT wasn't impressive, but one or two flares can do wonders at times to help whittle down health for an easier kill. He strictly uses 510 or 917.

My level 86 wizard stopped bolting by level 34 and has strictly been 917/502 caster. He never made use of steam bolts either. He used 904/906/510 for bolting. Around level 40 or so I stopped training in SA and around level 55 I completely unlearned SA and dumped the extra TPs into more spell ranks
I've found that 917 can be a very good spell against creatures that are naturally crit/damage resistant. Like pra'eda - without high damage to get good crits, you're basically throwing water balloons at them in terms of damage from bolting. However, toss 917 at them and 2/3 of the time you'll kill them in one cast. The ones that continue to live, a few casts of 502 or your choice of bolt spell should be enough to remove the last of their health.

If my 917/502 mage comes across a swarm he just does a self cast of 909 (STOMP/TAP) followed up with 950 917 502 502 502 502.

To get wizards to move from using the most effective and least mana intensive bolt spell - which appears to be Steam bolt - all creatures would need a rework to have them adjusted for elemental weaknesses and strengths.
Stone creatures for example - right now fire and bolt spells don't do much to them (aside from the rapid heating and cooling of the skin to cause some skin breaking/cracking damage - but it's not a cost effective means to kill them). All other bolts appear to damage them, but acid and stone bolts should do more damage/extra flares/something over casting say 910 or Steam bolt or Tonis bolt.
I don't see a system like that getting done any time soon - would be a massive undertaking and I don't think many of the GMs could pull it off in any kind of a decent time frame without making it a full time job.