I am kind of new to this game, I have been playing since sunday or so. I have been leveling with a friend so I have been trying to take my time so that there isn't much of a gap. Which would be the reason why I am only 28.

But I see alot of talk about how all the bolts are nerfed now. And I was just wondering if someone could enlighten me a little about it.

I will share my thoughts so far:

Fire Bolt seems to be the least favorite because it has the lowest minimum damage, however it has the highest maximum damage of a single bolt. Also I have noticed it is the fastest bolt spell we have. For example shoot a Ice Bolt and then fire a Fire Bolt right behind it and you will notice the Fire Bolt pass out the Ice Bolt. Which in turn would lead me to believe that the Fire Bolt has a higher damage per second then then Ice Bolt.

Ice Bolt seems to be the popular spell of choice because of the high low end and the slowing effect. Other then that this spell is kind of sluggish.

Shadow Bolt is a personal favorite of mine, It doesn't do as much damage as Ice Shards, but it seeks its target. It also appears to be a bit buggy because of the range issue on some of the really small mobs, as in you can shoot them over the head of a mob and then they curve back around to hit the mob and pretty much not make the full curve because of range. I like shooting this spell in the direction of ranger and mage type mobs.

Ice Shards is another popular spell and it has good reason. It puts out a considerable amount of damage on large templated mobs. Making it your highest DPS Bolt spell on bosses. But it has alot of miss issues on other things making Shadow Bolt more bang for your buck because it seeks its targets.

Well if you have anything to add, please do. I seek more opinions and information on this subject.

Edited by Mephfisto (04/06/07 02:03 PM)

I gave up on bolts after using Fire to start, Ice when i got it, and Shadow when i got that. For ~10 levels i was having fun with shadow bolt, especially since my gear was all int/shadow damage. I now run with shadow lightning on left click and noxious blast (the ranger targetted aoe) on my right click. It has far greater range, is an AOE, does about the same damage to a single target as shadow bolt anyway, and doesnt miss the way shadow bolt does when it flies over a close enemy.

The only downside is i had to give up my 2 wands and use a bow. I found a decent one with heaps of +AGI (im a mage.. i havent spent any attribute points on agi) and it rarely misses. Remember you have to hit with the attack for the poison to work.

Worth a try if you have a decent bow and some cash to pick up noxious shot.

Oh - i'm only level 30. Your milage may vary
-Erzabet

the only ting you need to know about bolt spells right now is that its not as effeiciant as MAss AoE spam. T\Of course if you whcih to RP or whatever using bolt seplls you can, won't change the fact that their much worse than AoE now.