I hit 16 and got what is it, Frost Shards? the three way ice spell. Shadow Lightning is infinately superior in all ways, being able to fire two blasts of the ice spell for every one lightning isn't much. If all three bolts hit which is very hard to do against most enemies, I might do more damage than with my frost bolt, but then I don't slow the enemy. Further, fire bolt seems worthless, too, as it only fires out a bit farther and travels a bit faster than frost bolt for less damage and no movement/atk spd debuff. I've yet to try the second shadow spell for fear of the same thing happening and just being a waste.

Do the spells get powerful enough farther up in ranks or am I using three mage spells until level 100, if you include the very situational fire ring or whatever.

If your firebolt is hitting weaker then your frostbolt then get +fire damage,or spending the gold to upgrade to newer ranks as they become available, as simple as that, fire will naturally do more damage then ice, unless the mobs have a high resist to it.

Ice Shards and Shadow Bolt doesn't initially have much of a purpose, however they'll become great spells down the line vs certain Bosses, and especially in the Horrific Dungeon where they are almost a necessity.

Shadow Word: Smackdown on the other hand doesn't have much use, as it only hits upwards 4 enemies, and only scales in damage at higher ranks it seems.

I'm in the terror dome now and the fire enemies show no apparent difference in resistability and damage taken compared to the ice enemies from frost bolt. When does fire bolt start pulling ahead enough to consider over ice bolt and what dungeons would I want one or the other due to resists?

Fodder and normal monsters dont have noticeable resistance. You will see resistance more with champions/heroes and especially bosses. There is a boss guide in in the players guide section that goes over the resistances of bosses.

I havn't tried Iceshard, no spot on my bars to give it a try, but Shadow Bolt is my bread and butter. On big pulls that I used to spam shadow lightning on , I spam Shadow Bolt and the pull goes a little smoother. I especially like shadow bolt when the healers are around because it cuts right through that healing. Since there are 3 seeking bolts, it's not an all or nothing resist either. Fire off 3 fireballs , if you get 1 resisted, that's a big chunk of damage that missed. Fire off 3 shadow bolts and even if you get a few resists, the damage output is pretty consistent. Plus you can always fire shadow bolts around corners.

Well, so far ice shards is worthless, especially with shadow lightning giving loads more damage potential to many more enemies. I've got mostly ice and shadow damage gear. Shadow Word: Smackdown is very useful, though, feels good showing those bastards what it feels like to be stunned. So far, though, fire bolt only seems to be better than ice bolt if it's a higher rank, otherwise the damage difference is so negligable I'm better off with ice, especially with a bit of extra ice damage from gear. Besides, having spent only 10 points in end and the rest in int at now level 19 I do plenty of damage with ice bolt that firebolt would become wasted. As well, ice bolt's nicer in groups cuz I can slow more enemies and build up more of a support role.

It'd be nice if mages with over 200+ fire or ice damage and lvl 30ish would share how their damage is with their ice or fire spells so we can compare the practicality of each magic type.

As INT gives more +dmg contribution than any +dmg, I've been speccing int, but I have almost as much +fire as I have +shadow; at +262 int (348 total), with 100ish fire and 160ish shadow, firebolts are ~1000 max each, and shadowbolts are ~300 max each; so against single targets, I believe firebolts are likely to be approximately as effective (due to a larger damage *range*) as a trio of shadowbolts hitting a target, with similar difficulties targeting (getting all the shadowbolts to hit/getting the firebolt to hit.)

Should it be difficult to stay out of melee range, fireball wins; it's easier to hit something next to you with it than it is with all three shadowbolts; should it be at range, it's easier to hit with the three shadowbolts (as they track) than the single firebolt.

(this is at 30)