Dual boxing mages spec?

[Akoko]

Frostbite/shatter works great on dual mages and to some extent on 3 mages. With the changes to crits against frozen mobs a few patches ago, 4+ mages would be much better suited to going fire or arcane/fire.

Hi Ugh,
Could you elaborate on that bit a little please? is it that fronzen mobs only allow a number of crits before the freeze breaks or something?
I've started magex3 and was thinking going fire in any case, as i cant see how i'd manage the water elem novas anyway, but i'm interested in this.

Thanks

Yes and no. A frozen mob always breaks its freeze after a certain (somewhat random) amount of damage. Basically, if your mages aren't casting at the exact same time, your first mage could break the shatter 1 or 2 seconds early, and the clone(s)'s frostbolt(s) will not get the shatter bonus.

The guy playing the Don's is slightly wrong... A theoretically infinite number of mages could shatter on the same target, providing they all frostbolt at the same time and immediately let loose an ice lance (or a fireblast before you are level 66) and all frostbolts and ice lances will gain the shatter crit bonus. Shatter is decided as soon as the spell is cast, not when the spell hits. So a frostbolt/ice lance that is finished casting while the target is frozen will probably crit regardless of whether or not it is still frozen when the missile actually hits the target.

With 2 mages you'd probably be better off not speccing fire... You don't have the sheer power of 4-5 mages so you need to synergize some survivability by having both frost. Four on-demand shatters is nothing to scoff at.

Impact procs would probably only be effective with a large number of mages spamming scorch on the same target.