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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MrMyth" data-source="post: 5426479" data-attributes="member: 61155">But again, you are picking and choosing ideal situations. What about when we are at 8 hp? 15? What about when the wizard has Combat Advantage? Or any sort of bonuses to hit and damage? Choosing only the situations where MM is good, and ignoring the ones where it isn't... well, that doesn't seem a reasonable comparison.   Just to clarify, once more: I'm not saying that "Magic Missile is reasonable to use 1 in every 3 rounds" is too high. I'm saying that "Magic Missile is the best option to use 1 in every 3 rounds" is the inaccurate statement. I can absolutely see using it as your favored at-will and having it as a decent option that often.  It is presenting it as the only option - as other choices being "mistakes", made by those who don't know how to play a wizard well... that's where I object.  Even the example you give - you really think that, when the fighter is surrounded by foes, it isn't worthwhile to try and give the enemies penalties to hit?? Or, say, slide the enemies to a less advantageous position - such as by breaking their flanking? (Which they can't get back into with triggering Combat Challenge?)  I'm sorry, no, math doesn't work that way. Your chance to hit is your chance to hit, and basing strategies on whether the dice are hot or cold is just silly. If the average damage of Phantom Bolt is about the same as the average damage of Magic Missile, then either one is just as good a choice for the purposes of dealing damage. Doing less damage automatically is better than doing nothing, yes. Doing less damage automatically is about the same as risking doing nothing in order to have the chance to do more.  Yes. And the chance to kill in one hit, vs the chance to miss entirely, is what balanced them against each other. Unless you can pinpoint for certain that an enemy has 7 or less hp - which is hard to do, and a relatively rare occurence - than the At-Wills are about equal. MM is an acceptable choice, sure - just not the only choice.</blockquote>

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