When I first got freeze I didn't use it much except for triggering the starburst-symbol HO's. I upgraded it eventually to adept 1 and it's lasting a decent duration now so I have started using it more and more. One use is if a mob is on me to give me time to cast frozen manacles. Another use is if a group member, usually the tank, has taken a large damage spike and the healer needs a few seconds to catch up with the damage. And the third primary use for freeze for myself is against casters; I will alternature freeze and tongue twist on casters in between breath of the tyrants. This can be especially useful against healing mobs. I often use incinerate but it's not as useful as freeze in my opinion. Frost whorl is much more mana efficient because the damage is higher per point of mana spent and in addition it makes your nukes hit harder. Incinerate at adept 1 is not nearly as high damage as frost whorl at apprentice III. It does debuff stamina and agility so it should indirectly do damage by reducing the mobs max hps (-sta) if cast right away and by letting melee's hit it more often (-agi). It is very hard to notice these indirect effects though. I often lead a fight with frost whorl and incinerate.
If my group isn't doing HO's then I normally open up with the three dots i have. I've found that those dots at adept I, have the same damage output as the tanks. Then after the mob is under 50% health, I open up with a few blazes and then move onto the next. But after reading this thread, looks like this will change once I reach the lower 20's.....so we'll see.
You shouldn't wait till 50% health to blaze. Throw on one or more dots and then blaze. By the time you get to blaze, your tank should have firm aggro. Throw in painful med as much as it comes up for max power. I use both spells at times, but with blaze adept 3 I don't find incinerate worth the power in most cases.
Freeze, even with no fancy upgrades, is what makes a fight against a healer mob twice as short as when it is allowed to heal itself or its buddies. It's invaluable once you have learned a mob's casting pattern, timing is everything. Incinerate I do actually use. When ok on power and against double up mobs it gives that extra punch on top of Freezing Whorl. Then there is the fact that it lowers fire resist, which is good for Blaze, BoT or BoF. It seems the debuff effect is pretty marginal though, but I suppose it saves the occasional resist.
Freeze is also useful against groups of difficult mobs. That short stun can drop the mobs dps just enough to make the difference between a dead tank and a healed tank. Every little bit counts when your tank is in the red.
Freeze adept 1 also does about 55 damage.. so its not a super nuke, but its not a total "waste" of mana to throw it on an add.
I like both spells alot, i got freeze at adept 1, and incinerate at app3 nice spells to use, i like freeze best due to its stun... I usually open with freeze use adept 3 static pulse, incinerate, and adept 1 freezing worl, after this throw in the ocasional nuke and/or painfull meditation if low on power and voila one fried mob..
I love both of those spells. Incinerate decreases the targets agility, making it easier to hit and reducing it's chance of hitting your tank. I just wish it lasted a few seconds longer than it does. Freeze is a lifesaver. I usually save it for times when I see the tanks hp going down really fast. This gives the cleric a chance to catch up on the heals.
Incinerate does make nukes hit harder. Trust me. It becomes far more evident once you get Ball of Fire Adept+.
