What's the best direct damage spell?

[Anthony]

I would define 'direct damage' as:

• The effect causes the target to take damage points.
  
• The damage is caused directly by the spell, not by a creature or effect generated by the spell. Spells such as Call Lightning generate an effect, and that effect does damage, and are thus indirect damage.
  
• The damage is not resisted; thus, spells like Petrifaction are not direct damage.
  
• The effect is reliable -- Crack's Call and Call Chaos don't count.
  
• Whether the spell should be targeted is an open question.
  

The list of these spells is:

• Chaos: Doom Bolt, Fire Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Fireball, Warp Lightning, and maybe Flame Strike.
  
• Death: none
  
• Life: Star Fires
  
• Nature: Ice Bolt
  
• Sorcery: Psionic Blast
  

Of those, Flame Strike has the best efficiency in most interesting combat situations; of the single target spells, against units with enough life to bother with, it's star fires for vulnerable units, then fireball against 6+ counters, warp lightning against low to medium armor, and doom bolt against targets with high armor.

[kyrub]

Really, psionic blast do not ignore armor.

That is from experience or from the code? I am quite sure it does.

[Anthony]

Okay, just tested. Gave basilisks 50 shields (they were convenient), blasted them with a 50 mana (25d) mind blast. Did 9 damage, which is very unlikely unless it ignores shields. Then gave them 8 counters and 1 life per counter, and killed 4 with a single blast, which is on the low side (7.5 expected) but virtually impossible unless ignoring shields.

[Asfex]

That is from experience or from the code? I am quite sure it does.

From experience. Hmm.... I must recheck my mod version.

[letsdance]

psionic blast is one of the few spells that can kill a high defense hero. i'm pretty sure it ignores armor.