A few days ago one of my guild members (Colbron Eindride) made quite an interesting post on our guild Facebook Group. The post basically consisted of a short review of each of the schools of magic as of release 29.
With his permission I thought I would share it with Stratics community:-
"Magic schools are quite complicated, so I will do my best to break them down.
Overall Comments -
Touch Spells (all schools) - These have become increasingly difficult to land, especially with the new targeting system and I would not recommend taking them at all if you are planning to involve yourself in PvP. There's tricks like Shadow Step, Blink and Ice Field to land as many as possible, but when ranged spells do around the same damage amount, it is not worth the chance of missing with a touch attack. If you are not planning to do PvP, then they are nice because they have no channeling time and the cards are dealt quickly to you. Ranged spells are better because it turns your character towards your target as long as you are facing in that general direction.
Magic School Selection - With the way that attunements work now, you really need to invest wholeheartedly in one or two magic schools. If you try to spread yourself beyond that, you'll find you are not effective enough. It is possible to take 40 in all active skills in other schools just to boost attunements and their resists, but this should be a goal for your latter levels. Pick one, then eventually move into the second school.
Schools -
Air - The most dominant school in Shroud, but it requires a full investment into the tree. You needn't even delve into any other school, aside from a little Life magic for healing, but that might not even be necessary. You can chain-stun a target to the point that they will never be able to hit you. I saw someone 5-stack an air spell and give an enemy a 27-second stun. Sick. In PvP it is also the strongest, and with its damage being so heavily correlated to dex, it makes for an archers best friend.
Earth - Innates are boss and essential for any build, but with obsidian arrow being dodgeable and earthquake being blockable (damage reduction), it just is not worth the investment for this release. Damage is good, but I'd say it is really just a good tertiary addition to a combat build and should not be taken as a mage.
Death - It was the king of last release and is the worst of this one. Corpse explosion is really fun, but very situation-based. Death Touch, Death Ray and Death Field all have the exact same damage range, so not one is worth using more than another. This tree also has one of the highest fizzle rates, yet all other schools are better. I'd recommend avoiding this school.
Life - The bees knees. You can pair it with any school and it is damn helpful. Banish Undead is priceless for PvM leveling, especially with places like the Rise. The only draw away from Life magic before was that Death was great and opposed it, since this is not the case anymore - fill your boots with life magic.
Chaos - A really unique and fun school. Chaos Bolt can't be resisted, but unfortunately the debuffs override each other, so you'll never actually get to see a DoT, Slow or Stun actually do something. It compliments death well with its negative life attunement from Chaotic Feedback and I really like some of the other skills in the tree, but you might be better off avoiding it entirely until a much later point in the game (level 90+). Or just take Confusion if you're an archer, but even confusion is likely not worth skipping on firing off an Aimed Shot instead.
Fire - Used to be the best damage dealer in PvM, and if an Air mage is present, it likely could outdamage them, but since it does not stun like Air magic and only does a slight bit more damage... Air just makes Fire not worth considering. I was 100% fire last release and that was a horrible mistake.
Sun - Searing Ray is one hell of a damage dealer, even now that it can be dodged. The only problem is that if you want to get your attunements up, you need to take garbage like blindness, dazzling rays and reveal hidden - which are ****e. You'd really have to like Searing Ray and Enlightenment to dedicate entirely to this tree. I'll probably avoid it at the full release, even though I have taken it since the first release.
Moon - Nope, nope, nope. Nothing good in it.
Water - Still a really viable magic school. Ice Field can get above 100% slow rate, making archer NPCs unable to shoot since they are trying to skirmish their distance. If used in conjunction with fire, it does work well, but both fire and water trees would take too much experience to both get useful. All water is damn good. I'd say it is the second best option and can make fire mages unable to hurt you."
With his permission I thought I would share it with Stratics community:-
"Magic schools are quite complicated, so I will do my best to break them down.
Overall Comments -
Touch Spells (all schools) - These have become increasingly difficult to land, especially with the new targeting system and I would not recommend taking them at all if you are planning to involve yourself in PvP. There's tricks like Shadow Step, Blink and Ice Field to land as many as possible, but when ranged spells do around the same damage amount, it is not worth the chance of missing with a touch attack. If you are not planning to do PvP, then they are nice because they have no channeling time and the cards are dealt quickly to you. Ranged spells are better because it turns your character towards your target as long as you are facing in that general direction.
Magic School Selection - With the way that attunements work now, you really need to invest wholeheartedly in one or two magic schools. If you try to spread yourself beyond that, you'll find you are not effective enough. It is possible to take 40 in all active skills in other schools just to boost attunements and their resists, but this should be a goal for your latter levels. Pick one, then eventually move into the second school.
Schools -
Air - The most dominant school in Shroud, but it requires a full investment into the tree. You needn't even delve into any other school, aside from a little Life magic for healing, but that might not even be necessary. You can chain-stun a target to the point that they will never be able to hit you. I saw someone 5-stack an air spell and give an enemy a 27-second stun. Sick. In PvP it is also the strongest, and with its damage being so heavily correlated to dex, it makes for an archers best friend.
Earth - Innates are boss and essential for any build, but with obsidian arrow being dodgeable and earthquake being blockable (damage reduction), it just is not worth the investment for this release. Damage is good, but I'd say it is really just a good tertiary addition to a combat build and should not be taken as a mage.
Death - It was the king of last release and is the worst of this one. Corpse explosion is really fun, but very situation-based. Death Touch, Death Ray and Death Field all have the exact same damage range, so not one is worth using more than another. This tree also has one of the highest fizzle rates, yet all other schools are better. I'd recommend avoiding this school.
Life - The bees knees. You can pair it with any school and it is damn helpful. Banish Undead is priceless for PvM leveling, especially with places like the Rise. The only draw away from Life magic before was that Death was great and opposed it, since this is not the case anymore - fill your boots with life magic.
Chaos - A really unique and fun school. Chaos Bolt can't be resisted, but unfortunately the debuffs override each other, so you'll never actually get to see a DoT, Slow or Stun actually do something. It compliments death well with its negative life attunement from Chaotic Feedback and I really like some of the other skills in the tree, but you might be better off avoiding it entirely until a much later point in the game (level 90+). Or just take Confusion if you're an archer, but even confusion is likely not worth skipping on firing off an Aimed Shot instead.
Fire - Used to be the best damage dealer in PvM, and if an Air mage is present, it likely could outdamage them, but since it does not stun like Air magic and only does a slight bit more damage... Air just makes Fire not worth considering. I was 100% fire last release and that was a horrible mistake.
Sun - Searing Ray is one hell of a damage dealer, even now that it can be dodged. The only problem is that if you want to get your attunements up, you need to take garbage like blindness, dazzling rays and reveal hidden - which are ****e. You'd really have to like Searing Ray and Enlightenment to dedicate entirely to this tree. I'll probably avoid it at the full release, even though I have taken it since the first release.
Moon - Nope, nope, nope. Nothing good in it.
Water - Still a really viable magic school. Ice Field can get above 100% slow rate, making archer NPCs unable to shoot since they are trying to skirmish their distance. If used in conjunction with fire, it does work well, but both fire and water trees would take too much experience to both get useful. All water is damn good. I'd say it is the second best option and can make fire mages unable to hurt you."