FF/CC vs IF/FB (in General)

Which is more efficient in terms of XP : damage...

A Fireball mage with an Ice familiar, or a Cone of Cold mage with a Fire Familiar?

i would pick CoC with FF.
FF gets out front fights in ranged and takes most of the damage, then Coc goes for melee.
A IF on a FB mage would appear in front and die before melee most of the time.

CoC with Fire Familiar.

Firstly, the CoC mage with FF would probably do more damage. But coupling CoC with Fb is not a good idea. The whole point of CoC is making sure it lasts into melee unscathed. FB is not currently designed to be a melee spell. FB's friendly fire can do more damage to yourself than your opponents, so the likelihood is that if your FB mage/FF lasts into melee it would hurt the other damage dealer. CoC becomes most effective after about seven or eight rounds, so you really don't want to risk it not making it that far....

Mixing the two spells does not work out in the end.

That is all.

There you go - MrWuss puts into a swift sentence what I waffled on for ages trying to say...

Don't do it.

familiar will always be infront of the minion it is on unless you place a weapon on the minion, then the tattoo will go behind the minion.

Does the weapon have to be used? If you place a base dagger on a DD mage with a familiar, the DD will cast and the dagger won't be used. Will the familiar go in front of or behind the mage?

Familiar goes behind the minion it's equipped on if that minion has a weapon equipped or a DD spell trained, so you don't need a melee weapon on a mage to ensure the familiar goes in front.

A FF would complement a CoC mage well in two aspects, detrimental in one and a waste in another.

Appearing before the Mage it would give a small meat shield. Which is never bad. It would also always fire at least once, and might be a good way of thining the herd if you face multiple low HP minions.

Detrimental, If it lasts until melee (which it might if you face seekers) your FF will damage your CoC Mage with it's splash. And you can't use a TBF either.

As a waste, if they do both fire one the same round versus multiple minions, and your FF is large enoguh to kill at least one minion, your CoC damage will still be split as if that minion is still alive.

I hope that helps! :)

So is the general consensus that a FF on a CoC mage is better than an IF on a FB mage when trying to inflict the highest damage per XP spent, but that neither scenario is in fact a good one?