"Immobilize" - quick root worth it?
 

I can't see the point on that spell. 80 mana vs 30 mana on the standard root with .25 faster casting.

Anyone uses that spell? I do like the longer roots (Enstill) but that fast root line seems a bit underwhelming.

I imagine it varies by class, but as a wizard I always prefer the fast ones. Root->Immobilize->Fetter is the best line by far. I never use the Enstill->Paralyzing Earth line.

Many times in a cramped room the mob will just about reach you before you finish casting, stun you, then land a couple more rounds of hits before you actually manage to root it. If you do a lot of cc in dungeon groups I can totally see that fraction of time being worthwhile.

Also consider the recast time being greater than the cast time means if you need to do a lot of rooting you may want to have two different root spells memorised.

I'm going to be honest here and say on my wizard (sub 58) I'll typically just use Enstill. It seems to be the best general use root.

Maybe I should buy immobilise and give it a try. Perhaps its fastcast will make it better for soloing with rains?

I really feel like it's contextual. On my Shaman root/rotting it's no question that I should use Enstill for instance: Root doesn't last long enough.

But for "quick rooting" (or root/nuking, or lots of other cases) plain old Root remains great even at higher levels.

God I love Paralyzing Earth.

When I use to duo with an enchanter I'd sometimes keep Immobilize mem'd in case their charm broke, as a quick way to prevent them from being punched in the face.

this

Different tools for different situations.

Fastest, cheapest, longest can all be more useful than another depending on what you are doing.

Until you have Fetter. Fetter is better.
(unless you actually want a short duration root, which does come up sometimes)

On my Shaman, I normally use Paralyzing Earth due to it's much longer root time. It has the potential to save the most mana due to it's length, and it reduces the amount of roots per minute you need to cast. Fetter is obviously better, but that is limited to Wizard/Enchanter only.

If I need to cast back to back roots in quick succession for a specific situation where 3+ mobs are involved, I will use Paralyzing Earth AND Enstill. This will allow me to chain cast roots, without worrying about recast time. This also allows me to worry less about early root breaks, due to both spells lasting at least 1.6 minutes.

I do not like using the basic root spell, or immobilize, as a Shaman. If you need to root 4 or 5 monsters, the first root/immobilize will wear off by the time you are on your 4th or 5th root. This means you will end up casting more roots/immobilizes per minute, and will end up wasting more mana.

In situations where you cannot afford two spell slots for roots, Paralyzing Earth is still better. It has a FASTER recast time than Immobilize, and a longer length.

As a druid my #1 spell slot is Enveloping Roots which is 1 min duration and 1.75 cast time and my #2 is Engulfing Roots which is 3 min duration and 2.5 cast time. I swap out other slots but never these two because when I need them I need them right now.

That cast time makes all the difference when breaking a room or in an emergency. When I got my Big Boy root I was just using that because who doesn't love three minutes but then I found out I needed the fast casting root also. I was taking way too many interrupts or getting dps'd cause I couldn't park stuff fast enough.