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Hi guys, been with the game a long time on and off over the years and i'm trying to decide on what school to continue my playthrough with and i'm having mad difficulty looking over their progression and options through that progression.

Generally i went for a hitter at first, i tried death because it seemed cool and i enjoyed it but dropped it because the aoe being so late and went looking around the other schools options.

Then when i learned about tempest i instantly fell in love and made a storm, i even though i was squishy i loved the high hitting damage and clearing waves of mobs quickly with the right setup, I even created the Wizard101 Damage Calculator so i could use my tempest more efficiently and really enjoyed it, but a little later i realised how vulnerable storm were if the enemy used a shield or a group of enemies used towers to protect each other, it was near impossible to get a hit in after dragonspyre and i realised storms major weakness and decided i was gonna look at the schools a bit deeper in terms of their mechanics.

I also looked at my playstyle and generally, i like to support because i find that usually in group content the healer or balance or tank cant keep up so i always play more support than hitter and allow another hitter like storm or another fire or myth do the damage.

I found Fire So far my favorite school, a hitter with damage over time spells so it allows me to tick damage while being able to support with shields and healing.

But i found even as a fire i was still supporting way more than anything so i started looking at Ice, Balance & Life and a friend recommended I play balance since i play generally all-around support and just dealing damage when support or extra support is not needed. (Blading, Healing & Shields.)

So now i'm playing as a Balance but i cant get my mind off of Ice and Life

I like Balance because i can pretty much shield a single person from any school, i can boost their attacks in multiple ways and i can give extra pips and mana burn enemies and have i guess average below avg damage and i have a few heals in my artillery.

But im questioning whether i should i just go pure support or pure tank with life or ice and would love some experienced guidance on this choice.

I know i can play any of them at any time but im a focused player and prefer to choose a path and play it through to the end, its my playstyle for any game and would really appreciate the advice.

Generally im going to be PvE but may try PvP now and then but right now PvP isn't my goal i already know Balance is a PvP school from what i've found online and thats one of my issues since im going got focus PvE for a long time if not the entirety of my time on wiz.

I'd like to try Life but considering its low damage and its purely a heal class and little to no AoE meaning its going to take me forever to reach late game content. (I should mention i have no max characters yet.) I just like the idea for group content but i end up soloing so much i feel it would be a waste, hence why death and fire and storm were my first tries.

Im leaning towards ice so i can tank deal okay damage have an earlier aoe and i like the animations and i can shield and stun and draw attention away from my group members in a fight its a good utility choice.

So yeah i would love some advice and your experiences with the schools and what you found.
In depth descriptions please