My point was that the DM spells are not very cost effective. You get more bang for each point of mana with elemental magic (Sparks and many of the Fire spells are effective inside), which means fewer rests or teleport to a well. Also, you'll need lost of skill points for the DM spells to be really effective, by which time you may already be near the end. If you want the best possible score you will want to finish the game in as few game days as possible. And each training takes a week.

The DM spells are not "best" if you want a good score, unless you meta game and save your skill points.

You can wipe out Titans in their Temple with Rock Blast. Easy.

I don't understand why fire magic gets all the love. IMO water is better. It has poison spray (comparable to sparks, though not as good), ice bolt (decent early-mid spell), acid burst (one of the best offensive elemental spells in the game) and ice blast for AoE damage.

a LOT of the late game monsters are immune or resistant to fire damage, but water magic has acid burst that deal physical damage in addition to the cold damage spells.

Water has:
- high utility with town portal/lloyd's/enchant
- high physical damge with acid burst
- decent AoE damage with ice blast
- a very good (though not the best) low-level spell in poison spray
- offensive spells for all levels

Fire has:
- high damage, as long as monsters aren't immune or resistant (which they usually are late-game)
- very low utility - only torch light and haste (and you should be casting haste from hour of power anyway if you need it)
- no viable offensive spells between fire bolt and inferno/incinerate (fireball will probably kill your own party half the time, and I always felt fire blast did too little damage and is too hard to target with for it to be useful)

Water is the first skill I max out to get Master Town Portal ASAP.

And I agree Water spells are generally more effective in combat. But some monsters can only be damaged by Fire, like some Slimes, and personally I think Inferno is a fun spell.

the only best spells are town portal and fly if you want a "good score" aka you'll cheese the game in an hour without actually playing it, I don't see the point in really discussing the best possible party for a "good score" since as long as you have a sorcerer you have the best party.

I'd though cheesing and "unless you meta game" would be mutually exclusive. That I agree with.

No monster in MM6 can only be damaged by fire. Oozes (I assume this is what you mean by slime) have the same resistance to fire and cold).

I agree that inferno is a cool spell.

What's an example of meta gaming? Thanks.

Why did you come here then?

well I guess its all about where you draw the line, personally I'd consider keeping your level purposefully low in a rpg "metagaming" or cheesing as well but difference of opinion I guess.

Sorry I'm late, pretty much it but it can be refined a lot. A good example is the "expert playthrough" on yt except he wastes a lot of time and energy in places he doesn't need to. At some point, you will be able to have one character cast reanimate and the other instakill with shrapmetal so most of the clicking is between runs is just Lloyd's Beacon and healing. To begin with you wouldn't be able to have one char reanimate and the other kill due to not being able to insta kill and the fact reanimate and shrapmetal has vastly different spell point requirements. With my old route (the one I posted here) you will start at a relatively low level.which you will be confined by amounts of mana.
Note you will obvs be using the +30 lvl well boost and +256 (iirc) all stats boost from nwc to boost mana.

the new route you'll have 2 guiniveres, you'll do energy drakes every 6 months or so and then use excess gold into exp for one char to make the killing easier when you begin.

also, you might want to consider recovery time, iirc I think I tend to end up having boots of recovery or something like that on the one casting shrapmetal.

It's a slow start but speeds up, eventually you'll be able to have level 60 master learning, with hirelings to boost that. I also have a spell master because even if I can reanimate without it it will boost magic levels enough to make insta killing more likely at low levels.
I second this, fire has meteor shower which kills a lot of things easily including titans. Starburst is also an option from air on enemies immune to fire like on hydras. But regardless the utility of water master trumps all so I only switch to fire for offense (besides meteor shower) waaay after I master water.

I play in a unique way where my party is level 300+ for most of the game so spell points is a less of a concern. So I mainly use shrapmetal for a lot of things.
You'll be suprised with how early you can get dark master, and how much you can boost your stats (12 dark magic can be boosted to 30 via items+spell master) so day of protection makes fireball as dangerous as fluffy kitten. I use it quite early in Corlagons estate (forgive my spelling, idk if I spelled that correctly) to kill rooms of enemies in a more mana efficient way that inferno.

"hidded perk of Lloyd's beacon": The fact you can set a beacon at the day of the gods shrine in nwc and one at the +30 lvl well in Kriegspire means you can boost yourself up like crazy before going into battle. Hence why devils outpost is doable with a level 4 party. (normally I am level 6 though when I do it)