If you are looking for instantaneous damage, those are among the best. Scorching Ray has the best single-target damage potential (average 21), Shatter will do more overall damage if you can hit multiple enemies with it (average 13.5 each).
Another spell that you might want to look at is Dragon's Breath. It is cast as a bonus action, lasts for 10 rounds, and lets you use your action each round for the duration dealing 3d6 elemental damage (9.5 average) to enemies in a 15' cone. In a longer encounter, it might not do as much burst damage, but it can be very efficient damage for a 2nd level spell slot since you can repeat the move multiple times for the cost of a single spell slot.
Is it down to Shatter versus Scorching Ray.
I supposed Shatter if the target AC is too high
Am I missing something or is that it for the best damage?
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If you are looking for instantaneous damage, those are among the best. Scorching Ray has the best single-target damage potential (average 21), Shatter will do more overall damage if you can hit multiple enemies with it (average 13.5 each).
Another spell that you might want to look at is Dragon's Breath. It is cast as a bonus action, lasts for 10 rounds, and lets you use your action each round for the duration dealing 3d6 elemental damage (9.5 average) to enemies in a 15' cone. In a longer encounter, it might not do as much burst damage, but it can be very efficient damage for a 2nd level spell slot since you can repeat the move multiple times for the cost of a single spell slot.