Well, Larian's design has either directly or indirectly nerfed the vast majority of controlling/damaging effects in the game. Difficult terrain is meaningless, even eight strength Gale can jump right out of the area of effect, not to mention many spell areas have been reduced in size. A number of your area effects are now flammable, and can amount to just a piddly amount of fire damage in many cases. Enemy HP has been buffed and your damage dice are still the same. Enemies can remove the effects of spells via a bonus action shove. It's pretty hilarious really. I'd say they have systematically made spells worse, except for the wet plus lightning/cold buff.
So, if you like battlefield control, or even dealing damage outside of wet lightning/cold combo, you're out of luck. Larianized D&D focuses on hopping around the battlefield, shoving, and smacking things with a greatsword. A good spell is one that allows you to do this better.
