What's up with Ice magic.

When i see ice magic and fire magic i think of 2 skills that should be on par in a lot of things but as time goes on ice magic is soo behind fire that's not funny anymore. One of many things... i've seen people using a shield/ beaker with battle chemistry/ fire and i got curious how it was possible and since i was using a staff/ flask to play battle chemistry/ ice. So i got myself a shield and guess what i can activate fire skill with a beaker but can't activate ice magic, wtf kinda sick joke is this i feel like a lot of time was dedicated to the fire skill development but maybe not ice magic. I just would like to know why fire m. works with a main hand beaker but ice m. doesn't @Citan , thanks.

Fire magic has been in development years more than ice magic. I'm not sure about the balance issue, I certainly prefer ice magic more than fire magic.

Spoiler:

I'm assuming you are using a Tricky Sage Beaker, i think it should be the only beaker that allows fire magic use as well so far. It is one of the only pieces (if not the only) piece of equipment that doesn't carry both a firestaff tag and a icestaff tag. Is this intentional or an oversight not sure.

I was fairly impressed with ice magic,in both a single target and aoe focused build, as far as damage is concerned. Talking geared out in level 70 stuff,using coldrend potions and enhancing the cold damage on my armor but even unmodded there was a respectable amount of versatility there with the root/mez/cryogenic freeze.

The fire magic enabling beaker-staff not enabling ice magic is an issue yes,but running bc/ice magic with flask is absolutely an option. Honestly the ~90 armor wasn't gonna save you if the two roots/mez/cryogenic freeze/healing mist/golem etc won't.
If you aren't hearing strains of Yakkity Sax everytime you get into combat in an aoe build that relies on roots something is wrong there,suffice to say the armor ain't the issue in my opinion.

Granted this is coming from a guy wearing hot pants for the damage so take that last bit with a grain of salt

The wiki needs to be updated as well for Ice magic - it only goes upto 65 spells - it does not say what is needed for lvl 70 spells

Recipe for level 70 Ice magic

Spoiler:

Tundra Lichen x2
Frost Nib x2
Glowy Yellow Crystal x4

Thanks Shield, any vendor selling glowy yellows currently?

I saw on vendor someone selling Coated Glowing yellow crystal - can the coated ones be used to learn ice magic 65 and 70 spells or does it specifically have to be Glowing Yellow Crystal (Non coated)?

Coated Glowing yellow crystal are easily cleaned to become regular Glowing yellow crystal. One of the option for Coated Glowing yellow crystal is to clean them which turns them into the regular kind.

Is that easy to do? Do I need any prerequisite- I could nit find anything on the wiki.

pretty sure it is as easy as drinking water.