Best single-target DPS provided you use the right rune and passives.
Easy to keep on a single target because the game "snaps" it to the mob closest to the cursor, meaning you can easily maintain the beam on moving targets.
Cons:
Lack of pierce means you often run into the problem of "living meat-shields" where a less significant mob obstructs your ability to quickly bring down more important targets (like Fallen Shamans).
As it stands, the slow is virtually negligible on Inferno elites (the only thing that a single-target snare is useful for). This will remain the case until Blizzard addresses snare skills the same way they are addressing CC's in patch 1.05.
Disintigrate
Pros:
Pierce makes the skill an excellent AoE. With every additional enemy in the same line you are dealing more net damage.
Pierce also lets you bypass the "living meat-shield" problem by both hitting the juicy mob and all the lesser drab in front of it.
The popular Chaos Nexus rune scales with the number of enemies in close proximity. The more targets there are to hit, the more beams will erupt from you. This is very useful with procs and the Temporal Flux passive (should it ever be buffed to be useful, that is)
Cons:
Low base damage when compared to Ray of Frost and other competitors like Arcane Orb and Arcane Torrent. You feel the deficit when you use it on a single target.
Unlike Ray of Frost, the beam from Disintegrate does not lock on a single target, meaning keeping it on a moving target is tricky.
Both
Pros:
Instantaneous - there is zero delay between the beginning of the animation and the damage being delivered to your intended target.
Non-projectile. Some enemies (like Dune Dervishes and Elites with the Missle Damping affix) make projectile spells hard to use. Beam spells are non-projectile and therefore bypass their special tricks.
Flexibility - you can stand still and maintain the same beam, or you can fire it in short bursts. This lets you adapt to the type of enemy you're facing.
Both spells benefit tremendously from the Prism rune on Diamond Skin.
Cons:
They force you to stand still. What more need I say?
Increased Attack Speed is not a benefit, it's a detriment, because it increases AP cost. Only way to compensate this is APoC with a high crit. chance.
Limited Range - most projectile spells keep going even when they're off the screen, meaning you can even hit targets that you can't see. Not the case for beams. You need to be at a certain proximity to be able to use them.
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Ray of Frost
Pros:
Disintigrate
Pros:
Both
Pros: