Air mana a better alternative to fire?

[Cuteunit]

Or rather, are there any alternatives to fire if you want a mage that can kill things? Air only seems at all worthwhile if you take it to Archmage level, which is clearly limited. Fireballs come (relatively) quick and they're extremely effective.


Why not an attack spell for Air mana before AirIII? Lightning bolt! Lightning Bolt! *throws ping pong balls*

 

[jan030]

As a conjurer you can conjure a lighting elemental wich does damage to an enemy unit. Not as effective as a fireball because a fb does collaterale damage and a lihgting elemental doesnt. Its more like a sandlion or chaosmarauder etc. So dont do mages only. also look at the conjurer path!!

 

[onedreamer]

The Wirlwind spell is quite powerful IMO... all units in the game can do damage, having yet another unit that can do it is a bit redundant IMHO. I like much more the support role for Mages.

 

[it-ogo]

Wirlwind is very useful when you need to push enemy stack from the forest hill or push a slow enemy stack from your city - much more useful, then one fireball. But 10 wirlwinds are not much more useful then one while 10 fireballs are 10 times more powerful then one. Fireball is too universal, too general.

 

[onedreamer]

the fact that 1 wirlwind can achieve what 10 fireballs can do (get rid of a stack, even if just for a turn), makes it more powerful at my eyes, than otherwise. The other 9 units you can support instead of mages can do a MUCH better job than 9 Fireballs, and be rewarded by fireballs for that.

 

[Kalimakhus]

It is not a matter of either or. Unless of course you are short on mana. Having one mage with whirlwind and another two or more with fireballs means that you can first push the stack away one tile, then harass them with fireballs (they are 2 movement you know). Now if you have horses or hunters you can just finish the job in the same turn. The nice thing here is that units in the stack can't retaliate in the next turn.

 

[Cuteunit]

fireballs ignore all terrain costs, cause collateral damage, can bombard, and are stronger than most summons are ( why are all summons so impossibly bad?)

They're not overpowered, but there aren't other equally good options. Fireball makes great defense too thanks to the range and collateral. Universal power.

 

[Shakiko]

Summons are that "Bad" when compared to normal units because you get an unlimited supply of them, not needing any production time or upkeep costs.

Imho even the Channeling 2 Summons are really great to weaken any stack/city before you attack in with your real troops (at least until the midgame)


Would be great to have another set of summons between the "early game summons" (Conjurer, 4-5 Str) and the "endgame summons" (10-13 str) though

 

[Cuteunit]

fireballs are 0 +6 fire.

better than any summon.

 

[galahadba]

I don't think that there must be an alternative to fire mana, fire mana is the direct damage mana, other manas have others caracteristics, as the nature being the terraforming one, etc... to get another manda do to direct damage is to have a duplicated mana type , will have diferent graphics, diferent name, but same result (direct damage)... if you want direct damage, just build a fire mana nod and be happy.

 

[galahadba]

fireballs are 0 +6 fire.

better than any summon.

Well i found the death summons very good, i don't remember exactly the strength of then, but i do remember that they have enervation and are very strong (to not count afinity)....

 

[Moon Hunter]

fireballs are 0 +6 fire.

better than any summon.

They are 0+4fire.
You confuse them with meteors...

 

[zxcvbnm]

Well i found the death summons very good, i don't remember exactly the strength of then, but i do remember that they have enervation and are very strong (to not count afinity)....

In my games they always kill the riders, who should be strong against death

 

[Roghar]

If you plan on building a stack of mages to go out and win a war for you, fire will always be best. It has huge synergy with increased numbers - not only as direct damage can you cast the fire spells mulitple times, but as collateral damage dealers they come into their own when there are lots of them

 

[BCalchet]

One solid alternative for offensive mages is death, where you can use the sorcery spell to weaken the defenders, then send in stacks of disposable skeletons to wipe them out.

Conjurers, on the other hand, can do quite nicely with most elements that offer summoning spells. I still prefer death, only because they can go straight for escape, combat and spell extension rather than stop by death for skeletons, but the power of summons is more in their disposability than their strength.

Death also has the unique possibility of offensive adepts - where others will sit around in cities waiting to be promoted, a death adept can come along with your stacks to summon skeletons when the real casters are busy with other spells.

 

[onedreamer]

fireballs are 0 +6 fire.

better than any summon.

you probably didn't try Chaos summoning line.

 

[kumquatelvis]

This thread to so odd compared to my play style. Most games I hunger for body mana (haste is awesome, regen allows healing while moving), followed by builder friendly mana (spirit, mind, law, etc...). If I ever feel the need for offensive spells I get religion (go ring of flames).

 

[Ecofarm]

you probably didn't try Chaos summoning line.

Pit beasts are nice. They get promotions and stay an extra turn if they get a kill. On the other hand, chaos marauders suck (str4, move1, can turn against you... yawn). My experience with them comes via: Keelyn, Bals, writing\festivals\mystic\hunting\Honor\Hidden\Commune: Druids + Summoner Trait with Chaos, Mind, and Nature mana.

When tactically employable (I mean, you can get your target onto a desert tile via whirlwind or a limited approach lane) Sun pwns all.

In general, Law is prob the best. But this is a tangent discussion.


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Pit beasts do not compare to meteors and tier 2 summons do not compare to fireballs - especially without the summoning trait. Besides, getting a Summoner (tier 3, as opposed to conjurer tier 2) requires more beakers than Strength of Will. Costs more, rocks less. At least Summoning (the tech) costs about the same as sorcery. Costs same, rocks less.

IMHO, nothing compares to the overall usefullness and unstoppability of fire. And I'm a guy who uses pit beasts, domination, and taskmasters to take cities because using fire is simply below me

 

[MalkutX]

I have a newbie question about all this: how do you choose between summoning and sorcery? Is it just which one you research first, or is there more to it? Can you have both?

 

[xienwolf]

study the tech "Sorcery" for mages (sorcery)

Study "summoning" for conjurers (summoning)

When an adept hits level 4, if you have the needed tech, you get the option to promote to mage or conjurer. Hence per unit it is one or the other.