Best Mana Type?

[MaxAstro]

Top tier for me:

Death - One of the only spheres in the game that every spell in the sphere is useful. And, as mentioned before, a tier 2 affinity summon, which is amazing. Hoard death mana and your Mages can outperform other people's archmages. Even without mana hoarding, all of the summons have decent enough stats to be useful on their own.

Fire - Fireball is the best combat spell in the game, period. Totally makes up for the useless tier 1 spell.

Enchantment - Yet another sphere that every spell is useful. Spellstaves are almost as good as twincast, and even better when combined with twincast.

Body - Once again a full set of awesome spells. Haste has a multitude of uses, Regeneration can literally mean the difference between life and death for an army, and Flesh Golem is without a doubt my favorite summon. I was really sad when Illusions became unable to kill things, as previously one of my favorite strategies as the Calabim was to rush CoE for Gibbon Goetia and start feeding Vampires to my Flesh Golem for some rather crazy results (I believe you could even safely feed Losha Valas to a Flesh Golem a couple times).

Metamagic - Floating Eye means I don't need Hawks, and Dispel is one of the most useful spells in the game, period.

Nature - Don't get me wrong, I'd never give Nature to an Archmage, or even a Mage. However, I have had some serious fun as the Ljolsalfar turning every node I have into a nature node and rushing Yvain and Druids. Nothing says awesome like a strength 25+ unit that can double as a healer. ^_^ Plus Vitalize is an incredible spell if you are willing to devote the time and effort to it.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

Fire - Fireball is the best combat spell in the game, period. Totally makes up for the useless tier 1 spell.

Perhaps because it is the only targeted combat spell available to Arcane units out of two total available combat spells?

 

[cabbagemeister]

1) Death, no question. In my mind, it's the only sphere with a top-tier spell at every spell level.
1st level--the only adept-level summon in the game. Death adepts, rather than being in a support role like all other adepts, can actually be your main-line fighters.
2nd level--the only mage-level affinity summon in the game. Get enough death mana and you have 9-10 str disposable spectres roaming around when cities are defended by archers and axemen.
3rd level--the only xp-passback summon in the game. Do NOT underestimate how much xp a lich can get from constant wraith victories, especially with a lot of death affinity. My Sheaim liches usually end up with Combat 5, Spell Extension 2 very quickly.

2) Mind. Only two good spells, but they are really nice. I like Inspiration just because it encourages me to spam adepts, which I'm often too lazy to do otherwise. If you start with mind mana, this can be a really significant science boost at KotE.

3) Fire. The only collateral damage-granting summons.

4) Body. The best adept-level spell in the game, Haste gives my army the flexibility and speed to deal with anything. Regeneration removes the need for the March promotion, which is really nice for heroes who want to attack every turn. Its usefulness is vastly increased when you include a priest in your stack. Flesh golems are not strong (or at least, are a lot of trouble to make strong), but might be the most fun spell of all.

5) Enchantment. I'm actually not as big a spellstaff fan as many here, because in the heat of battle I rarely have turns when my archmages don't need to cast something. But the passive boost is obviously the best in the game.

Decent but not great:
Air (maelstrom is too tricky to use since it got nerfed to hit your own units and neutral units), Ice (too hard to get), Water (I like to go conquering in the midgame, and a weak mage-level spell is a turnoff for me), Law (everything about, even the passive boost, is okay but not fantastic), Chaos (maybe I just haven't played with it enough).

 

[MaxAstro]

Perhaps because it is the only targeted combat spell available to Arcane units out of two total available combat spells?

I consider summons to be combat spells, so not really.

And yes, I would rank Fireball as more useful than any of the tier 3 summons, because a) it does collateral, b) it can siege city walls, and c) You can spam it in massive numbers.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

I consider summons to be combat spells, so not really.

And yes, I would rank Fireball as more useful than any of the tier 3 summons, because a) it does collateral, b) it can siege city walls, and c) You can spam it in massive numbers.

Summons are combat spells? Weird. I always thought they are actually summons. There is a spell category called summons, if I am not mistaken, and another category called combat spells...

P.S. Sorry, it appears I am a lot into a sarcastic mood today...

 

[Neomega]

Meta, by far, is the best and most essential.

I guess I'll keep my reasoning to myself, but it *really* is the most useful, and produces the most powerful summon.

next is probably fire, because scorched staffs, and fireballs.

 

[Grey Fox]

Yeah meta is pretty good. Not sure I like the summon tho, and not sure I would call it the strongest one since it would require at least 8 additional mana sources, after counting the palace ones, to make it as strong as an Earth elemental with just one Earth mana. Though it has 2 moves as standard and the earth only 1. Also, the Earth Elemental has 11 physical strength. The Djinn only 1, the others are a various sort of elements that can be resisted. Tho maybe also increased by weaknesses.

 

[Neomega]

Yeah meta is pretty good. Not sure I like the summon tho, and not sure I would call it the strongest one since it would require at least 8 additional mana sources, after counting the palace ones, to make it as strong as an Earth elemental with just one Earth mana. Though it has 2 moves as standard and the earth only 1. Also, the Earth Elemental has 11 physical strength. The Djinn only 1, the others are a various sort of elements that can be resisted. Tho maybe also increased by weaknesses.

8 mana isn't much on a huge map. Esp if you have two vassals. Meta is just so flexible, and flexibility is key, esp to making powerful adepts, mages, and if you have enough nodes, archmages.

I micromanage, so that I switch nodes over before promoting to mage, so that I have at least 3 of one type, so the mage gets a free level 2 spell. 3 fire mana means a mage gets fireballs free, and that means more promotions for strength, which makes the fireballs very powerful, and makes your mages powerful fighters as well, which means big time promotional growth.

 

[Cliftor]

Well, I'm only in the middle of my first game so I haven't had a chance to actually try them all. However, I would DEFINITELY rate the ones I have used like this:

Fire - I love the collateral damage for softening stacks. Elementals to attack, Fireball to bombard. I haven't figured out what Smoke from Blaze does though.

Enchantment - Spellstaff, once I realized it was the tier three spell, is absolutely mandatory for my Archmages. An Archmage without it is a wasted National Unit

Body - Haste and Regeneration are invaluable.

Metamagic - I started off liking it more for the Eye, but the other spells didn't impress me. Djinn was a decent consolation for my one Archmage that got stuck with it, but I'd prefer Fire.

Earth - Earth Elemental moves only 1, Stone Wall is useless to me because I'm mostly on the offensive.

Nature - Oi, what a waste. I feel bad for my Wizards that have it.

I'm thinking of just dispelling all my nodes with Mana I dislike and remaking them all as Fire nodes.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

Enchantment - Spellstaff, once I realized it was the tier three spell, is absolutely mandatory for my Archmages. An Archmage without it is a wasted National Unit

Well, I usually prefer my Archmages to have combat V and Spell Extension II, since they end up being summoners, in order to have very strong summons. I do not think spellstaff to be such critical, especially if I am going to have to waste 3 valuable promotions to get it.

 

[popejubal]

My favorite is Metamagic just because it is so useful and so temporary. As soon as you have a mage (or two -in case one gets killed), you can use one of those mages to Dispel Magic the node and build whatever node you wanted in the first place.

It's pretty awesome.

Want some Mind magic for all of your adepts? Build a pair of mind nodes and then build your adepts. FREE MIND 1! Woot! Okay. Now, go back and delete those two mind nodes and replace them with whatever else you wanted to build and those adepts with free Mind 1 can take their starting promotions and get some other kind of magic.

I built Corindale and Gibbon Goeta last game and I had 3 metamagic nodes and 3 mind nodes when I built them. Each got Metamagic III and Mind III as their first 2 promotions and then started moving their way through the Combat promotions so that they had Dominate and Summon Djinn with 5 XP and Twincast and Combat V before they hit 100 XP. That's pretty important with Corindale since he isn't going to earn that many XP in face to face combat.

After I built Corindale and Gibbon Goeta, I went back and turned those nodes into things that were more useful to the rest of my arcane units.

 

[popejubal]

Nature - Oi, what a waste. I feel bad for my Wizards that have it.

I like Nature III to give my Archmagi something to do while I'm between wars. It's kind of neat to plop a city into the frozen tundra and have a massive production city in just a couple dozen turns with deer and beavers on a forest grassland (that used to be tundra).

I don't think that I'd spend all three promotions to get it, though. I'd only go for it if I could get a level or two for free with extra mana sources.

 

[Neomega]

also, nature is essential for adding poisoned blade to your recon units. For the sidar, it is a must-have, and usually the second node type I make, (after meta)

but... meta is the only one you can build, and then take down, ignore the rest of the game, but still be able to switch your nodes around. It is the ONLY must have type.

 

[GePap]

I like law- While their tier one spell has lost most of its usefulness, the trie two summons is a good warrior and valor is one of the best promotions out there for any unit, given how important getting higher level units is. Most important of all is the 5% lowering of maintenance, which is wonderful when you have a huge empire.

I also like enchantment for the unit boosting spells and the hapiness in cities, Water for Spring, Shadow for blur and shadow walking, and body for haste and regeneration.

In fact, a stack of melee units with body and shadow mages in tow can make quick work of enemy cities, as the stack and move at double speed, ignore city defenses and defensive strikes, then regenerate quickly from damages, and move on. If those melee units happen to have enchanted swords and are valiant, even better.

 

[Neomega]

I like law- While their tier one spell has lost most of its usefulness, the trie two summons is a good warrior and valor is one of the best promotions out there for any unit, given how important getting higher level units is. Most important of all is the 5% lowering of maintenance, which is wonderful when you have a huge empire.

I also like enchantment for the unit boosting spells and the hapiness in cities, Water for Spring, Shadow for blur and shadow walking, and body for haste and regeneration.

In fact, a stack of melee units with body and shadow mages in tow can make quick work of enemy cities, as the stack and move at double speed, ignore city defenses and defensive strikes, then regenerate quickly from damages, and move on. If those melee units happen to have enchanted swords and are valiant, even better.

Valient is good. I doubt the effectiveness of shadowwalking, however. It seems a lot of times, it isn't actually ignoring terrain defenses, esp when looking at the odds calculator.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

Valient is good. I doubt the effectiveness of shadowwalking, however. It seems a lot of times, it isn't actually ignoring terrain defenses, esp when looking at the odds calculator.

This is what I was thinking for some time. But in the end I am convinced that it works as advertised. The odds calculator may not show much difference sometimes, but this is due to the fact that shadowwalk does not ignore units promotions. So, hills on grassland or plains give +25%, but hills on desert give 0%. The hills defence promotion gives +40%. So, when attacking a unit on desert hill, it shows no difference.
In addition, shadowwalk is not good when attacking enemies on desert tiles. Because it then ignores the -25% for the desert , making actually harder for you to kill the enemy.

 

[Neomega]

This is what I was thinking for some time. But in the end I am convinced that it works as advertised. The odds calculator may not show much difference sometimes, but this is due to the fact that shadowwalk does not ignore units promotions. So, hills on grassland or plains give +25%, but hills on desert give %. The hills defence promotion gives +40%. So, when attacking a unit on desert hill, it shows no difference.
In addition, shadowwalk is not good when attacking enemies on desert tiles. Because it then ignores the -25% for the desert , making actually harder for you to kill the enemy.

I was wondering about that desert thing too.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Dimensional is probably my favorite sphere.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

Dimensional is probably my favorite sphere.

Sure, when you play FF

 

[Jabie]

Water: Spring is a great spell if you're a builder and serves double duty by keeping those fires out of your forest timber mills.

Fire: Fireballs help you knock down city walls and then soften up the troops inside.

Elementalism is usually my first pick for magic tech.