Best Mana Type?

[solanacea]

How would you rank mana types from best to have to most useless, disregarding whichever civ you play?

My favorites: Air, Body, Earth, Fire
Useful: Mind, Ice, Enchantment, Life
In between: all others
Least useful: Sun, Water, Metamagic

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Top tier:
Water
Enchantment
Entropy
(Ice, when you can possibly get it)

High tier:
Fire
Body
Mind

Mid tier:
Law
Life
Metamagic
Air
Spirit

Low tier:
Earth
Nature (usually I end up neutral which makes this bottom tier since druids totally obsolete nature for arcane units. For good or evil civs, nature is decent. Averages out to low.)
Sun

Bottom tier:
Shadow
Chaos
Death

Note that I'm rather biased against stockpiling single mana types, so I rate earth pretty low and death really low. If you're willing to hoard, those manas aren't quite as pointless.

Necromancy has one of the top spheres + the 3 worst ones. Interesting.

 

[Avahz Darkwood]

Top tier:
Water
...
Note that I'm rather biased against stockpiling single mana types, so I rate earth pretty low and death really low. If you're willing to hoard, those manas aren't quite as pointless.

Necromancy has one of the top spheres + the 3 worst ones. Interesting.

I would be interested in why water is on the top of your list as it tends to the bottem of mine.

My # 1 would be Mind for domination

My #2 would be Air for maelstrom and air elementals (with their lightning elementals)

#3 Enchantment
#4 Fire for fireball
#5 Spirit for Courage and Trust.
#6 Death for Lich and its summons

(law would have been high if loyalty still did something)

I tend not to be a hoarder unless I am elves with FOL so my Yvain can work the front lines.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

I base my city placements on the best ~5 to ~10 tiles in the BFC, typically, and that means I tend not to avoid deserts in them if there are good tiles near the deserts. So spring is a godsend for me. Once my cities grow big I need it to let the desert cities work every tile, or at least as close to it as I can manage (can't do anything about those peaks).

The summon is good for allowing you to neglect a lategame defensive navy, and it's no slouch in land combat, at least against singular tough enemies like dragons. (Against stacks of fodder it's pretty rotten, though, as the split off elementals show up less often and have this tendency not to do much worthwhile if they do appear... weakening ars moriendi is useful, weakening 2 of 20 rangers is not.)

Can't defend water walking but a great adept spell is worth a ton to me (all of my top spheres have one), and the archmage spell being good pushes it to the top.

Edited spirit into my mid tier. Courage is really erratic in terms of usefulness (can range from amazing to worthless depending on your opponents), hope is trash, trust is nice but not godly.

 

[Smakemupagus]

Hmm, mostly agree with you on the top tier, mine would be

either fire / air for battlemages
enchant
body

Most of the schools I've come across some situation where I find them useful, so it's hard for me to rank the whole set.

Only one i really disagree is that you put water in the bottom.. i get asap if I am on desert (spring) and like it on archipelago (ww & elemental); and I like that the rank 3 is ok for an archmage who has 2 spell schools. water elementals are arguably more useful when they are weak than when they are maxed out, due to the 'split when they die' mechanic. I like the utility of metamagic too, it wouldn't be in my bottom tier.

Well, Sun is also near the bottom for me. scorch and blinding light seem like they would be good multiplayer spells, though.

 

[jwin]

My number one is death by far. I find it interesting that it is so far down on other lists.

Put a new adept in a frontier city. If needed, he can summon skeletons to defend it.

Spectres and wraiths are very good summons. Specters have 2 movement, which is nice while attacking, and can also pillage. With death affinity, wraiths can be very powerful.

Also, with lich, you double your archmages.


After death, I like to have one more combat sphere, either fire or air. Then I like to rotate through to have a few mages have some of the other random, but very useful situational, promotions.

 

[Randomness]

Death defenetly at the top for me. I play FF mostly now so I play Scions and hord death mana and dominate... If you have no idea what I am talking about, click the Fall Further link at the top of FfH form and download...

 

[DarkxL0rd]

death: for double archmages and strong fodder
water: for the springs
air and fire: for the shoosting
nature: for +1 strength on recons and vitalizing my land.(there's just something about have grassland filling my entire realm) also never underestimate an instant 25% defense increase on treetop defense. no other buff has that high of increase.

all the others i find are decent in limited situations

 

[Thunder_Gr]

for first level spells:
Death
Body
Enchantment
Shadow
Mind
Spirit

For second level spells
Air - Fire
Death
Shadow
Enchantment
Sun - Mind
Metamagic
Law
Spirit

For third level spells
Death
Fire - Earth
Water
Law
Air
Life

The mana types are counted for arcane units. Disciple units( and Druids) need no mana types, so they are irrelevant to them.

 

[Inkling]

My number one is death by far. I find it interesting that it is so far down on other lists.

Put a new adept in a frontier city. If needed, he can summon skeletons to defend it.

Spectres and wraiths are very good summons. Specters have 2 movement, which is nice while attacking, and can also pillage. With death affinity, wraiths can be very powerful.

Also, with lich, you double your archmages.

**snip**

I never realized how many things had death immunity until i built an army of mages with death magic. The affinity bonus is nice, unfortunately you run into the shiam, the luchirp, elementals, etc, and it all goes away, suddenly your summons are are nothing more than an XP farm for your enemies.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

I never realized how many things had death immunity until i built an army of mages with death magic. The affinity bonus is nice, unfortunately you run into the shiam, the luchirp, elementals, etc, and it all goes away, suddenly your summons are are nothing more than an XP farm for your enemies.

Death immunity counts only against death damage. Your summons still have their physical damage available. And skeletons do not get death mana affinity. They are pure, undead, killing machines. And permanent, too. Why waste 10 warriors to soften the enemy? Use 10 skeletons instead. They cost nothing to build.

 

[Ashdrake]

death mana by all means,
6 death mana and your wraiths have 9-10 str with 4 movement if you invested in summoners mobility promotion. Vamps + Death 2 + 5+ Death Nodes = PWN!

 

[Methuselah]

Ice.

Nothing says fun like Snowfall.

Mind a close second.

 

[Inkling]

Death immunity counts only against death damage. Your summons still have their physical damage available. And skeletons do not get death mana affinity. They are pure, undead, killing machines. And permanent, too. Why waste 10 warriors to soften the enemy? Use 10 skeletons instead. They cost nothing to build.

Skeletons may not have affinity, but they do have death damage. Minus their death damage/affinity. a skeleton has a 2 strength, a Spectre 3. The best you can hope for is empowerment for probably a max of 30 percent strength, realisticly 10-20. So on average you have a 2.4 and a 3.6 unit. No weapon promotions. And even though they are summons, they still take maintenance.

So the real question is why waste 10 skeletons OR 10 warriors to soften an enemy when 10 fireballs will generally do the job better, weakening the stack, and definitely cheaper.

 

[Grey Fox]

My Favorite spheres:

Earth

Wall of Stone - Nice in MP when on defense.
Stoneskin - Oh your knife broke on entry? Too bad little assassin. Also good vs mages. (Resistance galore!)
Earth Elementals - OMG!!! I've only had a small taste of these and only in their Illusionary form. But omg. With 4 earth manas they have 15 str! With one Gibbon and Spellstaff I could pull out 4 of these at once at times.

​

Enchantment

Happiness + 3 decent spells. Is awesome on Hero Archmages. Gives archers that extra edge. And I'm a fan of archers.

​

Chaos

Wonder! - ok I haven't used this in a while but was awesome when I used it.
​

Fire and Air

You don't use archmages a lot of the time, and these spells have the direct damage spells for mages. Very good with many mages.


​

I also kinda like spiritual, mind for making city booster mages. Body for haste, etc. I have never really tried Ice mana (only for a short bit in SP with illians). Shadow summons can be useful for pillaging while at peace, and the promotions the two first tiers give arnt half bad.

 

[jwin]

So the real question is why waste 10 skeletons OR 10 warriors to soften an enemy when 10 fireballs will generally do the job better, weakening the stack, and definitely cheaper.

Because skeletons are an adept level spell, not a mage.

Also, you start summoning the skeletons as you approach the enemy to get a bunch of them. Then, when you are ready to attack, you can use fireballs or maelstorm and follow up with the army of skeletons. So, they are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are complementary.

 

[someone67]

Because skeletons are an adept level spell, not a mage.

Also, you start summoning the skeletons as you approach the enemy to get a bunch of them. Then, when you are ready to attack, you can use fireballs or maelstorm and follow up with the army of skeletons. So, they are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are complementary.

And combined with enchantment...

My favorite spell spheres

Fire for softening stacks, setting fires and the nice synergie with Brigit

Mind for an early science boost and domination

Sun Ever played Amurites with Empyrion?

Body Regeneration Mages

Spirit Hope realy helps to achieve domination victories

 

[Inkling]

Because skeletons are an adept level spell, not a mage.

Also, you start summoning the skeletons as you approach the enemy to get a bunch of them. Then, when you are ready to attack, you can use fireballs or maelstorm and follow up with the army of skeletons. So, they are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are complementary.

But they are mutually exclusive in the sense that you have a slowly acquired number of promotions and a generally very finite amount of mana nodes to divy up amongst the spheres.

I'm not arguing here, just answering a perceived question. you said " I find it interesting that it is so far down on other lists"-Thats because with immunities, diplomatic penalties, slow xp gain, limited mana nodes, etc. etc. death really isn't that great of an option in many peoples oppinions.

After an army of skeletons leeches away your savings and then barely scratches the pyre zombies they were sent to soften, you start thinking those promotions and nodes would have been better spent elsewhere,

To each their own though.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

Skeletons may not have affinity, but they do have death damage. Minus their death damage/affinity. a skeleton has a 2 strength, a Spectre 3. The best you can hope for is empowerment for probably a max of 30 percent strength, realisticly 10-20. So on average you have a 2.4 and a 3.6 unit. No weapon promotions. And even though they are summons, they still take maintenance.

So the real question is why waste 10 skeletons OR 10 warriors to soften an enemy when 10 fireballs will generally do the job better, weakening the stack, and definitely cheaper.

Because a fireball is a second level spell, while a skeleton a first level one
And Govannon can only teach first level spells.
And, I may not have access to fire mana.
And, fireballs are not permanent, thus they cannot defend cities.
And, I can't cast enchant weapon on a fireball,
And, believe me, I will not always fight against death immune targets

 

[PotatoOverdose]

My top picks (in no particular order)
Death-Lichdom and a summon at every level, with an affinity summon for tier II.

Chaos-Wonder, mutation. Wonder is great for covering any death-immunes. Mutation (now no longer gives crazed and enraged) is quite good to buff up the regular infantry.

Enchantment-Enchanted blade, twincast, and repair(if dwarven).

Ice-awesome when available.

More often than not, the above is my archmage setup.

Runners up:
Mind-only with balseraphs

air-only if I'm going for a religion without stack busting abilities, i.e. not oo, av, or empyrean. Usually I end up going for av or empy so I don't use air.

water-spring, water walking=immune to assasins, water elementals are just plain awesome. With affinity and the ability to split on death, they're just great. If they win, well you won didn't you? If they loose, and you have a few water nodes, you get two elementals that are almost as strong that can damage and attack again. What's not to love?