Defensive magic

[Itherael]

I have been playing around recently with races focused in the arcane.

Wanting to try to build the perfect city defense caster and wondered what your opinions were... so pick your top three mana types for defensive casters and discuss

1. Enchantment -
Enchanted blade: A great early buff as well as countering rust magic.
Flaming arrows: Speaks for itself, archers are popular in almost everyones defence and adding fire damage to that is great.
Spellstaff Allows two casts in one turn. Great utility and always comes in handy when your back is to the wall.

2. Mind -
Inspiration: Simply awesome, a supreme help to any city that wants to prosper.
Charm: Outstanding for when a sneak attack comes your way, hold your enemy at bay with charm and prevent them from launching an assault until your reinforcements arrive.
Domination: Throw your enemy by taking their units before the fight.

3. Entropy -
Rust: Congratulations, you have just disarmed a decent portion of the enemy stack (providing he doesnt have an enchanted blade casting mage in the stack.)
Summon Pit Beast: Filler spell, but providing you get it early it can provide a good defence to a growing city caught offguard.
Wither: Bam! Thats the sound of your attackers being whittled down with death magic while the now rusted weapons they brought along ping off your enchanted archers.

The above are my three favourite defensive mana types. I am aware that many others are almost as good if not better in ways I have not yet been able to test.

Whats your favourite and why?

 

[cyther]

I'm going with Earth:

Wall of Stone: +25% city defense as long as caster in in the city.

Stoneskin: +3 First Strikes, +50% resistance to most types of damage

Earth Elementals: The strongest elemental in base strength and it has an affinity for Earth Mana

 

[Itherael]

Does the stoneskin apply to all units in the stack? That would be ace.

 

[Emptiness]

No, it only applies to the caster, but it's very useful against a lone assassin. Of course, if stacks of assassins come then you'd better kill them before they reach your caster.

 

[far_wanderer]

In addition to what's been mentioned, I'm a big fan of Death magic - disposable warrior-equivalents at level one, and then at level two having Fear on Spectres can come in quite handy.
I also really like Water Elementals for defense. Their splitting ability means that even if they stand no chance at all of winning a single summon will still stop three separate attacks (7 if you've built the Tower of Elements).

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Water
Water walking is really good for keeping the caster safe, as it can hide out in an unassailable lake.
Water Elementals are certainly the best defensive summon against stacks, because of their splitting.


Sun.
Blinding Light is quite useful at keeping enemy units from attacking, holding them in place for spells like Ring of Fire to weaken them and your other units to kill them. It is better than Charm, as the units unable to attack can't even run away.

In my version, Aureales are quite useful because then target unitcombat_recon, unitclass_marksman, unitclass_assassin, unitclass_shadow, unitclass_rathaus, and unitclass_alazkan units in stacks of stronger units (the way Balista elephants target mounted units in BtS; it won't target them in cities, but in the field or when defending your cities is is quite useful). That lets you stop these enemy units before they have a chance to take out your physically weak casters.

Law
in my version, Einherjar start with Guardsman and Valor. They are more likely to defend, and they get stronger and last longer the more they do.

Valor is probably better when defending, as defending doesn't normally give as much xp so a +1 per battle is more worthwhile here. (I'm not a big fan of this as a level 3 spell, so in my version it is law I, which makes it much better for defending.)



Earth.
In my version, Wall of Stone doesn't make a building, but a temporary fort-like improvement. That doesn't really change how good it is for defending cities, but makes it better for defending other tiles.

Entropy
In my version Rust isn't as powerful (it won't work against mithril), but Entropy as a whole is better. I gave Pit Beasts Cannibalize, which makes them quite useful against large groups of weak units. Enervation (I prefer going back to the name of the old entropy III spell that was merged with the then entropy I spell wither) has its normal effects, plus it removes Valor, Courage, and Blessed. Combining this with a demonic or undead defender with the Fear promotion, and you are almost unassailable.

Death
I don't care for Skeletons, but Spactres' fear is good at stopping attacks and Wraiths' Vile touch makes you not want to attack. However, a defense that be completely wiped out by a couple castings of Life II: Destroy Undead isn't ideal.

 

[heisenberg]

Spirit is another one with decent buffs, not really "defensive" for that matter, but nice to have on adepts/mages sitting around doing nothing in cities.

Spirit I: Courage (additional heal/turn is always nice)
Spirit II: Hope (free happy+culture, nice in new cities)