Re: Astral magic seems overpowered
 

:P Tell that to my dead golems.

Re: Astral magic seems overpowered
 

Frost Brand may be the worst brand, but that still leaves it as one of the better weapons. And if you're fighting Abysia, it's far better than a Fire Brand.

It's all situational.

Re: Astral magic seems overpowered
 

FR might be more likely then CR, due to so many items that are popular on SCs giving FR. Also, there are generally other uses for E gems, so Frost Brand makes a great alternative (unless you are going to be fighting hordes of undead.)

My personal fave, actually, is Demon Whip. As long as you don't encounter FR, you're good to go, and it is only Const 2 and 5 F gems. By far the most economical SC/thug weapon.

Re: Astral magic seems overpowered
 

Frost brand is better than shadow brand.
Bottle water is ok for assassins.

Water also has tidal wave (vastly underrated), wolven winter, and murderous winter.

Water also dovetails extremely well with water nations. So for example, your cold scales will not affect you (underwater) and can be devestating to heat loving nations. Your summons (winter wolves) are pretty reasonable.

Water has an excellent site searching spell (voice of tiamat). I was against the change that required it to be your province.

Frozen heart, encased in ice, prison of Sedna are all excellent spells. Water is a well rounded school having good construction items, good anti SC, good site searching.

Falling frost is devestating in the hands of someone that knows how to use it... and there are others.

Demon whip is only Con2 in CMB and then only 1.5 or later iirc.

Re: Astral magic seems overpowered
 

One of Water's greatest strengths though is how effectively it lets you bootstrap into Death and Nature through Streams of Hades and Contact Naiad. With how crucial either of those paths are for winning strategies nations with water magic have a decent advantage right there.

What Water lacks is strong globals and rituals, but no single path can have everything (except Death, or Astral, I guess).

Re: Astral magic seems overpowered
 

Wow, so they finally took away clams?:shock: this is news to me

Re: Astral magic seems overpowered
 

Au contraire. Water bottles can be very useful against teleporting SCs (high def high strength units with immunity against awe and blindness and I think life drain and multiple forms), or combined with cold to make them tramplers.

Re: Astral magic seems overpowered
 

CBM 1.6. Made all gem-producers unique (including bloodstone, but we'll probably see a substitute earth booster next version).

Re: Astral magic seems overpowered
 

Sounds a bit like the Holy War mod to me...

Re: Astral magic seems overpowered
 

So it's only a mod then