[Liadran]

Hurricane is a good spell for hurting enemy economy, but the problem is that it's just one spell. So it just takes Air gems. Death and Earth both can inflict similar results, which covers 3 different gems. That's why you have more gems in overall to use. Also in the situation when that one gem is not to be found well you still have 2 other choices to go with.

About research High Seraph has 8 research points. Two Harab Seraphs have 10 research points together (and cost only 5 gold more). If you take positive magic scale (quite usual with Caelum) you get double the benefit. Also experience counts for double. With Magic scale +3 (and no experience) High Seraph has 11 points and 2 Harab Seraphs have 16 research points. A difference of 2-5 (without experience) is quite an important difference as it's only for 175 to 180 gold. Multiply that with other reserachers and the difference is very huge. (Base Caelum with Seraphs can do the same with 200 gold) But as said they're later use is not that good as with High Seraphs (being the best mages in game).

In this thread it was said before that Raptors have a more narrow choices for valiable pretender. It's very important to make sure that you have a pretender that has at least 2 in earth. Othervise you are giving up much strenght in earth. That can also be made with base Caelum, but in average you have 3 mages having an earth pick when you have 24 mages. And you can't count on getting those when you need them. And Ironskin is for not much use in initial expansion (also as you said Alt3 is too high early), Alt2 is enough and that you can get very quickly when you prepare your armies (and possibly your pretender). You don't need the armor for your mages early, hurting them is more important.

I wouldn't go with a Dominion of 5 or lower. At least 6 must be taken (depends on pretender choice). The problem is that you don't have Seraphim pushing your cold dominion and can't have Heart of Winter. Scales of +3 don't come that fast and that's why your borders propably don't have it. Even with a very high dominion it's hard to manage.

I'm not saying that Air 3 is not effective. It's awesomely effective in all it's variability. Lightning Strike is almost as good without 50% res or with it. And having mages ready everywhere with air gems is not good. Never ever try to do that with any race, not a good idea. I'm saying that troop placements, unit choices and etc... are easier to make against a certain overused threat than a variable threat. Relying too much on one thing has the problem of guessability and with it defences. Mostly the effect of this comes in huge battles, which are quite an important decisive factor in many wars. That little edge just might be enough.

I like RotR very much, but propably I like the base Caelum more. It's true that many minor (and major) points have been taken away, but there are replacements. You just have to look for them. Raptors are definitely much harder to play than base Caelum and needs lot's of thinking. But the strengts are there. Where does they lose their versatility in your opinion Zen?