[sushiboat]

I voted for Death magic. (For Blood nations, however, Blood might be better.) If you could use only one path, Death would be a good choice: lifedrain weapons, excellent summoning (including some of the most cost-efficient SCs), fear spells and items, and devastating global enchantments.

Overall, the paths are amazingly well balanced. Each path has at least a few things that are highly desireable. As some past topics have said, Water seems to be weak, with Quickness as the only "thing you almost must have."