[alhorro]

Vampire lord is also a best prophet possible — after prophetizing he turns from just a thug/support mage into a great SC.

There are easy ways to counter vampires though. Evo and anti-undead mages surrounded by chaff have great chances to destroy the entire pack in one turn even in darkness, not to mention that getting a dv mage is not harder, than getting a VL. VL has low MR and could be easily mindhunted, and without gear he can't survive a single earth attack — so sending a "queen" without decent backup means a certain decapitation of your pack. As for SCs — any SC with the vine shield and enough hp/def/prot/luck to survive the first round of swarm attack, easily sends them all to torpor.

Vampires are handy of course, but the best application of them — defensive anti-sc VLs with flambergs/demon banes/etc and immortal chaff to protect your mages from flyers.