[AreaOfEffect]

Yeah, I think I was going to respond to this thread a while back and forgot. If your attempting to cast a spell that uses gems that requires a communion as well as a boost from additional gems, the casting will often fail. This is especially true of mages that originally only have 1 or 2 skill in the path being used.

This would also explain why Fire Elementals get summoned while Flaming Arrows remains uncast as summoning an elemental requires much less magical skill, hence perhaps no boost is needed.

For this reason I suggest you always try to use Pheonix Power over a communion with a F2 mage (additional gem for boost). In the case of a F1 with astral, either communion with 8 slaves or with 2 slaves while using Pheonix Power and an extra gem. Only use 4 mages if your trying to cut out the use of an extra gem.