Two questions

[Gurthang]

Hi there, I am a newbye and would like to ask a couple questions:

First off, if there is any kind of guide to the use of blood magic. Its workings baffle me.

Secondly, I am playing two games, one as MA Marignon and one as LA Abysia. Yes, fire magic interests me. However, in both games I would like to gain an access to Air magic, without having a pretender gifted with any Air skill. Is there any way to accomplish it?

All help appeciated!

[Finalgenesis]

Conjuration lvl 8 Faerie queen, take 5 nature to cast and you get a 3 nature 3 air caster.

bloodhunting guide: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=33753

[Stagger Lee]

The wiki has a guide to boosting paths that are not native.

http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/User:..._booster_guide

Also, for MA Marignon, Harbingers are great thugs and A3 for 25 S pearls. Seraphs are A4 but expensive and late game. Grand Masters get A randoms.

[Knai]

Originally Posted by Stagger Lee

The wiki has a guide to boosting paths that are not native.

http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/User:..._booster_guide

Also, for MA Marignon, Harbingers are great thugs and A3 for 25 S pearls. Seraphs are A4 but expensive and late game. Grand Masters get A randoms.

Harbingers are incredibly useful to have around in any case, so you should probably always have a few around in the mid game. A few air boosters can get one up to A5 (you need a Ring of Wizardry to get them to A4 temporarily to give them booster making capacity), at which point you can summon a Queen of Elemental Air, pass over the boosters, and get up to A6 easily.

As LA Abysia, there are fewer options. Heavy site searching with, I believe, earth/astral mages can get random sites which let you hire mages that might have air.

Avoid empowerment like the plague. It is a terrible option in almost every case.

[Rick L]

For 50 air gems, you can empower anyone to have air magic.

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by Gurthang

Hi there, I am a newbye and would like to ask a couple questions:

Secondly, I am playing two games, one as MA Marignon and one as LA Abysia. Yes, fire magic interests me. However, in both games I would like to gain an access to Air magic, without having a pretender gifted with any Air skill. Is there any way to accomplish it?

Hi Gurthang. I regard myself as a newbie too, I've only been playing (SP) for about a year now!

The guys here know much more than I do, but if you are a newb and just not yet familiar with what happens, here is how I see the ways you can get an Air mage:

• Start with a God with Air knowledge. Obviously a bit late in your case!
• Recruit your nation's mages who have Air. Similarly a bit late!
• Recruit your nation's mages who have a "?" skill. You have to click on the "?" to see what percentage likelihood for each possible path it might be given. You may (well) not have any who can produce Air, but it's worth looking.
• Research (conjuration) levels that let you recruit an Air unit, like the replies say. These tend to be quite far down the line.
• From time to time random "Heroes" will join your cause (based on you doing well?). They may bring Air with them.
• Some of the provinces you conquer will allow mage recruitment. Maybe one of these will have a skill you don't have. (Conquering the enemy won't help, you don't get his mages even in his home citadel.)
• You can empower anyone to level #1 Air, and take it from there. However, level #0->#1 costs 50 gems (whereas #1->#2 is only 30) so it's expensive. The problem here is that, because you don't start with any Air mages, you probably haven't found any Air sites, so you probably don't have many Air gems in the first place! You could squander Astrals to acquire them (or conversion rate @4-1 from any other gem). If you conquer enemy provinces from Air-ish nations, they may have done the Air searching for you, in which case you get any Air income, without having to search yourself.

[Knai]

Originally Posted by JonBrave

[*]You can empower anyone to level #1 Air, and take it from there. However, level #0->#1 costs 50 gems (whereas #1->#2 is only 30) so it's expensive. The problem here is that, because you don't start with any Air mages, you probably haven't found any Air sites, so you probably don't have many Air gems in the first place! You could squander Astrals to acquire them (or conversion rate @4-1 from any other gem). If you conquer enemy provinces from Air-ish nations, they may have done the Air searching for you, in which case you get any Air income, without having to search yourself.[/list]

Regarding gem income, against the AI deliberately losing your provinces long enough for them to search (ideally while also managing strategic surrounding, just to kill things more thoroughly) works well.

Another general option that works involves either astral and nature access, or just nature access, as well as specific research. The spell Charm can outright bring an enemy mage to your side, who might well have air, and this can also be accomplished via a two spell combination in which you take the commander in a way that turns it into a unit, and cast Gift of Reason.

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by Knai

The spell Charm can outright bring an enemy mage to your side, who might well have air, and this can also be accomplished via a two spell combination in which you take the commander in a way that turns it into a unit, and cast Gift of Reason.

Charm requires research Thaum 7, does it not? How is that good for newbie advice? It seems to me that just illustrates that the spell suggestions are way off for a genuine newb, like me.

[Knai]

Originally Posted by JonBrave

Charm requires research Thaum 7, does it not? How is that good for newbie advice? It seems to me that just illustrates that the spell suggestions are way off for a genuine newb, like me.

It doesn't really take much experience to put research points in a path. Higher level magic is not merely in the domain of experienced players, moreover one usually needs fairly high levels in at least one path to break into types of magic. Marignon's Harbinger at 6 is the lowest entry point I can see, barring lucky site searching.

[kasnavada]

If you are playing an MP game, you also have the following choices :

Trade (obviously).
Asking to borrow a site that enable people to get a indy mage with Air Magic.
Conquering one.

Also, there is one of the rather common tribe shaman (forgot the specific tribe) which has 10% chance of air along with nature (other indy with air access exists but I found them much rarer). From there you trade for a booster / empower, which get you Auspex, and access to most useful BF Air spells (arrow fend, mist, mistform, wind guide...).