Poll: Most useful path of magic?

[Saber Cherry]

Vicious Love said:
I voted astral, but I might just have well have voted death. Either air or blood would be a very, very close third. The qualitative gap between the top 4 and bottom 4(particularly fire) is a bit more clear-cut.

I strongly disagree! Fire is an excellent path.

1) Excellent evocations.
2) Good summons, esp. with Blood... unfortunately KOEFs and ADs are limited, but they are still excellent. In a "fixed" game where Soul Contracts are weakened, fire is more powerful as it is required for Devils. Fire Snakes are also pretty good.
3) Best gems (15 gold each!) which makes fire mages a good investment for searching alone.
4) Excellent buffs and items (Fire Shield or Charcoal Shield on SCs or thugs are practically worth planning to get the path if you use SCs; Flaming Arrows alone is worth taking Fire as Tien Chi or Man, and considering it as Caelum). Fire has not many good buffs or items but the ones mentioned are good enough to make up for it.
5) Best set of spells/items that are AP, AOE, and/or anti-undead. Holy Pyre is all three, for example, and thus very useful in the early to mid game.
6) Additional effect (burning), like cold, as oppossed to Air and Earth which have no special effect.
7) Lastly - Artillery! Fire has fearsome artillery spells and even early-game artillery.

OTOH Air does not have any artillery spells.