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.

[Saber Cherry]

FrankTrollman said:
How many people play with a Water 9 pretender just for the blessing? I've seen people seriously suggest a Water 9 Son of Niefel or Moloch for Vanheim, Marignon, Jotunheim, and Mictlan. I've seen people seriously suggest an Earth9/Water9 pretender for Pythium, Tien Chi, Marignon, and Man. Some of those are Astral nations, but some of those aren't. In every case, the goal is to get 2 actions per round out of Sacred troops or Leaders (or both).

1.5 per round. But it is cumulative with Quickness. I took W9 as Marignon once, very effectively for the mages, but it was not great on flagellants in that game. Probably helped the Knights of the Chalice but I built few as my money went to Witch Hunters and xbows.

A better question would be: how many people play with a Water 4 pretender in a nation with no Astral? In that case, I've still seen it. A Super Combatant Deit with no Water usually can't go under water, which makes him a weak military threat. Furthermore, a Water-free SC can't quicken themselves, which means that they either have to wear Boots or Armor made by another Water Mage, or they have to suck. Quickness is worth it just for the bonuses to attack and defense skills, the fact that it grants a whole set of extra attacks is just gravy.

No... quickness on an SC is not at all essential. It is good on undead SCs, but I avoid it on live SCs due to fatigue, as quickness makes it almost impossible to overcome with reinvig items. Even my Ice Devils never cast Quickness if they get an artifact weapon rather than a Bloodthorn.

As far as weak sister colors, I'm going to have to say Nature. Vine Ogres have their day, but what is Nature supposed to do after that? Feed the real monsters that are provided by other powers?

-Frank

No nation should be without Nature, excepting Ermor. I build loads of Druids every game and they are always too busy (generally forging) to research. In addition to Oversways', Eagle Eyes (the air version always ends up on archers instead of the mage!), supply items, and dragonflies... Nature has no killer evocation (foul vapors stinks, if you pardon the pun), SC, or artillery but it is still exceptionally useful. I'm not claiming it is a strong path, but it does have many good (support) uses.

[Saber Cherry]

Manuk said:
Holy: you get holy avenger (??????)

does anybody else thinks this spell is useless?

Holy Avenger is useless 99% of the time.

The 1% is on your Neifel Jarl supercombattant =)

[Agrajag]

Saber Cherry said:
6) Additional effect (burning), like cold, as oppossed to Air and Earth which have no special effect.

I thought that some of the air spells also caused a lot of fatigue, or am I confused?

[Chazar]

Saber Cherry said:3) Best gems (15 gold each!) which makes fire mages a good investment for searching alone.

I will never understand why people alchemize! I often buy any (non-living) gem type at 16-17 gold per gem...but then again, I usually take order3 as well...


Oh, by the way: Earth rocks!

It might not be top, but if I must get along with it alone, its ok: Good range of items offensive and defensive and misc (eg. Gate cleavers are not bad!), many buff spells (legion of steel, invulnerability), nice offensive spells (blade wind, petrify) and ok summoning (mech men). It is probably not the best in all those categories, but at least it has something useful for each category, be it fighting armies or SCs.

[The_Paladin]

I voted for astral mostly for the versatility reasons stated earlier. Plus I know its a very high level spell but Strands of Arcane Power with arco I find to be very useful. If you are a way behind in gem income for whatever reason (or just want to jump ahead) that spell will help an amazing amount even if it does just find low-level sites typically. Also combine that with arcane nexus and wish if its still enabled and you will be rolling in the gems!

@Agrajag Yes air does cause stun / fatigue damage with its thunderstrike spell - making it quite useful indeed justifying its extra fatigue cost.

[Manuk]

Saber Cherry said:

The 1% is on your Neifel Jarl supercombattant =)

Why?

[Sandman]

One weakness of fire is that it doesn't synergise with astral magic very well, unlike the rest of the magic paths.

Astral fires isn't very good, and I've never found any reason to cast inner sun. I don't think there are even any non-unique fire/astral items.

[Jurri]

It's one chassis that has sufficient HP and holy 3. (Holy 4 when prophetized.) Thus it can take the hits, especially with regeneration... Not that Holy Avenger still is worthwhile usually.

EDIT: Niefel Jarl, that is.

[Zooko]

Astral Fires is extremely powerful if you have high level of the required path. Check out the "+" signs in its description.