Conceptual Balance (Discussion)

[Shovah32]

@Twan:
Do you really think elemental magic has been nerfed? Fire magic (other than old age problems) is great, plenty of high damage AP spells with good AoEs (and later on pillar of fire is amazing) although the summons and items arent great.

Water isnt too great (dosnt have much in the way of summons or items either) but quickness is a very useful buff and falling frost and frozen heart are great battle spells

Air is pretty hard to defend. It has very nice battlefield buffs and some battle summons but almost all its battle magic, while having good precision and damage, just cant hit enough units.

[dirtywick]

Shovah32 said:
Air is pretty hard to defend. It has very nice battlefield buffs and some battle summons but almost all its battle magic, while having good precision and damage, just cant hit enough units.

Air has some of the best items in the game, and a couple of nice global spells too, but it really shines in self buffs.

[Shovah32]

Winged shoes, chainmail of displacement, tempest and what? None really come to mind (although yes, the globals are nice and the buffs are even better)

[dirtywick]

Spirit Helm, Barrel of Air, Amulet/Robe of Missile Protection, Weightless Shileds, Eye of Aiming, Bow of War, Thunder Bow, Flying Carpet, I guess that's about it and some of them are debatable but it's definately better than a lot of other schools items, like Fire or Earth.

ETA: Owl Quills too

[Shovah32]

Apart from a bow of war on some cheap commander for extra oomph or maybe some of the breathing items i wouldnt really consider them to be the best of items but to each his own i guess.

[dirtywick]

Shovah32 said:
Apart from a bow of war on some cheap commander for extra oomph or maybe some of the breathing items i wouldnt really consider them to be the best of items but to each his own i guess.

What I mean is you get a lot of the better items at all research levels in the game using Air. I guess they're not the best items for building the ultimate unit, but at Const 6 and below especially Air offers a lot of good items for a lot of your units.

My fault though, "best" was bad word choice initially.

[Cainehill]

And hopefully there'll once again be an early version that simply deals with the pretenders - those are the least debatable, as there are simply way too many pretenders that one would never choose because there's another that's much much better for the same cost, and other pretenders that are once again no-brainers because they're so great for the cost.

So, some balancing of the pretenders could come fairly quickly, while other things (units, magic, etc) might warrant more play and analysis.

[KissBlade]

Shovah32 said:
Winged shoes, chainmail of displacement, tempest and what? None really come to mind (although yes, the globals are nice and the buffs are even better)

staff of storms, spirit helms, shield of valor =) To be honest, air gems are quite awesome but globals isn't one of them. I don't think I've casted a single air global beyond the temptation at times to save up for gale gate.

[Shovah32]

Ive cast air globals a few times, i would use them more if i played air nations. I dont use staff's of storms often and i find spirit helms too costly but i agree shields of valor are rather kickass.

[dirtywick]

Fata Morgana looks good on paper, increases income by lowering unrest and gives your PD a huge boost. I've never actually cast it that I can recall, but it seems like a better version of Mechanical Militia.