Best - worse magic paths

[dirtywick]

Earth is probably my favorite. It's got a big variety of spell effects and useful spells in all schools.

All the paths have their uses though.

[Teraswaerto]

Air, Astral, Death and Nature come to mind instantly.

Blood can be great, but it's kind of a special case.

Earth, Fire and Water are perhaps less good than the others, but that doesn't mean they are bad.

[curtadams]

My favorite are now Air and Astral. With research more difficult, I'm really focused on early magic, and early magic is about supporting your non-magic stuff. Air and Astral both have good artillery spells (lightning bolt and mind burn) and great back rank commander survival-enhancers (antimissle and luck items).

Fire seems to have gotten it worst from the shifts in Dom3. Before the excellent early-game artillery made up for the inferior late summons. Now though, between aging, slowed research, and more expensive labs, my artillery banks just don't seem worth it.

[Morkilus]

I love how blood magic captures the feel of "black magic" without being specifically about death. But I use it probably the least except for summoning a couple big dudes later in the game. Death magic is probably the most useful (research skull, skellies, Ghost Riders) and easiest to get rolling (Dark Knowledge, Skull Staff, Revenants).

[dirtywick]

I do like Blood a lot too. Battle magic is a pain, as your slaves can get killed easily by archers and make your mages targets too (although they can help in assassination attempts as fodder) and the spells are almost all massive in fatigue. But the summons (Demon Knights at level 4? Yes, please) and items are great, and it's pretty easy to mass slaves quickly and early compared to gems.

But, most nations without blood pick nationals are going to have a really tough time getting blood going, if they can at all without Wish, compared to other schools.

[Gandalf Parker]

blood, death, nature, and abit of fire. I like the summons they give

[Nerfix]

Blood, Death, Astral, Nature. Sorcery rules the world.

Weakest ones...Fire and Water.

[calmon]

Nerfix said:
Weakest ones...Fire and Water.

But instead here you get the best bless effects and combat stats (+AT/DEF)

[Tyrant]

Death is excellent largely because it's has so much variety. It has virtually no buffs, but it does have good summons starting at the bottom end and going right through to the top as well as good blasts, battlefield spam, and items. It's also easy to power up with items, and the kicker is that it's "self booting" in that you can use items to increase your level to summon higher level death mages who can then take the items and summon more of the same.

I would say that nature is more useful than powerful. I really hate playing without it, but it's hard to crush the world with nature magic alone, primarily because it lacks killing power.

I think astral is overrated. It's a great secondary suit, but it has jack for summons and it's excellent BF spells are almost all single target. If i want to kill things one at a time i'll hire a crossbowman.

[FrankTrollman]

What schools you prefer will depend largely upon what age you're playing in and who you are up against.

Most early age troops are lucky to get pants at all, and a protection of 13 is something you're supposed to be happy about. That makes things like Bladewind a battlefield clearing spell. On the other hand, in the later periods, entire armies can be thrown down where a protectionof 17 is low - and Bladewind might not kill anyone when cast.

The dynamics of battle magic are very different in Dominions 3 than they were in Dominions 2. In the previous game, spells like Flame Bolt were essentially worthless as they never hit anyone; yet spells like Frozen Heart were battle-winners because you only needed to kill a few targets to route the other side. With larger armies, Bolts of Cold and Flame almost always hit something, making their effects much more similar to the auto-hit spells at higher research levels.

The role of the battle mage is very different from what it used to be. Spells which enhance armies are much nicer, and enemy squads are usually large enough that they'll manage to get to close combat no matter what magical assault they are under. Combats are not won by Fire Darts alone. But perversely, Fire Darts does kill more enemies than it ever did in Dominions 2.

War Mages with Water and Fire are essential, but not sufficient. They easily pay their cost and more in even early battles, but they are no longer able to win battles without help from troops. Dominions is no longer a magic game with troops, it is a game of troops that has magic. But if you have the magic and they don't, you'll win.

If you have the troops that is.

-Frank