Nominate your "Tiny Tim" spell here!

[BigJMoney]

*shakes his fist at foodstamp's defiance*

Why, blast you, WHY!?!?! You are supposed ... to ... be ... telling ..... us ....... WHY!

Actually, the reason I am so adamant to hear your opinion on why you think DragonMaster is an overlooked spell (besides rule #2, ehem) is because I make good use of it often, and I'm curious to hear another opinion.

=$=

[Sombre]

Probably because it's too high level, costs too much to cast, is in the wrong path to be useful, has high path requirements, never works out for the AI and only assists in using a spell that even at 3 times the power is still fairly poor.

[BigJMoney]

Okay, the OP has been updated. A lot of people named spells without giving reasons, and I've listed them separately. I'll keep this going a total of one week. That's one week for people to get in here and add any info they think pertinent or new spells to the list. Phase#2 will start after the week is out.

=$=

[vfb]

Very well: Blink can be an annoying spell because if it somehow gets cast, my mage blinks from a nice safe place behind the lines, right into the range of archers or towers, or even worse, into the midst of melee.

[Foodstamp]

I was going to nominate blink, but I wasn't 100% sure it was completely useless. It comes very early on the research tree and it annoys me to no end when a mage blinks into a dire situation.

Does this spell have any utility later on? The reason I seconded Dragon Master instead of choosing blink is because I was not sure if there was a useful application later on.

[vfb]

I was thinking that perhaps a S1+ melee thug could blink into the mages in the enemy backfield and wreak havoc. But since blink is totally random, you're just as likely to end up somewhere useless. And S1+ melee thugs are not exactly common afaik.

[UncleYee]

Oy, vey! The Golem maybe is what you should be thinking of?

[Endoperez]

BigJMoney said:
*shakes his fist at foodstamp's defiance*

Why, blast you, WHY!?!?! You are supposed ... to ... be ... telling ..... us ....... WHY!

It only helps few low-level Conjurations, while it itself isn't in Conjuration, and isn't low-level. By the time you have Dragon Master, you usually don't have need for low-level summons, and if you do, you probably should have gone for high-level Conjuration instead.

Dragon Master takes Nature, but the spells it helps with take Fire, Air, Water or Earth. Mages capable of casting Dragon Master and more than one of the summoning spells are rare, and the ones capable of casting even one of the drake spells aren't common either.

It's too little, too late, for too few nations. If Dragon Mastery was in Conjuration, or of lower level, and had easier Nature requirement, it could be useful.

EDIT: ARgh! I didn't notice the last page...

[BigJMoney]

I've seen blink funtion in another way. I've seen mages get attacked in melee then blink to safety to cast other spells. It never kept them alive very long, but there's something. I am curious how that spell is chosen by the AI, since it's not a spell you'd likely script.

Blink has been taken off the list for now unless someone still feels its the weakest spell compared to all the others.

=$=

PS -- When time comes to vote on most useless I have a pretty strong argument against Dragon Master, I think.

[Ubercat]

Interesting negative takes on dragonmaster. I'm a pretty inexperienced player and had the good fortune to make good use of it in a couple of my earliest games.

I was playing a rainbow archmage, though, and on a big map. By early lategame I had 3-5 rampaging armies of 60+ fire drakes, barbecuing one enemy force after another.

Early on, my pretender site searched and laid the foundation for the gem income which enabled me to set up 2-3 summoning squads. Each with 2-3 mages snagging 6-9 drakes per turn.

After a couple games of this strategy I didn't use it again since it was too easy. I didn't realise at the time that it was only a rainbow pretender which made it possible and practical.