Quick Q: defending against shadow blast?

[Ironhawk]

Antimagic + chaff should do you right. Even with antimagic, squads that get nailed by concentrated shadow blast attacks will see be shredded up something fierce. If you know you are going to be fighting this spell, be very sure to bring along 1-2 full squads just to decoy it.

[MaxWilson]

Just thought I'd mention that I've given this spell (Shadow Blast) another look after this thread, and I'm actually still not really impressed with it. It's nice that it only requires D2 to cast, but I'd much rather have Sauromancers spamming Cloud of Death than Shadow Blast, because 1.) Cloud of Death has a larger AoE, 2.) Cloud of Death costs 10 fatigue and no gems, and 3.) Cloud of Death lingers for 2 rounds. Sure it only does half as much damage (9 vs. 20) and no paralyzation, but in practice Shadow Blast just doesn't seem worth the extra micromanagement headache.

I'm playing as LA Agartha at the moment if that makes a difference, primary opponents EA Ermor and MA Ulm.

-Max

Edit: correction. For a D4 caster, Cloud of Death and Shadow Blast will have exactly the same AoE. However, Cloud of Death gets 2 extra squares per level and Shadow Blast only gets 1, so for my D9 master lich CoD is a clearly superior choice that costs no gems.

[Baalz]

Cloud of death doesn't have anywhere near the punch of Shadow Blast in most cases I've found. 3-4 fairly cheap D2 casters starting a fight off with a volley of shadow blasts can cause a disturbing amount of damage to most vanilla troops. It is more expensive, and more of a pain to micro, but more than worth it for important battles.

[jutetrea]

Cloud is very effective but:

Higher level - level 7 vs 5 evo
Higher path - 4(?) vs 2 death

Both of which can be very limiting, both in access time and # of available casters. Plus it depends on opponents a bit as well, cav will blow right through cloud while infantry may get nailed multiple times.

Both great spells but it seems like blast is more prevalent in my limited experience...plus the outright chance to kill units vs. wounding.

edit: oh yeah, range difference as well - cloud = shorter i believe.

[Ironhawk]

Cloud of Death, and cloud spells in general just cannot compare with any significant attack spell like this. There are only rare cases where they are useful, like seiges. Other than that, you have a strong possibility that your own men will wander into them and be killed.

The power of shadow blast is high damage, huge AOE, and really low casting requirements. If you arent impressed with it, that means you havent been really Shadow Blasted yet.

[MaxWilson]

Perhaps I've been using it wrong, then. I'll try casting it with several Ktonian necromancers at a time and see if it works better than Magma Eruption, although maybe the real problem is that Ktonian necromancers have low precision. I have found friendly casualties to be a bit of an annoyance in the past--especially since I like a high death bless on my sacred casters--but only when the enemy army is small enough that it quickly routs. For large battles, or small battles with only PD as chaff, Cloud of Death is a lovely spell.

-Max