astral combat spells

[Shovah32]

The single target, MR dependant spells can be nice in some cases(horde of S3-4 mages spamming soul-slay on MA Ulm and his pretender quite early on) and can even be spammed to take out SCs.
As said, master enslave can destroy entire armies, and with enough boosters can let you steal an entire army - a high astral mage with a rune smasher, starshine skullcap, eye of the void and ring of sorcery will have(I think) +5 penetration and 2 extra levels of astral magic. If you have a higher level mage and add a reasonable communion to that, you could be looking at some crazy enslavement.

Example:
S8 base mage(don't know how, maybe pretender)
Rune smasher, starshine skullcap, eye of the void and ring of sorcery.
Add 16 communion slaves to that(pretty viable with many nations) and I think that is 4 more levels of astral.
That should be a level 14 astral mage in total.
That astral magic+his penetration boosters should leave him with +8 penetration - say goodbye to your army.

If you swap either of the misc items for a crystal matrix and use either pythian communicants or mages with slave matrixes you can even pull this off on the first turn of battle, although it will cost you 2 points of penetration(or 1 if you have a S9 base caster). But with the matrix idea, if you are the defender you can cast even before enemy buffs.

Also, please note that with the original set-up you have an enslave mind with +10 penetration - enough to take out alot of SCs/thugs(other than those with insanely high MR) within a few turns of casting.

An Oracle with S10 can also get that +8 penetration WITHOUT a communion - eye of the void/ring of sorcery/eye of the void/ring of sorcery gives +6 item penetration and +2 high level penetration.

So master enslave is very fun to cast .

edit: Said spell focus instead of ring of sorcery.

[K]

Also note that Astral Fire (S3,F1) and Nether Darts(S1,D1) are some of the best combat spells in the game, as there is nothing that can resist them(aside from high MR).

[Torin]

will penetration items help with nether darts?

[Micah]

K-
Nether darts is actually fairly counterable due to being a missile effect, but it's still an amazing spell, as is, say, flaming arrows. I'm pretty sure astral fires is countered by FR, but I'm not 100% on that.

[Baalz]

Anecdotally, I've also found astral fires to be not as uber as you might think due to the relatively low damage output as compared to other evo spells. Considering how often you're fighting lower protection guys falling foo, magma eruption, etc. often wipe out big swaths of dudes and inflict reasonable damage against the moderately heavier ones while astral fires usually takes a couple of hits to kill anybody with more than 10 hp. Still, definitely has a niche though I didn't realize FR countered it.

[K]

I'm pretty sure that FR doesn't counter Astral Fires. Like Banefire, its not actual "fire".

The second tier Evocations are perfect when your opponent starts tossing in his mechanical men armies or has other immunities. A 50% Fire Resist with decent armor is basically like being immune to Falling Fires, but Astral Fires will keep doing some damage.

[DrPraetorious]

Astral Fire does not do fire damage (the tags are Armor Negating, Magic Resistance Negates and Works Underwater).

[The DarkOne]

K said:
Also note that Astral Fire (S3,F1) and Nether Darts(S1,D1) are some of the best combat spells in the game, as there is nothing that can resist them(aside from high MR).

High MR isn't that useful against nether darts and nether bolts as it only protects from the feebelminding, at least that is how it works according to the manual.

[sum1lost]

Shovah32 said:
The single target, MR dependant spells can be nice in some cases(horde of S3-4 mages spamming soul-slay on MA Ulm and his pretender quite early on) and can even be spammed to take out SCs.
As said, master enslave can destroy entire armies, and with enough boosters can let you steal an entire army - a high astral mage with a rune smasher, starshine skullcap, eye of the void and ring of sorcery will have(I think) +5 penetration and 2 extra levels of astral magic. If you have a higher level mage and add a reasonable communion to that, you could be looking at some crazy enslavement.

Example:
S8 base mage(don't know how, maybe pretender)
Rune smasher, starshine skullcap, eye of the void and ring of sorcery.
Add 16 communion slaves to that(pretty viable with many nations) and I think that is 4 more levels of astral.
That should be a level 14 astral mage in total.
That astral magic+his penetration boosters should leave him with +8 penetration - say goodbye to your army.

If you swap either of the misc items for a crystal matrix and use either pythian communicants or mages with slave matrixes you can even pull this off on the first turn of battle, although it will cost you 2 points of penetration(or 1 if you have a S9 base caster). But with the matrix idea, if you are the defender you can cast even before enemy buffs.

Also, please note that with the original set-up you have an enslave mind with +10 penetration - enough to take out alot of SCs/thugs(other than those with insanely high MR) within a few turns of casting.

An Oracle with S10 can also get that +8 penetration WITHOUT a communion - eye of the void/spell focus/eye of the void/spell focus gives +6 item penetration and +2 high level penetration.

So master enslave is very fun to cast .

+9. Switch spell focuses for rings of sorcery/wizardry.

[Shovah32]

+9. Switch spell focuses for rings of sorcery/wizardry.

Stiil +8, I meant rings of sorcery .

Nether Darts should be helped by penetration, and is blocked by shields(I hate abysian tower shields) but with the large number of effects, it is still far superior to nether bolt unless you are facing tower shields(and maybe kite shields).