Rate Spells

[neleai]

Neleai

I think he gave stream of life a 5 because it's one of the most easily broken spells in the game.

Start with 11 life books sometime. Pick Stream of Life as a starting spell. Cast it on every town you won. Then set your tax rate to the limit.

That is quite weak for 11 book strategy especially as with life invulnerable guardian spirits win you game in four years and incarnation/lionheart also gives you easy win but is slower.

In fact casting stream of life at start is mistake. Life main strenghs are that you can conquer neutral towns early and get to myrror early.

You should use plane shift as soon as possible to send stack of magic spirit, swordsman and settler to myrror which leads to adamatium city and to conquer neutral ones.

its quite easy to get ten cities with life early and casting SOL to all of them blocks your casting capacity for long time and is quite costy, with just cause you could keep taxes at 2 and going to 3 with SOL needs size 8 city to pay unkeep, and it takes too long until it pays itself.

Holy arms is expensive, not good for a doom stack. But good if you are fielding large armies.

Which you do not need when you play life. For offense you need death stack, for defense you could rely on spells, when one gets invulnerability/lionheart two spearmen per city suffice.

As for cost its so expensive that it isn't worth casting, you need cast 18 holy weapons for same overland cost and as important units already have weapon it goes to units that are not very important. Only saving grace is smaller unkeep but its too little too late as you swim in money late game, if you would generously save 20 mana/turn which you could get from conquering extra city.

[Asfex]

Holy Arms: there is a bug about this: the Ai try to dispel it in combat if you have 5 or more units in stasck. so, with holy arms overland you will be almost safe from enemy spells

[Rakir]

Arcane

Common

Spell of return - average
If you want to change your governing race you can empty your fortress of guards and let yourself be banished. Pick a different race town when you return.

Magic spirit - superb
Exploring with magic spirits is not an exploit. It's just moving a unit. His exploration and melding is balanced by weak fighting power.
If you make 9 of them at the very beginning you can capture a neutral town on another island that your hell hounds can't reach.
If you cast endurance on them they move 4 squares. Shadow demons move 2 squares if you stack them with magic spirits.
They can pass through city walls and attack the garrison from behind.
Small groups of them can patrol the ocean and sink enemy triremes drowning all passengers.
The real exploit is keeping a couple near each AI fortress to destroy any new settlements they make. This keeps them a single city empire for a long time until they send escorts with their settlers. To maximise this city denial strategy pick summoner, rune mastery, and channeler so they cost 15 to summon and .5 upkeep.

Dispel magic - average
Battle use only
Expensive when fully powered (don't have time in battle to do multiple weak casts) so only use when enemy unit has multiple enchants.

Summoning circle - above average
You can cast it on an outpost and it increases the chance to turn into hamlet.

Uncommon

Disenchant area - average
Remove curses on your cities. Remove buffs on enemy cities and incoming doom stacks. In battle remove curses on all your units and remove buffs on all enemy units and also remove enemy battle enchantment.

Recall hero - above average
Spell casting heroes can recall themselves saving you mana. Heroes can go into a nearby unconquered town, lair, or node for fast travel back to the capital.
Good to trade to AI.

Detect magic - above average
A new level of information to observe and make judgements with.
Good to trade to AI.

Enchant Item - average
Items are weaker than artifacts but they arrive earlier in the game and are faster to make.
Trade to AI so you can kill their heroes and take their items.

Summon hero - above average
Heroes are weaker than champions but they come earlier so have more time to get experience.
Save/load to get desired hero.

Awareness - below average
Doesn't show town garrisons.
By the time you research and cast it you could have explored most of the world.
Good for pinpointing the fortress of the wizard on the other plane.
Good to trade to AI.

Disjunction - average
Remove armageddon.

Rare

Create artifact - average
New abilities to put on items.
Maxed out artifacts take very long to make.
Free spell charges exploit is strong but cheapens your gameplay experience.
Trade to AI so you can kill their heroes and take their artifacts.

Summon champion - average
By the time you get this, most or all of your hero slots are full.
Save/load for desired champion.

Very Rare

Spell of mastery - average
Good for a slow turtling victory where you have secured your continent but can't (or won't) crush the enemy's.
Trade to an AI to make every other AI attack him.

[ctoku]

for me, word of recall is super good spell, I would rate it 5 for sure. 20 mana per unit, to make them instantly appear on the battle front, so good. makes it very easy to wear down enemy garrisons even with weaker units.