Whats the point of summoned monsters?

[momfan]

I do find it really hard to raise casting skill though. It usually only goes to 200+ in VERY long games. Meanwhile i can get an adamantinium city to churn out magicians or whatever my racial end tier unit is.

Early game though, summoned creatures cost about the same as cavalry to rush out. Without a node, you can't really pay 100+ mana for a summon, and with alchemy, you could use that money to rush build an additional unit anyway. War bears cost something like 130 mana?

Ive also noticed that AI with death spell books almost alway just spam unboosted life drain...have almost never seen posession, etc.

Spell skill rises slowly unless you take Archmage. BUT you can get help from your spellcasting heroes! If you have at least 2 spellcasters you can often boost casting skill by 50% or more. With 4 or more caster heroes you can double your casting skill. In the early game your 15-20 skill is enough to get the cheap units quite quickly. Later on you will need your heroes to help summon the stronger units.

War Bears cost 130 research, 70 casting, 2 upkeep. Hell Hounds are a better deal at 80/40/1. If you start with Hell Hounds, spending 80 mana summons 2 Hell Hounds. Even with Alchemy that's 80 gold which will only buy swordsmen from zero production. With ladder buying it buys 1 cavalry unit at most. 2 Hell Hounds vs 1 recruit cavalry? I'd bet on the Hell Hounds.

Since you can build while you summon, the fastest rush stack would be either 1 cavalry + 3 hell hounds or 2 cavalry + 2 hell hounds. Remember you still need the stables which costs 80, same as 2 Hell Hounds. 4 Hell Hounds cost 160. Stable and 2 Cavalry also cost 160. No contest. In fact when you rush-build the Stables it will cost at least 160, in which case the choice is 4 Hell Hounds versus one Stables building (and zero cavalry).

I usually go with 4 Hell Hounds for the first stack and leave the city to build the 3 basic buildings. Stables comes much later, for the second stack.

With Insecticide the AI is quite a bit smarter with spells, whatever the color. For example, I have been hit with Black Sleep, Weakness, Possession, Dispel Evil, and Call Lightning, besides the staples like Life Drain, Psionic Blast, Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, Fireball, Web, Cracks Call etc.

Boostable spells ARE boosted by enemy wizards because I have seen Fireball spells take out fully buffed normal units (champion Longbowmen with Lionheart and Charm of Life = 6 figures * 8 hearts = 48 hearts). A standard Fireball is only 5 strength, at most it does 5 damage per figure.

Of course, there are still dumb things being done e.g. Call Lightning cast when I only have paladins, magicians shooting at paladins etc. But overall it's a big improvement over vanilla.

[Catwalk]

I think we can all agree that there is a handful of decent summons, and a truckload of crappy ones that just aren't worth bothering with. So all summons aren't pointless, but most are.

[neleai]

Well summoned creatures are incredibly powerfull if you know how to use them. I could show in following thread

[b0rsuk]

It is true that enemy wizards mostly spam direct damage spells in combat. Life Drain can be considered such a spell. You generally start seeing Possession in mid or late game. And when they do, expect enemy Wraiths or Death Knights to follow in short order ! Certainly expect Possession if there's a death mage on Myrror.

Some combos to try for high power:
- Node Mastery with another mastery (Sorcery/Nature/Chaos). You get 2x power from most nodes, and 4x power from one kind of them.
- Death magic with Infernal Power and Dark Rituals spell. Really makes your power go through the roof in midgame, you can afford to ignore nodes, at least node defense. On Bad Moon event your power will go into stratosphere.

Casting heroes in capitol help. And Archmage is one of my favorite picks. I love having lots of casting skill.