I agree with you, Gatts.
My mage is only lvl 13, and I started to notice a slight wind of change in my battles. So far, the BLAST-BLAST sysyem worked quite OK for me until..I discovered the Cannoneers in Kordor. Great ranged unit! Then, I stumbled upon that telescope thingy!! Grabbed it from the merchant's hands and.. boy, do my cannoneers and archers rock now! I am still a mage in my diapers, but my cannoneers are doing more than 1000 damage each shot, they crit for like 2200!! Gosh, my BLASTS never crit, and I have yet to see my lvl 2 fireball do 2000 damage! So, I tried Precision too, and with all that, stuff started to drop dead in front of my rag-tag army. Went back to the Isles, attacked those until now 'impossible' pirates and...blew off deck anything they were able to bring on the field of battle. It feels SO darn good
Spell combos rock. DD spells are ok, but buffs/debuffs will bring you victory