Chargers Spell - Useless?

[camelotcrusade]

Yeah, I think it's kind of cute. But I feel like a lot of low-level rune magic falls firmly in the category of "cute, but you probably have something better to do."

Then we have level 1 negation if you want to talk about useless. I am not sure I've seen the AI cast a buff yet (omg doom, omg poison skulllllllll) and I wonder if they would actually try it again on the same unit if you had just dispelled it.

[namad]

negation would be great if it could target enemies, but it can't so it's useless?


imagine negation+kamikaze bombs?

[Zechnophobe]

I feel like a fair number of spells , no matter the mana cost, fail the 'is it worth a casting slot' test.

Sure, a spell that makes negative effects run out faster is kinda nice. But how often is it better than a simple dispel?

[Nirual]

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

I feel like a fair number of spells , no matter the mana cost, fail the 'is it worth a casting slot' test.

Sure, a spell that makes negative effects run out faster is kinda nice. But how often is it better than a simple dispel?

If the unit is likely to be targeted with more debuffs in the next few rounds. Like when fighting dragons or spiders. that said, I haven't used it all that often either. If I had gotten it before the undead spider it would've been very handy for ranged stacks to minimize the web effect I'd imagine.

Chargers were very useful for rage early on my soothsayer, but now I can just as easily get a lot of rage by casting Blizzard instead.

[1darklord]

Originally Posted by Nirual

Chargers were very useful for rage early on my soothsayer, but now I can just as easily get a lot of rage by casting Blizzard instead.

Maybe that is it, I am using a Skald, and I'm still on the Viking Isles.

Daniel.

[Nirual]

Originally Posted by 1darklord

Maybe that is it, I am using a Skald, and I'm still on the Viking Isles.

Daniel.

Well, as a Skald my rage worries ended once I got Edda. At least against undead, because that song provides huge amounts of rage/mana.

Originally Posted by Xargon

Rune magic: gift, blizzard, timeless (once working), runechain, ice ball (was the only tanky summon I had for a while) come to mind. Probably more that I don't think of right now.

Magic Missile is extremely useful early on, at least as Soothsayer. Doesn't hurt that it stays at 5 mana regardless of level, makes it a good starter with High Magic (especially against Necromancers and Beholders). Dance of Winter was my go-to area spell until I got Blizzard, Ice Snakes isnt too shabby either but I didnt get that one until much later. Both are handy for dealing (mostly) physical damage, too.
Runic Word is useful here and there to replenish Runes you might need for other spells aswell as those needed by Runemages (yes, they have their own spell, but if you dont have a lot of unused hero runes it'll only restore 2 for the cost of 1)

About the only rune magic spell I dont get at all is Snowstorm. there arent that many opponents with a lot of ice damage, so its mostly just a mediocre buff for your units that requires them to stay in one place. And good luck getting more frost res on your troops to beef that up. Sure it can also weaken enemies with a lot of fire res, but at the same time they can move out of it easily and while affected also take less damage from my frost spells.

[1darklord]

Originally Posted by Nirual

Well, as a Skald my rage worries ended once I got Edda. At least against undead, because that song provides huge amounts of rage/mana.

Yeah Undead is a lot easier but I still often like to use Chargers straight away as it gives me enough rage to use my most powerful ability before my enemies get a go.

Daniel.

[Xargon]

Originally Posted by Nirual

Magic Missile is extremely useful early on, at least as Soothsayer. Doesn't hurt that it stays at 5 mana regardless of level, makes it a good starter with High Magic (especially against Necromancers and Beholders). Dance of Winter was my go-to area spell until I got Blizzard, Ice Snakes isnt too shabby either but I didnt get that one until much later. Both are handy for dealing (mostly) physical damage, too.
Runic Word is useful here and there to replenish Runes you might need for other spells aswell as those needed by Runemages (yes, they have their own spell, but if you dont have a lot of unused hero runes it'll only restore 2 for the cost of 1)

About the only rune magic spell I dont get at all is Snowstorm. there arent that many opponents with a lot of ice damage, so its mostly just a mediocre buff for your units that requires them to stay in one place. And good luck getting more frost res on your troops to beef that up. Sure it can also weaken enemies with a lot of fire res, but at the same time they can move out of it easily and while affected also take less damage from my frost spells.

I forgot magic missile... I think the damage on dance of winter is somewhat low, and ice snake is ok, but I got it pretty late (after blizzard, fireball, etc). Runic word is good if you use the runes for something, but that would mostly be other rune magic spells.
I never used snowstorm either. I learned it because I thought it could be nice in Demonis, with all those demons with fire resistance around. But then I saw that it only affects 7 hexes, so its usefulness suffers if the enemy is not clustered. Similarly, you need to cluster your own units to gain significant protection from cold. It just seems too much work and too situational to be really useful...

[camelotcrusade]

Originally Posted by namad

negation would be great if it could target enemies, but it can't so it's useless?


imagine negation+kamikaze bombs?

I should know better than to proclaim anything useless with all these smart people around. Good one. And I don't know where you can cast it, the description doesn't say whether it's only allies or enemies. I just cringe when I read it and think of spending crystals, lol.

@Zechnophobe, I am right there with you. I also think the increased level of unit special abilities - not mention whatever the rage skills du jour are - has moved several spells to the back of the list. Between Loki's touch for enrage, my valkyrie's gold pile, and my engineer's flash bomb I haven't had any trouble keeping the enemy ranks in disarray. I used to use spells for that.

[namad]

Originally Posted by camelotcrusade

I should know better than to proclaim anything useless with all these smart people around. Good one. And I don't know where you can cast it, the description doesn't say whether it's only allies or enemies. I just cringe when I read it and think of spending crystals, lol.

@Zechnophobe, I am right there with you. I also think the increased level of unit special abilities - not mention whatever the rage skills du jour are - has moved several spells to the back of the list. Between Loki's touch for enrage, my valkyrie's gold pile, and my engineer's flash bomb I haven't had any trouble keeping the enemy ranks in disarray. I used to use spells for that.

that combo doesn't work, is what i was saying... you can't do it... or at least I never could target an enemy with negation because it consumes a rune to use it.