Which spells do folks consider worth learning or upgrading ?

[Strelok]

The most useful? I prefer poleaxe because it's a simple big damage spell... suits my warrior best.

[Tonbo]

Well, I upgraded the Book of Evil summon to the fullest. Not sure if it is considered good, but I love it ^^

[Tibster]

Muhahaha!
Sacrifice! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Geyser!

[Sandsai]

In so far as spells are concerned, I prefer skills that either augment your troops, like precision, bless, or other buffs, I love armor buffs. Phantom image is not bad either. I also like spells that hamper your enemy like pigmy (at lvl 3 -40% health and damage). Direct damage is all fine and dandy in the beginning but loses out later on due to the high leadership stacks involved. For example, if you have low leadership you will be dealing with smaller stacks of troops meaning that 200 damage is real good against the small stack. But once you have 200 swordsman, 200 damage is pretty weak in comparison of killing 40% of that stacks HP. Has WAY more impact.

[Ball Buster]

Originally Posted by Sandsai

For example, if you have low leadership you will be dealing with smaller stacks of troops meaning that 200 damage is real good against the small stack. But once you have 200 swordsman, 200 damage is pretty weak in comparison of killing 40% of that stacks HP. Has WAY more impact.

Yeah, but by the moment you have 200 swordsmen, your damage spells do much more damage than 200. Right now, I'm with 11' level warrior, with aproximately 5000 leadership (100 swordsmen), and my default damage spell do nearly 300 points of damage, and I only have level 1 order magic. Also, if you have a unit with high initiative, but your shooters have worst initiative, doing damage in the beginning of the turn could help you to minimize damage of the enemy's faster units.

[Sandsai]

You're missing the point. The point is that direct damage scales very poorly in general. The point was that late game it is far more beneficial to go with buffs or debuffs that work on a percentage basis. Pain mirror is very useful in this regard, so is pigmy, so is bless and all other percentage based spells. Initiative problems are solved by onslaught for a warrior. A fast moving troop and phantom image or just teleport allows for any melee troop to reach the other side in one turn, boom shooter problem solved.

To demonstrate the lack of a proper scale lets take your own example. 300 damage vs. -20% in health and damage of a 1-2 tier stack. Recalling from memory, swordsmen have 35 hp, tier 2. Thats 3500 hp you take -20% hp that is more than double of the 300 damage spell. You also reduced the damage by same amount. This is a level one pigmy spell. So as you can see, direct damage scales poorly in relation to percentage based spells.

[Munch10]

I'd have to say Dragon Arrows (great for a large stack of bowmen - it makes them my most damaging group from any range) and Resurrection. I pretty much cast Dragon Arrows the first turn, then save the rest of my mana to resurrect troops. That keeps me going without having to go back for more troops all the time.

-Munch

[Kolorabi]

Originally Posted by Sandsai

For example, if you have low leadership you will be dealing with smaller stacks of troops meaning that 200 damage is real good against the small stack.

I'm not sure I understand this; does your leadership dictate the size of the enemy stacks?

[Lord_Loffen]

he probably meant that that you don't attack too strong enemies and it will be early in the game, where the enemies are pretty weak

[Sandsai]

Originally Posted by Kolorabi

I'm not sure I understand this; does your leadership dictate the size of the enemy stacks?

It doesn't but as your leadership grows so will the opponents, at least that's how it should work. But ya, I guess it really depends on your play style. It just seems to me that as your stacks grow due to leadership, it becomes quite beneficial to cast bless than a direct damage spell. Meh, just me I guess.