Karador and Life Light Spell?

[Helios]

Wow, that's a great explanation of how to milk a situation for Mana and Rage Exp! Printed! (Though I think you forgot the screenshot of the Kraken.)

And that's a crazy amount of Mana and Rage! I guess I need to pester those Dwarves some more for rats. I've never heard of anyone getting more than 7 (8 with the one in the whale)! At a Mage level-up, when presented with Rage vs. Mana, would you take Rage?

And did you invest in Alchemy at all? I can't tell if I'm going to need any help with the crystals since I'm not going to go around nuking everything this time around.

[Vulture]

I have Alchemy 3/3. I just generally like to have a big spell book to be able to react to everything properly and to the fullest extent and upgrading the big spells costs a fortune in crystals. Might have been one point too many, though.

Sorry about the Kraken Screen, attaching it now and adding the Spider Kill which was a joke because the Spider Queen cast spiders exactly ONCE and that was even in round one. One Geyser, all dead but one stack. Rest of the time I just put magic spring on both vampire bats and attacked with summons to get retaliation without losses. Bats sucked themselves full everytime ofc.

As for the question: that greatly depends on the situation and your rage and mana levels. I decide priority-wise. I take a look at both stats and figure out which is too low for my level. I think I was given the exact same choice at lvl 17 or so and I picked rage.

The eighth rat was in the Whale for me, too but while clearing the Islands I went to kill Lucky so I can kill the Kraken and well, the first rat I was offered by one of the Dwarves showed up in my inv and I was able to use it, too :>

[Helios]

I'm still impressed by your five turn victory over the Kraken. Very nicely done, considering the damage you have to dish out in such a short period of time. Good work on the Spider Queen, too. The first time I played a Mage and didn't have a grasp of the spells and units, I won an epic 2 hour battle with her and her 800+ spider stacks had destroyed my wall of totems.

I'll post more about this in my "Best Class..." topic, but 3 Alchemy seems like a no-brainer given the glut of Magic runes the Mage gets.

Thanks for the priority advice. It seems it's always wise to remain flexible with one's approach to this game and not get stuck in a rut of "I will choose Rage every time with a Mage".

[Vulture]

Well, the priority approach and the careful pre-planning of things both have their advantages. While the former saves you time and gives you the freedom to adjust what you need in a certain situation, the former will definitely give you a clearer and straighter final build you agreed on with yourself beforehand. A mixture of both should be perfect.

About the Kraken: well, you have to take into account that I had 37 Int and 12k ldr and I was lvl 18 or so. Way too high and way too well equipped/specced for an encounter like that. I just got carried away beating the skirmishes on the Islands that I didn't notice I wanted to do it first thing ^^