Favorite Spell Tomes at each Tier

[Xyebane]

I was just wondering what everyone's favorite tomes are, and why?

For me:
Tier 1 – I think half the value in tier 1 tomes is the type of early affinity that they provide. Nature, Chaos and Materium have such useful early Empire skills.

1. Tome of the Horde : Houndmasters are amazing. Summon irregulars is a great way to boost up your early armies or keep your armies pushing into enemy territory after a couple losses, and Spawnkin is one of the best minor race transformations and it comes at tier 1.

2. Tome of Roots : Vine prison is such a good spell, it drastically reduces the damage your army will take by eating up enemy actions. Entwined Thrall is a decent early game skirmisher. And Poison Arrows is one of the more useful damage enchantments. Herbilist is also a great province improvement. All round good pick.

3. Tome of Enchantment : I just love this for seeker arrows. Awaken tools is also great, especially for new cities. Although I find copper golems pretty weak, you can make them strong and they will turn into Iron Golems with experience, which is nice.

Tier 2 – I feel like this is the weakest tier overall. There are a lot of underwhelming books, with some really big standouts because of a few exceptionally powerful units/enchantments.

1. Tome of Glades : Glade runners are such a strong unit, and this book also backs them up with Entwined protectors.

2. Tome of Amplification : Astral Blood and Amplified arrows are great.

3. Tome of Artificing : This is here solely because of Artisan Armaments, although Golem mine and Golem Assistant are pretty solid as well.

Tier 3 – Tier 3 has so many good options, it is really hard to choose. Fortunately, picking from T3 isn’t restricted like T4 and T5 so it is easy to get a lot of these.

1. Tome of Teleportation : Chrono Gate is great, Quick Phase is great, Phase Beast is great (especially if you are also going Nature for animal buffs), and Astral Trade Relay is great.

2. Tome of the Great Transformation : Wrightborn is such a strong Race Transformation (at least until you unlock Mana Addicts). Desecrate Structure is annoying to cast but gives a ton of free mana.

3. Tome of Cycles : I love projectiles of decay as it has great synergies with other ranged buffs (which there are a ton). Druid of the Cycle is also an insanely strong support unit that can instant kill and resurrect units. I also find Diffuse Death to be one of the more useful direct damage spells as it also heals all your nearby melee.

Tier 4 – These books seem to really specialize your race and tend to have a lot more flavor than the lower tomes. Since these are locked to your affinity, you have to question if the power of some of these books is worth getting the lower tiers as well.

1. Tome of Exaltation : Angelize, Shrine of Smiting, Resurrect Unit, Temple of the Exalted, and Ruler’s Stature are all amazing. However, Ascended Warriors is just broken good. This book is so amazing it raises the value of all other Order books just so you can unlock it.

2. Tome of Astral Convergence : Even though Astral Reflections is stupidly powerful, I tend to prefer Astral Convergence book over Mirror book. Arcane Maelstrom is my go to siege project. Arcane Surge and Cascading Power are so good for late game battles, Explosive Manifestation is arguably more useful that Astral Reflections for soaking up enemy actions as you summon directly into the enemy. This book is only really let down by Astral Attunement, which is probably the most disappointing Major Transformation.

3. Tome of the Golden Realm : This book gets you so much money to push through the late game. Goldtouched is a minor transformation, so you can use it with other Majors. Gilded magic and Blast are awesome stuns. This book is really carried by Gold Golem however, which is probably my favorite Mythic unit.

Tier 5 – Since you can only pick one T5 per game, I only put my favorite here. I think Tome of the Arch Mage is probably stronger, followed up with Tome of the Creator.

1. Tome of the Goddess of Nature : Force of Nature is so strong if you have gone Gaia’s Chosen Major Race transformation. While it will cost a fortune in upkeep, it will let you delete armies from the map. Gaia’s Chosen also synergizes well with Mass Rejuvenation, and Avatar of Nature is just Icing on the cake.

[Seswatha]

Honestly almost all of them are contextually good and you can build around them. My more frequent ones though:

T1: Horde, Beasts, Roots, Enchantment, Evocation, Faith, Souls, Cryo
T2: Amplification, Beacon, Artificing, Winds, Glades, Doomherald
T3: Teleportation, Sanctuary, Vigor, Terramancy, Pandemonium, Great Transformation
T4: Nature's Wrath, Exaltation, Astral Mirror, Golden Realm, Crucible, Oblivion
T5: Creator, Archmage, Eternal Lord

Shadow tomes are here not entirely on their own merit but also just because they boost Shadow affinity, which gives access to the most OP tech rush strategy I know of currently.

[DesertRose92]

Tier 1
- Horde, Roots
- Beasts, Faith, Evocation, Enchantment
Tier 2
- Amplification, Glades, Beacon, Artificing
- Inquisition
Tier 3
-
- Cycles, Vigor, Sanctuary, Teleportation, Devastation, Great Transformation
Tier 4
- Paradise, Chaos Channeling, Golden Realm
- Nature's Wrath, Exaltation
Tier 5
- Goddess of Nature, God Emperor
- Arch Mage

Tomes in the first row are universally strong and fit in almost every build. Tomes in the second row can be very powerful with the right build, e.g. Teleportation + Vigor.

[Reality]

T1
Souls
- only undead I use is skeleton and their half draft cost compared other t1, and not slowing down earlygame city building by not using gold l. Soul overflow also wonderful spell that can cure status whole playthrough or win unwinnable fights with Max HP boosts.
T2
Artificing
-if you've ever had to spend 7+ turns sieging a lategame city , a battlemage army with siege magic enchantment would have helped . Also helps physical crit rate playthroughs and rarely golem spam can be fun fun with the status immunity.
T3
Sanctuary
-status resist, lower upkeep all melee, and super spelljammer
T4
Mirror
-clone spell had more value for mama than almost everything. Mimic is alright but not mind-blowing.
T5
Creator
- Best attack all spell in game and you can make leader bigger than dragons.

[Dorael021]

Tier 1 is enchantment, faith, third place would be the beasts tome. All 3 are good for early game power spike. Faith imo is one of the best due to convent.

Tier 2 would be inquisition, artificing, and revelry. inquisition gives the tribunal, which is huge with convent. great for early game knowledge/mana boost which helps set the tone for later turns. artificing has amazing buffs and good defensive structure if you're under threat.

Tier 3 would be teleportation as the best, but there's a lot of good ones. mass recall is really useful tho.

Tier 4-5 are honestly all viable at that stage lol