Best empire mages

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Playing ME Karl franz, and im surprised that i actually like the grey wizard, i thought he would be all illusion and buffing your own allies and debuffing enemys, but i found his penduilum spell extremely strong, a lot better than the bright wizard i got last time i played.

So now i built a wizard concalve and have access to gelt and his boys, i wanna put a mage is every army i got, so what is the generally considered best wizard to have?

[The Mighty Mulletman]

It depends on your army's tactics. Jade is always good.

[Fiona]

Personally I like Shadows. That map-wide speed buff is cool to me. Not to mention the Pendulum and Pit of Shades.

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Originally posted by The Mighty MulletMan:

It depends on your army's tactics. Jade is always good.

Yeah right now i just have general armies, Just swords spears corssbows and a few artys.

[Commissar_Carne]

i pefer the light wizard because net, the buffs he gives are really good as well and alot of people underestimate the basic missile's as well which can cause alot of damage to elite units

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Originally posted by Beatrix Brehme:

Personally I like Shadows. That map-wide speed buff is cool to me. Not to mention the Pendulum and Pit of Shades.

This is exactly what i was thinking, vortex's are nice, but i think id like one that doesn't move into my own line :D.

[Flharfh]

I think the best ones are those with a strong area-target nuke, so fire, celestial, grey, jade. They are easy to use and work in any situation. I find amber to be just meh and I dislike bright - they are a one trick pony with net and it requires a specific army composition, handgunners/artillery to really use optimally.

[Corvus]

Really depends on who you're likely to face.


Light Wizards are probably the best, mostly because Net of Amyntok is absurdly good, and Banishment is a nice Vortex spell. Really though, it's mostly Net of Amyntok, it's just so good.

Celestial is actually my favorite, even though it's perhaps a little less ubiquitous. Still, Comet of Cassandora is a lot of fun if you use it right, Chain Lightning can be potent at times (especially if you have a Light Wizard dropping Net of Amyntok), and Urannion's Thunderbolt is just fantastic over all. Plus, the passive Roiling Skies is great if you want to weaken fliers, so bring a Celestial against Bretonnia. Also, it's arguably more lore-appropriate to give Karl Franz a Celestial Wizard.

Lore of Metal (Balthasar Gelt basically) is well suited for heavy armor and not much else, so Chaos and Dwarves. Emphasize Transmutation of Lead, Gehenna's Golden Hounds, I personally find those the most useful.

Fire is a very dependable, powerful staple, and Flaming Sword of Rhuin is glorius to use, expecially on artillery. Also easily the best for Wood Elves, Vampires, anything that regenerates, etc.

Life/Jade wizards are another excellent mainstay for just about any situation, just because the ability to replenish hit points is very good.

You already know just how strong Shadows can be with the Pendulum Spell. Well, Pit of Shades can be pretty awesome too.

Lore of Beasts I've never had a chance to use properly. I know that Flock of Doom is useful, and Amber Spear is insanely good (roughly on par with Shadow's pendulum). Not really sure who to use this against though.

[Aenarion]

Gelt is the best empire mage :)

Originally posted by Corvus917:

Lore of Beasts I've never had a chance to use properly. I know that Flock of Doom is useful, and Amber Spear is insanely good (roughly on par with Shadow's pendulum). Not really sure who to use this against though.

One nice thing about beasts is that the default spell is a very worthwhile combat buff rather than the waste of power damage spells you get with life and light. So even a level 2 mage can be somewhat useful. I also think the amber spear is pretty good for a direct damage spell, and highly spammable, so you can rack up a couple of hundred kills with it; the best target is armoured infantry IMO. It's just that with the AI's current blobbing mentality you can do more with AoE damage spells, and flock is not as damaging as alternatives in other lores. The main selling point for the lore is summoning a manticore, which I'm still experimenting with, but I can see it's potentially a game changer.

Still, for now I'd say life and light are the key lores due to their battle defining spells that have no equivalent in other empire lores - heals and net. They also have solid defensive buffs and strong area of effect spells so really they're the complete package.

[Hugh de Salle]

Gelt is crap just use light and heavens mages all your ever need.

[Kaaz]

i like fire personally

[Wyvern]

One of the things to keep in mind about amber mages is that they can get a gryphon mount, which means stupid combat stats, fear, terror and oodles of HP. Theyre honestly a monster of a combat unit in their own right, and still have respectable spells to choose from.

For pure magic, you usually want lores with a big, high damage vortex/direct damage to choose from, since you can bait most AI factions to surround your lord with their melee, then nuke them into oblivion with a vortex.

Heavens is good for Windblast and chainlightning, and the buffs arent terrible.

Jade is good for the two heals and dwellers below(though awakening of the wood is actually decent vs clumped up trash units in early game)

Metal on Gelt is actually pretty good, searing doom got its damage buffed, the buffs/debuffs are decent and transmutation of lead is still rather powerful.

Light has a cool net spell, which syncs wonderfully with shooting/cav heavy armies, some nice buffs and banishment. The main problem is that the missiles and unbreakable are both kinda bad.

Fire has some good damage spells, and vs AI all are functional, plus a lot of them apply the burnt debuff.

Shades has always been a bit of a jack of all trades lore, with all of the magics having a place but none quite as spectacular as what you can get with some individual spells in other lores.

Amber mages dont have any spectacular spells, but you can spawn 2 manticores, and mount your mage on a gryphon, and have solid buffs, and have flock of doom to beat up chaff infantry.

Vs humans its a bit different, but vs AI just about anything works, and it depends a lot on the flavor of your army.

[gachi is manly]

Beast is extremely powerful and versatile.

[Aenarion]

Which spells should I skill first for heavens?

[Corvus]

Originally posted by rymeintrinseca:

Which spells should I skill first for heavens?

Harmonic Convergence is always powerful. Urannon's Thunderbolt is great if you need armour-piercing damage. Curse of the MIdnight Wind is a potent debuff if you need to compensate for a lack of armor piercing on your units. And Roiling Skies can be a nice attribute if you're up against fliers. Wind blast a bit meh.

After you get to Evasion, pick up Earthing first since you want to overcast your existing spells. That's about all I can think of.

[Wyvern]

Windblast is actually stupid good if you can aim it properly. It can bring a unit of swordmasters down to ~50% hp in a single overcast, and will actually mess up blobs pretty well too.