Academy Skills advice

[Axem]

I playing on a huge map, Playground of the Gods, with Academy and Jhora at level 15. I haven't used Academy that much so I'm not really sure which skill to go with next, if I get a choice.

Here's what I have so far,

Expert Artificer
Basic Attack
Advanced Destructive Magic
Advanced Logistics
Advanced Sorcery

I was thinking of Luck or Summoning Magic. This is a tough map and I'd appreciate any thoughts from Academy players.

[Jolly Joker]

You need more magic, so either Light or Summoning.

[Corelanis]

Id say go summoning its funner than lightmagic and better imho.

[Odish]

How do you know which magic school will you get from the library each level? if I got dark in lvl 3 will I get dark up to lvl 5?

[Elvin]

In every mage guild level you will get a light and summoning spell as you probably know. The other 2 are random so you may get one destructive and one dark or 2 of the same school. You cannot get another from light or summoning.

The skills I usually pick are sorcery(for fast casting as a compensation for poor spellpower), enlightenment(for extra knowledge which improves the arties, plus the power stats that are always welcome) and 2 magic schools. Summoning is the first and the second can be either, depends. The rule is that is you get slow dark will pay off anyway, light is good but a knight can be just as effective with it(:()-still you can get a perk for doubling his light spells cost and destructive is better for medium maps, not endgame. If you go fully magic it can deal adequate damage with mark of the wizard.
Also you may choose to get warmachines as the bonus to knowledge from enlightenment makes the ballista quite good.
Luck can help, mostly due to resourcefulness and logistics always work, however I prefer 2 schools with enlightenment/sorcery cause you can specialize in them and have a better efficiency in battles. The units aren't too strong so you need the magic and with 2 schools you can aid them best. In larger maps I may even get a third.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

I playing on a huge map, Playground of the Gods, with Academy and Jhora at level 15. I haven't used Academy that much so I'm not really sure which skill to go with next, if I get a choice.

Here's what I have so far,

Expert Artificer
Basic Attack
Advanced Destructive Magic
Advanced Logistics
Advanced Sorcery

I was thinking of Luck or Summoning Magic. This is a tough map and I'd appreciate any thoughts from Academy players.

Welcome to the wonderful world of wizardry, the class Nival loves to hate on!

You have spread your skills too thin. (your only expert skill is in artificer, which you can't use, you have 3xadvanced, 1xbasic)

This is my approach to playing a wizard:

Artificer: The wizard's racial skill. You are usually forced to take it to expert level early. The skill is poorly designed currently. Try to hold off developing it as long as possible unless forced to take crap skills otherwise since you won't be making artifacts for a loooong time unless playing on a resource rich map with piles of resources at your castle door.

Grab mark of wizard as soon as it is offered. Usually you should try to avoid magic mirror early on. Avoid Consume artifact at all costs unless you can actually make artifacts first.

Lots of maps give away one of the wizard's special buildings, artificact merchant so you probably don't need to build it. Besides that you probably can't afford to buy artifacts for a good while.

Capture the ore mine as early as possible because you'll need about 3000000000000000000 tons of it.

The best shot a wizard has (and it is a crap shot) is a multimagic rush strategy.

MMR means you will build up your mage guild and magic skills first, having to put off creature dewllings for a while and hope you don't get a poor selection of spells or you're screwed.

Sorcery : take it to expert asap, but take one desired magic shool if offered before you get it there.) Your low level troops are weak. You have little attack/defence and your spell power leaves something to be desired. You need to be able to cast spells as quickly as possible. You are a wizard. Nival hates you, and intends to keep you down. Just accept it.

Summoning: This is the wizard's main school, and the best school for him, even though it is the weakest. When not playing a wizard that already has a magic school I take this next if possible(or while developing sorcery if offered it.) Getting fire trap early can help immensely against walkers if you develop summoning. Wasp swarm is also a great spell with MOTW and will be a backbone spell for you if you develop summoning. And you can hope for phantom forces.

Enlightenment: Your spell power needs all the boost it can get. You want to get this to expert though you'll want to develop a secondary magic school while doing so. Extra knowledge will also help the warmachines skill (balista) if you chose to take war machines.

Another magic school. Look at what spells are in your guild and chose based on that if you are able. Dark magic can be a great choice for **mass slow**, beserk, puppetmaster. Mass slow is so godly that you may want to take dark magic just for that.

That leaves you one more choice.

If you got hosed on summoning and dark magic, pick another school.

Light magic really ain't that great for a wizard. You'll have fewer troops than everyone else since you had to use MMR so getting your gremlins and gargoyles and deathly ill djiin hasted really won't help a lot. If you get resurrection it can help to preserve the higher level troops when you do manage to get some.

Destruction magic. Ususally a better choice thatn light. With MOTW it is servicable.

So if you didn't hae to pick a third magic choice you get to pick something else or just pick another magic school anyways.

On a large map without roads or with lots of rough terrain a good choice is logistics.

Warmachines with catapult can help you in sieges. Not to break through the walls but to take out the towers that wiped out your puny djiin in a turn or two and have started on your mages/gremlins. Don't carry a ballista with you if you use blind or puppetmaster though or you'll dispel your own spell (by damaging the unit under the spell.)

luck: skip it. It is too late for resourcefulness to help you and you probably have a clover or horseshoe and there are usually luck power up scattered around.

Attack. An option for archery to go with gremlins/mages/titans.

Just remember two things. Nival hates you. Artificer is just there so Nival can say you have a racial skill.

GOW

[Elvin]

Right as usual However the wizard can still be a formidable class even with all his flaws.

[Caradoc]

I usually take Attack for the Archery/Flaming Arrows/Cold Steel progression, keeping open the option to go for the Ultimate, which is damned good. The Gremmies get an early boost and the Ice damage is a great bonus later. I don't take War Machines, but the Flaming Arrows are nice to have. (As opposed to Sylvan's powerful Triple-Imbued-Flaming Ballista. Yee Hah!)

And have you noticed how generally odd the Wizard's skill tree is? There's only one Leadership perk, Artificial Glory, which requires Estates. Yukko. And the Destructive Magic perks come from the Artificer skill rather than the Destructive abilities. How weird is that?

[Apocalypse]

And the Destructive Magic perks come from the Artificer skill rather than the Destructive abilities. How weird is that?

I'm not 100% sure I understand you, but if I do there are much more abilities like that:

- Dead Man's Curse for Necro
- Secrets of Destruction for Warlock
- Weakening Strike for Inferno
- and MUCH more (can't remember exactly, but I'm 100% sure there are much more)

[BoardGuest808888]

IRT Axem

No matter what, I think it's better a magic skill. You can choose Dark/Summoning/Light, a wizard with only 1 magic school didn't look like a wizard huh ? And you're not going to rely upon your sheer might anyway. Also better if you refer to spells available in your mage guild. You'd know what spells you're going to use most. You can expert at that spell's school.

[Caradoc]

IRT Axem

No matter what, I think it's better a magic skill. You can choose Dark/Summoning/Light, a wizard with only 1 magic school didn't look like a wizard huh ? And you're not going to rely upon your sheer might anyway. Also better if you refer to spells available in your mage guild. You'd know what spells you're going to use most. You can expert at that spell's school.

Don't overlook that Magic Insight provides access to third level spells across the board. Those, plus Expert Summoning, are enough to keep my Wizard busy, I've found.

[Axem]

I usually take Attack for the Archery/Flaming Arrows/Cold Steel progression, keeping open the option to go for the Ultimate, which is damned good. The Gremmies get an early boost and the Ice damage is a great bonus later. I don't take War Machines, but the Flaming Arrows are nice to have. (As opposed to Sylvan's powerful Triple-Imbued-Flaming Ballista. Yee Hah!)

And have you noticed how generally odd the Wizard's skill tree is? There's only one Leadership perk, Artificial Glory, which requires Estates. Yukko. And the Destructive Magic perks come from the Artificer skill rather than the Destructive abilities. How weird is that?

Yeah, I'm liking the Archery/Flaming Arrows. Looking forward to hopefully getting Cold Steel too.

One question, I've found the Phoenix Feather Cape which increases fire-based spells by 50%. Does this effect the mage fire spells too or only ones cast by the hero? I haven't been able to find any decent fire spells yet for my hero. If it's not helping my mages I'll put something else in that slot for now.

[watcher83]

summoning magic - master of conjuration - banish - wall of fog

[Elvin]

One question, I've found the Phoenix Feather Cape which increases fire-based spells by 50%. Does this effect the mage fire spells too or only ones cast by the hero? I haven't been able to find any decent fire spells yet for my hero. If it's not helping my mages I'll put something else in that slot for now.

That affects only the hero just like master of fire. If you didn't get fireball(I suppose you've built library?) then the next spell is at lvl 5, the armageddon. Also firewall is considered fire but it's in the summoning section(lvl 4) so you'll need to get advanced summoning to learn it.

[Axem]

Yeah, I built the library but still didn't get fireball. I just took another Academy town so hopefully I'll get fireball there.