qwe50:
I don’t think there are any doubt that death is the best. Only bad spell is number one, rest are really good.
Border Reiver:
I’m going to disagree with you - I find that Shadow has it over Death - the base spell can reduce the combat effectiveness of enemy units and even the buffed version is easy to cast. There are several spells to reduce the effectiveness of combat troops (reductions of S and T), and Okkam’s Mindrazor is amazing with our Ld. And most of the spells can be cast on units in combat.
I find that magic tends to be situational - the metal wizard is going to be crying when the opponent puts a beastman, wood elf or ogre army on the table, and that same wizard and his fire wizard crony are going to cry when the HE player puts down a couple of units of Dragon Knights.
Gar Shadowfame:
Border, when Lotr battle system was introduced, mages there also had a lot of buffs/debuffs but very soon it appeared that Saruman is the best mage, as he can cast X magic bolts per turn.
Also shadow lore bonus efect is weak, sorry but a PD during magic phase (on 5+) per wound inflicted is more powerfull.
Border Reiver:
Maybe it’s my experience, but having used the basic Shadow Lore spell to make Swordmasters M3, WS 3, BS 3 (granted this wasn’t much ofa penalty), and I 3 and one of the other spells to make that same unit S1 it can grow on you. The Shadow Lore is fairly easy to cast, and can be used at all times, while Death’s magic missiles require you to be out of combat.
Loki:
i like fire and metal for my two mages, i find it gives a nice blend of spells and differnt things to do rather than going with only one law
a.wagg:
Even in friendly games it helps. Say some one was bring WoC, I for one would probably take metal because Chaos Knights vs. signature metal spell is a good thing. Anyways you pick the lore, metal, and then after he’s done you find that there is one unit of chaos warriors on the table, the rest marauders, making metal a very bad choice. If this happens you can’t just switch to death, which i think is best against marauder hordes with character sniping and Doom and Darkness which is great against LD. 7 Marauders. Also PS is good… I3.
zhatan87:
I have tried 3 of the 4 lores available :
Death : good lore : many spells to shot characters or monsters. To me, only the first one and the purple sun can be forgotten (I prefer not to take the PS in case of misfire, with our beautiful Init:)) Signature spell is good against monster.
Not mention of the attribute of the lore which is very nice! CDs don’t have access to item which grant power dices…
Metal : good lore again : many ameliorations or maledictions, the signature spell is always good : almost all the armies have a miniature with a 4+ or 3+ armour save… And flamming attacks…
Shadow : pretty disapointed after test. Be able to move our sorcerer doesn’t have use very often. Yes, some spells can be cast easily, but the 6 is high to cast. Should try another time but the lore attribute has very occasional use… Signature spell is also nice, like the metal and death lores.
Fire : don’t try.
So, to me, the level 4 should take death lore then shadow lore, and the level 2 metal lore. Difficult to be sure for the level 4 choice…
Fequiil:
i’d say fire or shadow if you’d ask me.
Da Crusha:
after doing a bunch of play testing I have to say that I think Lore of shadow and death is the best. well, actually I never tried metal but its so situational. yesterday I used shadow and death together. first I lowered Initiative and then I pit of shades 8 out of 9 grail knights and a level 4 sorceress :mad. then I used the death wizard to snipe the BSB.