Light or Destructive magic for (long) Sylvan games?

[Campaigner]

I've restarted the Sylvan campaign because I simply can't decide which route to pursue. Avenger, Attack, Luck, Leadership, Warmachines are clear choices for me. The magic choice though, changes much of things.
I've been leaning towards Light Magic since I figure it useful to boost my Master Hunters and Elder Druids but I'm getting more and more in favor of Destructive Magic since it seems so effective.

Does Rain of Arrows attack ALL enemy stacks or just the ones selected in your Avengers Guild?

Will Rain of Arrows imbued with a spell drain mana for every stack the spell gets casted on?

[Kalah]

Basically the Sylvan units are so powerful that you won't need to boost them, so you might as well spend your hero's turn casting something nasty on the opposition. One problem might be bad spells cast by your opposition on your creatures, making them less effective, and thus making the Light magic option favourable. Also, in order to make destructive magic effective and doing a lot of damage, you need to specialize in the magic section and I don't think you should do that.

[Gus]

yes and yes.

EDIT: i disagree with Kalah. If you do reach your goal of Imbue Arrow + Imbue Ballista, and that you combine it with Desrtuctive Magic + Fire Mastery + Ice/Lightning Mastery, then it becomes deadly. You can reduce the armour of virtually every unit in the field, and then, every time you hit them, you take away a bit of initiative. sounds alright to me.

[Omega_Destroyer]

I used light magic and breezed through the campaign. Mass Haste, Righteous Might, Divine Might, and Resurrection make an army very dangerous.

[Alamar]

My preference is for light magic when the army sizes are large. I esp. don't care for destructive magic when SP is low like Sylvan's.

I couldn't argue with something like triple ballista, imbue ballista, rain of arrows, etc. being nice though .. you can make up for quality with quantity.

[Nebs]

With having War Machines, I'd go with Destructive Magic. Though, would also ditch Luck and Leadership for Logistics and Light Magic. But, I guess, it's certainly worth a try to play with your selection.

[cornellian]

I think luck should never ever be ditched for something else, as it is extremely powerful now, quite possibly the best skill tree in the game.

My Findan had luck, defence, attack, avenger, light, summon and he cruised his way through the missions; and in the last two maps only he succeeded in the battles where the other heroes failed to win.

Imbue arrow and implosions have great eye candy value but if you're not going to have 20+ spellpower (you can, if you be patient), then you might want to have light magic, for the fourth(?) mission many seem to have problems with, if not for anything else...

[Gaidal Cain]

The damage done by destructive magic is probably not worth it. The bonus effect from the abilities might very well be, though. Light magic is perfect with large armies and not very high spellpower. War Machines is perhaps only really useful if you plan on taking imbue ballista, so you need either Destructive or Dark Magic to go with it.

[thecheese]

I second the notion on keeping luck, especially for Sylvan. Soldier's luck for Sylvan units (warding arrow, blind) and elven luck are insane.

[Rainalkar]

Imo Light Magic is generaly better, it is usualy rather difficult and risky to go for imbue ballista considering you need a lot of prerequesits. However, the stun/freeze/armor reducing effect of destruction magic is extraordinary and should not be neglected.

[Alamar]

Imo Light Magic is generaly better, it is usualy rather difficult and risky to go for imbue ballista considering you need a lot of prerequesits. However, the stun/freeze/armor reducing effect of destruction magic is extraordinary and should not be neglected.

True. I played a random Sylvan hero and a witch tent gave me war machines for free. I decided to try out imbue ballista but oddly was NEVER offered ballista the whole game (L25 or so hero vs. AI) ... only 1st aid & catapult.

[Campaigner]

I 've been thinking alot and I'll go for Light Magic this time and imbue the Ballista instead (compromisses at its best....) I think it'll work out just fine

[Nebs]

Heh, but with what you'll imbue it? Not much choices there...Lightning and Ice bolt, Wasp Swarm, Spikes...

[Campaigner]

Heh, but with what you'll imbue it? Not much choices there...Lightning and Ice bolt, Wasp Swarm, Spikes...

Ice Bolt. Most powerful lvl 2 spell there is. Sure it would be more useful with Ice Mastery and would also ensure that that stack would never go but I wonder if it's worth to sacrifice proficiency in light mastery for that.

Do the imbued ballista keep the spell the entire battle btw or would I have to recast it all the time?

[Sir_Toejam]

whatever you imbue with stays for the whole battle, but it will drain your mana as if you cast the spell you imbued with each time you attack, so watch your mana reserves, or bring some elder druids along.

personally, I think it's lame you have to get at least two skills before you can use imbue arrow (deadeye or rain).

makes no sense at all to me.

I just started the Sylvan campaign and am going with:

light
dest
logistics
luck

Normally i would have picked summoning instead for the phantom spell, (double up those archers), but I got sick of doing that in the warlock campaign.

[Caradoc]

I go for Light. The Destructive spells you need for Imbue Arrow are already available at the basic level, and I find the higher-level area spells are not so useful.

If you must have the area spells, an alternative worth looking at is Sorcery. You get the area destructive spells, Phantom Forces, Righteous Might, and Confusion without having to put in but one level.