Which schools of magic are aligned with Academy?

[Dieter]

I am just starting to play with Academy on single player maps. Which schools of magic are associated with the Wizards?

What ability/skill do you opt for when levelling, ideally?

[Alamar]

IIRC Light & Summoning are aligned with Academy.

The skills that I take and decide to max out depend on the hero that I'm using [their starting skills and bonuses will give me a hint as to which way to go].

BTW: The below is for a 20th or so level hero.

Basically I think that Logistics is virtually a no-brainer esp. against the AI. There are simply times where you'll need to move as fast or faster than the AI controlled heroes so it's necessary. Pathfinding is the obvious ability to take once you have Logistics.

I will often try to take both Light Magic & Summonning simply because Mass Haste, Mass Bless, Mass Righteous Might, Resurrection, Phantom Forces, Summon Phoenix, etc. are all HIGHLY useful spells if you can get them. The abilities that I take under LIGHT & Summonning depend on the spells that I know. For example if I have Haste & Righteous Might then I tend towards Master of Wrath. If I have Summon Elemental & Summon Phoenix then I'm going to lean towards something like Master of Conjuration to improve those spells.

Because I will generally have more mana than spells that I can cast I want to cast them quickly so somthing like Sorcery would also be a good skill.

At this point [based on your starting skills] you may be out of things to take. If you have skill slots left over then practically anything could be OK under the proper circumstances.

BTW: The only way that I find that I can expand fairly quickly in the first couple of weeks is to get Master Gremlins & Golems as soon as possible. Against ground pounding melee units there's a good chance that you can use the MG's resurrect ability on the Golems to make sure that your losses are either 0 or very close to zero. Sometimes this trick will also work against flying units as long as they can only reach the golems.

If it weren't for this tactic [cheesy though it may be] Academy would be a horrible faction but if you're lucky on the stacks guarding items your may be able to keep up with the other factions in a large game.

Mod note: Edit button...

[Campaigner]

I haven't gotted to the Academy campaign yet but this is what I would take in a custom/MP scenario:

Light Magic, Sorcery, Attack and Luck
The last skillslot you can fill with either Leadership, Logistics or Enlightenment.

Light magic are very powerful in an army that gets to see much action with many stacks in a battle. Mass Haste, Mass Righteous Might and Mass Divine Strength will make your Master Gremlins, Archmages and Titans deal terrible damage.


Attack with it's subskills Battle Frenzy and Archery makes your Master Gremlins and to a lesser extent, Archmages and Titans to do more damage. Also helps your Rakshassas a bit.

Sorcery is an absolute MUST for a dedicated mage! The ability to quickly get Mass Haste/Righteous Might/Divine Strenght up and running is great. It will also ensure that you will never run out of mana. (Take these abilities when you need them though)

Luck is overpowered and is crushingly powerful with a strong army. Imagine those Master Gremlins with Mass Haste/Righteous Might/Divine Strenght/Battle Frenzy and Archery get in a lucky shot! I dare say that any neutral stack will get crippled. (Now imagine the clone of the Master Gremlins get a lucky shot too ^^)

You don't need Summoning magic since you can get Phantom Forces (and Earthquake) with Magic Insight from Sorcery.[/u]

[MrSteamTank]

I haven't gotted to the Academy campaign yet but this is what I would take in a custom/MP scenario:

Light Magic, Sorcery, Attack and Luck
The last skillslot you can fill with either Leadership, Logistics or Enlightenment.

Light magic are very powerful in an army that gets to see much action with many stacks in a battle. Mass Haste, Mass Righteous Might and Mass Divine Strength will make your Master Gremlins, Archmages and Titans deal terrible damage.


Attack with it's subskills Battle Frenzy and Archery makes your Master Gremlins and to a lesser extent, Archmages and Titans to do more damage. Also helps your Rakshassas a bit.

Sorcery is an absolute MUST for a dedicated mage! The ability to quickly get Mass Haste/Righteous Might/Divine Strenght up and running is great. It will also ensure that you will never run out of mana. (Take these abilities when you need them though)

Luck is overpowered and is crushingly powerful with a strong army. Imagine those Master Gremlins with Mass Haste/Righteous Might/Divine Strenght/Battle Frenzy and Archery get in a lucky shot! I dare say that any neutral stack will get crippled. (Now imagine the clone of the Master Gremlins get a lucky shot too ^^)

You don't need Summoning magic since you can get Phantom Forces (and Earthquake) with Magic Insight from Sorcery.[/u]

Phantom forces is such an incredibly broken ability it definitely needs to be fixed. I wouldn't even consider phantom forces as a balancing factor for the academy faction considering its broken state.

I hope that nival realizes how ridiculous this ability is. I'd like to see phantom forces grant something like 200 hp worth of units + 100 hp per spell power point. This way you can't simply clone 150 arch-mages every single turn with a hero that has under 5 spell power.

[Alamar]

I haven't gotted to the Academy campaign yet but this is what I would take in a custom/MP scenario:

Light Magic, Sorcery, Attack and Luck
The last skillslot you can fill with either Leadership, Logistics or Enlightenment.

Light magic are very powerful in an army that gets to see much action with many stacks in a battle. Mass Haste, Mass Righteous Might and Mass Divine Strength will make your Master Gremlins, Archmages and Titans deal terrible damage.


Attack with it's subskills Battle Frenzy and Archery makes your Master Gremlins and to a lesser extent, Archmages and Titans to do more damage. Also helps your Rakshassas a bit.

Sorcery is an absolute MUST for a dedicated mage! The ability to quickly get Mass Haste/Righteous Might/Divine Strenght up and running is great. It will also ensure that you will never run out of mana. (Take these abilities when you need them though)

Luck is overpowered and is crushingly powerful with a strong army. Imagine those Master Gremlins with Mass Haste/Righteous Might/Divine Strenght/Battle Frenzy and Archery get in a lucky shot! I dare say that any neutral stack will get crippled. (Now imagine the clone of the Master Gremlins get a lucky shot too ^^)

You don't need Summoning magic since you can get Phantom Forces (and Earthquake) with Magic Insight from Sorcery.[/u]

Phantom forces is such an incredibly broken ability it definitely needs to be fixed. I wouldn't even consider phantom forces as a balancing factor for the academy faction considering its broken state.

I hope that nival realizes how ridiculous this ability is. I'd like to see phantom forces grant something like 200 hp worth of units + 100 hp per spell power point. This way you can't simply clone 150 arch-mages every single turn with a hero that has under 5 spell power.

I agree that Phantom Forces as it stands now is terribly broken. IMHO I think that the Incorporeal Ability, stacks getting full mana, stacks getting full shots, stacks getting relatively high starting intiative, no cap on the number of creatures copied, etc. all make the spell more worthy of being 4th or 5th level instead of 3rd.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

Firewall is an underpowered spell. Drop it to level 3 and raise phantom forces to level 4. That would prevent a heroe from geting the spell unless he takes summoning for a skill.

Remember that the stack that can be cloned depends on the heroes summoning skill. Also if the stack takes any damage at all it disappears.

Phantom forces should remain a powerful spell. It is one of the few useful spells in the summoning school. There are a number of powerful spells in the game.

GOW

[shone976]

Here is the list:

Academy: Light and Summoning
Dungeon: Destructive and Summoning
Haven: Dark and Light
Inferno: Dark and Destructive
Necropolis: Dark and Summoning
Sylvan: Destructive and Light

The other slots choose by your playing style.


Luckz...

[Dieter]

Thanks for the list!

What exactly does it mean that the schools are aligned anyway? Does it only affect which spells appear in your starting city, or other things as well? I know that the chances of the different schools appearing is different for various races, but anything else?

Is there always three schools being offered? Is one offered in all?

Thanks for your help!

[Alamar]

Thanks for the list!

What exactly does it mean that the schools are aligned anyway?

What this means is that 1 spell from each aligned school is guaranteed to appear on every level of your mage guild. Note there are EXACTLY 2 aligned schools of magic with each town.

For example Necropolis castle type will have summonning & dark as their aligned schools of magic. So it is guaranteed that you one spell from each of these schools in your spell tower. I.E. the spells at 3rd circle from your mage guild will be [Phantom Forces or Earthquake] and [Confusion or Suffering] and [1 random spell from either the Light or Destruction school]

Does it only affect which spells appear in your starting city, or other things as well?
[/ quote]

Spell school alignment effects each town on the map. It doesn't matter if it is your starting town, a neutral town, an AI controlled town, etc.

I know that the chances of the different schools appearing is different for various races, but anything else?

The only other thing that I suspect happens is that heros that are natural to that town type are more likely to be given the chance to learn spells from aligned schools than non-aligned schools during level ups.

Is there always three schools being offered? Is one offered in all?

I don't think that I understand you. There are 4 total magic schools. Each town is aligned with two and only two schools of magic. No town is aligned with 3 or 4 schools of magic.

I hope that helps.