Favorite Spell List

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This is a good game, and this section of the boards deserves a bit more life... but I'm also very curious as to what spell combos other players are using. While I don't have a favorite myself just yet, I'm pretty happy with what I have so far.

I took Telekinesis because of Force Field and Crushing Prison (to save party members and disable opponents). Crushing Prison also works well with Cold spells, which I leave to Morrigan. Morrigan also has the Telekinesis spells, so I can keep disabling one or two opponents as long as they don't resist it (the debuffs also don't last very long on bosses).
I also took Death (Good AoE/Mana Regen, Animate Dead), Mana Alteration (more mana, anti-spellcaster and Spell Might) and Hexes (best debuffs).
I left the "serious" nuking to Morrigan, and let Wynne focus on healing/support so I can switch them around depending on what I need.
I also took the Shapeshifting specialization for versatility, shattering more frozen opponents with bear's Slam and for doing hit-and-runs or setting up ambushes with the spider. The Swarm is great for getting around and killing non-undead or leading off enemy forces in a wild goose chase (Hexes/Death are good at catching aggro) while my other party members kill off dangerous opponents (like emissaries). Finally I took Blood Magic... didn't go well, wrong stats. Could've been great tho.

 

Blood, blood, blood. Extremely overpowered. The last two spells in that list is really all you need.

 

It's too bad it's premium content though. I don't think everyone uses it. Or were you referring to Blood Mage spells?
I was under the impression most people went for Storm of the Century and went pure primal spells + Spell Might or something. The Wards spells also seem to be reliable.

 

Cone of Cold is so broken pre-1.02 that it's probably the most powerful spell. Cheap to cast, quick cooldown, available early, you really can't go wrong with it. Fireball is very good as a preemptive strike, as it knocks the enemies down even if they take no damage and this buys you some time to either cast another spell at them or for your warriors to start hitting them. Blizzard is powerful if used properly, but the long casting time makes it tricky. Some of the Hexes are also very powerful, but I didn't use them as much. I never took Blood Mage either, but from all reports the top two spells there are very, very powerful (the AoE paralysis is supposed to be one of the best spells). Crushing Prison is great at first, but it eventually gets resisted very often and loses a lot of its punch.

From what I could tell you can't really go wrong with a mage, as every "school" has at least one very good spell. I ended up focusing on the Elemental ones for my PC and Morrigan took all the hexes and curses, and the result was deadly. On some missions I also took Wynne to add to the fun.

 

Of course I meant the vanilla blood, the other isnt a spell list. The blood mass paralysis is instant, does crazy dmg, almost never get resisted and has a cooldown that is short enough that you can use it several times in longer fights.

 

Mana clash is also useful. With a few exceptions, it insta-kills all mages in its area of effect, provided that they didn't use up much of their mana. It pretty much allows you to ignore the anti-magic line and Glyph of Neutralization.

Spoiler

The only one I couldn't kill with this spell was the blood mage from the alienage. I haven't fought Gaxkang yet.

Group heal is also very nice.

Force Field can be (ab)used for tanking. Have a warrior taunt all the enemies, then force field him/her.

 

I use the protection spells; they get really powerful toward the end of the game. My mage was walking around with a 35+AC and 120+ in defense. I didn't raise any stat other than Magic and Will.

Besides that I liked to to use Tempus along with the fire spell that damaged mutiple enemies. I would than throw in some chain lighting and a few other elemental damaging spells. I tried some of the other selections but didn't like them as much as the damaging spells.

My next mage will be a summoning mage with spells that disable my foes.

 

I've been reading about blood magic and people have divided opinions about it. Apparently it is quite powerful, but it has serious downsides.
And since the game's release people are still at it. I might make Morrigan into one on my next run, I really didn't expect blood magic to actually use HP as mana so this time around I'll be prepared.

Haven't tried it yet, stopped at Spell Might. I'm still not sure if I need mana alteration or the anti-magic line more in my next game, especially since I'm having second thoughts on bringing Alistair. I might end up lacking in the damage department.

With just robes? I have try that setup next time. I'm thinking of making an elf mage with mostly cast-and-forget spells for my next run, so I can focus on heal.

I use that tactic a lot, heh. I needed to because I didn't take healing spells for everyone except Wynne.

Animate Dead is basically the only summon, although there is a summoning tree. It's not very powerful by itself though and nature damage doesn't work on undead and constructs, like sleep/confusion and also blood magic, I think. Spell Wisp is great though.

Tempus? And which primary spells do you mean, exactly. It helps to spread what you think are best and why these work better for you than others- although it's true that all "schools" have at least one good spell in them, some may not be up to other people's expectations.

 

It is very powerful indeed, but you only have to use HP to cast blood wound and blood control. You can turn on blood magic right before casting one of them and turn it off immediately afterward.

 

On it. BTW, I forgot to mention Telekinetic Weapons, it's easily one of the most useful buffs in the game especially if you use weapons as much as magic. The effect is not as great for two-handers, but dual-wielders, shield-users and bow-users should easily notice the rise in overall damage.

 

The other day I noticed something about spells that seemed more than just coincidence. It seems that each of the spell "trees" were somehow designed with a specific specialization in mind, or perhaps vice versa (this, more likely), since each tree somehow caters to all the needs of a particular specialization.

The Primal Spells, for example, consists of lots of cast-and-forget spells, only a few useful sustained spells and more than its share of damaging+crowd control spells. This makes it perfect for the Shapeshifter, who cannot be bothered with casting very specific spells. Freezing/Petrify + Stonefirst/Bear Form Slam is always nice, AoE spells galore + Spider Form to keep them inside is very nice and the Fireball, Earthquake and Chain Lightning spells are ideal for setting up the Flying Swarm (the thing seems to be either immune to knockdown, or it's damage aura continues to function even when it lies disabled). You also need a very high base spellpower to make Shapeshifter work (the forms improve only every 10 base spellpower or so, according to wiki) so primal suits it just fine.

The Creation Spells obviously work best for the Spirit Healer, with a grand total of 3 mana regen spells, lots of protection spells, a single inexpensive spellpower-boosting sustained spell and cast-and-forget crowd control/damaging spells (all of it are cast-and-forget types, in fact).

The Arcane Warrior closely relates to the Spirit Spells. Spirit gives Force Field - a spell every mage who wants to stand in front and abandon his other mage-ly duties should consider; Telekinetic Weapons, which the AW should find useful because he doesn't have skills to boost armor penetration on his own (which means his attacks would normally suck against heavily armored opponents); a few very powerful crowd control and damaging spells; anti-magic/mage spells (AW's love to stay in front, so they might as well be protected from spells too) and a spell any mage who has to sacrifice quite a bit of his damage potential would appreciate - Animate Dead, which allows you to add an extra tanker, rogue or spellcaster as you see fit. The tree also has two powerful mana-recovery spells, something a mage with high fatigue (as a result of wearing heavy armor) should appreciate, and the most powerful spellpower-boosting sustained spell - which is worthwhile because although the AW doesn't nuke much, he'd at least better make it count when he has to.

Finally the Entropy Spells seem to be ideal for the Blood Mage. For one thing, most items that boost Blood Magic grant bonuses tp spirit damage (and indeed the Blood Magic spells themselves deal Spirit Damage). Now it so happens that almost all the damage from this tree just happens to be spirit damage type. The tree also offers some of the most powerful debuffs and disables in the game, which Blood Mages should appreciate since it allows them to deal with enemies quickly and so with as little personal risk as possible. It also has two nice life recovery spells, very useful to keep your health up so you're in top shape when the time comes to activate blood magic.

Of course, since you can take two specializations and there are other factors to consider like stats, items and party composition going "pure" might be counter-productive in the end, but some direction as to which spells work best for whom is always nice. This is all just a theory btw, but "one happy coincidence" at that. It's something work considering, at the very least.

 

Mana Clash is worth taking, you will be nuking high level mages for 800+ damage later on.

The glyph tree is also very nice. It's fun paralyzing dragons with glyph of paralysis and sealing enemies in a room with glyph of repulsion

 

I'm all about the Arcane Warrior...so sustainable spells are a must. The spells I find myself using most often are:

Combat Magic
Arcane Shield
Rock Armor
Flaming Weapons
Miasma

Once my AW is in the midst of battle, I'll often use the following
Cone of Cold
Paralyze
Mass Paralysis
Crushing Prison
Force Field

 

Been testing the Blood Mage spells. Can't say I'm overly impressed with the last two although Blood Magic itself is amazing (mana = sustained, hp = casting) and Blood Sacrifice is very useful (free 100 point heal). I might make a true Blood Mage soon instead of giving Blood Mage to Morrigan as a secondary specialization.

Walking Bomb and Virulent Walking Bomb are not working as well as I hoped this run, might consider making a Spirit AW next run. Virulent Walking Bomb is very difficult to set up (it insta-aggros anything to your mage, so when the monster explodes it usually right next to your party), so it's probably best used by an AW who can cast it from the front and use anti-magic spells to protect himself. In my present games even when I get it working right the chain of explosions usually ends up killing my tanker (hard difficulty, and my casters have higher spellpower this game).

Still haven't tried the creation spells, really need to test out Wynne more often. Recently I've started to like the Spirit Healer spells almost as much as the Shapeshifter spells. I'm not a fan of Heal (I've never really appreciated the spell, but I've been relying on poultices and potions ever since I started playing so there's a bit of bias) but with the Spirit Healer spells even your nuker can help bring your party back from the brink even as he continues to do his job. I'm all for that kind of added support.

 

You don't like the later Blood Magic spells? Blood Wound is one of the best spells in the game! Think of it like Crushing Prison with a blast radius.

 

How high is the AW AC with Rock Armor and a good set of armor?

 

It's a good spell, but not what I expected. I play on the PC btw, so my battles are heavy on tactics.
First off it doesn't work against everything. Undead, Spirits, some demons and constructs are immune to it. It's not as powerful as Crushing Prison (with around half duration and damage), it needs line-of-sight targeting (Crushing Prison can be cast from safety), it doesn't cast immediately (caster has to eject a grease-like projectile which needs to hit the ground first, while Crushing Prison is cast instantly) and I am currently using all the wrong spells to go with it.
That doesn't mean I don't see a lot of potential for the spell. It doesn't hurt allies, it damages as well as incapacitates (one of the very few spells that do so), and it has great combo potential. Which is why I'll probably be making a true Blood Mage character in my next run.

 

Oh, I play on the PC as well. Yeah, it does have some disadvantages, I was simply surprised that you didn't like it- incapacitating a mob allows your party to concentrate on the important enemies (mages, for example) and thus have an easier time. In fact, I would generally say that there aren't any spells that don't go with it- I really found it that useful. But fair enough- YMMV and all that stuff.

 

We'll see after I finish this run. I'll be visiting Warden's Keep early with my Blood Mage, so I get the most out of the specialization early (Avernus has a lot stuff that improves Blood Magic).

 

Been working a lot with the primal spells lately and after lots of battles and testing I must say that you really need Force Field + a warrior with Taunt to make these spells work. Not to mention Mind Blast (Force Field prereq) works well on just about anything and also lowers aggro. Once you have both though the primal spells practically own everything by themselves. You don't even need the Hexes to make them work, although you can just have Morrigan/Wynne cast those for you if you want. Fireball reliably takes 1/3-1/4 off enemy HP and works with Earthquake for a quick AoE disable that only leaves warriors immune to knockdown standing. Follow with Blizzard + Tempest or Inferno + Tempest (against undead in particular) for good results. Chain Lightning is very useful when you don't want to risk Friendly Fire, it seems the tooltip is wrong. Cone of Cold, Shock and Flame Blast can be cast in quick succession for good damage. Early on I just relied on the fire spells line and Force Field, and that went very well. Petrify is situational, but is reliable against most mages and can occasionally be gambled with.
I took Shapeshifter since I figured I really didn't need anything else and it was indeed a match made in heaven. I throw nukes, use a lyrium pot and throw a few more, change forms and tank/AoE/draw aggro/ambush/etc., and change back when my nukes were ready again. I actually took a level of AW to get Combat Magic just so I can use better armor on my Shapeshifter (as an alternate set), and since I didn't have Alistair use a shield this time around (it started when I decided to take just 1 skill, but ended with him completely abandoning shields in favor of dual-wielding) he couldn't tank the high dragon reliably, so I had to do so instead in Bear Form. That went well thanks to Wynne. I'll take Spell Might, Spell Wisp and take Arcane Mastery to finish up, and see just how far the primal spells can go with high spellpower. I'm beginning to miss Mana Clash though and I just might take it too. So far my Shapeshifter forms have all hit 30+ stats (except for the spider's strength). They are much more reliable now, although that could be because I'm wearing pretty good gear. I'm considering trying a dodge set on the Flying Swarm, see how that would go.

Next up Blood Mage and full entropy spells.