What are your favorite battlefield spells?

[moderation]

Fire Storm? Flaming Arrows? Thunder Strike? Magma Eruption? Shadow Blast? I'm curious which spells people consider their favorites on the battlefield and stories of how they have used them to devastating effect.

Also, I've been wonder which spell is better: Thunder Strike or Magma Eruption. I suppose it's somewhat situation dependent but they seem to be really effect for their class. At least they seem a bit stronger than Falling Fire / Falling Frost, but I suppose it depends on which mages your nation has.

[Zenzei]

I'm a thunderstrike guy just because it is the kindest hurter and the spell effect looks manly as far as dom3 effects go.

[Aezeal]

is thunderstrike stronger? I'm not that fond of flaming arrows or any kind of gem costing spell since when I need them the most the gems are not there. (yes my own fault probably but still)

I'm still wondering what to do with any non A3 mages so far except for E3 which is blade wind in my book.

OW and astrals paralyze and soul slay.

but other mages I can hardly use

[Ferrosol]

call me old fashioned but I can't resist a blade wind. Not always the most effective on the battlefield but fairly easy to research and cast.

[Omnirizon]

well... my most recent big time battlefield adventure.

Life After Death + (Heat From Hell * Curse of Stones * Rigor Mortis)

gem expensive? yes. but it can turn a lopsided encounter into a major upset.

my particular battle ended with ~15 Hydras and a King of Elemental Fire fleeing from three, and ONLY three, soulless.

[Dragar]

I'm only new but find Divine Bless works a treat

[Saxon]

Coolest would be Charm, Enslave Mind and Apostasy. Nothing quite like turning the enemy against himself. Also nice to have more troops at the end of the battle than at the start.

If you define favorite as most used, then it is the bread and butter Body Ethereal and Luck.

[thejeff]

The problem with Thunder Strike is the small area of effect. It's great against thugs (if they're not immune) or small groups of elite troops, but lousy against hordes.

Until you get to the high-end gem using spells, Air is difficult to use against large numbers of chaff.

[Endoperez]

There's very little lightning-immune chaff, though, and you need Air to protect against Air.

[thejeff]

Granted, but you can't kill chaff with lightning. Or, at least, you can't kill enough of them. 50 fatigue from a 3A mage for 3 targets? It's hard to get enough 3A mages to kill even a few hundred troops that way.

Wrathful Skies or Shimmering Fields work, but need high end Air mages.
Wrathful Skies needs a Storm and either a SC caster (preferably AQ) or a willingness to sacrifice your own chaff to give it time to work, which isn't very useful in a war of attrition.

I was just playing Man fighting off Ermor's hordes of Long dead horse and I was desperate for anything that could actually do area damage.