Advice on Machaka appreciated

[Taqwus]

For other paths, look at Summon Lamia Queen (takes nature, gets D2/N1/?1/?1 with the ? restricted to sorcery) and Summon Couatl (gets nature/astral/holy, don't remember how much). Black Sorcerors also have an unrestricted random, if memory serves, but that's capital-only and not terribly cheap. Death will get you Summon Spectres, who are D1/1?/1?.
Oh, and don't forget that undead commanders can still use Fever Fetishes to produce fire gems even 'tho they don't suffer from them. Could boost your economy if you abuse 'em and put them on Mound Kings, Revenants etc.

[Jondifool]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
Thanks much!!
One more question:
I think part of my failures is that I do not understand the magic paths very well -- nature and fire and death combos I mean...
What spells do you like to research when-ish?
What schools are generally good bets (besides construction and evocation)?
I am a big thaumaturgy fan, but since Machaka has NO astral, I don't really know what to do.
How do you guys dispel? How do you get those neato ++path boosting items (rings of sorc, staffs of elemental mastery) without air or astral? I like the idea of a Virtue for air, but cant see me getting an Air and Astral pretender (which one??)....

Uh, sorry, main question here: Magic. Which spells, which paths?
Thanks much!

to the main question

Besides construcktion to lvl 4 and 6 (+ items )
it's for me Alteration all the way to level 6!

I think evocation is in a lot less hurry,
whats so important to get there? please enlighten me.

enchanment (flaming arrows) should be seleckted early.

And conjuration could.
Summons for pd as suggested in this tread I think is a wonderfull idea. And why not use them for some punch early. As machaka can get a good shoot at gem income early. (a black and a normal sorc searching together finds around 2/3 of ALL sites in the game, if having air/astral/water as their random.)

but for Alteration
massprotecktion at lvl 6
and acsees to spells like Invulnerability, Incinerate, Drain Life, Elemental Fortitude

btw alteration does gives good posibilitys for making early mini SC out of black sorcerer. Buff them and attack, and the oppenent will hope not to hurt them lightly!!

Originally posted by Jondifool:
One more question:
I think part of my failures is that I do not understand the magic paths very well -- nature and fire and death combos I mean...
What spells do you like to research when-ish?
What schools are generally good bets (besides construction and evocation)?

For others it may be other things, but with Machaka, I take at least Conjuration 1 first (if not 3 depending on how soon I think I'm going to have a Fire3 caster), then Enchantment 4, then from there at least Evocation 1, Alteration 1. After that I spread between Alteration until 3, then Evocation (or Alteration depending on the situation and if I need Mass Protection) until 6 (though some prefer taking Enchantment up instead first for relief). There is one reason I like using Machaka with Evocation 6. Magma Eruption. It is a virtual army clearer. Unless you are fighting Abysia, it works to destroy most all troop types and bLasts undead to high heaven in great numbers.

[ May 06, 2004, 21:56: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Jondifool]

thanks for the enlightenment , have to try magna eruption.
Oh And I quess thats you have construction in there also!
(oh by the way the quoting seems a little off )

[ May 06, 2004, 22:53: Message edited by: Jondifool ]

[PrinzMegaherz]

I'm playing Machaka with a Fire 9 Moloch, so evocation has the highest priority at the beginning. Next comes enchantment up to level 3 so your mages can summon lots of skelettons. Next step is construction up to level 4 for lots of magical stuff (most importantly rings of regeneration/reinvigoration for your leaders), and finally conjuration so you can spend your fire gems on summer lions.