Global spell tactics ?

[Boron]

After reading the most powerful spells thread i am now curious about your habits concerning globals and dispelling .

A) Which globals are your favourite ones ?
My 2 favourites are FotA and GoH .

B) How many gems do you usually invest in your more important globals you would like to have up for a while ?
When do you cast them ? Do you make them perhaps even a research priority ?

C) How do you normally dispel ? Do you try first with something like only +10-20 gems or with more ? How do you change your habits in lategame ?

D) If your global with only base costs got dispelled can you bring it up again with only using base costs ( if there is still a slot free ) ?
Would you rather try a 999 gem casting of e.g. GoH or Arcane Nexus etc. in lategame or always use something like 355 extra gems hoping your enemies try dispelling it with 500 or more gems each time and this way wasting gems ?

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Boron said:
A) Which globals are your favourite ones ?

Haunted Forest and Astral Corruption - for the fun factor.

B) How many gems do you usually invest in your more important globals you would like to have up for a while ?

I'd spent everything I have, but I don't rely on GEs much in multiplayer. I've played dozens of MP games since early 2001 and I remember casting only 2 GEs total, both Haunted Forest (that's including the one you heard of, when I subbed for that dying Pangaea).

When do you cast them ?

When I think it annoys my enemies the most .

Do you make them perhaps even a research priority ?

Never in multiplayer. Except one time - I entered a game as Abysia, with Astral Corruption in mind, but the game ended before I could cast it.

C) How do you normally dispel ?

Depends if I know the opposing player enough to play the outguess game. Otherwise, if I really want that GE to be dispelled, and have absolutely no clue about how many gems have been invested to buff it, I'll burn everything I have. Although I'll ask for assistance (extra gems from other players) first.

Of course, the 'ideal' way to dispel a GE would be to cast the same GE for yourself , but I never had an occasion to do so.

D) If your global with only base costs got dispelled can you bring it up again with only using base costs ( if there is still a slot free ) ?
Would you rather try a 999 gem casting

Eek. I never played a long enough game to amass that many gems of one kind, even when taking alchemy into account!

[Ygorl]

When you're casting a spell and all slots are full, does it attempt to override the weakest existing spell, or does it pick one at random? Presumably if you're attempting to hijack a spell that's already up by recasting it, it will have to beat down the old instance of itself, but otherwise how does this work?
I've never been clear on it, and didn't find any answers searching the forum. Thanks!

[Yossar]

My Favorites are probably astral corruption (fun for "locking things down" when you've got the majority of your forging and summoning done) and The Wrath of God (for the monthly report of how many enemy units died).

Ygorl said:
When you're casting a spell and all slots are full, does it attempt to override the weakest existing spell, or does it pick one at random? Presumably if you're attempting to hijack a spell that's already up by recasting it, it will have to beat down the old instance of itself, but otherwise how does this work?
I've never been clear on it, and didn't find any answers searching the forum. Thanks!

I've heard that it picks one at random and attempts to override it. That seems to be correct from my experience.

[Arryn]

Yossar said:
I've heard that it picks one at random and attempts to override it. That seems to be correct from my experience.

It's also what's been given as the official answer by the devs at IW.

[archaeolept]

hmm, my understanding was that it would attempt to override your own globals first. can that be confirmed?

ie.

1) tries to override current instance of said global

if no current instance, then

2) tries to override one of your own globals, randomly chosen

if you have none, then

3) tries to override a random global.

but i'm not actually sure about 2. I've had it happen that way, and Norfleet claimed it, but i could have been unlucky...

[alexti]

Boron said:
A) Which globals are your favourite ones ?

My favourite is Stellar Focus. It is so apparently useless that nobody bothers to dispel it (and who would want to spend 30 astral gems to have a chance to bring 30-gem worth GE down?). By the time all slots are filled, according to Murphy laws, each next GE cast chooses the strongest existing GE (which is certainly not a Stellar Focus) to contest. Thus, Stellar Focus stays up forever

[Kristoffer O]

It doesn't override yours first. Its random.

[Vynd]

I think that Forge of the Ancients is really cool, primarily because it gives your Forgers a +1 boost in every magic path, even the paths they have 0 skill in. That really opens up a lot of forging possibilities.

Burden of Time is a fun one to cast as Ermor. Of course your opponents will pool their resources and get rid of it within a few turns. But I like to imagine their reaction when they see that you've cast it.

Some day I aspire to cast Utterdark with a ton of extra gems on top of it to keep it from being dispelled.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Vynd said:
Burden of Time is a fun one to cast as Ermor.
[...]
Some day I aspire to cast Utterdark with a ton of extra gems on top of it to keep it from being dispelled.

Burden of Time is merely a mild nuisance for living nations. Utterdark is hundreds of times nastier, this one surely won't Last long whatever you put in it. Ermor can hardly afford either anyway.