Editing Total War: Warhammer/Tactics (section)

==Magic== 

Magic works in a similar way to the TT game, although there are some differences, but, played right, Magic can be a devastating force that can turn a loss into a victory. 

First, the Basics: Like in the Lore, how much Magic you can use depends on the Winds of Magic and how strong they are blowing. On the campaign map, there are visual indicators for how strongly the winds blow but you can also just hover your cursor over any given place on the map and get a number. This number indicates your base power reserve on the battlefield. Certain Lord and Hero traits, followers, and skills can increase your reserve. If it isn't obvious enough, you need a spellcaster Hero or Lord on the battlefield to use one of the many varieties of Magic. All spellcasters know a Lore of Magic; this determines what spells they can learn and use. Some Lords know two Lores or, in the cases of Teclis, Morathi and Alarielle, have an assortment of spells from all Lores. To use spells, you simply select the desired ability and follow the on-screen on placing it. The system is intuitive enough that it doesn't need much explaining and the in-game spell browser even has a video of every spell in action. Once you cast a spell, the cost of it will be deducted from your available power which will regenerate over time at a rate based on your remaining power reserves. Your available magic outside of your reserves is capped, but the amount of spells you can cast is limited via the overall power reserve; once it is drained, you won't get more unless you use abilities like Arcane Conduit. More on Arcane Conduit later. You can, at an additional cost in spellpower, double click to overcast a spell for more powerful effects, provided you have the spell skilled out. This may cause the spell to miscast, inflicting some damage to the spellcaster. Certain skills can lower the chance of miscast, and certain enemy skills can cause spells to miscast even when not overcasted.

An exception to the aforementioned rules are bound spells; these are spells that come from magical items your Lord or Hero pick up after a battle or are spells from a different Lore of Magic certain characters can learn, or, more commonly, spells that are tied to a specific item. Bound spells do not cost spellpower or affect power regeneration and have a fixed cooldown, but can often only be cast a fixed number of times. For example, once leveled up, a High Elven mage of any Lore can cast Fireball four times for free except for a 90 second cooldown between each cast.

There are a lot of Lores of Magic to choose from, generally speaking, they can be put into two categories: The Generic Lores (Fire, Light, Death, Beasts, Heavens, Life, Shadows, Metal) and Faction specific Lores (Skaven Spells of Plague, Skaven Spells of Ruin, Skaven Spells of Stealth, Lore of the Big Waaagh!, Lore of the Little Waaagh!, Lore of High Magic, Lore of Dark Magic, Lore of the Deep, Lore of Nehekhara, Lore of the Wild, Lore of Vampires).

The generic Lores are accessible to most factions with some missing here and there. High Elves and the Empire have the broadest variety of Lores (namely, all) to choose; Bretonnia and the Wood Elves the least. Faction specific Lores are usually only available for one faction, with some exceptions through bound spells and special characters. Each Lore comes with a passive attribute that affects units map-wide. Before we dive into a deeper description of the Lores themselves, a word on Arcane Conduit and Greater Arcane Conduit. 

Arcane Conduit is an active ability that replenishes your power reserves and increases the power recharge rate for 30 seconds, after that, it goes on a 60-second-cooldown. Use this ability! Extra spellpower is never bad and the power you have on hand cannot decay away; only your increased recharge rate reverts to normal after the effect ends. But it's never bad to just use it. It is a no-brainer. The premier mage characters even have access to Greater Arcane Conduit, which is simply a permanently active version of Arcane Conduit. Certain magical items as well as some Lore attributes can increase your reserves and recharge rate as well.

In the first two games you could store up to 30 winds and the recharge rate lowers as your reseve depletes. This means it was more effective to wait for full recharge, cast a spell, rinse and repeat until you run out of reserves, at which point you can empty the stored magic too. In Warhammer 3 it always recharges at the same time regardless of how many reserves you have (1 wind every 9 seconds), but this could be increased by certain effects. The amount of winds you can store depends on character skills, randing from 20 to over 140.

Onto the Lores then. 

===Lores===

*'''Lore of Fire''': Fire, so much fire that it has the potential to make the Salamanders jealous and a Sister of Battle rethink her career choice. Provides a few handy buffs, and one of each type of offensive spells. The AOE spells have longer duration than other lores. The Lore attribute makes the enemy more vulnerable to Fire damage, which synergizes well with a variety of units and increases its own damage even further (Lores apply during the countdown to cast). The best Lore of Magic for dealing damage against foes that are unarmored, trees or mummies, and even against armored or magic resisting enemies, you have two very good buffs that give AP and magic/flame attacks. Otherwise its offensive spells fall under the "master of none" category when compared to other Lores.
*'''Lore of Light''': Provides some very good buffs, a mediocre but cheap projectile, and a fairly cost effective Vortex but the main reason to pick this is a Net spell that stops any poor suckers from moving so your missile and artillery units can shoot them. If you want your wizard to primarily buff up your units and stop enemies moving close to your unit, this is your Lore. Also one of the rarer Lores, with only four factions (Empire, High Elves, Lizardmen and Tomb Kings having access to it. 
*'''Lore of Death''': Basically the opposite of the Lore of Light. Consists primarily of spells that debuff enemy units and some unmissable point-and-click spells. Lore attribute increases your power recharge rate which is never a bad thing. Important to note is that this Lore is the only Lore available to Greenskins other than the Waaagh! Lores. Azhag the Slaughterer uses this Lore (courtesy of his magic crown), as well as Arkhan the Black and that pompous fuck Mannfred von Carstein. 
:A favorite Lore in multiplayer for powerful direct damage spells you can't avoid, still good but not as effective in single player. Purple Sun is maybe the best of the armor piercing vortexes, its very large with good AP, some base damage, and disrupts enemy formations by throwing them around. With banishments similar cost (17 vs 18) Purple Sun is usually as good or better in every situation except it's duration. 
*'''Lore of Heavens''': A bit of an odd Lore consisting of exactly one good buff for melee units and three potentially powerful damage spells and a very niche Lore Attribute that weakens flying units. Better than Fire if you expect to fight single enties or armored units.  Standout spells include Wind Blast vs unarmored chaff, Thunderbolt vs large targets, and Chain Lighting vs everything because its a powerful, all AP damage vortex. Thunderbolt and Cassandora are both bombardment spells, so if aimed correctly, they can do a ton of damage without hurting your own troops, but make sure you aim it at units locked in combat.
*'''Lore of Beasts''': A very diverse, jack-of-all-trades Lore that abuses cheap spells, with the most significant spells being summoning a Feral Manticore (or a Great Eagle if you're playing High Elves or Wood Elves) and Flock of Doom which is a cheap direct damage spell that wears down large unit sizes (ideally used vs units of 100 or more, or on large blobs when overcast), basically like Miasma from Shadow but AOE. Amber Spear is a decent high AP magic missile but only worth considering on large easy to hit targets. Finally it also has some good defensive and offensive buffs that work best on tough single entities or Lords/Heroes. If you have access to better Lores, you can skip it, unless your desperate for summoning. The Lore attribute is interesting as it recharges your power reserve as well as increase your recharge rate for 29 seconds when you cast a spell, effectively giving you a good discount on your cheaper spells; insane on Malagor, who gets to spam Flock of Doom like Tzeentch gets to do with Blue Fire.
*'''Lore of Life''': The ultimate defensive utility Lore. It has lots of spells that buff the survivability of your units and has two decent enough damage spells as well as being the only Lore that has multiple healing spells. The Fae Enchantress and Alarielle the Everqueen specializes in this Lore. The Lore attribute heals all friendly entities (not units, entities!) on the map for some HP which is convenient. However, be warned: healing cannot revive already dead entities in a unit! It is widely considered to be an extremely powerful Lore of Magic if used correctly. Especially if running single entity doom stacks it can't be beaten, heal up to full after every fight. Lore attribute works better on low health infantry but other 2 healing spells are much better on small units of monsters or single entities.  
*'''Lore of Shadows''': A hybrid Lore that is best suited for a more subtle approach. Most of the buffs and debuffs are good enough. Pit of Shades is one of the few stationary vortex spells, which is amazing already, but even gets to vacuum up nearby units to deal consistent damage to them. Lore attribute has been nerfed in WH 3 and now only gives a 12% increase in speed mapwide, still good in multiplayer but probably not very useful in campaign unless you rely on kiting a lot. Very good Lore for AP damage spells, all 3 are highly effective vs armor. Plus a good single target debuff and a potent weapon strength buff. Maybe the most versatile jack of all trades Lore since its damage spells all work against armor. It can damage all unit types very well except single entity and its buff and debuff can handle them indirectly. Less effective than Fire or Celestial vs lightly armored chaff generally though Miasma is very efficient vs high unit sizes. 
*'''Lore of Metal''': Certainly the rarest of the Lores (only the Empire's Balthasar Gelt, High Elves and Chaos' forces have access to it), it mainly focuses on debuffing and buffing armor and weapons. It can reduce enemy armor but on a single unit only, can increase your own as an AOE, and can debuff weapons. The take away spell is Final Transmutation, which is a massive AOE damage spell that gives single entities and small units a middle finger, though its damage falls off greatly against any unit with more than 20 or so entities. Did we mention the passive that gives a percentage weapon damage boost to all your units? Balthasar's preferred Lore as the self-proclaimed (and frequently proven) "Lord of Metal". Ironically not that good vs armor, debuffing a single units armor is useless vs a full stack of enemies in campaign (probably better in multiplayer) and Searing Doom is weak vs armor, really Final Transmutation is the only standout spell. Honestly one of the more situational Lore's in campaign, you can just use all your winds on Final Transformation and it will usually do fine but the rest of the spells are situational or weak in most campaign environments. 
*'''Lore of the Little Waaagh!''': As befitting for da Gobbos, tons of stuff that give your hordes of Goblins a fighting chance against the enemy. Little in the way of direct damage, but useful nonetheless. Curse of the Bad Moon is one of the optic highlights of the game, and a great spell to boot. The Lore attribute reduces the enemies power recharge rate. 
*'''Lore of the Big Waaagh!''': As subtle as a truck racing down a highway with 250 mph ON FIRE. Perfectly suitable for da Orks t' get Krumpin'. Foot of Gork is a devastating spell that can potentially end a battle with a single cast. 'Ere we go! is one of the best offensive buffs in the game and, combined with the Waaagh mechanic, this is a seriously dangerous Lore for anyone facing against it. Wurrzag the Great Green Prophet specializes in this Lore. The Lore attribute increases your power recharge rate. Decent enough. 
*'''Skaven Spells of Ruin''': The first of the three Skaven Lores, and the most offensively minded. Warp Lightning may be the most cost effective damage spell in the game, the other spells are rather niche but nonetheless useful. Howling Warp Gale can help a lot with flying nuisances such as Dragons, leaving them vulnerable to your considerable arsenal of ranged weapons and artillery. Ikit Claw uses this Lore, Warlock Engineers and-Masters use it exclusively. The Lore attribute lowers enemy Leadership and Melee Attack, giving your front line a bit more room to breathe, which you can then fill with Warpfire and Warpstone Bullets. Flensing ruin is underestimated, overcasted it performs as well as Final Transmutation overcast in terms of damage done per winds spent.   
*'''Skaven Spells of Plague''': Occupying the gap between pure utility of the Skaven Spells of Stealth and the pure damage of the Spells of Ruin. Whats interesting about this Lore is that it has not one but two spells that summon units and its ultimate spell causes immense damage while simultaneously debuffing the enemy - did I mention that Grey Seers with this Lore can summon Stormvermin? One of the best Lores, even if the most shiny bits are difficult to access outside of Clan Pestilens, since it requires you to level up either a Plague Priest or a Grey Seer for a considerable time to make full use of it - but when you can make use it, the enemy-things will feel it, yes-yes. Lord Skrolk uses this Lore and is the best candidate for using it. 
*'''Skaven Spells of Stealth''': The only Lore in the game designed to be used with a specific sub-faction and, frankly, it does show. It offers a lot of utility and a decent Vortex spell but gets overshadowed in almost every regard by the Lore of Plague and the Lore of Ruin - unless you take the limitations of Sniktch's campaign into consideration. It's still rather niche and, if you're playing as the other Skaven factions, you're better off using either Ruin or Plague. 
*'''Lore of Vampires''': Brutal. Definitively the best Lore in the entire game. Wind of Death will wipe entire units off the floor, averaging hundreds of kills per cast. Some general utility is found in using Raise the Dead to summon units to flank, tank damage, or bodyblock for your more valuable units and its Lore attribute heals (and revives) your undead minions. Its starting ability is also the best healing spell in the game in the form of Invocation of Nehek: a cheap, effective spell that uses excess healing to revive dead entities. There is little that can beat this Lore, which makes it only fair that it is exclusive to the Vampire Counts and Vampire Coast. Count Noctilus can use this Lore as well as all Vampire Lords.
*'''Lore of High Magic''': Another jack-of-all-trades Lore that is exclusive to High Elves, Spellweavers and Slann. It can do a bit of everything. Healing, direct damage, buffs, debuffs, AOE explosions and a passive damage reduction. Has the main drawbacks that jack-of-all-trades do: they can do a bit of anything but don't excel at anything and, since High Elves have access to ALL the generic Lores, it's often better to pick one that fits their specific needs on the battlefield. One of the more useful spells is Tempest, a vortex spell that damages and heavily slows flying units, locking them in place for your archers or fliers to attack. Eltharion is the only Legendary Lord who specializes in this. people only take it in multiplayer for Tempest pretty much, crap in campaign. Its not even the best jack-of-all-trades lore. 
*'''Lore of Dark Magic''': The unique Lore of those assholes in Naggaroth and the Wood elves. Where as the Asur Lores do have a few spells that help out their troops, Dark Elves say "Fuck that, let's just use our magic to torture the other guys!". Home to a really good debuff that can help swing fights, and the stand out is Soul Stealer, an AOE damage spell that heals the caster and applies a Spirit Leech effect. Malekith specializes in this Lore. Underestimated especially in campaign, Power of Darkness is the most effective WOM generator skill in the game, it gives 3 times as much winds reserves as Arcane Conduit (30 vs 10) and 4 times as much winds gain speed (plus 60% vs 15%). Chillwind does 24 pure AP damage, 2/3 as much AP as a base pendulum spell does. While Chillwind wont kill models much, it can deal lots of cheap AP damage to infantry and cavalry, while being fast, cheap, and easy to aim. Doombolt is pretty good for the large AP damage done with good tracking, basic version is as about as good versus armor as overcast Amber Spear but much better AOE range to hurt units as well. Finally Blade Wind is a decent, cheap vortex that does about as well vs armor as Firestorm thanks to the Lore attribute, good vs hordes. You can even just use a dark caster as a winds of magic battery for another caster. The Wood Elf Lore attribute gives a nice boost to missile damage with every spell cast mapwide while the Dark Elf attribute debuffs armor mapwide. Comparable to the other damage lore's like Fire, Celestial, and Shadow. Excels most vs single targets and Elite units usually. Has a good mixture of anti horde and anti single-entity damage spells and can be comparable to Death and Metal at that role thanks to Soul Stealer, Doombolt, and Word of Pain.
*'''Lore of Nehekhara''': If you couldn't guess by the name, it's the Lore of the boney bois. It is a buffing Lore, through and through, which can give additional damage and anti large, protections, and missile power. Given the fact that your average Tomb King soldier is a literal pile of bones that barely knows which end of the sword to poke the bad guys with... yeah, this can help out a lot. Settra and Khatep use this Lore a lot. Overall it's... ok? The damage spells are VERY subpar, and with access to the Lores of light and Death, there's really no reason to pick it. The passive heal is nice but won't let you compete with Vampire healing. 
*'''Lore of the Deep''': A Lore made up by CA and designed specifically for the Vampire Coast. It has three specific purposes: 1: Damage and dishing out LOTS OF IT (Vangheist's Revenge is one of the coolest looking spells in the game and can seriously lay down the pain), 2: Buffs to missile troops, which helps any  [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] faction and 3: Summons. You can summon zombies, zombies with guns, and giant crabs to really push the fight in your favor. Cylostra was given this Lore by Stormfels, and Luthor Harkon gets it in campaign when you fix his fractured mind. Is it a fun Lore? Absolutely! It's a blast! Are the other Lores for the Vampire Coast more practical from a competitive standpoint? Sadly, also yes. You can just use the summons on a deep hero with a vampire general so that's something. Its summons are likely more cost effective then Lore of Vampires depending on what you need. Best as a supplement to Vampires, not competition. 
*'''Lore of the Wilds''': Beastmen got shafted in a lot of ways in their race pack. Their unique Lore of magic was NOT one of them. Wilds has some surprisingly good damage spells that can really help the goat men clear through crowds. Also, a passive that restores vigor is never one you can complain about. Oh, did we mention they can summon a Cygor? As in literally have one crawl out of the ground and throw shit at the bad people? Yeah, people like to complain about the shit missing in the Beastmen DLC (with good reason, mind you) but, in terms of their unique magic, Beastmen actually got it pretty good. Obviously, it's Malagor's favored Lore.
*'''Lore of Ice''': The more defense focused Lore available to Kislev, unfortunately at least currently 3 of its spells are hugely overcosted even on Katarina with her spell cost reductions. The 2 most efficient and actually pretty good spells are Ice Maiden's Kiss which is basically wind blast from celestial, so cheap and good vs unarmored chaff, plus causes frostbite, and Ice Sheet is a dirt cheap AOE spell that reduces speed and charge speed by 25%, and stacks with Frostbite and the Tempest Lore attribute to make it possible to basically freeze an enemy in their tracks. Deathfrost is an ok anti single-entity spell in the vein of Spirit Leach though slightly overpriced. Frost blades is an overpriced single target melee buff. Crystal Sanctuary provides a ton of ward save but prevents movement, probably also overpriced but could be good versus the AI. Finally Heart of Winter is an ok AOE direct damage spell ruined by its way too high cost.  
*'''Lore of Tempest''': The more offensive of the two Lore options, and probably the better of the two; as far as AOE spells go, the Lore of Tempest is actually quite safe and can be aimed to minimize your losses. It has a good cheap bombardment that causes Frostbite, an AOE accuracy and range buff that is amazing for all of Kislevs ranged units, there is an ok speed and charge buff, a decent column damage spell, a very good pit of shades type stationary vortex spell, and a large AOE explosion spell that doesn't damage friendly units. 
*'''Lore of Tzeentch''': A spell Lore basically entirely focused around damage and which synergizes with your army: significantly, most of the spells dish out the Warpflame! debuff which makes victims even more vulnerable to fire, which everyone in your army has. it has two different vortex spells, one like a larger Pit of Shades, one that spawns 3 mini Firestorms, two cheap basic spells: Blue and Purple Fire. Blue is similar to a weaker but cheaper Gaze of Nagash, good for wearing down lightly armored single entities or just spamming to lower spell cooldowns. Pink is a decent anti-infantry breath spell. And it has a leadership and melee attack debuff as well as a spell that steals winds of magic from the enemy. Good cause infantry and cavalry but lacking in single entity killing power. 
*'''Lore of Nurgle''': An extremely well rounded Lore with buffs, debuffs, healing, and a mixture of both anti-unit and anti single entity damage. Probably the best and definitely the most versatile of the demonic Lores. Frankly this might be considered a better or at least equal to alternate of the Lore of Life, its not as supportive but it has very solid damage spells as well.
*'''Lore of Slaanesh''': A very offensive Lore with a good Lore attribute boosting melee attack. It has 3 damage spells, a Fate of Bejuna like direct damage spell, a powerful AP bombardment, and a cheap AP wind spell that actually hits more like a small line. None damage spells are a speed and melee defense debuff on a single target, an AOE spell that prevents movement and lowers leadership, and a self buff that gives bonus to weapon damage and melee attack but can cause rampage. Versatile and pretty ok Lore, though Shadows is likely better.
*'''Lore of the Great Maw''': A more generalist spell Lore designed around damage, buffs and healing. Despite the Ogres being more of a blunt force force faction, most of the spells are designed for buffing you units and making sure that they stay alive. There are only two spells that focus on damage and neither of them are actually that effective compared to other damaging spells. There is a leadership debuff for crushing leadership and spells to buff durability and damage.

Spells themselves, just like in the tabletop game, come in six flavors: Buffs/Debuffs, Projectiles, Breaths/Winds, Vortexes, Bombardments, and Direct Damage.

===Spell Types=== 

*'''Buffs/Debuffs''': Pretty self explanatory. You cast them on a unit or group of units, and it improves or weakens a unit's stats. Overcast buffs usually have an area of effect that affects multiple units; you can cast these spells either on one unit or just out in the wild. To be affected by any buff or debuff, a unit must have at least half its models within the area of effect. 
*'''Projectiles''': Similar to a ranged attack, it fires one or multiple projectiles in a straight arc at a target of your choosing. They tend to be cheap and very accurate, but need a line of fire to work. Best used by Casters who have access to a flying mount and to snipe monsters or single characters. 
*'''Breaths/Winds''': Basically a directional AoE attack. Winds hit the whole area their indicator... indicates, while Breath spells expand in a cone shape. The indicator can sometimes be deceiving; some Breath spells and all Wind spells have a much larger range than the indicator suggests (most notably overcast Wind of Death from the Lore of Vampies AKA the best spell in the game) and it comes down to experience how each spell works best but, fret not, there is not much to it. Like all AoE attacks, they can cause friendly fire. What the game doesn't tell you immediately is that you can change the direction of your Wind or Breath Spell by holding the left mouse button before casting. Also, the Wind spells can deviate from the straight line the indicator shows, which can be quite annoying, but they'll never go as off-course as Vortexes. If a Breath/Wind hits a wall it'll be reflected, potentially letting you hit units that aren't lined up.
*'''Vortexes''': Big pie plates and usually the most potent damage spells in any given Lore. Almost all move randomly over the map while they are active but all cause massive damage to units that have a lot of models in them. They never start moving where they can do the most damage so it's best to use them on an enemy unit surrounded by other enemy units. They're not useful against single entities but this also means you won't lose much if you cast it on one on your units surrounded by enemies. A few Lores (Shadows, Plague, Deep) have stationary vortexes, perfect for siege battles.
*'''Bombardments''': Think of them like off-map artillery from other RTS games. You pick an area, and a certain amount of projectiles come down from the sky, inflicting damage. Use it for large units already fighting, otherwise they tend to see it and get clear in time.
*'''Direct Damage''': Direct Damage spells work differently from the other damage spells; they directly inflict magic damage to a units HP stat rather than its models, like a damage-over-time effect and don't inflict friendly fire. However, unlike the others, individual models can resist them. Usually your more reliable character sniping spells (with Spirit Leech from the Lore of Death being the most effective for its cost), although there are some that work better against whole regiments (Like Final Transmutation from the Lore of Metal or Flensing Ruin from the Skaven Spells of Ruin). Ethereal units really hate those. 
*'''Summons''': Summons a unit to help you in the fight. Summoned units die after 90 seconds so treat them as expendable and throw them where they can do the most damage or at least bog down the enemy.

You still want to know more? Well just head over to [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic]] and you will find knowledge a plenty.