Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic

This page goes into details about every single spell (Unique Spells and hero abilities not included) in the game, their uses, and so on. For the general gist of how magic works, head over to Total War: Warhammer/Tactics#Magic. For up to date #’s on spell damage, cost, and effect see here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-_Swyh0Ifo8cTI4ZUxoVGtmVVk/view

Generic Lores

Lore of Beasts

Summary of strengths- good at buffing single entities and monsters especially, ok anti horde damage spell, and for many armies their only access to summoning.

Passive - Wild Heart: Your power recharge rate and power reserves increase for 29 seconds upon casting a spell from this lore, a nice tool that helps maintain the overall combat effectiveness of your Beasts caster over the course of the battle, you'll notice its effect more easily in multiplayer than in the campaign.

• Flock of Doom: Recreate The Birds by siccing flocks of crows on all enemy units within the casting reticle. Has a low winds cost and a rather quick cooldown, but is virtually useless against single entities or smaller units. Save this for the enemy hordes that might try to tie down your forces, armored or not. This affects all units that have so much as a single model within its cast radius, making it highly efficient against infantry-based armies.
• Pann's Impenetrable Pelt: Buff the physical resistance of a target unit by 20% and their melee defense by 24 for 31 seconds. Compared to how it worked before, this makes a unit substantially more durable in melee combat and, especially if combined with other spells like Shield of Thorns, can turn a key frontline unit into an absolute tank. Overcasting turns it into an AoE spell, which might very well be worth it in the opening stages of a frontline engagement to mitigate damage.
• The Amber Spear: The only other damage dealing spell you have, this time as a single projectile geared towards character/monster sniping. It deals pretty hefty damage and is a great option against more heavily armored beasts that would otherwise shrug off other artillery or missile fire from more conventional units. Can pierce smaller infantry models which means you can potentially have a horse mounted caster shoot it down an enemy line and hit multiple units like a railgun. It has a powerful but short range explosion effect as well, so it can technically nuke an elite unit but getting the positioning to hit anything other than single targets is often more trouble than its worth.
• The Curse of Anraheir: A hex that debilitates enemies with -24 Melee Attack and Defense while also crippling them with a 25% speed debuff. Use this to effectively defang enemy units or combine/alternate with Pann's Impenetrable Pelt to keep your key units alive. Alternatively, when used offensively, this will make it easier to pin down and knock around enemy units that you really need cleaned off the board.
• Transformation of Kadon: This is pretty much the reason most players bother taking the Lore of Beasts in multiplayer at all. After a brief windup period, the Beast Caster summons either a Feral Manticore (standard), Great Eagle (High/Wood Elves) or Varghulf (Von Carstein). As they can be summoned anywhere within 60m of the caster, this allows you to throw a relatively potent combat monster into an opponent's more vulnerable backline while they can do little more than scramble to address the sudden incursion. With a limit of two casts per battle and a moderately short timer on the monsters before they despawn, each cast should be considered wisely.
• Wyssan's Wildform: A surprisingly vicious combat supplement, this spell grants a target unit +25% Base and AP damage as well as +30 Armor for 19 seconds. Due to the offensive portion of this spell's buffs being percentage-based, Wyssan's Wildform gets far more bang for your buck when cast on elite units or single entity monstrous units that have naturally high weapon/ap damage. The armor supplement helps, though shouldn't really be a major consideration when you could get better defensive utility out of Pann's Impenetrable Pelt (though pairing the two is hardly ill-advised). Much like Pann's Impenetrable Pelt, overcasting Wyssan's Wildform turns it into an AoE spell and can make single-entity doomstacks disgustingly potent.

Lore of Death

Summary of strengths: great perfect accuracy direct damage spells for single entities and elite units as as well as a powerful vortex, lacking in both buff and debuff power however. Good at reducing leadership.

Passive - Life Leeching: Whenever a spell is cast from this discipline, your power recharge rate improves for 25 seconds. Quite frankly, a very nice passive that acts like a built in Arcane Conduit.

• Spirit Leech: The first spell in this Lore and it's one of the best, if we're being honest. A rather cheap, direct damage spell at 8 Winds of Magic. Preferably used against Characters and Monsters and probably the most cost-efficient Character sniping spell in the game (does 834 damage without any resistances on average, ignores armor). It also can serve as a nice counter against Ethereal units. It actually works very well vs small monstrous cavalry and infantry units, think the 6-24 model range, also ok on smallish elite units also but anything over 20ish models really hurts its efficiency, Bjuna is far better for that. One cast can nearly kill most artillery because it (usually) hits the machines, not the crew. Very versatile and mana efficient, the standard to which all direct damage spells are compared.
• Doom and Darkness: Basically the opposite of the Lore of Light's Light of Battle Spell. Sits in the 10 Winds niche of rather specific debuffs. It reduces the leadership of an enemy unit by a whopping 16, enough to send most standard troops into a rout once they have taken some losses and to mitigate any effects the presence of a Character in their vicinity might have. Notably less useful against Undead, who cannot rout, but can still cause them to begin crumbling more quickly if such a tactic is necessary. Of course, this spell is completely useless against Unbreakable units. Pretty useless in very hard or legendary campaign battle difficulty because of the crazy leadership buffs the AI gets, but nice on normal and hard difficulties as well as multiplayer.
• Soulblight: An ok AoE debuff, for its relatively low cost of 8 Winds of Magic/ 14 overcast. Lowers the armor (-30) and weapon damage (-30%) of all units in an AoE for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. The pairing of armor and weapon damage debuffs don't synergize that well with each other and the lowish base duration can be rough, maybe worth overcasting for double duration if you cast at all. still its a more efficient armor removing spell than plague of rust because of its AoE so that's something. It may only debuff two less important stats but it isn't bad since its an affordable AoE debuff. Doomfire Warlocks get this free so never pay winds for it as the Dark Elves if you can help it. Overcast is double duration for slightly cheaper than double so worth it in theory.
• Aspect of the Dreadknight: Same deal as with Soulblight. It's extremely cheap at 4 Winds of Magic, but its effect of +8 Leadership and causes Terror for friendly units isn't terribly useful considering that many factions that can use the Lore of Death (especially the Undead factions) have no shortage of units that cause Fear and Terror or are completely exempt from Leadership issues. Giving magic attacks is the more useful effect, especially for factions who would otherwise have limited or no access to magic attacks.
• The Purple Sun of Xereus: The good ol' "cast it successfully and the game is over" Vortex from the Tabletop doesn't disappoint here either. At 18 (24 when overcast) Winds of Magic, a fairly expensive Vortex that will completely demolish everything it touches, its only downside being that it is hard to predict where it will eventually go, but even the initial cast on a large moshpit of infantry is worth it. Particularly devastating on Bridge Battles, where Wizards with this spell will rack up a ludicrous amount of kills from one single cast alone.
• The Fate of Bjuna: This is an odd one. An expensive single target direct damage spell That serves mainly as a middle finger to cavalry, elite infantry any thing with a medium model count. Deals large amounts of damage, but needs careful evaluation on when to use it. It's considered op in multiplayer where elite units are expensive and rare. In campaign, where stacks of endgame units are common, it's too expensive where a bombardment, missile or even vortex does more for cheaper. Its price is very inflated because of its power in multiplayer. You can just drop Purple Sun of Xereus on a single unit for cheaper vs the AI most of the time. Not very efficient vs anything with less than 45 models.

Lore of Fire

Important to note: All spells from the Lore deal Magical and Fire type damage. It counts as both and is resisted by both. Tree Spirits, Tomb Kings, and Nurgle demons have notable weaknesses to fire damage in particular.

Summary of strengths: one of the best versus lightly armored infantry or anything with weakness to fire. Poor versus single entities and monsters usually. Not as good versus armored targets. Has one pretty good AoE buff, that got better with changes to magic resistance. The burning head is AMAZING.

Passive - Kindleflame: Whenever you cast a Lore of Fire spell, it imbues a map wide fire weakness to all enemy units as you cast. The benefits combined with this lore are obvious, and allows for great synergy when used with other units who deal fire damage. Combines nicely with Flaming Sword of Rhuin.

• Fireball: Inexpensive projectile that is found all over the goddamn place. High Elven Mages and Skink Priests can get 4 uses of them for free. It's... alright-ish. Like all projectiles, Fireballs strongly depend on the casters positioning and its damage is kinda meh. Can still be reliably used to snipe big monsters and Lords out of the sky, and its considerable range makes it a very attractive and cheap source of fire damage to be used against Ethereal units or Wood Elven Tree Spirits. The minor boost in damage provided by overcasting generally isn't worth the increased Wind cost, so in almost every circumstance you're better off just casting normally. Its AP is kind of low so it isn't very impressive versus armored targets, best used on lightly armored monsters or Lords/Heroes.
• Flaming Sword of Rhuin: Cheap (8/12) base/overcast buff for your troops that makes all of their attacks deal fire and magic damage, as well as increasing their damage output by 30% for 22/44 seconds. Don't forget that this can also be cast on ranged units, so have fun experimenting with that. With the upcoming changes to magic resistance set to only affect damage inflicted by spells, this is set to become a solid tool for enabling some of your heavier hitters to shoulder through units with high physical resistances. Just beware, flame resistance will still be able to shrug off the damage.
• Cascading Fire Cloak: Extremely cheap (only 5 winds of magic!) AoE buff that increases AP Damage of your melee troops by 24% and also gives them 25 Melee Defense for 19 seconds. Gives your frontline a bit more staying power and makes Greatswords, not to mention Har Garneth Executioners or Swordmasters of Hoeth downright terrifying. Important to keep in mind is that it won't do jack shit for units that bring no AP damage on their own, like Imperial Swordsmen. A 100% increase of 1 would still be 2. its single target only unfortunately and percentage based so maybe use on a monster or lord/hero for best results.
• The Burning Head: Oh sweet baby, yes! A medium prized (10 Winds of Magic) Wind Spell that deals an intimidating amount of damage and also terrifies people. This is the prime spell of the Lore of Fire. Tons of Fire Damage, but can also deviate a bit, although not as much as Vortex Spells would. It's cheap size relative to its effectiveness make it a very attractive spell to use, and is available in the campaign very early on. Keep in mind it does zero AP damage even when overcast, so it sucks vs armor. On the positive side, your armored forces can tank a stray blast if you cast it alongside/on top of them when they're in battle with chaff or unarmored infantry, making a great tool for front-line engagements. Maybe even better in WH 3 with the demon factions mostly having bad armor.
• Piercing Bolts of Flame: An expensive and semi-unreliable spell, this is your most effective anti-Armor option outside of Flamestorm spam. It deals a high amount of projectile damage as well, so it can deal respectable damage to monstrous infantry or even regular infantry if they clump up. In general though, you'll probably be better off prioritizing other, more potent/cost efficient spells and leave the dedicated anti-armor to other units in your army.
• Flamestorm: When you need to delete infantry whole-sale, this is your go-to spell. Compared to Burning Head, Flamestorm is less efficient and substantially less consistent, but Flamestorm has substantially higher utility against armored enemies and has the potential to do much more damage overall. Costs a moderate 13 winds but will utterly annihilate any models caught in its wake, armored or not. Overcasting bumps the WoM cost to 20, doubles the duration from 27 seconds to 54, increases base damage but does nothing for the AP values. Only overcast if you're confident the enemy is locked down and you don't mind it potentially rolling into your forces. Even then, just saving the extra winds for a follow up cast may be a more efficient choice.

Lore of Heavens

Summary of Strengths: A damage focused lore that is kind of like fire but with less chaff killing and more AP and anti single-entity, lore attribute is pretty situational though.

Passive - Roiling Skies: A mapwide debuff that slows down flying units and debuffs their melee defense for 25 seconds upon casting a spell. Frankly a mediocre and situational perk, but it can be handy if your opponent's playing a faction with a lot of flying cavalry.

• Wind Blast: A cost effective breath spell that does wonders against unarmored chaff infantry like skavenslaves or peasant mobs. A side effect of this particular breath spell worth noting is that it disrupts enemy formations, making it valuable if only to help buy time for your own forces to get into position/get the charge into them while they recover. Overcasting the spell gives it a touch more bite against armored units (4 AP damage), but the difference is so marginal that it's not really worth it. Never overcast.
• Urannon's Thunderbolt: A bolt of lightning that strikes a small area for extremely large AP damage. Has impressive range, so it has moderate use against the near-stationary artillery pieces your opponent may have. It's pure AP damage and overcasting does more than 1300 damage (much more than doombolts 1000ish AP or amber spears 700 AP), if you hit a lord or monster they will FEEEEEL it. Best cost to damage ratio of any single target blast. Cheaper and better than any other of its type. It has a minimal area of effect and does not track targets, so you'll need to aim carefully to actually land true with it.
• Harmonic Convergence: A supporting spell that improves the melee defense/attack of a friendly unit by a rather respectable margin for 24 seconds, including their armor value if overcast. A very potent spell that can help turn the tide of an engagement on the front lines at a rather minor cost of 6 winds. It falls a bit behind similar buffing spells from other lores due to the fact it is limited to a single target, but is still a decent option for a key beat-stick unit of yours none-the-less.
• Curse of the Midnight Wind: An AoE Hex that debuffs all enemies within its casting radius with lowered melee attack and armor values for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. Combined with Harmonic Convergence, this is best served when you need to turn a frontline engagement around. In general though, at 11 WoM per cast, you may rather opt to simply put that power towards one of the damage dealing spells instead.
• Chain Lightning: Now we're getting to the good stuff. One of the strongest vortex spells in the game, Chain Lightning randomly crawls across the battle field for 21 seconds dealing heavy damage to everything caught up in it, armored or not. It deals pure AP damage, highest of any other vortex spell. High elf archmages get this as a bound spell, and can get Urannon's Thunderbolt from a lord trait, making this lore perhaps a waste to use on them, since they could get so much of it free.
• Comet of Cassandora: When you want to call down the celestial thunder, there's no better choice than the Comet of Cassandora. With a relatively large area of effect and massive damage output, the CoC can wipe out entire units with a well-placed blast, even more so if overcast... if anything is still willfully under the targeting cursor while the comet takes its sweet time to actually arrive. Between the rather lengthy delay before the comet itself actually descends onto the battlefield and the rather intense winds of magic cost (especially if overcast), finding a situation to use the CoC in lieu of either Chain Lightning or even Wind Blast will be quite difficult. All in all, it's terribly inefficient. Thunderbolt does much more damage to a single target and chain lighting is usually cheaper and more efficient for hordes/blobs. In Campaigns against AI, the Comet of Cassandora is a considerably more attractive option when engaging in Siege battles or against clumps of elite, relatively immobile units. Since the AI tends to be blissfully oblivious to the impact indicator and is prone to scrunching multiple units together regularly, they'll rarely make any effort to avoid taking the full brunt of a well positioned Comet.

Lore of Life

Summary of Strengths: very effective on an army with many monstrous units to keep them alive and make them more durable, in campaign the ability to heal up after fights is invaluable for preventing attrition over multiple fights. Has some decent damage spells also, thought you may prefer to save all winds for healing. Does not revive models, hence it being better on smaller monstrous units with more health per model.

Passive - Life Bloom: Whenever a life spell is cast, all your units heal up to 40 hitpoints over the course of 5 seconds. It's not much, but it's free healing that applies to your entire army whenever you cast a spell. Every little bit helps.

• Earth Blood: This is the bread and butter for most life wizards. A nice AoE heal for up to four allied units within its radius that lasts for 7 seconds, with double the length and healing if overcast. The main value of this spell is the relatively inconsequential winds of magic cost (6/11), allowing life wizards to support a rather sizeable chunk of your army for a rather extended period of time.
• Awakening of the Wood: A large damage dealing explosion that dramatically slows down everyone caught up in the blast, but deals squat for damage against anything with an armor value.
• Shield of Thorns: A nice offensive/defensive buff that grants percentage based physical resist and weapon damage bonuses to several of your units within the spell's radius. A great supporting power for key units that goes quite nicely with Earth Blood to keep them in peak physical form. Use on units who already resist physical for best results, overcasting can be good if you need extra weapon damage. Can be cast combined with pelt if you have a beast caster to give 50% physical resist on top of any the unit already has.
• Flesh to Stone: A massive boost to an allied unit's armor value for 44 seconds (88 if overcast), this can turn even a squishy unit like Wood Elf Wardancers into surprisingly tanky beat-sticks, especially if stacked with Shield of Thorns. When compared to SoT, however, it tends to be better against non-AP by far but falls off in the later game when more units tend to have AP values. Single target really limits its effectiveness.
• Regrowth: An expensive single target heal that replenishes a substantial amount of HP and vigour to the target unit, especially if overcast. Frankly best reserved for emergencies and/or single entity units as no amount of healing will bring back slain models in a unit. Minor exceptions extend to the very few factions who can revive slain models, like the Lizardmen when utilizing a Revivification Crystal Bastilodon. In general though, Earth Blood provides better sustain for your army over the course of the battle.
• The Dwellers Below: A shockingly powerful AoE damaging spell for a lore so dedicated to supporting your own units, The Dwellers Below snares all units who travel within the spell's zone with a speed debuff while chipping away at them in the process. While it's good in certain situations, you've likely taken your life wizard for dedicated healing support and will likely have alternative options for offensive spellcasters more suited to the task. Wood elf spellweaver lords get this as a bound spell, which is awesome. Despite its awesome animations, if you look carefully at the spells tooltip, you'll notice that it's a direct damage spell and not a vortex. This is important because it means that instead of centering it on blobs, you want it covering as many enemy units as possible and you don't have to worry about hitting your own units with it.

Lore of Light

Summary of Strengths: two good AOE buff spells, a good vortex, and a amazing movement lockdown spells, it best for factions that want to trap units and let their archers or artillery slaughter the enemy, or those who need to boost their frontlines melee potential. or both.

Passive - Exorcism: Whenever you cast a Lore of Light spell, all your units gain 4 leadership and become immune to psychology (fear/terror) for 11 seconds. Useful, if you are facing armies with lots of scary monsters, but largely useless outside of that.

• Shen's Burning Gaze: Inexpensive Projectile, costs the same as fireball (5 winds), but fires 5 projectiles in a grouping. Has the advantage of higher base damage than said Fireball, and the disadvantage that all projectiles need to land for the spell to deal full damage. Given that most entities except the largest ones aren't even big enough for all projectiles to land, it's kinda mediocre. For what it's worth, it has much better AP damage than fire ball for similar cost. If cast at close range, it can be used like a shotgun to get all of the projectiles to hit. It's best vs a monster sized unit obviously, but it's also good vs flying to due decent air tracking. It fires 5 projectiles base goes up to 10 if overcast. Basically just like gaze of nagash from lore of vampires. Also it has bonus vs large.
• Net of Amyontok: This is why you pick the Lore of Light. A medium-prized (10 winds) AoE debuff that locks an enemy in place, right where they stand. The incredible utility of this spell cannot be understated. A must pick against factions with a lot of mobility, although it only affects units on the ground. Despite that limitation, it will trap any flying cavalry/monsters/characters who are on the ground (from a charge, for example), so if you can catch them with this before they can retreat into the skies, you can severely punish them. Obviously favored by those with good archers and artillery, Sisters of Avelorn and Salamander Hunting Packs being notable beneficiaries.
• Pha's Protection: A cheap defense buff. Grants 30 armour and 24 Melee Defense at the prize of 5 winds of magic for 22 seconds. overcast adds AOE for 10 winds. unexceptional but nice, short duration is unfortunate, but good AOE buffs are rare. maybe worth it if you can hit enough of your units. great buff for lizardmen suarus and dinosaurs who have high weapon strength but lower MA/MD.
• Light of Battle: AoE buff for 7 Winds of Magic that makes all units unbreakable for 22 seconds. Not to be underestimated, but needs a creative mind to use right. very situational, probably not worth it often.
• Bironas Timewarp: Pretty nifty AOE buff spell that costs 11 Winds of Magic and gives units a whopping 24% increase to their movement speed and 24 melee attack. Perfect for Cavalry and other fast units. Great buff for lizardmen Suarus and dinosaurs who have high weapon strength but lower MA/MD.
• Banishment: A 17/24 overcast winds vortex with good ap damage (7ap same as pit of shades). you get a small zone of bright death. The game advertises this spell as dealing "medium damage", which is bewildering, to say the least. Banishment definitely doesn't need to hide behind its bigger brethren from other Lores. It’s actually incredibly similar to purple sun now, in fact purple sun is probably better now. Still good though. Overcasting increases the base damage by 7, though the AP values are untouched. Generally not worth overcasting in most scenarios. Slann get this as a free bound spell, as always this is awesome.

Lore of Metal

Summary of strengths: good to buff or debuff armor, and has possibly the most powerful AOE direct damage spell versus small units and single entities, searing doom is a decent bombardment spell vs lightly armored units and glittering robe is very strong if your facing an army with poor ap. Be aware that this is usually considered one of the weaker lores in the game unless your playing as Gelt.

Passive - Metalshifting: Your lore attribute that gives your units +10% AP and Weapon Strength for 13 second. Used best on elite units who already have high AP and damage as something like an Empire Swordsman probably won't be noticing the effects too much.

• Searing Doom: A fairly cost effective bombardment ability against low armor. At only 6 winds of magic it can help destroy early game blobs of crappy infantry. It's biggest disadvantage is the wind up time so any opponent who's paying attention should be able to get out of the way. Fortunately the AI doesn't bother with dodging these most of the time. Low projectile damage means wont do shit to higher health models, kroxigors, dragon ogres etc.
• Plague of Rust: One of the most cost effective armor debuffs in the game, especially if you don't have a lot of affordable AP. Being able to get rid of 30 armor for 4 winds (Or 60 for 6 if you overcast) is situationally good. Plus it lasts 44 seconds so you have plenty of time to deal with them before their defensive stats return to normal. It's certainly better against some factions (this can be a god send against Dwarfs and Bretonnia) than others (Beastmen and Wood Elves will laugh if you bring this). In the campaign almost every unit worth using should have AP anyway, really only good situationally/early game. single target is the biggest problem, at least its cheap with good duration. kind of mediocre. I would rather use soul blight with shorter duration, at least's its AOE. a single armored unit is only ever going to matter enough in multiplayer.
• Glittering Robes: it got buffed. now 60 armor for 44 seconds (no leadership effect anymore), overcast for AOE, actually pretty good if fighting non AP. 6 base/12 overcast. AOE is the big deal, much better than the life equivalent.
• Gehenna's Golden Hounds: You can spend an extra 3 winds of magic for a mediocre vortex that only hurts low armor units and might even kill some of your own troops. Doesn't that sound fun? Use Searing Doom, you'll get better bang for your buck. It actually has the same AP damage per tick as Purple Sun, its mostly just small and hard to aim. Cheap though. Not great
• Transmutation of Lead: A fairly solid -24 melee attack and -30% weapon damage for 38 seconds can really put enemy momentum to a halt (if you overcast, -60% weapon damage). costs 11 base, 16 overcast. unfortunately debuffing melee attack and weapon strength while good is somewhat counter synergistic, because if they don't hit the strength doesn't matter, but its just doubling down rather than redundant. Probably don't overcast unless you really think you need it.
• Final Transmutation: Ok so take Spirit Leech, make it a massive AOE and you have a pretty good idea of how Final Transmutation works. This can win you games if you get a big blob in it but at 18 (28 overcast) Winds of Magic it'll probably be all you're casting in multiplayer. In campaign, build up those reserves and you can win battles with this alone. Even if you only hit 2 targets, it has higher damager per winds ratio than Spirit Leech. The overcast version does 2300 damage on average vs Spirit Leech's 834 average. If you can weaken a lord to the 2000 health range this will quickly destroy them. Assuming they have no significant magic resist/healing/wards of course, but still incredibly potent none-the-less. (all direct damage spells bypass armor FYI, so Bejuna, Flock of Doom, Miasma etc., they all do).

Lore of Shadows

Summary of Stregnths: a versatile lore with two exceptional damage spells, and only one bad spell. Pit of Shades and Pendulum alone allow you to devastate units. Has all around useful spells and is very versatile and all its damage spells work great on both elite units and chaff.

Passive - Smoke & Mirrors: A mapwide movement speed buff for 24 seconds whenever you cast a shadows spell is a nice perk that can give you a slight edge in maneuverability over your opponent, though this is very largely dependent on the factions at play. Remember the mediocre speed boosts of pelt or timewarp? This is better, map wide, and free. Still not that great.

• Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma: A Single target direct damage spell that deals damage to one unit while also slowing them down in the process. At 5 winds of magic for a quick cast, it's a great precursor to an engagement or to help prevent your opponent from fleeing. Averages around 1764 direct damage, quite good but only on a large unit, ideally with about 100 or more models. Ok to speed debuff a lord or monster if you really need to as well, otherwise doesn't overcast. Best spammed to wear down large units, compare to flock of doom for example.
• The Enfeebling Foe: A 22 second melee defense/attack debuff that cripples a single enemy unit of your choice. Ideally used against characters or monsters who might be trying to wreak havoc in your lines or to give your own lord a step up in a duel against them. Probably worth overcasting for the double duration. One of the best debuffs in the game for a single target. Hit a lord with it then buff your duelist monster, hero, or lord with Mindrazor and you get a nasty killing combo.
• The Withering: Yet another hex that targets a single unit and reduces their armor and leadership for 40 seconds. It only has a prominent niche if you stack lots of leadership debuffs to force opposing units to route, but Doom and Darkness from death does that twice as well (if that discipline is available). all races that can leadership bomb (beastmen, dark elves, norsca, warriors of chaos, and vampires) have access to death, except lizardmen which cant use shadow or death. Generally a very mediocre spell.
• The Penumbral Pendulum: A potent wind spell that is perfect for slicing through frontline units while they're tied up in combat. It's not quite as powerful as the Burning Head or the Winds of Death against unarmored foes, but anything wearing a tin can will get cracked open. This does 36 AP damage base or a whopping 72 if overcast. It actually does more AP damage than wind of death, but usually gets fewer kills due to shorter duration, travel distance, and AOE. Wrecks elite infantry and cavalry.
• Pit of Shades: One of the very select few stationary vortex spells in the game. With a 13 second duration, the Pit of Shades is a fantastic tool in maps that have natural choke points or if you manage to box in a particularly large clump of units. It deals 7 points of pure AP, same as Purple Sun's or Banishment's AP damage, though it has no base damage paired with it. Overcasting doubles the ap to 14, but this is generally unnecessary in most circumstances. It traps enemies inside of it, so not only does it immobilize clumps of enemies for follow-up attacks, it tends to deal tons of damage as long as you get a direct hit. Very reliable.
• Okkam's Mindrazor: A very nasty buff that grants magical attacks to an allied unit as well as a very substantial 40% buff to weapon and armor piercing damage. Overcast for an expensive but powerful AOE buff. Use on monsters, heroes and lords for best results because it's percentage based; you're gonna get a lot more mileage out of it that way. Good for a goon squad to kill monsters/lords, not worth it for killing infantry usually. Remember weapon strength doesn’t matter if you can’t hit, try to combine it with an a melee attack boost or melee defense debuff for best results. Enfeebling foe for example.

Scrolls

In the Campaign, you can occasionally find magic scrolls that give your caster a free spell with limited uses, and some of them aren't available in any lore. Given that they're free, there is no reason to not cast them in any battle. Some of these spells can also be unlocked through faction mechanics or just levelling your caster character up.

• Arnzipal's Black Horror: Stupidly effective Breath Spell that eats chaff alive and even inflicts enough damage to give Elite Units a run for their money. As of the Rakarth Update, Dark Elven Supreme Sorceresses get this spell as a bound spell for levelling up to Level 10 on the Campaign, everyone else has to rely on the enemy to drop the Scroll of Horror.
• Assault of Stone: Probably the strongest Bombardment in the entire game. Covers a huge area, and inflicts a ton AP magic damage. The Dwarfs (of all factions) get the easiest access to it by forging the Sceptre of Stone with Oathgold.
• Amber Scroll: A free leadership debuff on any one unit.
• Blast: Fireball but faster and more immediate.

Faction-specific Lores

Lore of the Deep (Vampire Coast)

Summary of strengths: You would probably never want to use this instead of vampires but it can be good alongside it. its summon spell is very strong, its accuracy buff is cheap and situationally good, and all its damage spells are solid. Think carefully if you'd be better off casting from lore of vampires instead though.

Passive - Kiss of the Deep: Each time you cast a spell it does a small amount of magic damage to every enemy unit on the map. This is especially useful when fighting against armies that have fragile units and rely on superior speed or disposable chaff units to keep them protected.

• Tidecall: A breath weapon that expands out in a cone, doing moderate damage and disrupting enemy formations. Basically wind blast from the Lore of Heaven, but wetter.
• Spiteful Shot: A buff that provides +90 accuracy to an allied unit. Great for deck gunners, mortars, Queen Bess, or anything else that can shoot, really. It's the cheapest spell in your arsenal so it can be reliably spammed to get more Kiss of the Deep effects.
• Denizens of the Deep: Summons a unit of Rotting Prometheans. The Rotting Prometheans biggest weakness is its low speed, so the ability to drop a unit right into the enemy is amazing. Need to soak up an enemy charge? Want to disrupt enemy artillery? There's an enemy hero giving you problems? Solve every problem with giant enemy crabs.
• Fog of the Damned: A debuff spell that reduces enemy leadership and movement speed. Not your best spell, but it slows enemy melee units down to give your gunners more time to shoot them. It still causes Kiss of the Deeps which is never bad.
• Vangheist's Revenge: Possibly the coolest looking spell ever. Summons a giant ghost boat to broadside the enemy for heavy damage across a wide area. Expensive and slow to cast, but stylish as hell and can potentially wipe out whole units at once.
• Kraken's Pull: A big vortex full of wet groping tentacles that traps any unit caught inside of it, dealing damage to them and cutting their speed in half. Anything that keeps the enemy away from your lines is useful. The vortex is also immobile, so there's no risk of it backfiring into your units.

Lore of High Magic (High Elves, Lizardmen, Wood Elves)

Summary of Strengths: Was a solid, but unspectacular swiss army knife lore with an awesome air snare and mediocre damage/healing/buff spells in WH2. Immortal empires turned everything around, the air snare only slows flying units but the fiery convocation got buffed into the stratosphere (see below).

Passive - Shield of Saphery: A 11% Ward Save graces all your units whenever you cast spells from this discipline.

Passive (Wood Elves) - Ancients' Protection: A slightly worse version of the Shield of Saphery, this only grants a 10% Physical Resistance buff, meaning it'll do nothing against magic damage/missiles. Still, it works well enough for Wood Elves since they have a reasonable amount of innate physical resist already and can be further supplemented by physical resistance spells from other disciplines.

• Hand of Glory: A relatively cheap buff for a single allied unit that grants them increased reload skill and melee attack for 29 seconds. Reload skill and melee attack don't exactly go hand in hand as far as complimentary buffs go, but it does give it a bit more potential application across your entire army compared to other more specialized buffs. You'll want to use this on high value units like Sisters of Avelorn who can put out more damage than a fireball if they get an extra 2-3 volleys in.
• Apotheosis: A single unit heal that also imbues the allied target with Fear for its 10 second duration. It doesn't provide as much single target healing as invocation of nehek or affect multiple targets like earth blood, but it's still a solid healing spell. The addition of Fear does help push through the squishier, meeker chaff units that might simply be trying to tie you down. However, the lore of life exists and all factions with high magic have access to life magic. Never overcast it unless you really need the range.
• Soul Quench: A magic missile with artillery levels of range that explodes for quite reasonable damage against groups of infantry. While it's reasonably effective and cost efficient, you'll likely want to reserve your Winds of Magic for more utilitarian purposes and leave the job of long-range bombardment to your actual artillery units, Wood Elves lack artillery they *might* get more use out of this. Keep in mind it has bad armor piercing, use it like fireball pretty much. If you use it at all.
• Tempest: A snare that deals damage and hits flying units with a -60% speed debuff in a slow moving vortex. This is a very useful tool for dealing with (Legendary) Lords on flying mounts or flying Monsters like Dragons. While they take impressive damage from the Tempest itself, you should always have some other units on hand to take advantage of their immobility. In general though, this is worse than the Net of Amyntok if your goal is to snare enemy units in place. Great in multiplayer, crap in single player.
• Fiery Convocation: The best wind spell in the game as of Immortal Empires. For a 15 mana cost, fiery convocation deals 35 damage per second of pure AP magic flaming damage in a straight line. In comparison, Wind of Death has an identical mana cost, smaller straight line AOE, and only deals 24 AP damage per second. Still, while it may be the most damaging wind spell, it's loooonnnggg (but awesome-looking) startup means that it's a much more risky cast. If you aren't using it on units that are solidly pinned down and have any mobility at all, they're going to dodge, and you'll have wasted a ton of magic reserves.
• Arcane Unforging: A very powerful single-entity spell that deals substantial damage to the target while increasing their ability cooldowns by a considerable amount. This is a very valuable spell against enemy Heroes and Lords due to their ability to completely shut them down. Overcasting increases the ability cooldown reset to a whopping 45 seconds which, if used at just the right moment, can utterly ruin an opponent's strategy and cost them the field. Obviously less useful against battering ram-type characters who just charge into battle, but hey. Can't have everything. Higher damage but less efficient than other spells of its kind. Spirit leech, final transmutation and soul stealer are honestly better because their AoE capabilities (or higher efficiency in spirit leech's case). Still, not a bad spell though, especially for Lizardmen who lack access to the aforementioned alternatives. Pick your targets well and only overcast against extremely high priority characters with powerful abilities.

Lore of Dark Magic (Dark Elves, Wood Elves)

Summary of Strengths: a good damage lore that has a very powerful AOE Spirit leech equivalent and self-healing combo Spell, some good damage spells for both single entities and hordes, and a powerful winds recharge buff along side a strong single target debuff. Fairly versatile/powerful offensive lore but completely lacking in any form of support. About even overall with the other damage focused lore's, each own has their own niche.

Passive - Spiteful Conjuration: Reduces armor map wide, it’s ok, works out to 11% less damage resistance for 18 seconds. Almost the same as the lore of metal attribute effectively but almost always better. It affects missile and spell damage not just melee with a longer duration than metal does. Doesn’t actually affect any of the spells from this lore except bladewind however since the rest do pure AP damage.

Passive (Wood Elves) - Wrath of the Woods: 12% more missile damage map wide for 8 seconds, it’s nice. Like a free half strength flaming sword and stacks with all other boosts.

• Power of Darkness: Basically a 4 times as strong arcane conduit that causes 500ish damage to a unit over time. Which unit is chosen doesn’t matter. 3 use limit per battle. Very underrated, easily the strongest winds recharge skill in the game. Cast on a hydra and it will just regen through most of the damage or on a bolt thrower out of the way. Don’t ever put the damage on your wizard. in campaign you can consider running dark plus a second lore to have the dark act as a winds battery, recommend to combine with other winds boost like knowledgeable sorceresses
• Chillwind: Cheap wind spell that does 24 points of PURE Ap damage. That’s 2/3rds of a pendulum’s AP component. Also slows and lowers reload speed so multi use. Honestly a bargain, it’s pure AP would be worth the cost alone. Plus triggers lore attribute cheaply. Overcast isn’t worth it. it looks weaker than it is, remember that it wont kill many models but will significantly weaken them, its hard to tell but it adds up to a lot of lost health on infantry. best used on heavily armored infantry and cavalry with lower per model health.
• Word of Pain: A single target only debuff isn’t ideal but it can claim to be probably the best lord or hero off switch in the game. -44 melee attack is massive. Overcast adds a melee defense hit as well. Sometimes worth overcasting. Situational but nice to have.
• Blade Wind: Pretty cheap, pretty damaging vortex. Lowish ap damage but helped by the lore attribute, short duration but that rarely matters. It does it’s job well for its cost. Won’t win any awards but its cheap enough to justify just dropping it on only 1 or 2 units. same cost as base Doombolt so use this on bigger units or blobs usually but Doombolt vs single entities or monstrous units. Overcast doubles duration but unlikely to hit anything long enough for that to matter, not worth overcasting really.
• Doombolt: Does just over 800 pure AP on a direct hit with an decent AOE detonation as well. Plus it’s a bombardment with pretty good tracking. It is like a cheaper comet of casadora with the tradeoff of less AOE range but better single target damage. Comparable damage/efficiency to Amber Spear overcast. Its ideal situation is hitting a lord or monster while surrounded by troops to take advantage of both damage portions. Overcast is proportionate, it only boosts the single target damage though. Against units just use the base version.
• Soul Stealer: AOE spirit leech combined with a caster only heal identical to High Magic’s but with about 50 more healing. Damage is the exact same as Spirit leech, but because it hits every target with their own version it’s more efficient than Spirit Leech with just 2-3 good targets. Plus only healing Dark Elves get. Great spell. Better on Morathi, Malekith, and a black dragon sorceress to make the self healing more valuable.

Lore of Nehekhara (Tomb Kings)

Summary of Strengths: not a great lore, 2 good buffs and one decent one but its just not good enough to compete with death or light as a standalone lore. damage spells are lackluster. Either rely on the buffs or just use as a secondary lore.

Passive - The Restless Dead: Completely identical to the Lore of Vampires passive, heals injured undead before resurrecting models. Unlike the Lore of Vampires, the Lore of Nehekhara contains many more small buff spells but lacks the damage potential of the former. That does, however, mean that this passive will be triggering a lot more frequently.

• Djaf's Incantation of Cursed Blades: One of the cheapest spells in the game at 3 WoM, this little spell buffs weapon and AP damage by 25% on a single unit. Emblematic of the Tomb Kings lore and battle philosophy in general: while there are no standout spells or units that will single-handedly win you your battles, it's the combined-arms nature of the faction that truly makes it succeed. And the Cursed Blades is perfect for giving those cavalry, Ushabti, and other nasty constructs the edge on the offense.
• Neru's Incantation of Protection: Grants 44% Physical Resistance for 6 WoM. Good for keeping your Tomb King rampaging through the enemy lines on his Warsphinx or giving one of your holding units unexpected resilience.
• Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting: The go-to spell for the missile-focused Tomb Kings player. Granting 40% bonus to missile and missile AP damage for another 6 WoM, this is a beastly spell when put on your artillery constructs which will really pile in the pressure on units trying to approach your lines.
• Usirian's Incantation of Vengeance: The first damage spell for the lore and it's... disappointing. Does middling damage to units in a wide area while reducing their speed by 24%. Situational, potentially useful if built around correctly, but generally safe to ignore in favour of more buffs for the troops.
• Usekph's Incantation of Desiccation: -24 MA and MD to enemy units in a huge area for a whopping 15 WoM. Generally not worth it unless you're planning to bust through an infantry line with your own, which works like none of the time with the slow infantry of the Tomb Kings
• Sakhmet's Incantation of the Skullstorm: Generic magical damage vortex for 11 WoM. Impressive to look at, but not very efficient due to a smaller-than-average vortex radius.

Lore of the Wild (Beastmen)

Summary of Strengths: actually a very solid damage lore with a great summon, the buff is only ok but the rest is very solid and versatile at damaging all types of enemies.

Passive - Bestial Surge: When ever you cast you gain an extra 18% Charge Bonus and 5% vigour. Needless to say in a speedy hit and run faction like the Beastmen you will need as much of both as you can get.

• Viletide: For 7 winds of magic you get an AOE kaboom that deals decent damage to unarmoured troops. Great for when you are in a grind and need to get the chaff out of the way so that you can fight better stuff but won't do dick against armour.
• Bray-Scream A cone shaped wind spell that can do decent damage with decent AP. It has very short range but for 5 Winds of Magic it can actually get you some very good damage against infantry with a ton of armor.
• Devolve: For 11 winds this thing is essentially a mini Final Transmutation, and can do some serious damage to large unit sizes (100 and up ideally). Plus the leadership debuff can help with getting the enemy into a rout so you can chase them off. This is your best blob destroying spell and it's decent for what it is. All direct damage spells ignore armor. It does 1100 damage max, 2300 overcast both only against big enough units. Very cost efficient.
• Traitor-Kin: Essentially an AOE Spirit Leech in that instead of doing a ton of damage to several models at once it will drain one model at a time til it dies and move to the next one. This means that it doesn't do as much damage as Devolve but will kill models. It also supplies a speed debuff for lord sniping, which is great for a faction that relies on outrunning their enemies. It's expensive at 12 winds though
• Mantle of Ghorok: The only buffing spell this list has. It provides a meaty 50 Base Weapon Damage, 40% Melee Attack and 50% AP. Needless to say this is amazing for such an aggressive faction and will turn Minotaurs and Bestigors into killing machines. There is the downside of the -30 armour but.. come on man, you're playing the Beastmen. Unless you use this thing on Bestigors you wont even notice. You'll be more turned off by the 11 winds cost. Probably better against armoured opponents.
• Savage Dominion: Ok let's be real. If you're taking this Lore of Magic into an online match, this is why you're bringing it. I don't really need to tell you why getting 2 Cygors for free is really, really good. Not only do you have a solid monster but you also have an artillery piece to rain 5 death rocks from afar before despawning. I don't care if it's 18 Winds of Magic, it's easily the best spell in the lore. You can only use it twice though, so use it wisely.

Lore of Vampires (Vampire Coast, Vampire Counts)

Summary of Strengths: everything is good? seriously everyone knows how amazing it is. skip gaze of Nagash and curse of years probably but other than that its great, extremely versatile and powerful.

Passive - The Curse of Undeath: Heals every undead unit on the map for a small amount over the course of 5 seconds, but in contrast to the Lore of Lifes passive, it can also bring models back. Not a game changer, but free healing is always nice.

• Curse of Years: Not worth it. A big AoE debuff that lowers Melee Defense and Speed at a whopping cost of 16 Winds of Magic. Its general effectiveness is additionally offset by the fact that your Skellies or Deckhands are not all that good at melee in the first place and the debuff just too weak against Lords and Heroes (which are usually the preferred targets for debuffs).
• Gaze of Nagash: Practically interchangeable with Shen's burning gaze from the Lore of Light. Meek Projectile with mediocre damage that also has a hard time even hitting its intended target. Skip.
• Invocation of Nehek: This and Wind of Death are the main reason why the Lore of Vampires is so extremely powerful. Invocation of Nehek brings a very cost-effective heal to the table at a meager 6 Winds of Magic that also resurrects dead models - for 12 on the overcast variant, you get a very big AoE heal that helps especially the many monstrous, low entity units the Counts are able to field. Pumping a half-dead Vargheist or Mourngul unit up a few models can really swing encounters in your favor, not to mention the amount of cheese you can get out of this spell by combining it with the multitude of passive regeneration abilities the Counts have on a lot of units. Maxing it out on Campaign also makes it even cheaper (bringing down the cost from 6/12 down to 5/10) and since it's your first spell, there is no reason to not do so.
• Raise Dead (Vampire Counts): Summons undead, what exactly depending on the lord. Most of them summon Zombies to tie down the enemy or block a charge, or Skeleton Warriors with swords when overcast, which isn't worth the cost as it won't do anything the zombies won't. Strigoi lords summon Crypt Ghouls, which should be used to inflict poison on as many enemies as they can before expiring, or Crypt Horrors when overcast, when you want something that actually does damage. Helman Ghorst has a unique version that summons Grave Guard with swords when you need to kill units and a Wight King when overcast, who won't have the chance to win any duel but can tie down a lord and give it quite some damage too.
• Drowned Dead (Vampire Coast): Similar to its Vampire Count cousin, Drowned Dead summons forth a squad of Zombie Gunmen to help shoot down your foes. Fitting for the Vampire Coast considering how much they love guns. The overcast version summons forth a Zombie Pirate Gunnery Mob, but with handguns so they have more fire power, giving you a stronger edge. How useful this spell is depends on where they are summoned.
• Vanhel's Danse Macabre: Sweet Little and extremely cheap buff (only 4 winds, 6 when overcast) that grants +24 Melee Attack and Speed like an inverse Curse of Years. Can be worth it on units like Grave Guard or Black Knights, usually situational, unlike Curse of Years its very low costs make it very useful in a pinch or as last resort spell, when your Magic Reserves have dried up and there's nothing else left to cast.
• Wind of Death: A great wind spell, but Immortal Empires nerfed it's damage and mana cost to be more in line with other armor piercing wind spells like pendulum and cracks call. You'll still get your money's worth out of it, just don't expect it to single handedly win battles like it could in Warhammer 1 and 2.

Lore of DA Big Waaagh! (Greenskins)

Summary of strengths: a well round lore with good buffs and damage spells, foot of gork and Ere We Go alone make it very solid. no debuffs though.

Passive - Power of da Waaagh!: Functionally identical to the Lore of Death attribute, every time you cast a spell it increases the recharge rate for all spells. Nothing fancy, but still useful.

• Brain Bursta: Basically a green fireball. Deals decent damage in a large area from a decent distance. You should probably focus on the other spells in the list.
• 'Eadbutt: A short, wide little breath attack that sends enemies flying. Great for disrupting enemy formations and pushing clumps of enemies around.
• 'Ere We Go: A buff that gives a unit +40 melee attack, allowing even weedy little goblins to punch above their weight. Absolutely horrific when used on Black Orcs, but there's basically nothing in the greenskin roster that doesn't appreciate krumpin' stuff.
• Fists of Gork: A cheaper alternative to 'Ere We Go that provides +24 melee attack and defense. It's better to use on a lord or hero to give them an edge in a duel, but 9 times out of 10 you'll want 'Ere We Go instead.
• Foot of Gork: SPLAT!! Summon Gork himself to stomp the shit out of your enemies with one of the most powerful spells in the game. Creates a giant explosion of armour piercing damage that can win the entire battle on its own if cast on the right target. The winds of magic cost is really steep, especially when overcast; but the damage potential cannot be overstated.
• Gaze of Mork: Often overlooked, but not completely useless. Gaze of Mork is a cheap precise sniper-rilfe style spell that does decent damage to a single entity. The best part of the spell is the long range, which is good for greenskins who normally struggle when the enemy is too far away. Overcasting lets it trade shots with artillery all the way across the map.

Lore of DA Little Waaagh! (Greenskins)

Passive - Sneaky Stealin': The polar opposite of the Lore of the Big Waaagh! passive, this one increases the recharge time for enemy casters. An interesting trait, but the effectiveness depends very strongly on what the opponent is bringing.

• Curse of Da Bad Moon: A hilarious looking vortex that bounces around the map, dealing damage and reducing the speed, armour, and melee attack of whatever it touches. A useful debuff, but the spell moves around like crazy and can often come back to your lines.
• Gork'll Fix It: A targeted hex that reduces enemy speed, charge bonus, and vigor. Tailor made to counter knights and chariots, who should always be the first targets. A pretty cheap spell only costing 7 winds of magic, but you get what you pay for.
• Itchy Nuisance: Another Hex, this one decreases enemy weapon damage and melee attack. More generally useful than Gork'll Fix It, but not nearly as good against knights.
• Nightshroud: A strange buff that gives all friendly units in an area Stalk and Undetectable, making them functionally invisible. A great way to protect your slower units from enemy shooting. Note that Undetectable stops working if the unit attacks or casts a spell, so it's pretty much useless on your archers.
• Sneaky Stabbin': A cheap and weak little spell that gives the target 18% more AP damage and +34 melee attack. Because the bonus to AP is a percentage and not a flat amount, it doesn't do much on units that struggle against armored foes (you know, the ones that really need it). Most of the time the longer duration and better melee bonus of 'Ere We Go! is better, but if you don't have an orc shaman it can get the job done.
• Vindictive Glare: Launches a bunch of little magic missiles into the target, doing moderate magic damage for each missile that hits. Best against big targets so all of the missiles can hit the same target. Anything that helps you against monsters is useful for Greenskins.

Skaven Spells of Ruin (Skaven)

Summary of Strengths: 3 great damage spells with warp lighting as the standout, and a good lore attribute make this a very potent spell lore for damage. The ability to freeze flying enemies is situationally very good.

Passive - Musk of Fear: Upon casting a spell, enemy units are inflicted with -13 Melee Attack and -4 Leadership. Considering the relatively spammy nature of the Lore of Ruin (in particular Warp Lightning) this may help your tarpits out considerably but don't rely on it to turn the tide of battle on its own.

• Warp Lightning: Cheap bombardment spell, iconic to non-Pestilens Skaven casters and surprisingly powerful for the cost. There are many ways to buff this spell in campaign but it's also perfectly serviceable in multiplayer. Don't ever be conservative with this spell - it's dirt-cheap and you'll need repeated casts of it to really dish out the hurt. Laugh maniacally like Ikit and blast those tarpitted blobs whenever you see them!
• Howling Warpgale: An AOE spell which roots flying units in place. Despite it's situational nature, it is absolutely vital that you take it whenever you start acquiring weapons teams. Skaven have no other counter to units who can fly over blocking troops to get at the squishy weapon teams in the back. But with this spell you can pin those flying beasties in the air and make them sitting ducks for your artillery and jezzails.
• Death Frenzy: A straightforward combat buff that can turn an outmatched fight into a much more balanced one. It's tempting to cast this on Clanrats to try to hold the line longer but there are better uses for this spell, like letting that Plague Censer-Bearer unit tear through your opponent's elite infantry and eliciting a serious WTF moment from them as you blow a hole in their infantry centre with crazed great-weapon rats pumped full of magic.
• Scorch: A thin breath spell. One of the disappointments of the otherwise serviceable Lore of Ruin, it has a rather small hitbox that deals middling damage to anything not unarmoured chaff. Since the Skaven have better ways of dealing with unarmoured chaff, you're better off skipping this one.
• Flensing Ruin: An unusual area-damage spell that Functions just like Final Transmutation (and has the same Winds of magic to damage ratio), it works best versus single entities and very small units (20ish or less unit size), if you get a group of good targets it's actually very efficient and powerful. Not worth using versus infantry and large units, just use warp lightning for them. Will effect any target clipped by its AOE in full just like flock of doom.
• Crack's Call: Another area damage spell, this time a straight wind spell that's similar to Flensing Ruin in its AP potential. The shape of the wind spell lends itself well to thinning out hapless infantry eating up your Skavenslaves and Clanrats, so it's up to you if you want to use this as a in-between the Warp Lightning casts you're hopefully already spamming.
• The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell (Exclusive to Grey Seers of Ruin): Now we're talking. While only Grey Seer of Ruin lords can take this, it's the one spell both old 8th Edition veterans and Total War players will take regardless because of its sheer WTF potential - it's a large-area explosion spell that spawns a unit of sword-and-board Stormvermin right on top of whatever unfortunate infantry are left alive from the blast. The high Winds of Magic cost and long cooldown make this a risky proposition but when you see that chance to flip the table on that blob of chaff and create a dangerous opening in your opponent's formation, you turn to this spell. That said you're best off skipping this spell because lore of plague is a more efficient source of cheap summons and grey seers are a rubbish lord choice. As a funny side-note: Given that Skaven only had 2 lores prior to the Clan Eshin release, this actually also is the thirteenth spell in the Skaven spellbook.

Skaven Spells of Plague (Skaven)

Summary of strengths: Another great lore for the skaven, powerful summoning and damage spells with the ability to provide poison.

Passive - Plague Rash: Upon casting a spell in this Lore, inflicts -12% Speed on all enemies on the map. This may be nice in multiplayer where speed and kiting is omnipresent, its a lot less impressive versus the AI though.

• Bless with Filth: Cheap poison attacks buff. Nothing much to say, it's a nice way of making those Clanrat Spears extra nasty against the big stuff. Gutter runners with poison slings are arguably more efficient.
• Pestilent Breath: The signature breath spell for Plague casters. Good coverage, damage and low cost makes this a staple for clearing out enemy tarpits in short order. Despite not being very effective against armor, it can potentially disrupt the formation with the breath effect which you can take advantage of.
• Vermintide: The earliest summon spell any of the Skaven casters can get and by far one of the most useful. Do not underestimate being able to suddenly summon Clanrats out of nowhere, they can easily become annoying roadblocks against enemy cavalry or delay infantry advances so that your artillery can shoot at them more. In a pinch, you can even throw them behind a unit in combat as a cheap way to inflict outflanked debuffs or bypass their front line to get at their squishy ranged units.
• Wither: -30 Armour doesn't sound like much of a debuff but Wither stands out by having its duration be longer than the cooldown - meaning with patience you can make those high-armor targets naked for a brief period for maximum rape. Best to use this one on units already in combat that you really want dead quickly, either from grenades or Plague Monk attacks.
• Plague: The best AoE damage spell the Skaven have by far and the most visually impressive as well. Absolutely amazing for crushing mobs of any kind while they eat worthless Clanrats from Vermintide, it has a stupidly low casting cost for the effect and damage area. The Plague is not to be trifled with and can turn the tide of the battle with careful usage.
• Pestilent Birth: While Vermintide is the more defensive summon spell in this lore, this spell is for more aggressive players who would much rather like to win the infantry fight by any means. With this spell you can spawn a unit of Plague Monks nearby the caster - terrific for nasty back attacks or adding unexpected pressure onto an enemy unit chewing up Skavenslaves. A devastating spell if positioned correctly but still useful even if misplaced.

Skaven Spells of Stealth (Skaven)

Summary of Strengths: A contender for worst lore in the game, even when used by clan eshin its just not very good.

Passive - Toxic Rain: Applies Poison in an AOE around the caster. A weird passive that encourages you to keep your mage close to the enemy, which is normally the last place that you would want to keep you caster, especially one without any mount options. One of the many reasons why this is widely considered the worst lore of magic in the entire game.

• Skitterleap: Grants Stalk, Unspottable and a small speed boost to all of the allies affected. Designed as an ambush spell that allows you to quickly move units around in a position to outflank your enemy. Best used on clan moulder monsters though doomflayers + doomwheels + plague monks can make decent use of it as well. Overcasting increases the AOE
• Warp Stars: Fires a bunch of AP magic missiles at a target, increasing the number of projectiles when overcasted. Good for poking down units before a main engagement but doesn't do as much damage as other missile spells.
• Veil of Shadows: Causes a massive, persistent explosion but does no damage. Designed to displace enemy units and provide a big hole for your units to run through. Great for unclogging gates in sieges against the AI, but the usefulness is questionable since a lot of spell have a similar effect and, you know, actually kill things. Overcast version slows as well.
• Armour of Darkness: Provides armour and missile resistance for a limited amount of time, little extra if overcasted. Once again, since this lore is designed for Clan Eshin units it can help them be a bit more resilient in combat.
• Black Whirlwind: A big AOE damage spell that displaces enemies and causes big damage. This is your crowd clearing spell, and to be fair it's actually not that bad at the job that it's supposed to do. It's biggest problem is that lore of plague and ruin have spells that do the same job better. Overcast does more AP damage.
• Brittle Bone: Lowers the speed, vigour, and Melee Defense of a target, making it AOE on overcast. A solid anti Cavalry spell that might actually allow the faster units in your army to catch up to them and bring them down. Probably the best spell on the list, which kind of goes to show how lack luster this particular Lore of Magic is in the first place.

Rune Magic (Dwarfs)

No passive for you. Dwarfs don't use the winds of magic, so every spell in the Runic Magic will be completely free and instead rely on cooldowns that all spells share with each other - i.e. you cast one Rune, all of them will go on cooldown. Fortunately, this is only per Runesmith, so bringing multiple will allow you to cast multiple runes at a time. This does eat into your budget (Gold and Roster-wise), so consider carefully if you really want to invest in multiple Runesmiths.

• Rune of Negation: Gives a unit 40% damage resistance for 24 seconds, 40 seconds if you overcast. This is pretty nice if you really want a unit to hold the line better than they already do (Ironbreakers with this will be untouchable).
• Rune of Oath and Steel: You give a unit 30 extra armor, 60 if overcast. Honestly, this is probably the worst rune in the list due to diminishing returns. Dwarfs already have high armor so just giving them more doesn't really help them out in any way. Unless you're putting this on Slayers to help them against missiles, this one is probably best left skipped.
• Rune of Wrath and Ruin: Casts a big fire explosion roughly the size of an Awakening of the Wood, and does extra AP when overcast. This will probably be one of the go to spells on the list since Dwarfs would love a big burst spell to help clear out chaff.
• Rune of Breaking: Imbues Armor Sundering and extra base and AP Weapon Strength for 33 seconds, 55 if overcast. Can be really good for your frontline when fighting heavy armor enemies since you can cause your standard infantry to do more damage and help your non AP missiles burn down armor better.
• Rune of Speed: Gives 24 melee attack and 45% speed for 18 seconds, 30 if overcast. Want to make Hammerers useful? Bring this. Having a rune that briefly covers one of your big weaknesses can help you actually use offensive tactics.
• Rune of Slowness: Reduces Charge Bonus by 40%, Charge Speed and normal speed by 45% for 30 seconds, 45 if overcast. Really helps deal with chariots and cavalry, acting as a snare to help your missiles or Slayers get a hold of them.

Lore of Ice (Kislev)

Summary of Strengths: a lore full of overpriced spells, but it dose have a cheap wind spell and a lot of ways to slow down enemy units, best value is generally to spam the cheap spells and stack slow effects to let missile units do their thing longer.

Passive - Frost Shield: Upon casting, all friendly units gain an increased 15 armor and 12 missile block chance. Considering that this is a faction that is a bit lacking in armor additional protection against missiles will not be a bad thing to have. Unfortunately its pretty bad vs most of the demons you'll be fighting.

• Ice Maiden's Kiss: This is going to be your cost effective "get this low armor chaff off the field so my units can kill something more important" spell. It's pretty much just Wind Blast only with an ice theme and you use it pretty much the same way.
• Ice Sheet: An area of effect spell that lowers enemy Speed and Charge Speed by 25% for 17 seconds and is extremely cheap. Obviously, this is going to be great against factions that rely on cavalry or are just very mobile in general. Since Winged Lancers and Gryphon Legion are very fast by heavy cav standards, you can use this to let them catch up to units they shouldn't be able to and dominate them. You can also make them easy targets for your ranged troops. Obviously there is no reason to bring this against super immobile factions like Dwarfs but all in all a solid spell against the right foe. Notably the speed reduction will stack with the frostbite status and the Tempest lore attribute, So you can nearly immobilize units by combining them.
• Frost Blades: Your only aggressive buffing ability, it provides 25 % weapon strength and AP and gives a unit 25 melee attack. Using this on Tzar Guard can turn this from pretty decent infantry to surprisingly scary shredders, though given that the strength of your army relies on your missiles and cav you could argue that it is a waste to put this with your infantry. its only a single unit buff as well so maybe ok in multiplayer but when you fighting full stacks in campaign probably a waste of winds to buff one unit. Maybe worth putting on Boris or an Elemental bear or something.
• Death Frost: Spirit Leech but icy. Yeah, that's pretty much it. It does more damage that Spirit Leech though, so use it to help get rid of any single entities on the enemy list, but its also overpriced compared to spirit leach even with the extra damage accounted for.
• Crystal Sanctuary: Now THIS is what you want to use on your infantry. It grants a unit 66% damage resistance at the expense of not being able to move. Considering that your units aren't the best damage sponges this can really help you get a solid anchor in your infantry line since odds are they won't be moving any way. Put this on Tzar Guard and they will be holding for as long as Dwarfs. Not sure if this would work well in multiplayer since they'll just run away until the buff runs out but should be abusable vs the dumb AI.
• Heart of Winter: The big damage AOE spell that also slows. It's a long duration spell that has 5 different stages, each stage increasing in both damage and slow. You can get up to a 60% slow if they stay in here for long enough. Of course, you have to worry about enemies just being able to walk out of it, so you may need to think of a way to lock them down. It's also very expensive, so probably a better in campaign then multiplayer spell. or maybe not used at all, its REALLY OVERPRICED, just use one of tempest more efficient damage spells.

Lore of Tempest (Kislev)

Summary of Strengths: a good damage focused lore with two nice buffs also, it has a wide variety of damage spells for multiple situations and they are all cost effective. Probably the best of the two kislev lores.

Lore Attribute reduces enemy speed map wide, pretty good combined with other sources of slow, Ice sheet, frostbite etc

• Gust of True Flight: Grants a friendly missile unit increased range and accuracy. When overcast, it affects all units in an area. Kislev relies a lot on its ranged units, so this will be worth taking for range-heavy defensive builds.
• Hailstorm: An icy version of the Lore of Metals Searing Doom, bombarding an area with projectiles, and can be overcast for a longer duration and more projectiles. very cheap and efficient, not very good AP though.
• Swiftwing: Grants friendly units inside an area increased speed and charge bonus. Overcast to affect a larger area. Probably going to be essential any time you're bringing a lot of cavalry to the fight, which you'll need against armies with more artillery than you. honestly not bad but not great, it would be more versatile if it increased MA or MD but not bad.
• Biting Wind: Your basic damage wind spell. Can be overcast for increased damage, specially of the armor-piercing variety.
• Hawks of Miska: A Vortex spell that has no AP, but it also applies reduces leadership and doesn't damage friendly units. Overcast for increased damage. Bring against lightly armored units and it can get tons of kills with no risk to your units.
• Blizzard: Big bad stationary vortex that deals heavy damage in a large area and also applies Frostbite that slows enemies. Overcast for increased damage. Very good for all the same reasons as pit of shades.

Lore of Yang (Grand Cathay)

Summary of Strengths: has some interesting buff spells and some damage spells that are good at chaff killing. Damage spells are lackluster versus armored targets. Jade shields is very nice for lords or a distraction monster unit. Just an ok lore, not amazing.

• Jade Shield: Protective buff that gives a unit a ward save bonus, overcast it to increase the duration.
• Dragon's Breath: Basic breath spell that also leaves behind a field of fire that damages enemies. Overcast increases damage and is more cost effective in terms of damage dealt per winds of magic used..
• Wall of Wind & Fire: Pretty unique as far as wind spells go, as instead of being narrow and fast it's wide and slow. Overcast for bonus armor piercing damage.
  • It lasts for quite a bit, akin to a very slow creeping barrage. Even though it's a "wall," units charging through it won't really take a lot of damage it. Best to use it on enemies already stuck in, to deal damage along the length of their unit. If your timing + positioning is good, you can also use it to roast the hell out of retreating units since the wall of fire moves at about the same speed as an infantry unit on the run.
• Stone Ground Stance: Grants friendly units inside an area increased mass, Expert Charge Defense and bonus leadership. For when you really need your line to hold against cavalry and big monsters. Overcast to affect a larger area.
  • Stacks with Harmony, other leadership sources (like a Lord, Sky Lantern), and the Jade Warrior defensive stance. Makes your infantry into wall, and your missile units the chance to survive a cav charge.
• Might of Heaven & Earth: Grants a friendly unit magical attacks and flaming attacks, increased melee attack, weapon strength and armor-piercing damage. Overcast for a bigger bonus. Can turn your big melee hitters into absolute blenders.
  • Your Celestials will love this, but is most obvious on your Sword Warriors, since their offense is sub-par and AP nonexistent.
  • Celestial Crossbow do more damage than the Fire-Magix Sisters of Avelorn, but their missiles are only mundane AP.
• Constellation of the Dragon: Makes a big area go kaboom for huge damage. Overcast for increases armor-piercing damage.

Lore of Yin (Grand Cathay)

Summary of Strengths: a fairly versatile lore with a good stationary vortex, a strong summon spell, a hilarious spell to shut down ranged units, other than Blossom wind probably all are generally good and useful to Cathay. Overall I'd call this a good amount better than the lore of yang in most situations. Lacks any sort of anti single entity power other than summons and its lacking in buff or debuff power.

Passive - Power of Yin: Reduces Armor and speed of nearby enemies for a few seconds after casting a spell.

• Storm of Shadows: Greatly reduces an enemy unit's speed. Overcast to affect all enemy units inside an area.
• Cloak of Jet: Grants a friendly unit Snipe, Stalk and Unspottable, and can be overcast for a longer duration.
  • Since you're not very speedy anyway, it's really good to hide your missiles from counter fire.
• Missile Mirror: Probably the most unique spell of the bunch, you choose an enemy unit and for a few seconds reflect all their projectiles back at them. Can be overcast for a longer duration and larger range. Just imagine the hilarity of dropping this on some Ratling Guns or a Helstorm Rocket Battery. In MP, it's a bit less useful when you or your opponent can simply turn fire at will off, but it still shuts down a unit's shooting for some time. It will reflect projectile abilities and spells too but it only lets you target heroes and lords that have a ranged attack.
• Blossom Wind: Wind spell that also applies Blinded, so another spell that hampers missile troops. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage.
• Talons of Night: Bog-standard vortex, it's stationary so that's a plus. Overcast for bonus damage.
• Ancestral Warriors: Summons a unit of halberd-wielding Ancestral Warriors, and can be overcast for longer range. Summon spells are always good, particularly for missile factions like Cathay who like chaff units to hold the enemy back while blasting them with projectiles.
  • Use on Large single-entities like Stonehorns or Mammoths that don't have magical attacks, so their attacks become pretty negligible.

Lore of Tzeentch (Daemons of Tzeentch) (Warriors of Chaos)

Summary of Strengths: This lore is a contender for best Damage lore vs non single-entities, it can kill chaff as well as the lore of fire and its better vs elite units with Infernal gateway. Blue fire is also better versus lightly armored large targets than fireball. The ability to lower cooldowns by spamming blue fire makes the whole lore even better. Tzeentchs firestorm is one of the best vortexes for killing large numbers of units with its 3 mini-firestorms. Efficient and very powerful. It is almost useless at killing monsters or lords/hero's who have any kind of armor. Many of Tzeentch's spells apply Warpflame, which reduces Armor and Fire Resistance. Finally it has one of the only ways to exceed the 100 WOM reserve cap with gleam of magic.

Passive - Fires of Change: Ward Save for all units for a few seconds after casting a spell.

• Blue Fire of Tzeentch: Single-target magic missile that applies Warpflame. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Extremely cheap at only 3 winds of magic and has no cooldown to cast with the prismatic plurality skill (lowers active cooldowns by 10 seconds every time you cast any spell). Spamming this unovercasted will eliminate your cooldowns and wear down single entities and monsters. Very cost effective if it hits. lackluster vs armored targets but still can be spammed to reduce cooldowns.
• Pink Fire of Tzeentch: Breath spell that applies Warpflame. Overcast for bonus damage. Also very cost effective. Spam blue flame to eliminate pink fires cooldown. use overcasted to kill small groups of units or individual units efficiently.
• Treason of Tzeentch: A debuff spell that lowers the Leadership of all enemy units inside an area and, if overcast, also their melee attack. Tzeentch has pretty poor melee, so something like this is useful to tip the scales.
• Glean Magic: Increases your army's power reserves and recharge speed while reducing the opponent's. When overcast, the effect lasts longer. Obviously great for a heavily magic-based faction like Tzeentch.
  • Doesn't actually generate more winds than it costs, regular or overcast. So don't use this thinking it will give you free winds of magic, use it to drain the enemy's (which means its fairly useless outside of multiplayer). You could also use it as a way to activate Kairos's many passives, as well as the army abilities, but you'll probably get more value out of Pink or Blue Fire.
• Tzeentch's Firestorm: A randomly moving vortex that applies Warpflame, although a slightly more unique one, as it's actually three columns of flame moving randomly in an area, not just one single vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. unfortunately 3 vortexes in different directions makes friendly fire even more of a problem.
• Infernal Gateway: Stationary, high damage vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Does not apply Warpflame. very powerful and safer/more reliable than firestorm.

Lore of Nurgle (Daemons of Nurgle) (Warriors of Chaos)

Summary of Strengths: It has good AP damage spells that work on units and single entities, a decent buff, and very good AOE healing this is frankly an amazing lore. It doesn't heal better than life or damage better than other lores but its very solid at both. No Nurgle or Chaos undivided army in campaign should ever not have this lore. Lore attribute is just like life, a small map wide heal to all units.

• Miasma of Pestilence: Reduces the melee attack and charge bonus of an enemy unit, and can be overcast to affect all enemies inside an area. Plays into Nurgle's strengths of tanking damage.
• Stream of Corruption: Basically Pestilent Breath from the Skaven's Lore of Plague, cone that deals damage and applies Poison, but thin and long instead of short and wide. Overcast for bonus damage. Actually very nice on infantry large AOE and easy to aim. efficient damage spell.
• Curse of the Leper: Despite its name, actually a buff. Grants armour and damage reflection (!) to an allied unit, increasing when overcast. Great to let a Great unclean one or soul grinder tank though and grind down enemies.
• Rancid Visitations: Bog-standard direct damage spell on an enemy unit that can be overcast for bonus damage.
• Blight Boil: There's something hilarious about basically popping a giant zit on the enemy. Explosion spell that can be overcast for increased damage. Friendly fire is an issue but good aiming can make it a great way to kill infantry. or you can drop it on top of a great unclean one while surrounded by mobs.
• Fleshy Abundance: Hell yeah. Targeted healing that can be overcast to affect all units inside an area. Nurgle is the tanky demon faction, so just imagine your opponent tearing their hair out as you just heal the damage they struggled to deal to your lardy dudes. Being able to use this AOE heal with all 4 demonic factions rosters is a major advantage of chaos undivided. regening Bloodthirsters and Keepers of secrets are insane. But also great for monogod nurgle.

Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh) (Warriors of Chaos)

Summary of Strengths: An offense focused lore that excels in control and has some versatility in dealing AOE damage and buffing attack stats. The lore attribute is very strong and rewards using spells before charging in. It's biggest problem is competing with the Lore of Shadows, which has better buff and AOE damage spells.

Lore attribute gives a large boost melee attack and a small amount of leadership, actually very nice.

• Lash of Slaanesh: Whip your enemies until they scream "harder dadd-" *ahem* I mean, deals damage in a cone, sends enemies flying, overcast for bonus armor-piercing. mediocre damage but cheap ap. It appears to be a wind spell, is actually a small explosion line which does more damage closer to the cursor. Good way to cheaply trigger the lore attribute. Because it sends units flying on impact, you can blast an enemy right before a charge hits so they don't count as braced.
• Acquiescence: Debuffs a unit's melee defense and speed, overcast for a great reduction in speed. Good to help your squishy units take on tough lords/hero’s/monsters. Use on enemy lords and monsters who are charging or are otherwise fighting back, the lore of Slaanesh has better spells to mess with targets trying to run away.
• Hysterical Frenzy: Increases a friendly unit's melee attack and armor-piercing, but also makes them Rampage. Overcast for greater armor-piercing damage. Best used on keeper of secrets exalted or regular or a soul grinder, but mind their health. Decent but buff spells have a hard time making their cost back. That and if you want a damage buff, an occam's mindrazor from the lore of shadows is probably better overall.
• Pavane of Slaanesh: Causes a unit to rampage for 15 seconds or 30 seconds if overcasted. Also does some direct damage and reduces melee attack. Use it to force fliers to land and to cause enemies to rampage into bad matchups.
• Slicing Shards: Bombards an area with projectiles, can be overcast for increased damage. Pretty meaty AP damage but your enemies will try to dodge it. Ideally, you'll want to root the enemy in place with other spells first so they can't get away. if you can hit a couple good targets its very powerful and high projectile strength means even monstrous units will really feel the hit.
• Phantasmagoria: Reduces Leadership and PREVENT MOVEMENT for all units inside an area, overcast for a longer duration. You thought Net of Amyntok was strong? Here's her older, hotter, meaner sister. Combo it with slicing shards to root + nuke a blob, or use it to set up rear charges or to simply prevent enemies from counter charging. Keep in mind that Slaanesh's faction gets a global AOE snare spell that you can use back to back with an overcasted phantasmagoria to really freeze a group in place.

Lore of the Great Maw (Ogres)

Summary of Strengths: A balanced lore with a mix of healing, utility, and AOE damage spells. You'll generally want to skip the AOE spells unless you're playing with Skrag and want to boost his kill count to activate his Cauldron of the Great Maw buff.

• Braingobbler: A -16 debuff to leadership to a single enemy unit. Highly situational, stack it with fear/terror or a rear charge to push a targeted unit's morale past the breaking point.
• Bullgorger: Increases armor piercing damage by 25% and melee attack by +24 to a single unit. A good buff spell, ogres in general don't have good baseline melee attack and extra armor piercing damage is always useful.
• Bonecrusher: Your first AOE spell. Skip it, it's hideously overcosted at 10 winds of magic per cast for a spell that does less damage and has a smaller AOE than warp lightning.
• Toothcracker: An AOE +30 armour and 22% missile resist buff. Skip this spell, you really shouldn't be tanking missiles as ogres and the extra armor isn't significant enough to be worth it.
• The Maw: A bigger, but ultimately disappointing AOE spell. Costs 20 winds of magic but does much less damage than cheaper spells like Comet of Casandora. Even more disappointingly, most of it's damage is non-AP and can easily be resisted by armored enemies.
• Trollguts: Single unit heal. If you're taking the lore of the great maw, it's probably going to be for this spell. Grants the same % heal per second as other healing spells from other lores of magic, but lasts for a whopping 40 seconds (80 seconds if overcasted). Has a hefty cost of 16 winds of magic, so you'll want to reserve it for high value units like lords, stonehorns, and mournfangs.

Lore of Hashut (Chaos Dwarfs)

Summery of Strengths: a very offensive fiery lore that's all about hurting your enemies, either by broiling them to a crisp or weakening them. Some spells are quite niche, but all that fire weakness can really add up since many units in the roster have fire damage in some way shape or form. Total lack of support.

Killing Fire (passive): Despite it's extremely dumb name, this passive basically turns your character into a mortis engine for 5 seconds, dealing a moderate amount of damage per second to all units within 55m. It would be pretty useless for most other factions, but the combined-arms approach of the Dawi-Zharr make this at least situationally useful. Lords like Drazoath probably get the most benefit.

• Burning Wrath: A magic missile with an explosion, which leaves a tiny AoE vortex that sucks nearby models inwards. Pretty bad vs armor, but can really mess up unarmored chaff, making it great against undead factions (or wood elf tree spirits). Has a good 300 range, and that vortex can slow enemies down for a couple seconds, but the chaos dwarf artillery fills this role and does it far better, meaning you probably won't see it much in multiplayer. On the single player side, it's overcasted version can be insanely good at destroying close range blobs.
• Dark Subjugation: -8 leadership and -24 melee defence for 17 seconds. At 6 winds you're getting decent bang for your buck, but this is a pretty redundant spell that's really only useful against elite infantry and maybe especially tanky single entities, which the chorfs are already highly specialized at dealing with.
• Ash Storm: Creates a very cool-looking circle in which everything in it becomes slower and more vulnerable to fire. It may seem expensive for what it does at 10 winds, but it lasts for a good 32 seconds, meaning there's really no reason to overcast it. The slow is situationally ok against fast factions, but timing it correctly means that all your fiery artillery and monsters get a 20% damage boost in the AoE, which can be pretty nasty in the right moments.
• Curse of Hashut: It's essentially a worse spirit leech. Deals the same damage as the aforementioned spell, and has twice the range (though it doesn't increase when overcasted). At 11 winds of magic base (the same as overcasted spirit leech) it's pretty cost inefficient. Overcasting it costs a chunky 16 winds for a 5-second increase in duration. Pretty lame spell. in multiplayer, generally best to leave it at home.
• Hell Hammer: It's basically Fiery Convocation with a narrower path and a bit more specialized against unarmored infantry, although it certainly does it's job against armored as well. It has a similar very long and noticeable startup, meaning you have to aim it properly, and against slow moving units, or risk wasting 16 winds.
• Flames of Azgorh: Summon an underground eruption to make blobs nice and toasy. This spell is absolutely busted right now due to a bug (or simply inadequate playtesting) in that while it's meant for killing blobs of chaff, it can totally NUKE single entities reducing half the hp of even beefy lords/heroes in a single cast. This is likely because the projectiles are spawned under the floor of the map at a very narrow point in the casting radius, so if you aim right, every projectile will hit the entity without triggering the projectiles explosion which adds up to disgusting damage. Expect this to get patched in the future.

Total War: Warhammer Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Magic Banner Immortal Empires
Total War: Warhammer	The Empire Dwarfs Greenskins Vampire Counts Bretonnia Warriors of Chaos Beastmen Wood Elves Norsca
Total War: Warhammer 2	High Elves Dark Elves Lizardmen Skaven Tomb Kings Vampire Coast
Total War: Warhammer 3	Kislev Khorne Tzeentch Nurgle Slaanesh Grand Cathay Ogre Kingdoms Daemons of Chaos Chaos Dwarfs