What happened to Flame Strike?

[rgp151]

Does Flame Strike still use a Fireball attack? It seems way less effective than it was in Classic?

[ChaosSpawn]

I noticed it was heavily nerfed also, to the point where it is not remotely worth the mana cost.
There are a few "go to" combat spells from the original that feel weaker than in the original as well. Right off the top of my head I can think of psionic blast, and death spell.
On the flip side, cracks call seems to land a higher percent of the time.

[rgp151]

I hate Crack's Call. At least now its not total death, and you can Raise Dead from it, though that really only helps Life.

But really, its merely an Uncommon spell that can kill any unit in the game except units with Wraithform. The fact that it works supposedly on 25% of the time is irrelevant for the AI because the AI has almost unlimited resources and can just keep throwing waves of units at you that force you to interact with.

Consider also that the AI is constantly sending waves of Magic Spirits at all your nodes. If they have Cracks' Call, then every time you have to defend a node you risk Crack's Call if nothing else. The AI will send wave after wave of spearmen and bowmen at you and every time they can Crack's Call. Even if you have all the highest end units in the game, unless they have Wraithform, your stacks can all be ground down to nothing by just using Crack's Call.

Its a horrible spell really. It should instead be an immobilization spell that maybe prevents fighting back, sort of like Black Sleep, but doesn't disable your defense and doesn't require the resistance roll, instead having a chance to work.

Confusion is also much more powerful now, and it seems like you get control of the unit more often.

As for Flame Strike, teh nerfing of this spell pretty much ruins Chaos. Flame Strike was always sort of the savior of that school. Overall Chaos has a strong opening, but then begins to fade pretty hard in the mid-game. Flame Strike was the one thing that kept it going.

Overall defense is extremely important in this game and Chaos has little of it. Flame Strike was the one thing you could really use to defend your towns in the mid-late game, using Fire Elementals in the early game. But now, without Flame Strike to fall back on, the destruction of Chaos doesn't really do much to benefit the player, though it works to the advantage of the AI. The late game enchantments aren't helpful for the player. Flame Strike is what really kept the momentum going and allowed a player to steamroll with Chaos. Now I see little reason to play pure Chaos.

[ChaosSpawn]

...

As for Flame Strike, teh nerfing of this spell pretty much ruins Chaos. Flame Strike was always sort of the savior of that school. Overall Chaos has a strong opening, but then begins to fade pretty hard in the mid-game. Flame Strike was the one thing that kept it going.

Overall defense is extremely important in this game and Chaos has little of it. Flame Strike was the one thing you could really use to defend your towns in the mid-late game, using Fire Elementals in the early game. But now, without Flame Strike to fall back on, the destruction of Chaos doesn't really do much to benefit the player, though it works to the advantage of the AI. The late game enchantments aren't helpful for the player. Flame Strike is what really kept the momentum going and allowed a player to steamroll with Chaos. Now I see little reason to play pure Chaos.

You are right that "Flame Strike" was one of those corner turning/game changers. It came in especially handy when taking down cities and terrain specials with hordes of lower tiered units, as well as cleaning up late game.

However, Chaos still has the strong "Doom Bolt" that rips anything without magic immunity for straight 10 dmg, and the devastating "Disintegrate" for anything with less than 10 Res - I.E. that one "problem" unit an any given stack. Also, "Chaos Channels" is still extremely beneficial if you need flight or better AC for your casters/healers. Of course, sometimes reload cheese is required to get the desired affect. I do appreciate chaos for creating enchanted weapons, it's hard to beat lighting, and doom actually seems to be working on this version...pretty much Chaos' version of "phantasmal". It's also worth mentioning that Chaos Spawns have better movement speed now and incredibly seem even stronger than in the original as hard is that is to believe.

Though, I can count on one had the number of games I've started playing purely one sphere of magic. There is just too much utility to be had going wide IMHO.

[rgp151]

Flame Strike seems to have been improved with the latest patch.

FIX AreaSpellDmg - spells are attacks (like fireball) attack only first figure

I've tried it and it does seem better, but still not like the original. As for other stuff, none of those single target spells really help as much as Flame Strike (classic). They are good, but not game changers like FS, and Chaos really needs FS to be viable IMO.

[bonfol]

Haven't played Red so far, but my wizard just got a red book + Flame Strike
Here is a screenshot of the 1st use.


So,
Shadow Demons : check
Demon Lord : check
Skeletons : untouched
Zombies : untouched
Werewolves : untouched
Death Knights : untouched

I guess there is still some work to be done ...

[JessicaSmith]

Flame Strike has been a staple in the game since it's release in 2009, but it seems to have lost some of its effectiveness. Does the new Flame Strike still use a Fireball attack? It seems way less effective than it was in Classic? Flame Strike is a melee ability that is similar to the Fireball ability from previous games, but it does not use a Fireball attack. It has been said that Flame Strike is still a good ability and is still useful for getting around certain obstacles.

[B0yngneer]

"Flame Strike has been a staple in the game since it's release in 2009"
Don't know if you just mis-typed, or really don't know how old the original game is.
It's been around a lot longer than 2009. Look closely and you'll see 1994 on the back of the box.

[B0yngneer]

New to this, so my pictures didn't get included. Try this again.

[B0yngneer]

Either I'm a complete moron or I don't have permission to post images, but I tried to post pictures of the original MoM box and 3" floppies from 1994. Game been around quite a while before 2009.

[emmaaa]

nice