The Road to Edain 4.5: Spellbook of Isengard news

Today we want to present you the third overhauled spellbook:

Since there have been some complications concerning the Rohan spellbook, we are presenting the Isengard spellbook prior to it.
The core of Isengard in the Edain is the economy. It is a faction, which has risen through the fires of industry with a central figure, called Saruman. Most of the spells were already fitted for that image, but some were very farfetched. Ultimately, the spellbook was structured quite well, but needed the certain fine tuning.
Now, two spells have been completely removed, 1 new central spell has been added and 6 spells have been reworked and balanced.

You can read more about the new spellbook structure in general, including the new long-term and short-term strategic trees, in our first Edain 4.5 spellbook Update.

The first row always means to lose one of the three spells. In the case of Isengard, it was very difficult, since all three were compatible. Saruman does have and use the Palantir, the previously green Isengard became a wasteland of industry and the Uruk-Hai definitely had some kind of war cry, which meant that all three spells were matching.
Nevertheless, we felt that the war cry spell was a spell that has been seen in other spellbooks as well. To prevent some kind of repetition, we thought that the Vision of the Palantir and Tainted Land spells were more unique.
The Vision of the Palantir spell received a minor buff as well, since we received feedback that it was too weak for the first row. It now reveals a very large area, which can be made very useful.
The Tainted Land spell received a new thumbnail, which is more fitting for Isengard.

You will probably recognize both spells located in the second row.
On the one hand, we have the spell Industry: It is a temporary economy upgrade, which, in the long-run, will definitely help your economy.
A more offensive and direct alternative to boosting your economy can be found on the right side of the spellbook. The spell Devastation now costs only 2 spellpoints and therefore received a smaller effect radius.

The third row has been almost completely overhauled, as you can see.
First of all, you notice the Fuel The Fires spell, which has been completely reworked, and the Saruman of Many Colours spell, which was moved from the second to the third row and therefore was buffed:

Saruman of Many Colours:Saruman of Many Colours is a puppet of Sauron. Permanently gains +50% magic damage, -25% cooldown on all skills and +1000 lifepoints.

As stated, the spell was buffed, but it can't be bought as early as before, because of the higher price.

Fuel the Fires:Summons a lumber mill which depletes the environment.

The spell now serves a similar role, but has a very unique execution.
Since the role of it, to buff the lumber mills of Isengard in the LG, was very fitting, we didn't want to change it. But, what bothered us was the boring execution of the spell, since it was only a passive effect on all lumber mills before.
Whereas other factions can summon offensive buildings in the spellbook, we thought it would be cool if Isengard could summon an economy building, to increase its economy in the long-run.
Also, we thought it would be funny to give the player a small taste of free building, which is not very present in the static building system of 4.0. The user will be able to threaten his opponent with his map control.
Nevertheless, it is possible to counter this spell by knowing what your opponent builds and not letting him get map control.

On the other side of the spellbook, we see a well-known weather-spell (Freezing Rain) which fitted Isengard and had a very iconic role.
Moreover, we see a seemingly new spell, which is actually a revised version of Grishnákhs Orcs. We weren't very happy with the concept of it and there was not a clear role applied to it. So we moved it one row down and reworked it.
It is now called:

Minions of the White Hand:Summons Dunlending plunderers, Traitors of Rohan and Grishnákhs Orcs.

By buying this spell, you will have three separate summons with two battalions each (and Grishnákh), who all have different objectives and strengths in a battle.

The Dunlending plunderers have a model, which was unused for long time and matched very good. Like other dunlendings, they are very strong against buildings and further against heavy armors.

The Traitors of Rohan are mounted and, if correctly used, can deal a lot of damage and focus single archer battalions. Furthermore, they are very useful at harassing.

Grishnákhs Orcs will remain mostly the same except for Grishnákhs abilities and the role of the summon, which will be now to kill and weaken heroes.
His new abilities are:

Poisoned Blade (passive): Grishnákhs attacks now deal poison damage.
Underhanded Strike: Grishnákh attacks an enemy hero, dealing small damage, slowing the hero by 50% and reducing the armor against poison by 50% for 10 seconds.
Inciting: Grishnákh stimulates his boys for a future mission. Doubles the damage of Grishnákhs orcs for 10 seconds.

Now, Isengard can summon very different kind of troops, which shouldn't lack from any spellbook, but also an interesting aspect of the history of Isengard is highlighted.

There was a lot to discuss when it came to the central spell of Isengard. The core of Isengard is definitely the economy, but the economy is already very present in the spellbook of Isengard as it is and there is also Saruman as THE main figure of Isengard and his position in his wizard tower, the Orthanc.
On the one hand, we were sure that it would be too simple and expectable to use a simple passive economy buff as the central ability.
On the other hand, it was too tedious to put the Saruman of Many Colours spell as the central spell.

That's when we decided to go out on a limb and put the Wizard Tower spell as the central ability for Isengard!

Wizard Tower:Improves Citadels to Wizard Towers and enables the research of special upgrades. When on the Wizard Tower, Saruman can use his abilities without level constraints.

Interestingly, the thing that differs this spell from the already presented central abilities, is that you have the choice in which order to upgrade your citadel passively. You can choose from three upgrades, when the spell is bought:
- An increase of the citadel production for your economy
- A spying ability for a more offensive gameplay
- An enhancement of your buildings/base for a more defensive gameplay
All three upgrades can be very useful. The tactical aspect is that you have to choose the order in which you buy the upgrades.
Furthermore, your citadel turns into the very iconic appearance of the Orthanc.
Lastly, do not forget that Saruman is able to use his abilities without level constraints, when he is on top of the Wizard Tower.

The final spells haven't changed, except for one detail. We already had very iconic and individual spells, which is why we only had to sort them in the right column of the spellbook.
Fires of Isengard has been taken over unaltered. It has been sorted in the more offensive side, because it is able to cause a lot of direct and instant damage to units and buildings.
Isengard is unleashed has been a very offensive spell in the past, that was able to summon strong troops temporarily in any area. Obviously, this spell was inspired by the amazing scene, where Saruman sends his army to Helms Deep.
When you think twice about this scene, you notice, that the troops were standing around the Orthanc, when Saruman send them off, which was the idea for this alteration.
Now, the spell can be used on a citadel. Around that citadel, multiple battalion of Isengards Finest will be permanently summoned. Consequently, this spell can't be used for ambushes anymore, but having the units permanently the spell has a much longer effect than before and therefore fits in the more defensively oriented side of the spellbook.

Here a screenshot of how that spell looks:

We hope you enjoyed this update and we are eager to hear your feedback.

Your Edain Team