Lore of Dark Magic

The Lore of Dark Magic is a lore of magic introduced in Total War: Warhammer II. It is mostly focused on damage and hexes. It is available to the Dark Elves and the Wood Elves.

Spiteful Conjuration
As the spellcaster summons the Winds of Magic, black darts of malice will flit through the air to pierce their enemies.

The Passive of the Lore, active mapwide on casting another spell.


 * Type: Hex (Area)


 * -15 Armour (18 seconds)

Wrath of the Woods
Wood Elves casters get a unique version of this attribute.

At the most opportune moment, arrows are willed to fly fast and true by the very wood from which they are carved.


 * Type: Augment (area)
 * Duration: Constant
 * Target: Self, affects allies in range
 * Active if: Casting
 * Effect-Range: Map-wide
 * 8 Second duration
 * +12% Base missile damage
 * +12% Armour-piercing missile damage

Power of Darkness
The caster draws on unstable power from the Realm of Chaos to power their spells.


 * Type: Augment of the Winds
 * Cost 4 winds of magic, no overcast, max 3 uses per battle
 * Great increase to power reserves (plus 30, 3 times the bonus of beasts)
 * Greatly improved power recharge rate (plus 60% 4 times as fast as death/big waah attribute, 8 times as fast as beasts)
 * Causes damage to self (or allied character) (approximately 500)

Chillwind
A freezing gale is conjured to assail the foe.


 * Type: Wind
 * Cost 5 winds of magic, 8 overcast
 * Causes minor magical damage (24 ap damage per model, pure armor piecing)
 * Small forward moving area of effect
 * Good against armor
 * Strong against multiple units
 * On contact: Frostbite! -24% speed (20 seconds)
 * Overcast increases effect of Frostbite to -48% speed -20 reload skill

Word of Pain
As the caster utters a forbidden name, their enemies are wracked with waves of agony.


 * Type: Hex
 * Target: An enemy
 * 8 Winds of magic, overcast for 12
 * -44 melee attack, -60% accuracy
 * Overcast adds -27 melee defence

Blade Wind
A swirling maelstrom of swords slash their way across the battlefield in search of blood.


 * Type: Vortex
 * 11 winds of magic, 15 when overcast
 * Causes major magical damage
 * Large, randomly moving area of effect
 * Strong versus multiple units
 * Weak against armour (4ap damager per tick, among the worst ap damage of any vortex)
 * Overcast adds extended effect duration (7 base, 14 overcast)

Doombolt
The sky opens and a bolt of pure black Chaos hurtles towards the foe.


 * Type: Bombardment
 * Target: An enemy
 * 11 winds of magic, overcast for 16
 * Causes major magical damage (approximately 672 AP, 1008 AP overcast)
 * Medium strike area
 * Strong vs. a single combatant
 * good against armour (pure AP damage)
 * Overcast increases armour piercing damage and blast radius

Soul Stealer
Tendrils of solidified darkness writhe outwards, draining the life force from foes and invigorating the caster.


 * Type: Direct Damage (Area)
 * Target: Area of effect, cast on ground or on unit
 * 18 winds of magic
 * Causes damage to combatants (approximately 864)
 * Absorb hitpoints from combatants (separate healing affect unaffected by damage done, unconfirmed reports of around 500 or so healing)
 * Strong vs. single combatants
 * Weak vs. multiple combatants

Units
Units which can use spells from this lore:


 * Dark Elves
 * Morathi (Spiteful Conjuration, Soul Stealer and Power of Darkness)
 * Malekith
 * Supreme Sorceress (Dark)
 * Sorceress (Dark)

Wood Elves


 * Spellweaver (Dark)
 * Ariel (Wrath of the Woods, Word of Pain and Soul Stealer)

Videos
How to use the Lore of Dark Magic

Items
Items with bound spells from this lore:


 * None

Strategy
The Lore of Dark Magic is a offensive and heavily damaging lore that focus more on direct damage to debuffs. The Lore attribute reduced armour mapwide, so useful in certain matchups (Dwarfs, Chaos, some Empire armies, and potentially Lizardmen). 2 spells Doombolt and Soulstealer are very effective at damaging elite units and single entity. Chillwind and bladewind are best vs multiple units of infantry and cavalry but Chillwind's pure ap damage makes it decent vs any non monstrous infantry or cavalry. Consider bringing dark magic as a secondary caster even to just use power of darkness, it can also be combined with the beasts or death lore attribute to give stacking bonuses to winds or recharge.

Power of Darkness is a good way of gaining Winds of Magic and can be useful for whipping up more magic at the cost of damaging a unit. put on a regen unit for best effect, or on a lord with access to Soulstealer.

Chillwind is a lightly damaging spell, but is super cheap to cast. Useful for damaging lightly armoured archer lines or infantry. Overcast slows the enemy down and increases their reload time, further encouraging its use against archers.- Chillwind actually does pure AP damage about 66% as much as shadows pendulum spell does even. use against any infantry or cavalry other than high health monstrous units.

Word of Pain basically neuters the combat effectiveness of an enemy, -44 Melee attack will drop 70% of units to 0 Melee attack. Overcast makes their defence weak as well.

Blade Wind is a typical Vortex spell, looks cool, but is overcosted a bit and the rest of the lore is generally more efficient.- its actually one of the cheapest vortexes, but has lower ap damage than most, not any more overcosted than any other vortex. plus the lore attribute bonus means it will do slightly better vs armor than expected.

Doombolt is a great spell for damaging Characters or other elite units. It is very hard to dodge and will reliably do solid damage.

Soul Stealer is probably the most bonkers spell in this Lore. It damages all the enemies in an area and heals the caster. This is great on Malekith and Morathi for the ability to heal themselves, something they cannot do otherwise. It is especially painful in blob fights where the enemy bunches up on a target. One great strategy is take Malekith on his dragon, land charge into a vulnerable enemy. Then when your opponent capitalizes on your landing by sending elite units to deal damage, cast soul stealer to heal back up. Word of Pain also works to nullify their damage.