Lore of Dark Magic

The Lore of Dark Magic is a lore of magic introduced in Total War: Warhammer II.

Lore Attribute

Spiteful Conjuration
As the spellcaster summons the Winds of Magic, black darts of malice will flit through the air to pierce their enemies.
	Passive Ability Lore of Dark Magic
Type	Hex (Area)
Target	Enemies
Armour	-15
Effect range	Map-wide
Duration	18 seconds
Affected units	Affects enemies in range(all)
Enabled if	Casting
Triggers when casting spell

Wrath of the Wood
At the most opportune moment, arrows are willed to fly fast and true by the very wood from which they are carved.
	Passive Ability Lore of Dark Magic
Type	Augment (Area)
Target	Self, Allies
Armour-Piercing Missile Damage	+12%
Base Missile Damage	+12%
Effect range	Map-wide
Duration	8 seconds
Affected units	Affects allies in range(all)
Enabled if	Casting
Triggers when casting spell
Available to Wood Elves only

Spells

Power of Darkness
The caster's draws on unstable power from the Realm of Chaos to charge their spells.
	Spell Lore of Dark Magic
Cost	4 Winds
Type	Augment of the Winds
Uses	2
Target	Self
Damage Per Second	16-33
Power Recharge	+80%
Reserves Per Second	+0.70
Range	200 metres
Duration	20 seconds
Cooldown	28 seconds
Affected units	Affects allies in range(max: 1)
Causes damage to self

Chillwind
A freezing gale is conjured and sent to assail the target with ice and hail.
	Spell Lore of Dark Magic
Cost	5 Winds 8 Winds (Overcast)
Type	Wind
Target	Ground, Enemies
Damage	16 (100%)
Duration	1 second
Radius	6 metres
Movement Speed	60m/s
Contact	Frostbite!
Range	150 metres
Duration	3 seconds
Cooldown	29 seconds
Miscast Chance	50% (Overcast)
Additional effect on Frostbite
Small, foward-moving area of effect Good against armour Strong vs multiple units
Frostbite! (10s) Speed: -25% Frostbite! (20s) (Overcast) Reload Skill: -20 (Overcast) Speed: -45% (Overcast)

Word of Pain
As the caster utters a forbidden name, their enemies are wracked with waves of agony.
	Spell Lore of Dark Magic
Cost	8 Winds 12 Winds (Overcast)
Type	Hex
Target	Enemy
Accuracy	-30
Melee Attack	-40
Melee Defence (Overcast)	-40 (Overcast)
Range	200 metres
Duration	40 seconds
Cooldown	44 seconds
Miscast Chance	50% (Overcast)
Affected units	Affects enemies in range(max: 1)
Additional effect on melee defence

Bladewind
A swirling maelstrom of swords spin and slash their way across the battlefield in search of blood.
	Spell Lore of Dark Magic
Cost	11 Winds 15 Winds (Overcast)
Type	Vortex
Target	Ground, Enemies
Damage Per Second	18 (22%)
Duration	7 seconds 14 seconds (Overcast)
Radius	10 metres
Movement Speed	2m/s
Range	150 metres
Duration	7 seconds 14 seconds (Overcast)
Cooldown	38 seconds
Miscast Chance	50% (Overcast)
Extended effect duration
Large, randomly-moving area of effect Strong vs multiple units

Doombolt
The sky opens and a bolt of burning, pure Chaos black lightning hurtles towards the foe.
	Spell Lore of Dark Magic
Cost	9 Winds 14 Winds (Overcast)
Type	Bombardment
Target	Enemy
Ranged Damage	672 (100%) 1008 (100%) (Overcast)
Explosive Damage	132 (100%)
Range	200 metres
Duration	7 seconds
Cooldown	47 seconds
Miscast Chance	50% (Overcast)
Increased armour-piercing damage
Causes major magical damage Medium strike area Good against armour Strong vs single combatant Strong vs single unit

Soul Stealer
Tendrils of solidified darkness writhe outwards, draining the lifeforce from foes and renewing the caster's own vigour.
	Spell Lore of Dark Magic
Cost	16 Winds
Type	Direct Damage (Area)
Target	Self, Enemies
Self Heal Per Second	+0.80%
Enemies Damage Per Second	37-75
Range	100 metres
Effect range	35 metres
Duration	12 seconds
Cooldown	54 seconds
Affected units	Affects allies in range(max: 1) Affects enemies in range(all)
Causes damage to combatants Strong vs character Absorbs hitpoints from enemies Strong vs single combatant Weak vs multiple combatants

Units

Daemons of Chaos

Unit
The Blue Scribes	🗙	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

Dark Elves

Unit
Malekith	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Morathi	✔	✔	🗙	🗙	🗙	🗙	✔
Supreme Sorceress (Dark)	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Sorceress (Dark)	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

Tzeentch

Unit
The Changeling (Formless Horror: Malekith)	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
The Changeling (Formless Horror: Morathi)	✔	✔	🗙	🗙	🗙	🗙	✔
The Changeling (Formless Horror: Ariel)	✔	🗙	🗙	✔	🗙	🗙	✔
The Changeling (Formless Horror: The Blue Scribes)	🗙	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
The Blue Scribes	🗙	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

Warriors of Chaos

Unit
The Blue Scribes	🗙	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

Wood Elves

Unit
Ariel	✔	🗙	🗙	✔	🗙	🗙	✔
Coeddil	✔	✔	🗙	✔	🗙	✔	🗙
Spellweaver (Dark)	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

Videos

How to use the Lore of Dark Magic

Strategy

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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 most 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. 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 powerful 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.

Notes

• Bladewind is the shortest lasting vortex spell in the game at 7 Seconds (Overcast doubles it to 14 seconds)

Magic General Winds of Magic · Unique spells · Bound spells · Summons Lores of Magic Lore of Beasts Lore of the Big Waaagh! Lore of Dark Magic Lore of Death Lore of the Deep Lore of Fire Lore of the Great Maw Lore of Hashut Lore of Heavens Lore of High Magic Lore of the Hag Lore of Ice Lore of Life Lore of Light Lore of the Little Waaagh! Lore of Metal Lore of Nehekhara Lore of Nurgle Lore of Shadows Lore of Slaanesh Lore of Tempest Lore of Tzeentch Lore of Vampires Lore of the Wild Skaven Spells of Ruin Skaven Spells of Plague Skaven Spells of Stealth Lore of Yang Lore of Yin Unique Lores of Magic Cataclysm Deliverance of Itza Runic Magic