Talk:Dwarves/@comment-189.214.9.132-20130712063805/@comment-5395153-20130713000749

Rune Magic is something I would think of splashing into for some building healing spells, but very little in there is actually any good. It's probably better with the Elementalist class but even then it just feels like a waste of investment past access to Earthpower.

Stoneskin is good but too expensive. Gem of Wisdom wastes a spell slot and does almost nothing. Dig and Earthpower are amongst the best spells in the book in my opinion, they're cheaper and directly benefit useful aspects and do things no other spellbook can do. Resist Magic is without doubt the very worst spell in the game on so many levels, it makes Gem of Wisdom look like Resurrection (in terms of power and usefulness anyway) unfortunately :(. Doomstones is ok, but a little bit costly for what it does and I can't help but feel that it's a little outclassed by many other damage spells in other spellbooks. Summon Guardian can be accessed by Alchemy and gives good defensive benefits, it's just a shame that it isn't accessible earlier (if Summon Guardian is wanted, Alchemy is a much better spell sphere to advance in as you've said). Resist Missile is good but immensely costly. Rune Item is kinda bad, usually a lot worse and harder to access than Alchemy's Create Item spell. Even Stonecall, although a decent spell, costs too much. Pyromancy can whip up a Fire Elemental for 40 and Nature Magic can summon any type of Elemental for the same cost as Stonecall. It's almost as if Rune Magic was purposefully never changed or properly balanced through the series since the time it was introduced which, for me, is a bit saddening :(. I'm very fond of the spell-slinging classes :).

I agree with Alchemist being an almost directly better choice than Runemaster, especially since some points can be splashed into Rune Magic anyway since Dwarves can always get access to Rune Magic later regardless of their class. Alchemy can even get Bronze Golems for 36 mana - which is insanely better than Stonecall. The only thing which would be even vaguely missed would be Doomstones, but considering the benefits of the Alchemist that's not really a problem.

I've honestly never really thought of a Dwarf Tinker. I can see the Earthpower spell combining nicely with Engineering, but then there's nothing which can be done about the Gold resource problem, only Stone and Metal - in my opinion probably not worth a mention (feel free to do so though, this isn't supposed to be a Joe the Bartender WBC3 fansite although a lot of the time it must feel like it :). I'll be happy to help out if you need it or anything). For me, Alchemist feels like it can be a good class with the Dwarves, but unfortunately it doesn't help as much as it does with other races. The lack of any spellcasting upgrades hurts, and even though the early game is sorted out, I don't think the Dwarf Alchemist will be able to do enough later on. I feel the natural Mana regeneration isn't high enough to pull the combo off and Mana Leech isn't going to help much with a flimsy spellcaster. To pull off the combo between Alchemy, Rune Magic and Arcane Magic it's going to take one heck of a high level hero (and 50 is more or less the recommended cap as suggested by various parts of the interface in the battle preperation interface and the reports of bugs happening on really high level heroes which I have been a victim of in the past). However, in the coming 1.03.25 unofficial patch it may be much easier to achieve this combo by that level since there will be many new items which help with various aspects of the combination.