Whirlwind

[CutLunch]

Hi,
I'm getting a bit annoyed with this spell (well lots of spells seems to be too overpowered). So I have a hero with full experienced Sangreal knights - with a whirlwind cast at them. Within about 30 seconds they are all dead except the hero. This is also a champion with theoretical 90% magic resistance and I had a protection from magic cast in the vicinity for +50 magic resistance as well. So magic resistance does nothing & doesn't seem to help with lightning & the cold/crystal spell either in my experience. The spell description says "constant damage" but this isn't true, they just die one after the other & that's it.
Is there any counter at all?
TIA

 

[Arilou]

Whirlwind seems to have a "chance to kill" thing, magic resistance reduces damage. Since Whirlwind does no damge magic reisstnae is useless. (Same thing wih Drago's Breath & Crystal Shards)

 

[Noon]

Dragon"s breath is affected by MR IMO, if you cast it on a mundane unit, at least half of the unit will die. Cast it on a seelie/unseelie unit, and you'll be lucky if 2 of 6 soldiers die.

 

[unmerged(248976)]

I know it’s not easy to protect your units from the Whirlwind spell. It causes serious losses to your soldiers but it affects your opponents as well, so if an enemy hero casts it at one of my units, I attack them immediately with my cursed soldiers. This way the spell kills the soldiers I attack as well.

 

[ch0pper]

I know it’s not easy to protect your units from the Whirlwind spell. It causes serious losses to your soldiers but it affects your opponents as well, so if an enemy hero casts it at one of my units, I attack them immediately with my cursed soldiers. This way the spell kills the soldiers I attack as well.

hmm... interesting.
Unfortunately, it is almost a given that enemies will cast whirlwind on your archers. Not much you can do there, just hope at least one soldier survives and pull them from battle immediately. I must admit, I have used magic focused armies (4 druids, etc) in battle and they are just devastating (i.e. casting that shards spell 2x4 times in short sequence will kill 75% of 8 enemy troops - which most often halves the fighting power of the enemy before troops even engage in fighting). So in the end, it balances out, you use magic and you get magic used on you in return. It's an important part of the game and I like it.

 

[unmerged(305269)]

Your options for dealing with magic depend on your faith:

If you're Christian, you get a ton of options with Bonds of Magic (at max ranks it lasts an absurdly long time, long enough to strike a decisive blow, and has a huge range), the Enfeeble + Burning Magic combo (it instantly kills most enemy heros), Percival's Magical Balance, Tristam's Dispel, and you pick up an early hero with Soul Mirror, Ywain (He's an Old Faith knight, but you pick him up during the Christian quest line).

A properly built Christian army can ensure that an enemy army never gets off a single spell. Innate abilities of units can sometimes be problematic though, for example, full rank sidhe warriors get sidhe roads as an innate ability so can warp in champions attached to them, and this cannot be shut down (but I guess that's what hold is for).

I hardly play Old Faith, but I get the impression that you have two options, Sidhe Roads a beefy champion in to assissinate the offending caster or just accept it and go for Mutually Assured Destruction. They also might use the ward line on the far right side of the Sage's class abilities. They get more Sages, Christians get more Champions, so they can afford to build sages that are more specialized. I also imagine they use weather spells more - so often are outside of the enemy's fog of war and can't be targeted.

Also does "Whirlwind" count as being cast "on" a unit? If so, you might be able to use Seraph to dispel it.

The magic resist bubble doesn't really last long enough to be your solution to magic. It's primarily helpful to cast in response to DoT spells (like Curse of Shadows) or to protect against damaging magic auras. It is THE spell to have when fighting the Samhain, however.

Dragon"s breath is affected by MR IMO, if you cast it on a mundane unit, at least half of the unit will die. Cast it on a seelie/unseelie unit, and you'll be lucky if 2 of 6 soldiers die.

I think this is more law of averages than anything. Units with high soldier counts will get more consistant results, units with low solider counts can get extreme results. I've cast dragon's breath on a seelie unit and killed 5 of 6 before. The description of the spell seems to imply that MR is ineffective. It'd be nice though to get an official word from Neocore as to what MR is effective and ineffective against.