Strongest non-BRB Lore

[Spiney Norman]

I voted the Big Waaagh! Lore, the attribute is not all that great, but it is one of the few lores that can potentially throw out up to three 'must-stop' spells a turn. I'm going to stomp on your favourite unit, headbutt your chief wizard and teleport my mangler squigs on to the flank of your battle line all in the same magic phase...

[Lemonbrick]

There's some good lores here, but you have to hand it to Skaven wither in particular low casting value and permanent toughness damage, stacks well with some of the other damaging plague spells. In additional you have the 13th spell to top it off if you are in the mood.

Bless some votes for Lore of the wild, as much as I personally love that lore I could never vote it in. it really needs a bit of tweaking to bring it into line with the 8th ed

Lemonbrick

[Scammel]

The Lore of the Great Maw seems inferior on paper to many of the competitors (compare it to Life and Beasts from the BRB!), but it's surprisingly effective given that the units you're casting it on already boast very good stats and the advantages of MI. Furthermore, the lore attribute is amazing, not only does it grant casting momentum but also makes the SM one of the toughest characters to kill in the entire game.

[Askari]

The Lore of the Vampires is great, and it works very very well with the Vampire army (who need to heal up that 500+pt Wizard general every now and then). But I think the Skaven Spells of Plague just edge it out, some of those spells are just downright cruel, with pretty low casting values and the ability on a Grey Seer to switch a spell for the Dreaded Thirteenth. Yeah, it's pretty potent.

[ftayl5]

Skavens pestilence.
While the 12" range is limiting, reducing the toughness of a target for the rest of the game is insane on a 8+ and works incredibly well will both the skaven plague catapult and the other already deadly spell, Plague.
Then of course whether you go plague or ruin, you get the 13th spell which is just... harsh.

[Jadawin]

I voted Vampires, mainly for reasons already stated. It has a little bit of everything and none of the spells are weak, and all of them are boostable.

[Djekar]

I voted Skaven: Pestilence. Though range does limit the scariness for the first turn, almost any of the spells are game changers. Poison on a unit getting 30ish attacks? -1T permanently? Cloud of Corruption Spirit Bomb or Plague-a-mania after the battle is joined in earnest? And to top it all off, if it is taken on a level 4, they still have the option for either Skitterleap (to do naughty things with those engineers) or the Dreaded 13th (to do naughty things to those bunkers).

Note that I as I have yet to play the new VC army, this may be skewed since many people are saying great things about that lore as well.

[Sexiest_hero]

Skaven hands down.

[Phazael]

I voted Dark Magic for two very important reasons
1. the spells are laughably easy to get off
2. it has some fantastic synergy with the BRB lores that dark elves have access to, namely shadow and death.

This, plus it has something for every occasion. Black Horror is also a crippler if it lands. The only reason you don't see more of it is that Shadow is so damn good.

[DaemonReign]

Voted Dark Magic. None of the other Lores comes close and it's all because of 'The Power of Darkness'.
This spell is not calibrated what-so-ever for the Magic Phase of 8th Edition.
As mostlyharmless said, when running this Lore next to BrB Lores things go completely haywire.

If we were to look at the potence of individual spells then Skaven Magic would be a contender of course, while all the Daemon Lores still have 7th Ed casting values making for example Plaguewind a bit too much of a bargain.
But putting all the peices together and looking at what the Lore really gives you 'in game': Dark Elf Dark Magic towers comfortably over the rest of the AB-Lores.

[Djekar]

@ DaemonReign: I don't view Power of Darkness as a Lore of Dark Magic spell, because Dark Elf sorceresses get it whichever lore they chose. It's more like an added benefit for being a dark elf : /

[DaemonReign]

Good point Djekar. You are of course very much correct now that I'm reminded of that little caveat.
You can see how I'd make the mistake though, right?
Well, in that case the Strongest Non-BrB Lore is definately Any Lore at the Hands of a DE Caster.

So out of the options available in this poll I still vote Dark Magic because by definition Power of Darkness is in the mix there. haha

[Hashut-Up!]

Skaven lore of Pestilence got my vote. Vermintide is really the only spell I don't like in that tree and it has two spells (Plague and Wither) that are top notch in any game. Dreaded 13th gets a mention as well just because it is so easy to get and will work very well against most armies if it can go off. 25+ is hard to achieve, but trinkets such as the power scroll and skalm make it quite a bit easier to get off on a regular basis and not worry about most of the downsides of miscasting.

[pointyteeth]

Skaven pestilence all the way. Plus dreaded 13th is hands down the greatest spell in the game except when playing against ogres or bretonnians.

[AlphariusOmegon20]

I will have to say Skaven lore of Pestillance i have seen plague wipe out 70+ models (both sides) three times,and wither is just purely crippling.

This. Plague is one of the nastiest spells in the game.

I'd have to argue that the Little Waaagh! takes second place though.

[Jind_Singh]

I like my Little Waaagh just because it helps my army win games reliably - low casting values, great buffs, decent hexes, and some ok damage spells (Bad Moon can be excellent depending on the enemy as can vindictive glare).

But Vampires is also strong (arguably stronger than Little Waaagh), as are Ogres - but I still love mine as the cast value is tiny, handy lore attribute, and cheap cost of getting casters into the list is also a strong benefit - especially the double edged Magic Mushroom eating Night Goblin Shamans!

[Yowzo]

I like my Little Waaagh just because it helps my army win games reliably - low casting values, great buffs, decent hexes, and some ok damage spells (Bad Moon can be excellent depending on the enemy as can vindictive glare).

Little waagh is awesome but the buffs are kind of short ranged, and night shroud is a must-change spell.

Big waagh OTOH has a lot of damage spells and some of them are very situational. Gork's hand, 'Ere we go and foot of gork are awesome, though I always seem to scatter the foot 5 or 6 inches.

[Djekar]

You can see how I'd make the mistake though, right?
Well, in that case the Strongest Non-BrB Lore is definately Any Lore at the Hands of a DE Caster.

I definitely can see how you would come to that misunderstanding. I also almost agree with you - PoD is ridiculous, but I'm not sure it makes Lore of Dark Magic beat out Skaven magic, or even some of the 8th ed lores - I am a pretty big fan of the Big and Little Waaagh! Lores actually, and people in this thread keep mentioning Vampires too. For me it's the ability to enhance spells that is lacking the in the "pre-8th" spell lores.

[Phazael]

Every single spell in Darkness is good and it has the only non-deviating template spell in the game. Bladewind is a snipe spell, war machine destroyer, and chaffe killer all rolled into one. Word of Pain is Miasma on roids. You can even heal your mage with Soulstealer. Little Waagh is really nice, but it does not pack that kind of power, with or without the other DE toys. Honestly, the non book lore I think is strongest after Dark is the Mortal Nurgle Lore, which has three game breaking spells in it (Buboes, Rot, Fleshy Abundance), but there again that lore gets overshadowed by the easy access to Lore of Shadow in the book.

[Djekar]

Really Phazael - you like Rot, Glorious Rot? I have yet to have that spell do anything of note for me. Maybe I'm using it wrong or something - I am completely open to that possibility mind, it has just been underwhelming for me. Buboes, Fleshy + Curse of the Leper have been the strongest spells in my experience with that Lore.

I agree with Lore of Dark Magic being good - though I'm not sure that I would classify Bladewind as a snipe spell, and Word of Pain - while amazing - looses to Miasma because it cannot affect M or I. Also, it has half the range. Really the ranging issues are the parts that bother me the most with Dark Magic.