Gemless combat magic

[llamabeast]

Oh yeah, just try Falling Fires with Marignon/Abysia, Thunderstrike with Caelum or Raise Skeletons with EA/LA C'tis and you'll see gemless combat magic can be pretty brutal.

I'd say most combat spells are gemless really. You generally just want at most a few key gem-using spells, even for big battles. Of course in emergencies it's certainly possible to use more gems with some benefit, e.g. for Shadow Blast.

[LDiCesare]

Fire: evocations (fire ball, falling fires...).
Air: evocations (thunder strike, lightning bolt...).
Death: skelly spam, ghost grip, some fear spells.
Astral: body ethereal, luck, soul slays, enslave mind...
Nature: Not much imho. Some buffs, panic, vine arrows.
Water: Some evocations.
Blood: Zilch.
Earth: Destruction, Blade Wind.

There are other spells, but these seem the most common/cheap to me (it'snot always easy to cast astral fires for instance).