1. Yes

2. Melee +X and Ranged +X do not impact the effect die roll. You can find a detailed breakdown of the different kinds of attack modifiers in the rules supplement in the resources and downloads part of the website.

3. No. Bloodthirsty does not grant Elusive. If you CAN attack a wounded Living enemy creature in your zone, you must, but that does not mean you can ignore the targeting restrictions imposed by guards.

One followup on the Bloodthirsty question: Just because there is a wounded living enemy creature in range of your attack, you are not forced to attack the guard... you are under no restrictions from having the Bloodthirsty trait at all in such a case.

The proper way to cast an Akiro Hammer i with a Wall of Pikes on its border to prevent Fog Bank to "nullify" it.

That isn't the only location a blocking wall can be set. A wall of fog or flame can block it farther away.

It also doesn't really matter if you put your wall of pikes adjacent since simple attack spells (Flameblast, in particular) from the other side of the pikes can do a lot of damage to it regardless.

An attack "action" is a Creature using a full or quick "action" to make an attack... see page 3 of codex. An attack sequence is the numbered steps through which an attack progresses. They are not exactly the same thing, though you can only have an attack sequence if there is an attack action.

Page 29 under Battle Fury, the Codex says "If the extra attack is made against a different Defender it is treated like a Sweeping Attack, and starts a new attack sequence...." Therefore, each attack made with either Battle Fury or any form of Sweeping (such as Whirling Attack), is a separate attack sequence.

The second paragraph under Sweeping shows that there is one attack action (though two attacks) made by a creature with the Sweeping trait.

Also from Attack Actions on page 3: "... and Sweeping are one attack action, but consist of multiple individual attacks." I understand this as to say that each attack using the Sweeping trait progresses through a separate and complete attack sequence, while only taking a single Full Action Attack. Note that the chart on page 3 shows that there are three separate attack sequences (as step 8 says to "repeat above" which starts with declare attack... you do step out of Step 8 when you go back to Step 1 again by the various notes above.

Since you start a new attack sequence when performing the second attack using Whirling Strike, but are not beginning a new attack action... Whirling Strike should be resolved in full before the Battle Fury attack takes place; the (Full) action is not completed until the final Sweeping-like attack is made.

Battle Fury: "The next time this round the target creature makes a melee attack... at the end of that attack action it may immediately make another quick action melee attack. This extra attack counts as part of the same attack action...."

This means that the Battle Fury starts a new attack sequence within the same Full Attack Action, but this attack is not restricted to a target that has not yet been attacked, like the others in Whirling Strike.

Whirling Strike: "Once this round, if this creature uses a full action to make a quick action melee attack, it may use that attack against up to 3 different target objects in its zone. It attacks each target, one after the other, in the same manner as the Sweeping trait."

So... attack sequence is not the same as attack action, both cards make perfect sense, you must go through the Whirling Strike in its entirety first, and then Battle Fury kicks in at the end in the same attack action.

I forgot about Quicksand. I used to include that and/or Earthquake off and on, both of which I think are ok for an Earth Wizard if you have room for one or both toward the end of the spellbook construction process.

You usually (over 75% chance) don't destroy a creature with Quicksand, and a (usually) less expensive teleport will overcome it. Even if not teleported out, there is a 42% chance that it just delays the creature one turn. Also, Quicksand doesn't make the creature helpless... it can still use its actions normally (except for movement, flying and the protecting something else with the Intercept trait, if it has it).

Earthquake is kinda neat for being able to damage corporeal conjurations and walls, as well as having a pretty good chance of slamming many non-fliers in either of two zones. It can be used tactically in a few different ways, but it is a bit pricey in terms of mana cost.

One other comment: You might want to put in a Heal spell or some other form of healing ability beyond just the Regrowth Belt.

One of the great benefits of being trained in Earth is the great attack spells. Hurl Boulder is good, but the shorter ranged Hurl Rock is awesome in my mind (excellent damage dice to cost ratio). I know that my opponent will be closing with my squishy Wizard, so a range 0-1 attack spell is fine. Also... Earth attacks currently do not have any specific reducers that I can think of. The Elemental Cloak is favored for its reduction to Fire and Lightning, just as the Dragonscale Hauberk and Storm Drake Hide are. Your opponent will generally take all 5-7 dice that you throw his way with Earth attack spells.

In addition, if you do go a little heavier on attack spells, then I would suggest a Hawkeye enchantment. You would add one die to every ranged attack... even the Wizard's Arcane Zap. A one mana cost spell doing four dice of damage is pretty awesome.

If you decide to stay with many creatures, then you might want 3-4 Teleports... mostly for moving the enemy Mage either away from guards or into a zone where there are several of your high attack but Slow creatures (Iron Golems and Devouring Jellies, for example). I don't know that having more than two teleports in other cases really pays off.

You will find spells that you really love and really hate. I am more a fan of Shift Enchantment than most, but I feel that it is at least as versatile as the Enchantment Transfusion. They each have their niche. Shift Enchantment can preserve the Harmonize on your spawnpoint so that you do not lose your mana generation. Enchantment Transfusion can allow several neat tricks (there are threads just on that subject).

I have played serious mana denial as an Earth Wizard before, but found that I overindulged in it to the point where I had no way to finish the opposing Mage off at the end of a game and/or didn't have enough of the right tools to use in other specific situations. Diversity, I believe, is the key in any spellbook. Having some mana denial is ok as a tool, and especially useful against specific Mages... but you don't want to overdo it.

If you are going Mordok's Obelisk and Suppression Orb (which together about kill a Beastmaster and hurt a few other Mages... Priestess and Necromancer primarily), then you will not want a Creature focus in your book. I'd either get rid of one or both conjurations or limit yourself to 4-6(?) mid-sized Creatures. My Earth Wizard includes MO but not the SO, and still only has four Creatures. Of course, there are more than a dozen attack spells in the thing also.

If you want a ton of creatures... go for it. An atypical spellbook may take some more experienced players by surprise. Note also that other Mages are more efficient at heavy Creature play, however, so if you want to play that way, you might consider switching to a Beastmaster or Necro or Priestess, for example.

Be aware that only Arcane creatures can come into play via the Gate to Voltari, so you might also remove the Gate if you find yourself removing too many Arcanes from your spellbook.

Anyway, those are some of my thoughts... hope you find some of this useful. Whatever you do, however, make it a book that you enjoy playing regardless of what everyone else says.

As a corollary, let's assume that you cast both Whirling Strike and Battle Fury on a Creature that hasn't yet been activated. Also assume that, when the Creature is activated, there are four targets available to receive that Creature's melee attacks.

Would you be able to attack three different targets (using the Whirling Strike) and then decide which target to hit a second time (or whether to attack a fourth object)?

I ask because of the text under Whirling Strike:

"If an attack with additional strikes (such as a “Doublestrike” or “Triplestrike” attack) is made using Whirling Strike, the additional strikes will only be applied to the first target; the subsequent targets will only receive one strike each."

In other words, does the effect of the Battle Fury make the first attack an attack with an "additional strike"?

Seems that a fire attack against every non flying enemy creature in the game, plus wildfire imps, and the new synergies from Forged in Fire could be pretty fantastic.

I was working on this concept shortly before GenCon. I was going for the +1 to Demons with a fairly high count of Creatures. Other than having to use so much mana and two full actions to make the most use out of it, the main reasons I did not go with the new Warlock with Gate to Hell were that 1) Walls block the Gate's attack, and 2) because the attack does not affect conjurations. (Note that many of the Druid's spells are conjurations... even vine tokens are immune... although you would think that this attack would be great against her. Also, a number of the War conjurations are Flame +, but also are not affected.)

I swung the other way with the new Warlock now. I am thinking that fire attack spells with the Imp familiar and a few of the bigger Demons might be worth a try. The trouble with Demons, though, seems to be that you need to mix the ones that are Flame Immune with the ones that have Piercing. I think you have to take some of both and use the ones that make more sense at the time. This means that you are using extra spell book points for the flexibility (if it matters to you).