I think it's mostly for balance and simplicity. The ring gives Ranged +1 because there's no trait for "extra damage and bonus to effect die with x damage type". And you don't want to give Ranged/Melee +1 the bonus to the effect die because then it's too powerful. Imagine a Lash of Hellfire on a Warlock with a Fireshaper Ring and Bear Strength. That's already Melee +4, giving a 3-6 Burn, 7+ 2 burns.

Just some notes, I don't have any suggestions at the moment as what to put IN, but some thoughts on a few of the spells you've chosen.

Deflection Bracers & Leather Gloves - You can't equip both of these. Is there one you would see yourself always wanting? Is there a situation where you would say "not enough mana to cast Deflection Bracers, I'll settle for Leather Gloves" instead of just waiting a turn to conserve mana?

Bear Strength & Cheetah Speed - These can only target living creatures, so they can only target your mage, your hydra, or your gorgon archer. A Wizard is not generally a melee force to be reckoned with so you're probably better off doing something else with your mana instead of Bear Strength on yourself. The Hydra's main draw is triple strike, and Melee+2 only works on the first strike, and his triple strike attack is a full attack, so he can't use Cheetah Speed to get it in. I don't think I need to explain why these aren't great for the Gorgon Archer. Basically, I think you would be better off in most situations casting spells to make sure your creatures are POSITIONED correctly for their big attacks than using mana to buff them.

"Elemental Ring" - what is this? Do you mean Lightning Ring? If so, it only works on lightning, and you're an Earth Wizard, so chuck it. Better would be an Arcane Ring to conserve mana on your mana crystals, nullifies, dispels, etc.

Charge - This is good, since it targets "corporeal creatures", not just Living creatures. Best used on your Iron Golem so he can swing for 7 when the enemy mage thinks he's safe. I might even put a 2nd one in, just because if it happens once they might be wary of it, but also might think you wouldn't attempt the same trick twice. That's when you hit them with the same trick a 2nd time.

Chain Lightning - Any particular reason this is in here? I mean it's a decent spell for swarms but you also have a Circle of Lightning, which is great against swarms and will probably see more use. Plus the Earth Elemental has a great zone attack, and you have 2 Hail of Stones. I'm not saying you should take it out, I'm just not sure if it's necessary at this point and it's pretty expensive when you're not an Air Wizard.

Earthquake - Maybe it's just me but I don't care for this spell. Conjurations are usually not a huge enough issue that you want to spend time going after them. However I guess if you play against a lot of Priestesses maybe this is worthwhile. It just seems like a weak attack especially when the best conjurations are usually zone exclusive.

OK I lied I do have a couple suggestions as for what to put in:

Quicksand - Sure it's only like a 25% chance to kill the creature, but it's pretty cheap for what could easily turn into a multi-turn restrain. You want to use this tactically, when an enemy creature is really going to want to take an action rather than try to escape. It also combos well with Sleep for an all-but guaranteed kill on a creature that costs about as much mana as the creature cost to put out. Wouldn't recommend this often, but in a pinch it could be devastating.

Sniper Shot - If you have a Wand with Hurl Boulder on it, I'm going to want to prevent you from hitting me with those boulders. So I'm probably going to throw up a Block or Reverse Attack or something. Or maybe I have a Defense. Well, Sniper Shot gets right through those by making your next ranged attack Unavoidable. Against a Forcemaster I might even put it on a Wand.

Perfect Strike - See Sniper Shot. Great against Block/Reverse Attack/Defenses.

So now that the Forcemaster has sated my hunger for a great solo mage build, I'm revisiting my Warlock book. And with Sectarus available it seems like a perfect time to try to put together a build utilizing it.

However, the problem I quickly discovered was that, typically, by the time I'm in melee with creatures or the opposing mage, all I care about is dealing as much damage as possible to the mage. And curses aren't really conducive to that kind of play style.

There are currently 9 (unless I'm missing one...) curses in the game. 6 of them are what I would call "slow-burn" curses, which have a better effect the longer they are on the target. The penalty builds up over time, and there's not really many ways to IMMEDIATELY take advantage of the curse to turn the tables. The slow-burn curses are:

Chains of Agony
Magebane
Agony
Ghoul Rot
Death Link
Marked for Death (could arguably be used for a giant swarm surprise)

Then there are 3 curses that have an immediate constant effect on the target, but only 2 of these are possible to reliably exploit to press for a win. These are:

Enfeeble (mage has to decide between moving and taking an action, allowing you to beat on him)
Poisoned Blood (mage is unable to throw down a critical heal in the final rounds, allowing you to finish him)

Maim Wings is the other "immediate constant effect" curse, but Mages can't (currently) fly, and you can't hit a flyer with Sectarus anyway so it's irrelevant.

The thing about Sectarus is the Warlock is an aggressive character. He wants to get up in the enemy mage's face and beat on him, probably with help from a few creatures. You want to use your curses to soften up the mage and keep his creatures off your back and ineffective while you take down the mage. All of the slow-burn curses are going to be best when put on the enemy as SOON AS POSSIBLE. This means as soon as they're in range you want to try to drop a curse on them, and if you're going curse heavy you want to get as many out as you can so the effects can start piling up.

Sectarus doesn't really do this for you. By the time you are in melee range of the enemy mage, you want to be piling on damage with big attacks. If you're in melee and the enemy mage is also a melee build, whoever hits hardest fastest wins. If you're in melee and the enemy mage is evasive (maybe a Wizard or Priestess), they're going to try to get away. If they do get away then you're either left with their creatures and you get beat on while they stay away, or you beat up their creatures and get back to them and do it all over. Either way, big damage fast helps end the situation sooner. I know this doesn't describe EVERY situation in Mage Wars, but these are how things pretty typically seem to play out.

It's this reason that I'm having trouble finding room for Sectarus in my build. If I go curse heavy then that usually means I'm playing a slower game, letting my curses work a bit and soften the enemy mage. If I go aggro, I want to go with Lash, Fireshaper Ring, Bear Strength and Battle Fury to get as much damage and burn on the enemy mage as soon as possible.

I can see a couple of the curse helping in melee, primarily Enfeeble to keep the enemy from getting away, and Agony to keep them from hitting back as hard. Token mention of Marked for Death, which could be good if you had a swarm. But I usually leave the swarms to the Beastmaster because he just does it better.

Add to that the fact that if someone guards all of a sudden you may not be able to put the curse on the creature you wanted to. In general, it's VERY easy to have your target not be where you need it to be.

So that's basically it. Am I missing something? I would love it if somebody would open my eyes as to why this is worth it to include. I just can't think of a situation in the game where I would RELIABLY want to have Sectarus over the Lash. Curses are nice, but damage wins games. As it stands, I would have much rather preferred a creature familiar like Fellella that casts curses so they can drop them from range and put them on who I want. And if they draw fire from the enemy mage or creatures, then even better because those are attacks not going at me.

Unfortunately the Dancing Scimitar attack has to be used at the END of your action phase (right?) so you couldn't Thunderbolt them the same round, but you could certainly get rid of it to pave the way for a quick cast attack or one of your creatures.

But just to be perfectly clear, the Reverse Attack would HAVE to be revealed against the Dancing Scimitar because it IS an attack. So it would be revealed and destroyed. Correct?

The rules text for Autonomous says "If the equipment provides an attack, that attack may be used once per round, as a free action, at the end of the creature's Action Phase. If the attack is a melee attack, it must follow the normal rules for guarding; however, it will not trigger a counterstrike or damage barrier, and will not remove a guard marker from its target."

Personally I think it's kind of lame that it won't remove a guard marker, because thematically you would think a floating scimitar could keep a guard busy and unable to protect their guardee from a separate attack. BUT I understand why it has to be that way for balance. Otherwise Dancing Scimitar would have to be costed higher and I like it where it is.

You are absolutely right, I don't know how I missed that. Thanks.

What about Force Bashing an unmoveable creature? I assume they still receive the Slam because that part of the text is not conditional. But what about another creature in the zone they are in (the same zone they were pushed from because they can't be pushed), do I get to "push" an Iron Golem into his Warlord and Slam them both if they're in the same zone?