For quite a while (I'm 31 now) I have been discarding Ghoul when it shows up, and recently I've been leaving it out altogether. Is this normal for this point in the game or am I doing something wrong?
At maybe level 70+ you will have good damage and some special buffs that make ghoul pretty useful. But yeah, it's not that great after krok until the beginning of the second "arc". There is a certain boss that gives people serious trouble in a dinosaur and conquistador world towards the end (wink wink nudge nudge higher level wizards), but deaths breeze right through it because of ghoul.
For quite a while (I'm 31 now) I have been discarding Ghoul when it shows up, and recently I've been leaving it out altogether. Is this normal for this point in the game or am I doing something wrong?
It's normal at low to mid-levels like where you are now. You're going to be more inclined to use Vampire and maybe Skeletal Pirate but like the other folks have mentioned, at higher levels with the right buffs, blades, traps, damage boosting gear, pet boost etc. plus a critical hit... Ghoul can hit for 2000 - 3000 points of damage. Not too bad for a 2-pip spell not to mention the corresponding healing that comes with it. This doesn't mean you should save all of the Ghoul TC you get but I wouldn't discard them all. They make a good secondary shield/weakness buster. When you get to a high enough level to do what I described you'll have the gold to just purchase them at the Bazaar if you want.
So at this point how should I be using it? It seems like a waste of two pips since I know even bladed and trapped it won't one-shot a target like Vampire or Skeletal Pirate will. That's usually why I just save the pips and wait to use these cards. In the meantime, I just cast blades and traps and shields if necessary.
It's still a pretty spammy spell at your level because with the right gear you can get power pips lots of the time and the health back is icing on the cake. Like Tucson said you can use it as a shield breaker or weakness buster. Death, especially at mid-early game (early-mid, early?) relies on good power pip chance to dish out damage quickly and heal back. Hitting with a 160 damage spell each round is pretty fearsome and you only get 40 extra damage from waiting a round or two for vampire.
It's still a pretty spammy spell at your level because with the right gear you can get power pips lots of the time and the health back is icing on the cake. Like Tucson said you can use it as a shield breaker or weakness buster. Death, especially at mid-early game (early-mid, early?) relies on good power pip chance to dish out damage quickly and heal back. Hitting with a 160 damage spell each round is pretty fearsome and you only get 40 extra damage from waiting a round or two for vampire.
Thanks. I'll stick it back in the deck and try a few different things.