How do you use darkness magic effectively?

[Dalebert]

For darkness to really be advantageous, it seems like the caster needs a way for himself and his allies to not be hindered by it as much as his enemies. 3.5 has Ebon Eyes and a few other means of seeing through magical darkness and Ebon Eyes is only 1st level which makes it fairly readily accessible and cheap to cast. Even then, it has to be cast on everyone in your party and it seems hard to justify all that effort for the debuff of darkness to your enemies. I've used it at night for stealth purposes but Invisibility Sphere is dramatically better for that.

What ways does PF have for seeing through darkness? Aside from that, have you found ways to make darkness spells useful that aren't incredibly contextual? Are there ways to make it useful to the point where it might make sense to prepare certain darkness spells in general and not only when you are expecting a particular unusual circumstance when it would be handy?

[atemu1234]

I think I saw either Demon or Devil Eyes in one of the books. It was either Book one or Book two of the Books of the Damned.

[Psyren]

Darkness works very differently in Pathfinder - there is no distinction between "normal darkness" and "magical darkness." The darkness spell does not defeat darkvision in Pathfinder. Deeper Darkness however can beat it, but only if cast in an area that is already dim or lower - and even then, you can simply use daylight to restore the prevailing conditions (which, even if the prevailing conditions are "darkness," will no longer defeat your darkvision.)

TL;DR darkvision will defeat almost all the darkness you come across in PF. Of course, depending on the monsters you face, that could give them just as much of an advantage as it gives you.