[Spheres of Power] Reanimate vs. Animate Dead ritual

[Van Silke]

I've got two options for my source of undead, and I want to check which is better for what situation. I'll post a short description of the two, so anyone with a thing for undead can make an educated call :)

At the moment, I'm a 5th level Incanter with 1 mythic tier (Archmage, Wild Arcana - GM allowed me to use this with rituals and sphere abilities, albeit with small limitations - the CL increase doesn't apply to number of reanimated undead, so you can ignore this bit).

Both techniques share a mutual pool of 2 HD per caster level, but I can raise it potentially to 5 HD/level. I also have access to Command Undead, which provides an extra buffer.

Reanimate: As a standard action I can raise skeletons and zombies. They have +4 enhancement bonus to their Strength and Dexterity. I can create variants, but they count as double their HD. They remain animated for 1 hour/CL, but I can make them permanent. Reanimate has no material components.

Animate Dead (ritual): The ritual lasts 30 minutes. This functions exactly like Animate Dead spell, complete with creating variant undead, but they count toward the mutual pool. It's questionable whether or not they receive enhancement bonuses, so assume they don't.

With this information in mind, how would you utilise each method?

[khadgar567]

I've got two options for my source of undead, and I want to check which is better for what situation. I'll post a short description of the two, so anyone with a thing for undead can make an educated call :)

At the moment, I'm a 5th level Incanter with 1 mythic tier (Archmage, Wild Arcana - GM allowed me to use this with rituals and sphere abilities, albeit with small limitations - the CL increase doesn't apply to number of reanimated undead, so you can ignore this bit).

Both techniques share a mutual pool of 2 HD per caster level, but I can raise it potentially to 5 HD/level. I also have access to Command Undead, which provides an extra buffer.

Reanimate: As a standard action I can raise skeletons and zombies. They have +4 enhancement bonus to their Strength and Dexterity. I can create variants, but they count as double their HD. They remain animated for 1 hour/CL, but I can make them permanent. Reanimate has no material components.

Animate Dead (ritual): The ritual lasts 30 minutes. This functions exactly like Animate Dead spell, complete with creating variant undead, but they count toward the mutual pool. It's questionable whether or not they receive enhancement bonuses, so assume they don't.

With this information in mind, how would you utilise each method?
depends on how much time you have before the fight but my vote goes to reanimate since with one point you can mass reanimate the whole encounter in middle of combat