Part 1: Mono-Elemental Spells

Stream went pretty well, was rather entertaining. Mostly Arena stuff. From some of the people talking, it sounded like the people who hadn't played this game before weren't sure of the magic system too well. So I'll put this up to help out a little.

Magical Theory: Mono-Elemental Spells

If you can't tell already, Magicka's element system is fairly complex, trying to figure out which elements combine together, which ones destroy each other, and which ones just work well together to kill your enemies as fast as you can can be a bit tricky to figure out on your own. I'm going to go over the elements a bit more in-depth here, and how they behave with the four casting styles (Aimed, Area, Self, and Weapon). A lot of the terms I'm going to be using are my own, although some terms I may have borrowed from the Magicka Wiki unintentionally.

Since this is the Mono-elemental post, when I refer to “extra elements,” I mean adding more of the same element. The 10 +1  elements can be lumped into four basic categories.

Non-Elemental
As mentioned, the Wizards are capable of a Force Push like effect, this is used when the player tries to cast a spell without having any elements assigned.



Aimed (Right-Click): Force Push. Chargeable. Deals no damage. Pushes creatures back in front of the Wizard.
Area (Shift+Right-Click): Area Force Push. Chargeable. Deals no damage. Pushes creatures back all around the Wizard.
Self (Middle-Click): Use your Staff's Active Ability. Some Staffs have these, but usually has a cooldown. If you don't have an Active Ability, you do nothing.
Weapon (Shift+Left-Click): Attack with your weapon, or use the Imbued spell. Imbued spells behave the same way, no matter what weapon you have equipped.

Shield
Personally my favorite element, Shield has the most dramatic effect on all spell combinations, and always takes priority. There's just tons of fun combinations you can do with this, and on it's own it's pretty useful as well.

• Shields opposing element is Shield. Meaning if you try to add Shield to a combo that already has Shield, the two cancel out and you lose the element. Also, if any mono-Shield spells overlap, they will cancel each other out.

• Aimed: Creates an arced barrier.
  
• Area: Creates a dome barrier.
  
• Self: Creates a force field around the Wizard. Doesn't last very long.
  
• Weapon: Creates a linear barrier straight ahead.

All Mono-Shield spells can be Boosted by pressing space (making it last longer and take more damage) and automatically reflect Beam type spells. So when against enemies using lots of beams, trip them up with shields and send it right back!

Solid Types
Earth and Ice behave differently, but follow the same patterns. Solid type elements take priority when Shield isn't included. Both deal physical damage, but Ice tends to behave better against fire-based creatures.

• Earth opposes Lightning. This can make Earth a bit tricky to work into some combos.
  
• Ice has no opposing elements, but is turned into Water when a Wizard tries to add Fire.

• Aimed: Chargeable.
  
• --Earth creates a boulder that moves faster and harder the more you charge the spell. Adding extra Earth increase the mass and damage of the boulder.
  
• --Ice creates several icicles that fly everywhere. Charging the spell makes them fly more ahead and less random and increases damage somewhat. Adding extra Ice creates more icicles.
  
• Area: Quake
  
• --Earth just trips enemies. Extra Earth increases the area of effect.
  
• --Ice creates ice spikes to quickly strike all enemies around you. Extra Ice increases damage and area of effect.
  
• Self: This attacks yourself with a non-charged version of the Aimed spell. Don't do this. Ever.
  
• Weapon: Vertical Slash
  
• --Earth causes a small quake ahead of the Wizard, tripping enemies. More Earth, more area.
  
• --Ice creates a downward slash fore more damage. More Ice, more area and damage.

Both of these elements can hit almost any enemy, and are easy to rely on. Since they do physical damage, spellcasting enemies (and allies) can't set up reliable resistances to these.

Beam Types
Life and Arcane and nearly identical, except one damages you and one heals you. Guess which one is which. Beam types take priority when there is no Shield or Solid types in the spell combination.

• Life opposes Arcane  and Poison .
  
• Arcane opposes Life.

Yeah, you can't have these together. Ever.

• Aimed: Beam, hits enemies several times. Adding extra elements extends the duration of the beam, but does not increase the damage per hit. You can rotate around while casting a beam. Crossing two beams together will make a more powerful beam...unless they contain opposing elements. In which case, you'll cause a Nova centered where the streams crossed.
  
• Area: Nova, hits enemies once. Adding extra elements increases the radius, but not damage.
  
• Self: Self Heal/Damage. Adding extra Arcane does nothing. Adding extra Life will create a Heal Over Time for a little bit until your HP is full. It's easier and faster to spam single Lifes though.
  
• Weapon: Horizontal slash. Extra elements increase reach, but not damage.

As you can see, for most spells a single Life/Arcane is enough for whatever you need. Usually most people use it to combine elements together with a Beam effect which is just easy to control.

Fluid Types
Whew! Last category, Fluids. These tend to just get sprayed out at the enemy. Lightning gets an honorary mention here because it's kind of funky, but behaves in a similar way. Steam will take priority over Lightning, which takes priority over the other Fluid types.

• Water opposes Lightning, and makes Steam with Fire, and Ice with Cold. Water deals no damage and inflicts knockback, and Wet enemies. Water also removes being on fire.
  
• Cold opposes Fire, and makes Ice with Water, and turns Steam back to Water. Cold will Chill (slow) enemies, and Freeze Wet enemies. Frozen enemies can't move and take extra damage.
  
• Fire opposes Cold, and makes Steam with Water, and turns Ice back to Water. Fire will set enemies on fire, dealing damage over time. Fire also removes Chill, Frozen and Wet.
  
• Lightning opposes Water and Earth. Tough to mix in sometimes. When Lightning has priority, it will bounce between nearby enemies, but will not sustain as long as other Fluids. Lightning spells can power machinery.
  
• Steam is created by combining Water and Fire. It will also Wet enemies, and remove fire.
  
•  When Poison is hacked into the game, it seems to behave like a Fluid. Poison opposes Life. They've since removed the exploit to use Poison as an element, but things in the game still do “poison-elemental damage.” 

• Aimed: Cone. If you hold down the button, you'll sustain the spell for a while and can rotate around. Extra elements increase the length and the damage (or Knockback if Water).
  
• Area: Explosion. Quickly hits nearby enemies with the element. Extra elements increase the range and damage. You can sustain Lightning-priority spells, but not other Fluid-priority spells.
  
• Self: Hits yourself with the element. Don't do this. (Unless removing a status effect).
  
• Weapon: Stab. Strikes with a quick cone of the element. Extra elements don't seem affect anything.

All in all, the Fluid types are good for inflicting status effects, as each one can inflict something. Technically turning on a machine counts as a status effect. And remember the way the Fluid types interact with each other, and you can attempt combinations that you never thought possible.


Krysmphoenix's Rote Spells!
At the end of these posts, I'm going to post some of my favorite spell combinations that I have pretty much memorized and can spam whenever I want. I'm not going to give out the best ones right away (because I like watching Skippy struggle against certain enemies), although by the end of the Adventure portion of the LP I'll try to have most of them out. It goes without saying that most of these combos use five elements.

Good Ol' Rock!

--Aimed-cast only. This spell is super basic, yet really effective. Charge it up, point at someone you don't like, and watch them take thousands of damage. Better yet, it keeps going after the first kill and can hit other enemies as well. Super effective against scissors, not very effective against paper.

Mines B Gone

--Area-cast only. Did you place a whole bunch of mines all around you and don't want to trip over them? Fortunately, Arcane and Life novas will activate mines without you getting hurt. By using Life for this, you won't hurt your own allies. Or you could use Arcane and hurt nearby enemies. You can also use the Nullify Magick to get rid of mines, but I personally find this easier to remember.

Next time I'll go more in-depth over my favorite element: Shield. Until then, if anyone's got some weird questions or I explained something poorly, go ahead and ask.