Part 2: Introduction to Shielding

Magical Theory: Shields

Many claim the best defense is a good offense. This works, until you're outnumbered and your good offense can't kill everyone fast enough. All the murderbeams in a world won't help you if you're surrounded, especially when stronger enemies start popping up with elemental immune equipment. While you're changing your strategy, the enemies are getting closer and closer and ohp! You're dead.

And so, the best defense...is a good defense. The key to surviving tough encounters can be helped with effective use of Shield spell combinations. Including Shield in any spell combination will immediately take over for priority, but even further on the secondary-priority follows the same pattern of Solid → Beam → Fluid, but first, let's go a bit deeper with Mono-Shield's again.

Shield


Self: This is probably how you'll do most Shield spells, casting them on yourself. Unfortunately, the Mono-Shield...kind of sucks for Self-casting. The spell does not last very long, and Boosting it doesn't restore very much, and you can't move while doing it. You'll also take extra knockback, and even small arrows from goblins will trip your Wizard. Before the PvP patch, you used to be able restore strength to the aura by casting Life on yourself but that got taken away. You'll also take extra knockback, and even small arrows from goblins will trip your Wizard.
So, why use the Self-Shield? Well, it's quick, portable, and reflects all Beams, usually back to the enemy caster. For the few spellcasting enemies in the game this is okay, but for PvP with everyone spamming murderbeams, the Self-Shield suddenly is a reasonable option. At the very least, it's a cheap 500 HP boost, that goes away at 10/sec.


Aimed, Area and Weapon: You'll be seeing this a lot, as the Aimed, Area and Weapon variations of the spell are very similar. All can be Boosted, and they don't fade out as much as the Self-Shield does. Usually there's no reason to boost them though, since the only time you'll need them are when enemies are right on your doorstep. The Weapon variation is probably the more useless of the three, unless you're making an unintrusive barrier for your friends to hide behind...but it's still just not very practical.

So, long story short...pure Shields just aren't that good. Where they shine is when they combine.

Shield-Solid + /


Self: Earth and Ice behave almost identically for Shield spells. All Earth barriers can withstand more damage than Ice. However, Ice will deal damage to very close by enemies when the spell is cast. Both have their uses, and Ice can be comboed with Lightning, while Earth can be comboed with Fire and Steam.
You can combine Earth and Ice together, and it'll still have the same relative effect. Basically each Earth and Ice add to the HP boost of the spell, but Earth adds more than Ice. However, the higher the HP boost at the time of casting, the slower you'll move. Of course, Ice lets you move faster because it gives less HP. The Haste Magick is a good counterbalance to the speed loss, and when surrounded by enemies I'll usually toss up a Shield + Earth x4 spell on myself.


Aimed, Area, and Weapon: This will create a wall of stones or icicles. Like before, the Earth wall can take more damage than the Ice, but will also last longer and sometimes you can very easily trap yourself with these. Generally these aren't great other than to get a literal solid barrier between you and the enemies.
Once again, the Ice wall will deal damage when it's created, but only then.

Shield-Beam + /

We'll cover Self-casting these later, because Self-cast Shield-Beam spells behave exactly the same as Shield-Fluid.


Aimed, Area and Weapon: So hopefully by now you've noticed the pattern. Aimed creates a semi-circle in front of you. Area creates it all around you and creates more. Weapon creates in a straight line, for roughly the same length as Aimed if not a little shorter.
So...mines. Mines are fun, and really powerful. That's pretty much all there is to it. When an enemy (or you) gets close to a mine, they'll trigger it creating a Nova right on the mine. The mines will trigger other nearby mines causing a chain reaction for more damage. They're pretty effective, but have the risk of blowing up in your face. Not much you can do about that.
The more duplicate elements you have to a Mine, the larger the explosion radius and damage. Do note that the duplicate elements do not have to be more Life / Arcane. In this case, throwing in two or three Fires would not only add fire to the mixture, but increase the radius that way.

Shield-Fluid + / / / /


Aimed, Area and Weapon: Doing Self later, first onto Storms. With the exception of Steam, Fire and Lightning, Storms do not deal damage on their own. Instead their focus is to inflict status effects on everything that walks through. Water and Steam will wet enemies, Cold will chill, and Fire will set on fire. Again, the more duplicate elements included in the spell, the longer the storm will stick around. Damage is fairly low, but that doesn't mean it can't be useful. Storms are probably the only Shield spell where you want the enemy to come to you.


Self: Hoo boy. Here we go. This creates an elemental immunity aura. Note the key word there, immunity. Any damage source that deals a Beam or Fluid element will get completely negated while you are within the radius of one of these auras (and if you made the aura, it's always centered on you). Also, you'll be immune to the status effects related to any Fluid portions of the spell. (Except Steam won't negate wet. You need Water for that.)
Typically, most spell combinations (especially Beams) with multiple elements will deal the damage simultaneously and if your aura matches just one of those elements you're immune to the whole thing. Sometimes though they'll deal the damage seperately and you'll only be immune to the portion that matches yours. Getting hit with a Earth-Fire spell while immune to fire won't help it when you get hit in the face by a rock.
Duplicate elements increase the radius of the aura, allowing allies (and nearby enemies) to benefit from it as well. The only thing to look out for is that you don't accidentally try casting a murderbeam on a enemy that's really close by when you've got your anti-murderbeam aura up.

Shield-Solid-Beam-Fluid


Self: Pretty much the same. You get the armor and the aura. Note that multiple Earths or Ice will expand the aura, as well as increasing the armor values. This can be good or bad depending on how much your enemies like the aura. Also, your aura goes away over time, and may fade while your armor is still working.


Shield + Solid + Beam: This creates a magic circle surrounding the wall pieces, which will explode when the wall gets destroyed or vanishes. Pretty much mines on a time delay. Ice really doesn't last very long like this.


Shield + Solid + Fluid: This makes the wall pieces shoot out bits of the fluid around them, inflicting the status effect and dealing a little damage if applicable. Range is pretty poor though.


Shield + Beam + Fluid: Elemental mines. Now you get explosions of the fluid elements as well.


Shield + Solid + Beam + Fluid: Wall pieces that explode with fluid elements with the Life / Arcane. Lightning is the odd exception, because it's not 'quite' a fluid. Lightning will still strike out on this combination.



Krysmphoenix's Rote Spells
A thing to note is that I'll typically type out my rotes in order of Priority because that's how I think of the spell, but the order for the combination does not matter at all.
Also, I decided I'm going to stop holding back now since during the streams, audiences have been shouting out good spell combinations and we're already pretty far in recording, the point where I'll start helping out in-video.

Exploding Ice

--Weapon-cast ONLY! I actually learned this while screwing around before recording for this LP. This creates a series of icicles to knock enemies around, trap them with powerful lightning, and then explode in their faces with Arcane. You can use an anti-undead version by swapping out Life with Arcane. Other common variations of the combination use another Ice or Lightning instead of the Arcane, but I like it better with it in it. Just be careful not to kill yourself with this because it is lethal!

→ Anti-Thunderstorm

--This takes an exploit in Fluid mechanics to get Water and Lightning in a spell together. To get this to work right, you need add Fire last (which then melts the Ice into Water) and you cannot add any other elements, otherwise it'll check for opposite elements. This creates a quick aura that makes you immune to being wet and electrocuted, allowing you to freely use lightning spells during Rain or Thunderstorms. Also makes you immune to the Thunderbolts in Thunderstorm. Could make a decent Storm I suppose, but Steam is better than Water for that.

→ Advanced Anti-Thunderstorm

--Same as the last, just now you're also immune to Arcane and you have an Ice armor. Again, could be decent mines, but haven't tried it. Just don't try to use multiple Ice for more armor, then you'll be giving nearby enemies your aura. Another issue with this is if you actually get struck by lightning, your armor will be destroyed and you lose the aura.

Super-SAFE Aura

--SAFE is a popular combo that makes an aura that negates most commonly used elements, and is easy to remember because the letters you use to type it are also word you can associate with the combo. Super-SAFE just adds Steam to it. Most people remember this as QFSAFE. You can use it for mines, but the Fire prevents the Steam and Lightning synergy.

ARSE mines

--Not one of my favorites, but I have to include it. Yes, this combo spells ARSE. This deals decent damage, chills the enemy and does a ton of knockback. Actually, it's the knockback people use it before because it's not the fall that kills the enemy, it's the landing. Can also be used for sequence breaking portions of levels, or getting a certain Magick early. Also not a bad aura.

Quick Area Heal

--Super simple guys. Shield and Life, and then Area cast it. Everything around you will get a full heal, because you're basically spamming several healing novas all at once. Great for using after Revive.


So, I'm sure you noticed the crazy shenanigans I pulled with Ice to get Water and Lightning together in spells? Next time I'll explain how that works with Fluid Mechanics.