Magic
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Related topics: Category:Magic
Magic refers to the use of any of the five schools of magic.
The Magic Schools
School of the Arm
Main article: War Magic (Skill)
War magic is an offensive magic school, it allows you to cast spells that damage the target. This includes arcs, rings, walls, bolts, volleys and blast spells.
War magic uses the Essence of Strife contained within the Foci of Strife.
School of the Heart
Main article: Life Magic (Skill)
Life magic allows you to cast spells that heal and protect the target, but the school also includes spells that lower protections and drain health, stamina and mana.
Life magic uses the Essence of Verdancy contained within the Foci of Verdancy.
School of the Left Hand
Main article: Creature Enchantment (Skill)
Creature magic allows you to cast spells that affect the target's abilities (attributes and skills), either by lowering them with debuffs (e.g. Life Magic Ineptitude) or improving them with buffs (e.g. Life Magic Mastery).
Creature magic uses the Essence of Enchantment contained within the Foci of Enchantment.
School of the Right Hand
Main article: Item Enchantment (Skill)
Item magic allows you to cast spells that affect an item's properties. This includes spells that alter the damage, speed, modifiers of a weapon, the armor level (AL) of armor and the lockpick resistance of doors and chests. Item magic also allows you to utilise portal magic and tie to, recall to and summon Portals. In addition, you can tie and recall to Lifestones using this magic school.
Item magic uses the Essence of Artifice contained within the Foci of Artifice.
School of the Shadow
Main article: Void Magic (Skill)
Void magic is an offensive magic school, it allows you to cast "Nether" spells that damage the target. This includes spells that do Damage over Time(DoT) such as corruption, curse and the corrosion spells, but it also has nether versions of spells similar to that of war magic. This includes nether arcs, rings, streaks, bolts and blast spells.
Void magic uses the Essence of Shadow contained within the Foci of Shadow.
Learning Spells
Main article: Spells
Virtually all players train at least once school of magic and it isn't uncommon for non-mages to have two or even three schools trained.
There are currently 8 levels of spell. Most levels 1-7 spells can be learned from the Professors of Magic in Arwic. The first six levels can also be purchased from the Scriveners, while the first seven level spells can be found as Loot. Level 6 Wall, ring, blast, and volley spells can be found in Steel Chests that require a Sturdy Iron Key to open. A random wall or ring scroll can be acquired learned by giving Feruza ibn Salaq a Pyreal Bar. The final and most powerful level 8 (VIII) spell scrolls can be created through Spell Research using special components found in the highest tier of loot. Level 8 spells can also be learned by turning in the certificates purchased from Marid in Arwic to a Agent of the Arcanum as can wall and ring spells. There are also special spells and Recall Spells that are learned or can be used by completing quests.
Historical Spell Research
Prior to the Castling event when it was removed, all level I - VI spells could be learned using the previous spell research system. This system used between 5-8 Spell Components in the following order: Scarab, Taper 1, Herb, Taper 2, Powder, Potion Taper 3, Talisman. The second and third tapers were different for each player.
The system was designed with the intention that players would learn spells but keep the components secret. One incentive behind this was the effects on the spell economy.
Spell Economy
The spell economy was a unique feature of Asheron's Call that determined the effectiveness of spells depending on the use of the spell on a server-wide and personal scale. If a spell was not used often, the power of the spell increased above the normal level.
If a spell was over used, either by the whole server or by casting the spell in rapid time, the effectiveness of the spell decreased.
Unfortunately, players soon found a way to easily work out the personal tapers using program liks "Split Pea". This was exacerbated with various fansites documenting the remaining part of the spell formulas.
Trivia
One example of a spell that was over used was Flame Bolt V which degraded the spell badly, to the point nobody on the server could use it effectively. To counter this while they worked on a complete fix Turbine added the Virindi Spells Quest which includes Dark Flame, a spell that was meant to temporarily replace Flame Bolt V as it was not affected by Spell Economy.
Casting Spells
After the spell research system was removed it became much simpler to cast spells with the new system using Foci. Spell foci take a pack slot and remove the need for most of the old components. To cast a spell you simply need a foci for the school of magic, the scarab for the level of spell you wish to cast and a number of Prismatic Tapers which replace the old tapers including the two personal tapers.
It is possible to earn Augmentations that remove the need to carry the foci freeing up many pack slots. It is also possible to use the old system of components by not using the foci. This is useful for players that only wish to cast a few spells.
Magic Mode
Magic mode, or spellcasting mode, is active when you're wielding any Magic Caster (also known as a casting device) and you click the button on the interface. The spell casting panel then appears which consists of 8 spell bar tabs for holding spells from your spell book and the cast button to cast the selected spell on the target. Spells can be dragged and dropped from the spell book on the Magic Panel to the spell bars or tabs. The first 9 spells in any tab are numbered which can be quickly cast using the keyboard.
Magic Casters
For information on weapon modifiers, see: Combat#Magic Casters
Magic casters or casting devices are wielded by mages to cast the spells that they have learned. Many casting devices have a built in spell which is found to the left of the first slot in the spell bar.
Spellcraft
When a magic user casts a spell against a creature, the magic user's skill is compared against the magic resist skill of the creature to determine if the creature successfully resists the spell.
When an item is used to cast a spell against a creature, the Spellcraft of the item is similarly compared against the magic resist skill of the creature.
Spellcraft is also used when applying Silk to an item to remove allegiance rank, the new arcane lore requirement will be equal to the spellcraft of the item.
Mana Conversion
Mana Conversion reduces the Mana consumed by spells allowing you to cast many powerful spells with a fraction of the mana cost. Mana Conversion is an unusable skill at default meaning you will not receive any reduction in mana costs at all until the skill is trained at a minimum. The skill also affects mana consumed by magic items.
See Also
- Spell Stacking
- Magic Panel
- Creature Enchantment Alternatives
- Item Enchantment Alternatives
- Life Magic Alternatives
Update History
- Multiple tabs added to the spell bar for a total of five spell tabs.
- Additional keyboard functionality added for switching between spells and spell tabs.
- Two more spell tabs added to the spell bar.
- 8th spell tab added to the spell bar.
- School of the Shadow (Void Magic) introduced.
Images
Click image for full size.
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The old spell casting panel with the charge bar (spell economy)