TIP: Something I never realized as a solo player
Cathantric
Posts: 20 ✭✭
Hi all,
For my first 32 levels as a magizoologist, I thought that strategic spells were something I couldn't cast in fortresses because I played solo. "I have no teammates so I can't cast any of these". I thought my teammates would show up in the middle of the fortress floor like the beasts we battle. I COMPLETELY overlooked my icon at the top of the screen thinking it was just a static representation of my wizard. Then I played a fortress with another wizard and I saw where I could cast my charms on him and then I realized - "HOLY ****! I COULD'VE BEEN CASTING MEND ON MYSELF THIS WHOLE TIME?!?!?" So don't be like old me, a 30+ wizard who hasn't even gotten the bronze achievement for strategic spells. Next level pro tip passed on to me by another wizard, take down all the strong opponents and leave the easiest opponent for last (which is something I've always done anyway). Figure out roughly how long it would take to take down that opponent and don't engage, stay in the room and heal yourself until you're down to the time you need to take it out. Hope that made sense.
Happy strategic spell casting fellow solo players!
Comments
This is very key for professors for whom invigoration drafts can be amazing. After increasing to 4 initial focus, an invigoration draft allows them to start with their precision buff which is immensely helpful.
It took lots of us longer than we’d like to admit that we could spam our strategic spells on ourselves. Better late than never!
I'm trying to do some "self-healing" for my strategic spellcasting gold. You can do so every 6 seconds for a 9 minute level 14 chamber, but even so that's a lot of healing to hit 3000 for the precious 15 red books. Almost 10 minutes of dragging an icon gets wearisome, even if its otherwise very cheap (costing just 1 runestone).
@NearlyHeedless , I'm just happy that I'm getting my 7 books from the silver level of that achievement soon! (Completely ignoring the trudge to 3000 will be) :D
I think a lot of us went through this. I for one took FOREVER to figure out I could heal myself for 0 focus as a professor, hahahah. The good thing is that I at least figured it out somewhere in level 20-ish something? So not too bad. Now if I were level 60 and still hadn't figured it out... I would cry.... lots.
@Cathantric learned a trick today. You can power-level with scrolls only on Auror until you get the trade focus ability - then get with another Auror and trade focus back and forth, without any cool-down. On a Dark Chamber 1 you get 10 minutes of no-cool-down frenzied trading (I was a bit sore afterwards) - was better than 600 strategic casts, way faster than the about 100 you can get doing self-healing. For about an hour of furious swiping with a friend you can get the achievement.
I'm trying to learn more on how to cast protego ,can anyone help me or point me where I might see a YouTube video to understand it better? I also don't understand how to cast a defensive spell, any help?
@bighud007 I'm not sure if you're being sincere or sarcastic... In case you're being sincere, you can only cast protego when it says you can during encounters with oddities or in the fortress. It will bring up a straight arrow glyph to tell you to cast the spell. Start at the end with the glowy ball, and then follow the arrow. You don't need to really worry about accuracy or speed, just make sure you follow the glyph fairly close and in time before the attack.
@bighud007 Protego is your defensive spell. Offensive spells are the other spells when you attack. Strategic spells are the ones you "learn" through your profession.
Hi @bighud007, welcome to the forum!
Protego is basically only used in fortress battles with one single exception; Oddities. Oddities encountered on the map are designed to give you a taste of what battle is like inside a fortress. Oddities predominantly show up at dawn, dusk and overnight with a few exceptions during daylight, though rare. They appear as deep purple foundables on the map and will often have a beam of coloured light emanating skyward, depending on the severity of the encounter.
Once you have encountered an oddity, you will understand very quickly how to use protego as it becomes self evident. Each time you land a blow on your opponent, you will be given the option to use protego in defence of your opponents incoming blow prior to your foe casting his spell on you. Trace the arrow that appears following your attack to cast protego.
Protego is the only defensive spell used outside of a fortress, and only against oddity encounters...at the moment. I suspect this will change when they are ready to add Dark Forces and Beasts to the map. Inside the fortress, there are four spells each profession has access to for offence or defence, and they are cast prior to engaging a foe inside a chamber. Plenty to say about these spells, but I'll let you absorb what I've offered you here first. Welcome aboard Wizard!
@JulieJubz you mentioned that you can heal yourself for focus as a professor. I had no idea professors could heal themselves for focus! I'm level 56 and have never healed myself! 😭 How can I do that?! Whenever I tap "focus" and drag it to my icon, nothing happens! Please, please, please, teach me! 😄
how do we heal ourselves? I am a professor as well. When i tried to bring that icon to myself, i did not notice any changes as well. If we can heal ourself, what percentage of power is healed??
Professors have a mending charm. It’s not a great healer! So there might be some misunderstanding. Depending how much you “learned” it, you would get +2 or +4 stamina. For example, say you have 20 stamina left, you would go up to either 22 or 24 when you cast it. But it costs zero focus. I typically only use it at the end and spam it on teammates who are battling the last foes. If I’m one of the last battlers, my teammates spam it on me.
@EowynRio and @Artymerl , it's exactly what @Dogoutlaw said. I also use it constantly so I can grow my numbers for the "cast 3000 strategic spells in wizard challenges". Because if I was just using the other spells, I'd take MUCH longer to achieve that. Right now I'm at 1085/3000 😅
@Dogoutlaw and @JulianNorwich thanks! I'll check my skills tree but will also try the mending charm asap! 🤩
@NearlyHeedless is spot on
it will cost you 21 scrolls total after switching temporarily to auror in order to get to lesson in auror skill tree that allows transfer of focus
but then you should be able to do about 1 strategic spell (via transfer to another auror) per second. just make sure you have at least 5 focuses (take strong invigoration draughts if needed) so you don’t have to wait for your auror partner to pass focus back to you
use cheap runestones you can afford to burn, like extra brilliant event runestones left over
I thought the professor’s mending charm worked on teammates? When I drag it onto my icon at the top I get a 5 second countdown. Does this change if I level up? (I’m 2/8 at the moment)
@Dewin99 Hi, mending charm works on both you or a teammate. The 5 second countdown is a cooling off period before you can use it again. The mending charm is only 2/2, I'm guessing that (2/8) was a boo boo. I'm hoping when they expand the skill tree, this strategic spell will improve. 🤞
@ZookiTabooki Thanks for the information. Well spotted too, 2/8 is my proficiency charm.
Thanks @Cathantric and everyone else for this thread, this is a massive help! You’ve basically halved the time needed to get the 15 red books. 👍
I can’t thank you all enough for helping me out with this, it’s a massive boost which will actually reduce my 15 red book achievement time by two thirds as opposed to by half (and I can foresee that this will increase even further once I get Divinating Details).
I experimented a bit today to see exactly when I could (and couldn’t) use the mending charm. I had initially thought that I would have to have received some damage at a fortress before being able to use the charm (taking ‘mend’ literally), but no, I found I could place the charm on myself (and count in achievements) even before taking on a foe (even with 100% stamina).
So using a L1 runestone at Ruins 1, I first placed a mending charm, beat my first foe with one cast, then placed my second mending charm + deterioration hex, again defeating my foe in one cast (I only have +2 initial focus at the moment, the upcoming Brilliant Event will mean I’ll be able to place two deterioration hexes - further increasing my strategic cast rate).
All in all, 3 strategist casts for 2 spell energy and one L1 runestone. Result!
I’d sometimes even get 1 spell energy back which was nice. Normally I would only have gotten one strategic cast from my normal strategy, your help has tripled this, quadrupling in one week’s time hopefully!
Thanks again! 👍
@Dewin99 lol, wanna make it even better? Since as you’ve noticed, it still counts with full stamina and you can defeat your foes very quickly, just keep casting mending while the clock ticks down. When you get to a minute, get your foes.
@Dogoutlaw I’m really sorry, but I don’t quite catch your meaning (my fault entirely, I can be a bit ‘twp’ (thick) sometimes).
Can you please elaborate on “just keep casting mending while the clock ticks down. When you get to a minute, get your foes.”
I also apologise for my over use of brackets!
@Dewin99 no worries! This is an example of what I do... When the challenge begins, I cast mending. Take a foe, done in one hit. Then before taking my last foe, I just spam the mending charm as many times as I can while the clock ticks down. I don’t like to leave it too close, so when there’s a minute left on the clock, I take the last foe. I can get in a ton of strategic casts like that.
@Dogoutlaw Holy moly! Eye opening stuff.
Can I ask roughly how many strategic spells do you manage to cast as a result please?
@Dogoutlaw My maths isn’t brilliant, but are you getting between 30-40 per L1 Ruins 1?
That’s about right. I’ve never actually counted or done the math, just knew it was way more than I was doing before!!!😂
For crying out loud. My stupidity knows no bounds!
Thanks again @Dogoutlaw
@Dewin99 we all have our moments!! I didn’t know for a very long time I could cast mending and protection charms on myself! The description says cast on teammate and I took that literally! Never tried casting it on myself. And then read somewhere about a month in that you could cast on yourself, and I thought Whaaaaaaaaaat?!😂😂😂🤷🏼♀️ Oh well, we all learn as we go right?
Too right. I hope others profit as a result.
Thanks again.