Wizards: Arcane Power, Unlock, Burn and Chill

Just when you think Seer is the wildest we’re gonna get, we ask you to hold our beer. There is a lot to Wizard, in turn, I wanted to get a clarification blog up to help explain some of the madness. In short, in our efforts to build out a glass-cannon magical crit-god, we ended up designing a dedicated framework for a wizard-y micro-economy within each battle. As a result, the difficulty level of this class (and sub-class) is pretty high and requires some degen-ing to master it.

First off, we have some new keywords for you: Arcane Power (AP), Unlock, Burn, and Chill. Let’s start there.

Burn:
Burn is magical damage that persists over additional Durations after the initial damage instance. Burn can stack up to a maximum of 12 total stacks and each stack naturally falls off after a Duration of 3. If a Hero has 12 stacks of Burn at the start of its Turn, the stacks explode and reset to 0. Upon explosion, the target has a 99% chance to be Feared for a Duration of 1. Very important: Burn can be Cleansed.

Chill:
Chill is a magical debuff that applies a 5% Slow for a Duration of 3. Chill can stack to a maximum of 12 total stacks and and naturally falls off after a Duration of 3. If a Hero has 12 stacks of Chill at the start of its Turn, the stacks freeze the Hero and reset to 0. Upon freezing, the target has a 99% chance to be Stunned for a Duration of 1. Very important: Chill can be Cleansed.

Now that you’ve read those two, I get to make this joke now:

Thank you.

Arcane Power:
Arcane Power (called AP) is the raw energy that wizards draw upon to cast and empower their spells. It is a fundamental force that permeates the universe, and wizards are trained to harness and control this power. The more skilled a wizard is in controlling this mysterious power source, the more bananas their spells become. Think of AP like the fuel that powers your magical abilities. This fuel level is measured by the AP Gauge.

When running a Wizard on your team, you will have an extra element to consider during gameplay, your wizard’s AP Gauge. Your wizard’s AP Gauge keeps track of the AP your wizard has generated through the use of various skills and forbidden techniques. In turn, ,any of the spells in the wizard’s codex can be augmented, enhanced, or even cost AP, so it’s important to learn how to manage your wizard’s AP mini-economy. Side note, any skill that says “empower this skill with AP” comes with a baked-in minimum of 1 AP that must be consumed or spent in order to use the skill.

UNLOCK:
Unlock is a new keyword mechanic that ties into your Wizard’s AP Gauge. The more AP your Wizard has accrued over the course of a battle, the more powerful UNLOCKS the Wizard has access to.

All of this adds up to look a little something like this:

Let’s run through an example of one of the more complicated spells to lay out how this works. I will put in some dummy numbers here to help showcase what the values could be, so please don’t count this as set in stone by any means.

The skill reads:

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Pyroclast Explosion:

Empower this skill by consuming X charges of Arcane Power (AP).

Channel for a Duration of (0.1*AP) rounded up.

Deal magical damage to each enemy equal to [(0.2*AP)*SPELL + 2.0*INT].
(50 + 0.1*INT)% chance to apply a stack of Burn with magical damage equal to (0.1*INT) to each target.
For each enemy hit, generate 1 charge of Arcane Power.

COMBO: If target is inflicted with Chill, gain (30% + 0.1*INT)% chance to restore 20% of the mana cost of this skill.

UNLOCK 10:
(40 + AP + 0.1*INT)% chance to Exhaust a single random hit enemy.

UNLOCK 15:
(20 + AP + 0.1*INT)% chance to Fear a single random hit enemy.

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This skill can be broken up into five sections:

1.) Empowerment
2.) Channel
3.) Base Effects
4.) Combo
5.) Unlock

1.) Empowerment
At the moment you decide to use a skill, if a skill is able to be empowered by AP, you will be presented with the option to spend some of your AP in your AP Gauge to juice the spell. However much you decide to spend in AP will be subtracted from your gauge and will influence your Wizard’s Unlock thresholds (more on those later).

2.) Channel
In this case, you will have a multiplier on the Duration of (0.1*AP) of the Channel. This means 10% of the AP you spend on empowerment will dictate how long this spell is Channeled, rounded up. The more AP you spend, the more powerful the skill, but the longer the Channel.

So! If you spend 20 AP, you will Channel for 2 Durations. But be careful and spend wisely. Since this Duration value rounds up, if you spend 11 AP, you will still Channel for a Duration of 2. 

3.) Base Effects
AP also shows up in the Base Effects of this skill in the form of a magical damage modifier: [(0.2*AP)*SPELL + 2.0*INT].

This means that 20% of the AP you spend will dictate the potency of the SPELL value (a magic user’s basic attack), so if you spend 20 AP, you will do damage equal to: [(0.2*20)*SPELL + 2.0*INT], which becomes [(4.0)*SPELL + 2.0*INT]. That would be a lot of damage, btw.

Then, business as usual on the rest of the Base Effects:

(50 + 0.1*INT)% chance to apply a stack of Burn with magical damage equal to (0.1*INT) to each target.

When damage is dealt, there is a roll against the chance value (50 + 0.1*INT)% to see if Burn is applied. If it is, the target will take magical damage each Turn for a Duration of 3 equal to (0.1*INT).

Let’s say your Wizard has 54 INT, this attack would have 55.4% chance to apply a stack of Burn, if a stack successfully hit, the target would receive damage equal to 5.4 HP on each of the target Hero’s Turns for a Duration of 3, or 16.2 HP in total over that duration. 

4.) Combo
The skill reads:

COMBO: If target is inflicted with Chill, gain (30% + 0.1*INT)% chance to restore 20% of the mana cost of this skill.

Note that COMBO checks after damage and UNLOCK does not influence the COMBO check. So if this Wizard has 54 INT, this Combo would trigger a 35.4% chance to reduce the mana cost of “Pyroclast Explosion” by 20% if the target is already afflicted with Chill.

5.) Unlock
And now to the fun stuff. The Unlocks on the skill read:

UNLOCK 10:
(40 + AP + 0.1*INT)% chance to Exhaust a single random hit enemy.

UNLOCK 15:
(20 + AP + 0.1*INT)% chance to Fear a single random hit enemy.

If, at the moment this wizard casts this skill and after consuming any AP to empower the skill, this wizard has 11 remaining charges of AP, UNLOCK 10 will automatically apply to the ability. Which means, if the same Wizard with 54 INT has greater than 10 AP after empowering the skill by 20, the skill will have an added functionality that provides a (40 + 20 + 0.1*54)% chance to Exhaust a random hit enemy – the math works out to 65.4%.

In the same scenario, if this Wizard has 17 remaining charges of AP, both UNLOCK 10 and UNLOCK 15 will automatically apply to the ability.
Which means, if the same Wizard with 54 INT has greater than 17 AP after empowering the skill by 20, the skill will have an added functionality that provides a (20 + 20 + 0.1*54)% chance to Fear a random hit enemy – the math works out to 45.4%.

But keep in mind that if you spend this Wizard’s AP and drop below either or both of these Unlock thresholds, the Unlocks will not apply to the skill and only the Base Effects will apply. 

Order of Operations
Lastly, I wanted to break down and provide clarity on the order of operations when using a skill with all these ins and outs:

1.) You select a skill to cast.
2.) If applicable, you choose the AP amount to consume.
3.) Both AP and MP are reduced.
4.) Channel begins.
5.) Channel ends.
6.) Skill is cast.
7.) Combo is checked.
8.) Unlocks are checked.

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TL;DR

The Wizard class is both complex and challenging, and requires careful management of its unique micro-economy. The introduction of new keywords such as Burn, Chill, and Unlock, as well as the use of Arcane Power, creates a system that adds a pretty intense (but fun) layer of depth and strategy to gameplay. The design of spells, such as the Pyroclast Explosion, further emphasizes the need for AP management and decision-making. Understanding the order of operations for using a spell is important, and players must carefully consider how much AP to spend and when to use spells to maximize their effects. While the difficulty level of this class may be high, mastering it offers players the opportunity to unleash devastating and unique abilities in battle.

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