Alternative builds: Elves with Nature Magic builds. Part 2

18.01.2014 18:21 / comments: 5 / view: 1303 /

Author: Qwainos



I. Spells


After you’ve chosen and optimized the Nature Magic build you're going to use, it's time to get acquainted with spells you have in your arsenal.

First, let's look into Nature school:


1) Magic Punch

In common slang it's a magical slap. It does stable, but pretty weak damage that ignores magic resistance. The damage formula is 35 + 7*SP (hereinafter Spell Power) with maximum Nature Magic talents taken.

There is a talent that empowers this spell. After you spend 9 talent points on it, your Magic Punch will deal damage, increased by (28 – "faction skill passive defense", hereinafter FSPD) value that doesn't seem like a worthy choice..

Since we don't have other alternatives in Nature Magic's single-target offensive spell department, we are using it when necessary.


2) Wasp Swarm

Taking into account its damage formula of 25 + 5*SP we cannot expect it to hurt enemy stacks. In addition, it doesn't ignore magic resistance, which makes this spell even less desirable as a form of damage dealing (does minimal Earth Magic damage, but doesn't affect golems, elementals and mechanical units).

The spell's additional feature pushes the targeted unit by 0.6 down the ATB bar (at Expert Nature Magic). For the slowest units it is literally taking a high-speed train to the furthest end of ATB bar.

This spell greatly suits Wizards and Necromancers with Nature Magic builds, having both the potential to deal heavy magical damage and to slow enemies, granting them the ability to vanquish entire stacks of slow and fat units before they would even move. That won't work with Elven spell caster, since there is no Sorcery branch in the talent tree and there's no real need in using this spell unless his Elementals or Treefolks are in danger and there is a possibility to delay the relevant enemy unit. In all other cases Magic Punch is more effective.


3) Raise Dead

Raises fallen units; the active formula is 180 + 23*SP. There is also a talent which empowers the spell: after investing 9 talent points in it, you will get 23*4 – 40% of extra hit points (hereinafter HP) of targeted stack in the end. It is up to you whether these 55 HP are worth spending 9 talent points or not.

Indeed, this notorious 40% penalty really hurts. The formula clearly depicts a very miserable increase of spell's effectiveness by SP. For example, if you have a SP of 40 and you expect a very potent and powerful Raise Dead, you are about to get 1100 HP according to the formula mentioned above, but the actual number of stack's restored HP after the first cast will be 660 (6.1 Treefolk). The second cast will be even weaker: the same number of Treefolks (6.1) will rise, but with additional -40% HP.

This spell also grants all your remaining units a penalty of -2 to Morale (except the raised stacks which will keep zero Morale value till the end of combat), therefore I won't advise you to raise any stacks while the Treefolks are alive. As a result, Treefolk stack may lose its turn and fail to enter the defense mode on time.

Wizards and Necromancers have the possibility to spam Raise Dead against Chaos magicians because of Sorcery, which is called "Roly-Poly effect" - after Chaos magician kills a stack, another one is being raised immediately. It lasts until Chaos magician runs out of mana or Nature magician's elemental finishes his remaining units. Elves with Nature Magic builds cannot do that since they don't have Sorcery branch in their talent tree.


Senior Elven units have the following values of HP initially, after 1st, 2nd and 3rd Raise Dead cast:

Jade Dragon: 200-120-72-43

Ironroot Treefolk: 181-108-64-38

Brilliant Unicorn: 77-46-27-16

Anchorite: 38-22-13-7


4) Summon Phantom

Summons forward a copy of the stack you chose, which possesses Incorporeal special ability like Apparitions. The stack gets completely destroyed after taking a single hit (magical attacks except Magic Punch won't miss it).

I haven't used this spell at all since it's the most useless one in Nature magician's spell book.


5) Earthquake

One more spell, totally useless in PvP. It is useful, actually, only during events like the one we had some time ago…

The only difference of this spell from the other ones is spending mana without seeing any effect if you attempt to cast it; all other spells will require choosing a target (so the occasional mouse miss is not critical since you can always cancel the spell's selection).


6) Summon Elementals

After the last "mini-balancing" the number of summoned elementals got decreased by 25%. The new formula allows getting a 2 + 1.5*SP units per cast.

There are 4 types of elementals:

a) Earth. These guys are very slow but at the same time very strong. Earth Elementals have Unlimited Retaliation special ability, so enemy units don’t usually target them.

They also have Magic Resistance. Unfortunately, after the first slow effect cast on them these elementals become a totally useless encumbrance, because their stack acts twice less frequently in combat than the already "slow" Elven hero.

b) Water. Second in hand-to-hand combat prowess after the Earth counterpart, fast and agile enough. Has a possibility to strike standalone enemy stacks twice or a group of enemy stacks once per combat with ranged magical damage.

You can say it's a blessing when this type of elementals gets summoned.

c) Fire.It is a slow, but extremely effective ranged unit, having a host of 50! shots and a Unicorn's damage potential.

It has a 50% melee penalty, so it's better not to let the enemy units get nearby. In addition to fire immunity Fire Elementals also have Fire Shield special ability, so if the stack got blocked anyway it might be worthy to run forward and hit the especial strong and "fat" enemy stack in melee: Fire Shield may kill a decent number of enemy units in that stack..

d) Air. The quickest and most agile elemental, but also the weakest one. His normal attacks are literally scratching enemies, but its damage and initiative can be improved by various buffs, higher critical value and Luck. .

Air Elementals are very fragile, therefore if it gets summoned in the beginning of a fight vs. melee factions, it is likely to end in your quick defeat since the entire stack of these elementals will die after a couple of hits. However, this elemental is a highly valuable asset when fighting Chaos magicians, other Nature magicians and factions with low initiative.


The randomness of each summoned elementals stack's type makes players really angry. The Fosters' Law suggests you're going to get the most useless of the four Elemental types in every possible situation.


7) Fire Wall

By the magician's command, three vertically aligned battlefield cells start blazing with magical fire and continue burning during 3 consecutive turns (3 movements of a hero with Initiative of 10 without Sorcery talents).

Everyone who is passing through these cells or gets stuck there for some reason, is taking 10 + 10*SP of fire damage (minus magic resistance value + FSPD).

This spell is our main and most potent weapon. It just so happened that Elves are the only faction, which can force enemy units to stand in one place thanks to Treefolks. Actually, this is the only feature that gets Elven Nature magicians on par with their Wizard and Necromancer counterparts.


The spell is very buggy. For example, there is a glitch, which gets fixed but reappears again and occurs quite often: gated Demon units, appearing in Fire Wall, don't take any damage. Also, sometimes Rakshasas, using Dash while standing in Fire Wall, don't get hit as well. The bug won't work in 100% of cases and depends entirely on Holy Random.

Dwarven bugs deserve special attention: sometimes Patriarchs can place their own feeble Fire Wall on top of yours and it will work instead of yours. It is "balanced" by another bug: each Dwarven unit, standing in Fire Wall and using any rune, will take damage twice…


Now, let's assume you have Light Magic talents taken. First three tiers of Light Magic spells are all well known and commonly used, so there is no need to describe them here. However, let's take a look at 4th level Light spells.


8) Teleport

It is very useful in large 3x3 and "everyone for oneself" x6 types of battlefields. You can transport your Treefolks far away, forcing enemy units to cross entire battlefield in pursuit of them while wasting a lot of time and patience.

ÒYou can also use the spell in group 2vs2 and 3vs3 fights, teleporting your ally's troops right into the massacre directly before their turn (for example, a full stack of Minotaur Soldiers, Ladons or Elite Forest Keepers to the right position).

Finally, you can teleport your summoned stacks of elementals to desired location. It is useful in case of Fire Elementals to minimize the stack's range, which is especially effective in fights vs. Wizards..


9) Anti-Magic

It is difficult to describe what has been done with this very useful spell in LWM.

To mention it briefly, you are indeed getting magic resistance, but the actual resistance, not immunity. Therefore, only the lazy enemies won't penetrate it.

All debuffs will still work through Anti-Magic, unless it has a 100% effectiveness (debuffs will just fade away faster), while Dark Elf Chaos magician will just pierce the 100%-effective Anti Magic as if it doesn't exist.

This spell is mostly used vs. Wizards with Chaos Magic builds and pure Nature Magic spell casters (non-hybrids, since Anti-Magic will remove Stoneskin from you as well, which will make your “protected” stack more vulnerable to enemy attacks).


If you resurrect a stack, which has Anti-Magic effect on it (doesn’t matter if stack was half-dead or completely destroyed), the Anti-Magic power would increase to 700% and won’t work at all. This bug is one year old, but it looks like no one is going to fix it in near future.


II. Mage Guild Level 5


Mage Guild Level 5 is likely to be introduced soon. It’s not enough just to mention it will make Nature Magic spell casters stronger… It will push them right into havens, if all spells except those belonging to Administration’s beloved Chaos Magic will be respectfully added to the game without drastic changes and severe bugs…


1) Summon Phoenix

Off with random Elemental stacks! From now on, you won’t need to guess what type of elementals is going to appear and get mad about getting the wrong one.

The Phoenix is fast (Initiative of 15, Speed of 7) and strong and “fat” enough (1000+ HP).

I don’t remember if you could have Elementals and Phoenix in combat simultaneously in original game, but if you would be able to do that in LWM, that is going to be the most formidable weapon of our arsenal.


2) Celestial Shield

This is what we miss nowadays - a possibility to enchant Treefolks with Arcane Armor, absorbing 50% of all incoming physical and magical damage altogether.

It lasts while the shield’s own HP is exhausted (based on original game formula such shield can have 1000 and more HP).


These spells are ideal for those who enjoy running with Light Magic talents till new and more attractive opportunities will arise.

3) Holy Word

It is yet unknown if it’s going to be implemented in LWM. Administration doesn’t tolerate spells having AoE effects very much.

In the original game it does 144 + 12*SP of damage to all Necromancer and Demon creatures, which is a bit OP in our reality.


4) Resurrection

This spell is likely to be added to the game, and if yes, it’s going to become the stimulus that will encourage many Nature spell casters to take Light Magic talents instead of Luck or Enlightenment…

After the stack has been resurrected, the penalty is going to be 10% instead of 40%. It is a considerable improvement that will enable the caster to save hundreds and hundreds of HP! Also, it will allow the player to resurrect units many times without sufficient casualties (which will make Nature spell caster stronger even vs. Wizards).

It does cost 15 mana instead of 9 though, but there is no Morale penalty as well to all other units, and the targeted stack’s own Morale value remains the same.


III. PvE


Many players don’t want to try alternative builds cause of their rumored weaknesses in PvE (guilds advancement and events).

So, what an Elven Nature Magic spell caster can do in fight vs. monsters?


Hunters’ Guild: totally useless, since you cannot fight thousands of mobs.

Mercenaries’ Guild: can compete with melee builds; some tasks is even easier to perform as a Nature spell caster than a warrior Elf.

Thieves’ Guild: Elven warriors do better here. It’s not that Nature magician can’t level it as effectively as a warrior; the problem is the relative length of battles, since it takes 5-10 min longer to destroy a caravan. If you are not in a hurry, it’s up to you.

Contest Site: since neutral mobs bear special love for Elementals (Treefolks have a low priority), you can actually do better there than an Elven warrior.

Examples of few battles (before the last mini-balancing):

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4


IV. Statistics and players


1) 14th combat level

During one of the latter Minor Tournament the following player - Óáèéöà_ìàòðåøåê - performed quite well for this combat level, and he didn’t have the Treefolks’ upgrade (42% wins).

During 12th Minor Tournament AXON performed extraordinarily well, with 14 wins out of 20 (70%). This is a very good result, though when looking at his tournament highlights you can say he was lucky with opponents who have never met an Elven Nature magician before and didn’t know how to deal with it.


Tactics’ guild is not really active at 14th level, so there is nothing to show.


2) 15th combat level

Local Nature spell casters don’t like to attend Minor Tournaments, but there are a couple of regulars in Tactics’ guild:

The player Ãåîôèçèê, played more than 120 fights with Nature build in the guild, with an average win rate of 45%.

Also, Ñòðàóñ,has participated in 23 fights, but with higher win rate: 52% (though these are old fights, he didn’t like playing caster too much as it seems).


3) 16th combat level

It’s a bit of shame to advertise myself, but I have no choice.

Only I, Qwainos, attend Tactics’ guild since my first appearance as an Elven Nature spell caster. 60 battles played, 46% of wins achieved.

I’ve met a player named Dr_Bot there as well, but after 11 games played and only 4 wins he stopped using this build. Probably he didn’t’ like it.


Minor Tournaments don’t encourage too much as well.

The last one prior to this article’s release: Qwainos (75% wins), old433 (36% wins). Sly999 tried as well, but it didn’t go too well (only 12% won).

No other Elven Nature magicians attended other tournaments of this type except old433 and me.

3) 17th combat level

That's a pity but there were no Elves with Nature Magic builds at all! No one tried them at the 17th combat level...

comments

1 / 18.01.2014 19:28 / l_e_s_e_n_a [12] ?
dear lords, how did you like this article?  
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2 / 18.01.2014 22:17 / Father PenTus [15] ?
Very interesting article. Thanks for translating it to us.  
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3 / 19.01.2014 12:01 / ElfPride [16] ?
Really appreciate the work done on this article. A lot of good information are there.  
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4 / 21.01.2014 07:34 / Murali [13] ?
Nice article and well translated.

I had never heard of that dwarf's firewall bug before.
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5 / 21.01.2014 07:38 / shubhamgoyal [10] ?
Thanks for translating the article :-) Really appreciate it.
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