Dust magic and You: The power of words

Table of contents

1. The basic basics

2. Tools of torment

3. The undisputable law

4. Harnessing the fire

5. The real deal

6. Judgement day

7. TL;DR



Welcome to the second part of understanding Ardent Mages arcana abilities. We will go through the mechanics of the various incantations aka spells and how to utilize them for best performance.

I recommend you read through my other guide “Dust magic and You: The potency of pillars” in order to get a complete overview of the potential of arcana abilities. We’ll focus on the spell portion of the arcanas in this examination. The basics of combat are also covered as it's rather essential to have an understanding of, in order to use the incantations effectively.





[HR][/HR]1. The basic basics



If you’re comfortable with the basic elements of the incantations, you can skip directly to the next chapter where a more in-depth analysis is made about the relative strengths of the incantations.



Alright, with the hot-heads out of the way, let’s see what we’re dealing with here. As with pillars, you have five spells at your disposal. Each spell is tied to a specific technology in the research panel. Your incantations (spells) are unlocked by their corresponding technologies:

• Incantation of Defense – Arcana of Matter (Era I)
• Incantation of Haste – Arcana of Agility (Era I)
• Incantation of Enervation – Arcana of Authority (Era II)
• Incantation of Deluge – Arcana of Materializing (Era III)
• Incantation of Restoration – Arcana of Renewal (Era IV)
  
  

The spells are reinforced in power by technologies Dust Purifier (Era II) and Painosphere (Era V).



Since you can unlock level 3 by fifth era, it’ll likely see some actual use for endgame purposes. Levels 4 & 5 are again, sadly, more or less out of reach for any considerable use due to the requirement of Secrets of the Virtuals from the end of Ardent Mages storyline.

Also, do note that the Cold Operator (winter pillar tech) does nothing for your spells. So, if you’re focusing only on the incantations for one reason or another, you might skip the story altogether unless the other rewards pick your interest. From the perspective of arcana incantations however, there’s nothing practical to attain.



Now, in contrary to pillars, you can use the incantations only during combat and when a battle begins, you can find them in the top left menu, here:







You select a spell and place it to the desired place on the battlefield. The effect is instant when you select to resolve the combat turn. There is no way to avoid the effect of the incantations if you're caught in range and the incantation rules allow the targets to be affected (all spells won't work on enemy units). Whenever you cast an incantation, they all go on a cooldown for the next combat turn. This occurs regardless of the actual duration of the spell. This means that you can cast a total of three spells each combat in any combination. Every incantation can be cast multiple times.



Casting spells costs you precious dust. The price is fixed at 30/60/90/120/150 depending on the spell arcana level. The amount of spells cast won’t change the cost, but it is taxed every time for every incantation you unleash.

Now let’s see what our dusty tricks actually do.





[HR][/HR]2. Tools of torment







Incantation of Defense:

Increases defense of target units by 5/10/15/20/25 points depending on arcana level. Effect lasts for two turns. The tooltip is bugged (showing +5 regardless of actual arcana level) but the mechanic works as intended. Only friendly units are affected.



A decent all-purpose incantation. As the Mage units are naturally low in defense stat, incantation of Defense can balance it out when facing opponents with relatively low attack values. Defense value is worth twice the attack, in terms of combat prowess. This is explained in more detail in section 4.



Incantation of Defense is especially well suited for turtling in a siege situation, while you're defending with a small force and reinforcements are still underway. If you desire to hold your ground against superior strength, it's a considerable choice.

When facing melee orientated forces; infantry or flyers, go for it. When fighting a battalion of ranged forces, Enervation might be your preferred spell.



Incantation of Speed:

Increases attack of target units by 6/12/18/24/30 depending on arcana level. Effect lasts for two turns. The first spell level is bugged and gives +12 like level 2 instead of +6 which would be logical for the 1st level, the rest work as normal (expect this to be eventually fixed). Only friendly units are affected.



Incantation of Haste is also one of the better spells. If you’re facing opponents stacking massive amounts of defense, this one can help to break the barrier. It's highly preferred to use when you have initiative over enemy and have access to Ateshi Zealots.

Slap this beauty on your Zealot cluster and watch in delight as they incinerate the enemy army before they even realize what's happening.



Incantation of Enervation:

Ah, yes the Enervation. This one is a special breed, indeed.

• Lv1: Stuns a single target. Duration 1 turn.
• Lv2: Stuns the target and all units in radius of 1 tile. Duration 1 turn.
• Lv3: Stuns the target and all units in radius of 1 tile. Affected units get -12% defense. Duration 1 turn.
• Lv4: Stuns the target and all units in radius of 1 tile. Affected units get -25% defense. Duration 1 turn.
• Lv5: Stuns the target and all units in radius of 1 tile. Affected units get -25% defense. Duration 2 turns.
  
  

As you see this incantation gets very powerful bonuses, with the crucial being the lv1 -> lv2 increase in the area of effect (commonly called AoE). Note that you can stun your own units with this and curiously enough, a stunned unit will retaliate if attacked by a melee hit. It remains unclear whether this is intentional or not.

This spell is the bane of archers, doom of shock cavalry, torment of support troopers. It’s the king of incantations. The reliable table-turner. The one spell to rule them all.. Ehh, I think you get the point.



So what’s with all the abundant praise? Why, it’s for the simple reason that this incantation cannot backfire. Whereas the other spells can be nullified by a bad roll (even the damage/heal ones in case of unlucky block/crit), the stun is guaranteed which in turn means that you can very accurately mess up the battle plans of your despicable foe.

You can disable the cheese-reeking frontloaded glassteel archer assault, take out overpowered support troops before they do their thing, close the gap to enemy's one-hit wonder-squad shock cavalry and so forth. You simply cannot go wrong with incantation of Enervation.

If there is one spell you want in your arsenal, it’s this one. There are times when you want to use other spells, but overall Enervation is a very solid choice.



If you want to utilize your melee units, especially a shock squad of Eneqas, Enervation is not the best pick since stunned units still retaliate, making this otherwise nice spell rather useless.



Incantation of Deluge:

Reduces the health points of targeted units by 8/16/24/32/40 depending on arcana level. All units in range are affected.



Deluge is slightly underwhelming. Its strength is that the reduction is unblockable, so it’s reliable and accurate spell. You cannot escape the effect, no matter what. The downside is that the value is fairly low.

The times it excels are rare and you’re usually better off using other spells. However, it can potentially be used as a unit finisher in order to let your units dish a healthy amount of pain to a more sturdy target in order to maximize damage done. If a warlock dealing 100 damage hits a guy with 15hp left, a lot of potential damage is wasted.

If you want to go all out, you can also use it to punish both your own and enemy troops, giving more power to your Ardent Fire. As the damage is low, though, it's not a big bonus.

It can also be used as a support spell to emphasize your Zealots AoE capabilities.



Incantation of Restoration:

Restores the health points of targeted units by 10/20/30/40/50 depending on arcana level. Only friendly units are affected.



The mirror cast of Deluge, slightly beefed up. It’s a decent guaranteed heal. It can potentially save your troops from a killing blow but the wrath of RNG gods can easily turn this calculated heal effectively worthless in form of a rough critical causing you loss of dust, nerves and a precious unit.



You can use it to as emergency patch-up in an easy fight if you know you can't get to a watchtower anytime soon and need to rely on the low basic regeneration while your units are running low on health on a long campaign deep in enemy territory.

It's also decent as a steady damage migitator. If you focus-cast it several times per fight, the heals adds up nicely.



As you see, the spells are fairly straightforward but give a good variety of effects. The strong points include the good diversity of options you gain with them and the initiative you have with casting. As your spell is cast at the beginning of the turn, you can control the flow of combat fairly well according to current need.

The downside is that generous usage of incantations takes a toll on your treasury. Overall they're worthwhile and with some consideration, can tip the scale in your favor.

Now, let’s take a bit deeper look on what does +5 or +6 actually mean in terms of effectiveness.

[HR][/HR]3. The undisputable law



First we need to go through the basics of the combat system so we gain an understanding about the magnitude of the bonuses.

The average base statistics of completely gearless level 1 unit would be roughly: 100hp / 25atk / 30def / 25ini / 30dmg

With the starter weapons, the stats increase to around: 100hp / 35atk / 35def / 25ini / 35dmg



These numbers are based on the average (with some generous rounding for the sake of clarity) stats of all the unit models in the game. These are coarse numbers, but they give an idea of the stat range we’re dealing with.

Now, every time a unit levels up, the base stats are increased by 20% of their plain level 1 value. All bonuses from gear, luxuries, empire plan, heroes and so forth are added afterwards, on top of this. This is why the base template is fairly important as it largely defines the scaling capability of your troops.

Then let's take a quick glance at actual values you’d realistically find in the game. Here's your basic full tier 1, 2 & 3 iron geared Telsem Warlock.

• Tier 1, unit level 1: 110hp / 51atk / 29def / 18ini / 52dmg
• Tier 2, unit level 2: 153hp / 69atk / 42def / 24ini / 69dmg
• Tier 3, unit level 3: 195hp / 86atk / 57def / 29ini / 86dmg
  
  

Let's throw a level 3 Warlock with tier 2 titanium/glassteel weapons and tier 3 iron armor in the mix as well since this is a fairly cost effective kit. A fresh recruit in the beginning of third era.

• Titanium tier 2, unit level 3: 195hp / 104atk / 57def / 29ini / 92dmg
• Glassteel tier 2, unit level 3: 195hp / 80atk / 57def / 53ini / 94dmg
  
  

As we compare the spells to the basic stats of the early game units, we’ll see that the arcana level 1 & 2 defense/attack spell bonuses hover around the range of 10-20% increase. It's not a spectacular boost, though not really horrid either. The intimidating stats on titanium/glassteel gear won't shift the numbers very much either, as the big numbers go mainly to damage and/or initiative which are unaffected by incantations.

The level of the unit plays a considerable role and by the time you reach high levels of 7+, your warlocks might well hover at 300-400 hp, 150+ atk & 70+ def depending on the rest of your setup, possible hero choice etc.



In actual combat, the effective value of any particular stat (attack & defense for the most part) is calculated in the following manner:[LIST=1]

Unit template has a base value on stats.

This value is adjusted by unit level.

After above, the current value is adjusted by gear flat values.

After above, the current value is adjusted by gear stat multipliers.

After above, the current value is adjusted by flat external bonuses (hero skills, incantations).

Finally the value is adjusted by external multipliers (active hero skills, morale, high ground etc.) additively.

[/LIST]We're interested in the penultimate part of the formula. This is where our alluring chants of agony and pain come into play. They’re added to the unit stats before the multipliers take effect. This means, of course, that they’re actually a fair bit more powerful than what the flat value on the tooltip tells us.



The basic combat multipliers are:

• High ground: +60% attack, +120% during winter (yeah).
• Morale: +15% attack & defense for each point.
• City: Equal to 3 points of morale (+45% atk & def).
• Forest: +30% defense.
  
  

You gain a single point of morale for each adjacent friendly unit. It’s represented by this icon:







Finally, there’s active hero skills, empire plan and so forth to add into the multiplier mix. Especially noteworthy is the starter hero of Ardent Mages, Zarcha Attinul, who has Increased Fire level 3. The tooltip is erroneous about the +30% attack. It’s actually +75%. That’s something you don’t just shrug off. You really don’t.

If Zarcha is leading your troops, crits fly left and right. And speaking of getting reliable criticals..





[HR][/HR]34. Harnessing the fire



Although not strictly tied to the use of incantations, it’s important to understand the special mechanic that’s inherent to all Ardent Mage units. This is, as you’ve probably already figured out by now, the Ardent Fire. What it does is increase the attack value based directly to the lost % of health. In simple terms, if you’ve lost 30% of your hp, your attack increases by 30%. The actual formula seems to be:

(2-CurrentHP/MaxHP) * (BaseAtkBeforeMultipliers), rounding up.



Ardent Fire is good. It’s not really special on its own but when added to the rest of the attack value modifiers, it gives a nice little extra attack to your units, giving you a definite edge against most foes in terms of potential stat boost.

The best bit is that it's calculated in the last part of the attack stat evaluation; level, gear, flat hero/spell boosts all increase the value before Ardent Fire adds to the mix. It's an additive multiplier like morale etc. You actually want to get hit (to an extent), much to the dismay of your rivals.



In order to understand the importance of attack stat, let’s take a look at this simple, yet very informative graph. The credit goes to Amplitude forum user Zayeban who I believe is the creator.







As can be seen, the higher the attack value is in comparison to defenders defense value, the more likely you’re able to actually get your attacks through. Even if you do massive amounts of damage, without good attack value, you’re in trouble. Most of the time, Ardent Mages don’t need to concern themselves with this issue for reasons mentioned above (and that their natural base attack is rather high).



Combined with the substantial base damage and low defense of their troops, what we’re looking at here are the iconic glass cannons, indeed.





[HR][/HR]5. The real deal



Alright. We have an overview of the incantations at our disposal and understand the combat system inside out. So when to actually cast which incantation?



The unsatisfactory answer would be “it depends”; it takes careful evaluation of each battle to weight the relative value of the different spells.

You need to consider what enemies you're facing, what kind of terrain you have at your disposal, how much your treasury has loose dust. Do you seek to annihilate all opposition or turtle down while waiting for reinforcements? As you see, there is no definite answer but nevertheless, here’s a few common practices to keep in mind:[LIST=1]

Use Defense on tight formation of Warlocks that stay on passive to retaliate.

Use Haste on tightly packed unit of Zealots.

Use Enervation on ranged units.

Use Enervation on any unit you know won’t be hit by your melee units.

Use Deluge to finish off low health opponents.

Use Deluge to support your Ateshi Zealot AoE carnage.

Use Deluge to hurt (also) your own troops to increase the potency of Ardent Fire (admittedly rarely the top choice).

Use Restoration to increase the health of your troops just above the critical level so they’ll be able to survive one extra hit.

Use Restoration to help your units recover during easy fight.

[/LIST]The name of the game is versatility and AoE. The power of the Mages is in that they can adapt to different combat situations fairly well and affect multiple units with their abilities. Counterattack of Warlocks, Fire Storm of Zealots and the AoE of incantations all have good synergy together.



If you face an iron wall of Broken Lord Stalwarts, clump up and pop an incantation of Haste. Alternatively you can stick together and drop Deluge in the middle of the biggest battle hurting both troops, effectively boosting Ardent Fire in the process.

A hungry mob of Necrodrones closing in? Deploy your troops to high ground and use Defense. Put your warlocks on passive and let the claw retaliation rend the mad devourers to pieces.

Facing a legion of Dekari Rangers? Open up with Enervation and stride right next to the helpless victims.



And so forth. For the most part the incantations will help you to change the tone of combat in a way you see fit, but remember that a (un)lucky crit can easily turn the tide of the battle, so don’t rely on them too much.

[HR][/HR]ower:6. Judgement day



The incantations are a fairly regulated tool in your arsenal. Given the restricted use (3x per fight), the nominal dust fee and moderate effect, they're not overwhelmingly powerful. Rather, they add some nice flavor to your game. On paper they all feel more or less decent but in reality, it’s the king of spells, the almighty incantation of Enervation, that you’ll rely on for the most part.



Enervation is a very solid choice compared to the rest because of the guaranteed, powerful effect it causes. Getting something like three Dekari Rangers or Ryders out of play for a round is a very strong bonus. Compared to the somewhat meager damage/health boost from Deluge and Restoration, or the moderate attack/defense bonus, it's simply superior in most cases.



Defense and Haste hold their ground fairly well due to the fact that their effect lasts for two rounds even at low arcana levels. In addition, as they're suspectible to the combat multipliers, the actual bonus can be twice as much, or even more. If you use them on a large cluster of your own troops, the total stat bonus awarded is pretty decent.

Deluge and Restoration on the other hand are easily shadowed by Enervation. The problem is that they don't scale. Enervation potentially mitigates huge amounts of damage compared to Restoration and Deluge is just overall fairly weak with the health reduction it has, albeit being a reliable spell in its effect.

In a melee-orientated fight you might be better off without Enervation, but rather than going for Deluge/Restoration, the Defense & Haste are usually the stronger choices.



Remember that flinging spells all over the battlefield is not free fun. The price is not crazy, and primarily causes concerns only in the early game when wealth is scarce and you’re tight pressed to buy multitude of things; pillars, market heroes, the odd building etc.

Still, it's something to consider when you're juggling on whether to use a spell at all or not. If your economy is in good shape, especially mid-game and onwards, it's usually nothing to sweat about.



All in all, given the high adaptability, AoE and unforgiving damage the Ardent Mages are a worthy opponent (or a powerful pick) indeed.





[HR][/HR]7. TL;DR



Spells are ok. They’re situational but give a lot of versatility. Don’t break your bank early game. If you’re rolling in dough, spam away. Use them to counter enemy strengths, tip list in chapter 5. Stun spell lv2 is best hands down.



And that, as they say, is that. You are now ready to traverse through Auriga and teach the ways to true ecstasy to the oblivious masses. Go, and do what you do well.

Another reason to use enervation: Stun units on the reinforcement flag to prevent enemy reinforcements (The reinforcement mechanic needs revised, high initiative units can pull this trick off too, by pinning a unit down on the flags).

Just a remark :



- The stun spell is totally overpowered : price is nearly zero for a normal economy, 3 times per round, entirely neutralise any grouped units. Combined with the zelote (best unit of the game especially with some initiative boosters), it makes the ardent mage (in MP) the strongest force of the galaxy.



The weak races have weak advantage compared to this (as the Clan/Drako/Necro).



- Stun is 10 X better than the others spell (crap spell, as regeneration or deluge, which seems buggued).

"Enervation is not the best pick since stunned units still retaliate".

Actually they don't

Such a good write-up, and such a lacking response! What a pity!



Cheers for taking the time to write all this. I didn't actually realize Ardent Mages HAD spells in combat until I read this, hah!