Magicka PvP Guide
Player versus player (PvP) combat in Magicka is very complex. The steep learning curve that new players confront often leads to discouragement. The purpose of this guide is to provide an overview of the spells that I personally find most effective in PvP, and that are most commonly used in Versus matches.
Copying the spells and techniques of more advanced players tends to be very useful. However, discovering those spells and techniques for yourself will lead to a greater understanding of how best to apply your knowledge. Experimentation is a vital step in learning how to play, and the combinations in this guide are just a few examples of how you can create mayhem in Magicka. If you are the kind of person that likes to work things out for themselves, then this guide is not for you. As is often the case, the quickest way to learn is not necessarily the most effective.
This guide assumes a standard keyboard/mouse setup and key layout. I will suggest an order in which to type the elements of each spell, but these combinations can often be written many other ways. Work out the order that is most intuitive for you. Most newer keyboards can register multiple key presses at once, so more than one element can be typed at one time. When casting a combination such as the shield “rase” it may be most effective for you to simultaneously strike all four keys required for this spell.
I will also provide an indication of the most commonly used method to cast each combination of elements. All combinations can be cast with all four casting methods, but the effect will vary greatly with the method used.
It seems logical to examine first how to recover health, then how to retain it, and finally how to remove it. Healing, shielding and dealing damage will be discussed in that order.
Healing
Virtually any combination of elements that includes life (w) will have a healing effect. Of course, some combinations are more effective than others. In both PvP and PvE I use one of three healing spells. NOTE: Vesuvius suggests that the only healing spell he would recommend is qrew - and this probably will be the best choice in every situation.
Ice + Shield + Life = qrew
Cast with: AoE (shift-right click), Standard Cast (right click)
This combination creates an ice wall that quickly explodes, healing those near it very efficiently. The ice wall also provides the wizard with some protection while healing. When used as an AoE this will heal almost any model quickly and safely. It is particularly important to use the AoE version of this spell if you have a robe with unusually high HP (such as the zombie robe) or a robe with resistance to life (such as the epic robe). After casting this spell running towards the healing ice wall will result in a slight increase in the amount healed, as you gain what healing the wall provides before it explodes.
Life + Shield = we
Cast with: Standard Cast (right click)
Healing mines are another useful method of healing a lot of HP quickly. Mines must be set off by something touching the mine. The simplest option is to activate the mines by walking over them. If a new set of mines are cast on top of a set of mines that have already been placed, both are activated at once. For this spell, casting “we” then following it with another “we” will heal for far more than a single set of mines. Also experiment with activating mines using walls (to be covered later) such as edddd.
Life + Earth = wd
Cast with: Standard Cast (right click/hold), Self-Cast (middle mouse)
This is an improvement on using a simple life element, and can be treated in a similar manner. A self cast will heal 1.5 times than of a life element on its own, and will also have a slight area effect. The more life elements included in the spell, the greater the range of the AoE. The use of this spell as a projectile to heal teammates can be observed in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEN70luAoj8) at 2’13’’. This video, and all the other videos used throughout this guide, feature effective use of the three methods of healing discussed above.
Shielding
There are effectively three kinds of shields in Magicka - element shields (or “resistance auras”), physical shields and the standard shield (a single shield element).
Element Shields
Element shields protect the wizard from the elements that are included in the shield. A single element resistance aura would be Arcane + Shield. This combination would protect its wearer from arcane damage. An element shield is any shield that does not include earth or ice. I primarily use just two element shields in PvP.
Steam + Arcane + Lightning + Fire + Shield = qfsafe
Cast with: Self-Cast (middle mouse)
As stated above, element shields tend to do exactly what the element combination would suggest. This shield will make the wizard immune to steam, arcane, lightning and fire damage. If you cast a shield that includes fire when you are on fire, it will put you out. The same applies to a cold shield. In PvP matches you typically should try and use shields to cancel the status effects of cold and fire. This shield, qfsafe, is one of two shields I use to put myself out when I am on fire.
Cold + Lightning + Arcane + Shield = rase
Cast with: Self-Cast (middle mouse)
This shield guards you against cold, lightning and arcane. This spell can be used to remove the status effect cold. In addition to this, the cold element in this shield will protect against ice balls (see Projectiles).
Physical Shields
As soon as a shield has earth or ice in it, it is a physical shield. Its physical strength is then determined by the number of earth or ice elements it has in it. Earth elements provide more strength than ice. However, the stronger (or heavier) the physical shield, the slower your character moves. Steam, arcane, lightning, earth and ice will damage physical shields (cold also damages shields, but the damage is negligible). Fire and cold will ignore a physical shield (that does not include fire/cold) and affect the wizard. To clarify, including any elements in a physical shield other than earth, ice, fire, cold and water will have no effect whatsoever, other than reducing the possible strength of the shield. For reasons unknown to me, steam, arcane, lightning and cold will damage a self shield with four earth elements just as much as it will damage a shield with one earth element (i.e. “ed”). It will therefore often be more effective to use a more easily spammable shield such as "edf" than a complex shield such as "edfdd". There are four physical shields I use in PvP.
Shield + Earth + Earth + Earth + Earth = edddd
Cast with: Self-Cast (middle mouse), Standard Cast (right click), Sword Enchant (shift-left click)
Four earth elements make this shield more resistant to physical damage (earth and ice) than any other shield. Unfortunately this shield is often impractical in PvP as the speed reduction makes it very easy for an opponent to hit you. This shield is also often used defensively, enchanted on a sword and sent towards your opponent, or placed as a wall with right click.
Shield + Earth + Fire (+ Earth, + Earth) = edf (+d, +d)
Cast with: Self-Cast
Even the five element version of this spell (edfdd) is more vulnerable to physical damage than a pure earth shield (edddd). It does, however, provide the same resistance to steam and arcane no matter how many earth elements are in the spell. This shield has the major advantage that it will prevent the user from being set on fire. This shield, alongside qfsafe, is what you should use to put yourself out when you are on fire.
Shield + Earth + Cold (+ Earth, + Earth) = edr (+d, +d)
Cast as: Self-Cast
This shield works similarly to the one above, except this will both protect against and cancel the effect of cold. In addition to this the inclusion of cold in this shield will defend against ice balls (see Projectiles).
Ice + Ice + Ice + Earth + Shield = qrqrqrde
Cast as: Self-Cast
This shield will also be discussed later in relation to cannonballing and other ice shield damaging techniques. Suffice to say, get quick at using this shield, but you probably won’t be using it for defence!
Standard Shield
This shield is naturally the easiest shield to cast, as all it requires is a single shield element - "e".
It is not, however, the easiest shield to understand how to use. I will examine its use both as a self-cast shield and in the other three forms of casting.
Self-Cast ("e" middle mouse)
As Magickapedia states (almost), a self cast standard shield creates a protective shield around your wizard. It reduces the amount of force needed to lift the wizard off the ground. It will prevent you from becoming wet, cold, frozen, poisoned or being ignited on fire. Personal shields decay over time but can be boosted using the spacebar. Self cast shield elements prevent the wizard from being healed both by himself and by others. Having a self shield up also causes the player to be knocked back and interrupted when he takes any melee or ranged damage.
All single element "e" shields will reflect beams, and a self cast shield will reflect the beam directly back at its caster, causing damage of the type used in the beam. A self cast e shield is therefore a very good choice if an opponent is using beams (which in itself is rare in 1v1 games). A standard shield will absorb 500 damage, which is a relatively insignificant amount. However, when a shield is struck by an attack that deals more than 500 damage, the additional damage does not reduce the wizards health. If an attack (such as a five earth element projectile, which would normally deal just under 5000 damage) strikes the shield, the shield will be destroyed, but the player will only be knocked down, not harmed. Use a self cast e shield to protect against large, once off, doses of physical damage. As a general rule, this means that self cast standard shields are very useful when protecting against a projectile spell that your opponent has been charging for more than a second or two, particularly if you cannot see what elements were in the spell. Chances are, that spell will be very damaging to most shields other than a standard shield. If it is an earth projectile, with five earth elements, this shield will be the only self shield that can protect you. It is important to note that a spell that has more than one phase of damage (for want of a better word) such as "rqeras" will immediately bypass an "e" self shield, as the first damaging component will destroy the shield, and the second will kill the wizard.
Area Cast, Standard Cast, and Weapon Imbue
A standard, AoE, or weapon imbue cast of the "e" element will be very effective for reflecting beams, stopping projectiles, and generally creating a very brief moment to breathe (or heal!) in PvP. A mistake that many newer players make is boosting shields. The additional defence gained by boosting a shield is not worth the time that it takes to boost that shield. This is because some attacks (such as the ice sword, qrqrqrqrqr) will ignore shields entirely. In addition to this, all weapon imbue attacks and wall attacks that are cast by an opponent that is next to your shield will bypass a standard shield. Instead of boosting your shield, run a little further backwards, turn around and cast another "e" shield. This helps maintain the distance between yourself and your opponent that you are trying to create. Another option when placing standard cast shields is to cast one e shield, walk forward a single left click, place another e shield in the same direction, walk another step forward and place another shield (then perhaps finish off your cocoon by turning backwards, placing another shield and finally using an AoE shield). This will allow you to create multiple layers of protection. Another useful side effect of this technique is that it creates an area wtihin the shields that is so bright that it obscures what elements you are casting, so your opponent wont know what to defend against.
The easiest way to bypass an opponents shield, if you cannot get close enough to cast through the shield, or they have multiple layers of shields placed, is to enchant a shield element onto your sword and send it towards your opponents shield. Any shield that touches a pre-existing shield will remove the shield that was already there. Similarly, casting a standard self shield on yourself will allow you to walk through an "e" shield, removing both the pre-existing shield, and your self shield.
You will realise quickly that what initially seems the easiest shield to use is by no means as straightforward as it seems.
EDIT: Apologies for not finishing the guide, but don't fret, That Happy Cat has written a great guide here... http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2563266
I should hopefully get the second (damage dealing) and third (model specific strategies) parts of this guide up reasonably soon. Hope somebody finds this useful, and please let me know what's not clear, and any suggestions or additions you have!
Thanks,
Siroso.
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