Introduction[]
In this contribution to the AQ mechanics series, I’ll be going through Spells and Skills. According to Nivpil’s ShopDB, there are currently nearly 3300 different spell items in AQ alone, though please note that many of these are Call/Summon spells (we’ll discuss these in a future post). The most obvious difference between the two item items is that Spells cost MP to use, whilst Skills cost SP. However, as I briefly alluded to in the first post of this series, the differences run much deeper. Spells are a fundamental part of base player damage for Mages, who deal reduced damage with Magic Weapons to pay for MP/Spells. Meanwhile, Skills are included within the SP component of the Player Turn Formula, which is universal and available to all players regardless of build. However, Spells and Skills are similar in that they are both worth 200% Melee (i.e. 2* a standard Melee attack).
It’s important to mention that, although Spells/Skills are traditionally worth 200% Melee, you do not pay 200% Melee in MP/SP to use them. Each turn, Warriors/Rangers get 100% Melee and Mages get 75% Melee for free. Instead, the SP/MP you pay brings this base value up to 200% Melee. Standard Spells cost 125% Melee in MP and, depending on your build, standard skills costs 100/125% Melee in SP.
As with Weapons, Spells/Skills can deal Melee/Ranged/Magic damage. We’ll go through the main characteristics of these items:
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General Spell/Skill Characteristics[]
Element[]
As with Weapons, each Spell/Skill is aligned to an Element. These are typically one of the 8 standard elements (Fire, Water, Wind, Ice, Earth, Energy, Light, Darkness). However, they can attack for multiple elements (e.g., Ultraviolet Light), all elements (e.g., Eye of Chaos) or a non-standard element (e.g., Archmage Research). As with Weapons, these elements have implications for the amount of damage the spell deals. Non-standard elements receive a *0.9 damage penalty and spells that deal all 8 elements receive the *132/109 compensatory multiplier. More specific multipliers are provided depending on the elements in the attack.
The Healing “element” is far more common on Spells/Skills than Weapons. Given the higher % Melee value of the attack, Healing-element Spells/Skills are usually the most effective ways to heal outside of Potions.
Base + Random[]
Base and Random, like in Weapons, defines how much damage a spell deals (I’ve already explained how it works in this post). Spells/Skills similarly have a Base Lean that defines the ratio of Base to Random Damage on the Spell. This is however much more subtle; this lean isn’t clear on most Encyclopedia entries or even in-game. It’s easiest to see on the damage range of the attack within the entry itself.
Accuracy[]
Spells also contribute to accuracy and have Accuracy Leans. As with all attacks, they can become more or less accurate and modify their damage to compensate. The standard rule with these items with providing + [x] to your BTH but deal *85/(85 + [x]) to compensate. These boundaries are typically -10 and +10 for Spells/Skills.
Certain Spells (e.g., Sizzler ‘Splosion) can automatically hit and should deal *0.85 damage to compensate (to bring the 85% assumed accuracy rate to 100%). Sizzler ‘Splosion is an exception because it was designed when item standards were different, making it now underpowered since it deals -30% damage.
Efficiency[]
At level 150, standard spells cost 653 MP and deal 200% Melee in damage. However, you can also find efficient and overcharged spells.
- Efficient Spells deal reduced damage and cost less MP. To be precise, they cost 50% Melee in MP (261 MP) and deal 125% Melee in damage
- Overcharged Spells deal more damage than normal and cost more too. When used, the player pays 175% Melee in MP (915 MP) and you deal 250% Melee in damage
Just like any other spell, efficient and overcharged spells can sacrifice some of this power for other effects (instead of more damage directly, an overcharged spell might over a more potent status). Please note that this is a relatively recent development - the older standard was that efficient spells deal 150% Melee and cost 60% Melee in MP (392 MP). Meanwhile, overcharged spells used to deal 242% Melee and cost 166.7% Melee in MP (871 MP).
Other characteristics[]
Like all items, Spells/Skills can also have Free/Flavour Effects and Mastercrafts. As discussed in this post, the Mastercrafts on Spells/Skills are worth 200 * 1.05 - 200 = 10% Melee. As always, Free/Flavour effects must balance to net 0.
Unique Characteristics[]
Weapon-Type vs Spell-Type[]
In the modern game, there are two main types of skills. The first, Spell-type skills (a.k.a. Spell-Based Skills or SPells), are skills that are tagged as spells. This means they receive bonuses from any effect that applies to spells e.g., the Arcane Cutlass of Combustion boosts Fire Spell damage by 30%, meaning it also boosts fire SPell damage by the same amount. Weapon-type skills (a.k.a. Weapon-based skills) act like regular weapon attacks. This means they receive boosts from effects that apply to normal attacks and they also take weapon effects into account If you use a weapon-type skill with Infinita Staff, it will deal reduced damage and you’ll heal MP/SP depending on the mode.
It can sometimes be hard to tell whether a skill is Weapon-type or Spell-type. Some ways to tell are trying to Imbue the attack (see below) or checking the SP cost of a skill attached to an armour or shield. These skills often receive elemental compensation (which I’ll cover in a later post), which Weapon-type skills often use to reduce the initial SP cost. If you see a skill on an armour with a low SP cost, it’s likely (but not certain) to be Weapon-type.
Quickcast[]
An interesting feature of certain Spells/Skills is that they don’t consume your turn to use. As a result, these attacks deal reduced damage to remove the turn damage you would normally receive as part of the attack (so Quickcast Spells deal *1.25/2 damage since they don’t account for the 75% melee Mages get each turn for free). These attacks are also often limited to 1-2 casts per turn (or even once per battle in the case of Spectral Chains). Another interesting characteristic is these attacks shouldn’t be able to critical hit (otherwise they’d be able to get more critical hit damage per turn than is accounted for).
Imbues[]
Imbues are a special type of Skill that, instead of producing their own attack, they alter the properties of an existing attack. These alterations often include changing the element of another attack, or adding a status effect. An example of this is Terror Fist, which changes the element of your next attack to Darkness and inflicts a potent Fear effect based on the damage dealt. An important detail to note with Imbues is that they don’t apply to attacks that are tagged as Spells. This means they do not affect any Spells or Spell-type skills. You can use this to determine whether a skill is a Spell or Weapon attack since only the latter can be imbued.
Status Skills[]
Another interesting characteristic of Spells/Skills is that you can sacrifice up to all the damage in an attack to instead attempt to apply status effects. This allows the player to apply extremely potent status effects, since you sacrifice so much damage to bolster them. A good example of this is the Force Slow skill in the Dark Invader Armour. This skill does no damage and costs 110% Melee in SP. In exchange applies a potent range of statuses that include Blindness, Choke, Defence Loss, Elemental Vulnerability, and Status Weakness to the enemy. All these effects can be applied at the same time because of the sacrifice.
Which spell/skills do I choose?[]
The Equipment Guide section of the Wiki provides a good starting point to find some of the more commonly-used Spells/Skills available to the player. There are few right or wrong answers when it comes to selecting which Spells/Skills to use, but here are a few tips to help narrow down your options:
- Almost all MP-Costing spells scale their Damage and BTH based on the INT stat. That means, even if you have just enough MP to cast a spell, it isn’t usually a good idea. Check the Skills/Spells you have to see what stats they scale on.
- For Spellcasting Mages, try to ensure all 8 standard elements are covered. Spells are a part of your standard Player damage (i.e. you only equal Warriors/Rangers when you use both a spell and a regular Magic Weapon), so it’s important you have the right coverage.
- Spells and Spell-type skills are independent of armour lean (outside of Spellcaster lean armours). That means you’re automatically at a disadvantage if you rely on them in Fully Offensive armours.
- Offensive players tend to prefer pure damage Skills/Spells since statuses are also unaffected by armour lean (outside of elemental compensation). This especially applies to “Damage over time” (DOT) statuses
- Spells and Skills offer more utility than weapon attacks due to their higher % Melee value. If you’re looking for special effects, these are the items to find them in.
- As always, choose items you’ll enjoy using, even if it isn’t the most optimal!
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