November 9, 2018 March 28, 2023
Empyrea Part 2:
Updated Scion Spells
While we’ve already wrote a review on Scion spells, their functionality has changed rather significantly since they were first introduced. Kingsisle has clearly read feedback across different platforms regarding these spells. Based on that, they have altered the spells in ways that have left some spells better off and some even worse. In this article, I’m taking a look back at the old scion spells and comparing them to their current counterparts.
The Scion spells have been rebalanced in two very distinct ways: pip cost and double damage requirements. The first change affected every single school, as the decrease from 12 to 11 pips resulted in nerfs damage output-wise. (This change by itself was good, as many of us were left wondering why the developers even skipped 11-pip spells in the first place!) The second change only affected some of the spells; Life and Balance kept their original conditions, whereas all the others were altered slightly, since they were either too easy or too hard to obtain.
Since this article, the Scion spells have been updated again.
Scion of Fire
Changes:
- Damage reduction: 1300 → 1200
- Condition change: Target has two over times → Target has 6 traps on itself
The Fire school received a pretty nice buff when it comes to fulfilling the condition for double damage. They can easily lay 6+ traps on opponent just with regular attacks (Fire From Above) and shield breaking spells (Fire Beetle).
Scion of Ice
Changes:
- Damage reduction: 1185 → 1100
- Condition change: Max health → 90%+ health
The Ice school was the one that needed the change the most; after all, keeping your health maxed is almost impossible these days. Keeping your health above 90% is still hard to maintain, but it’s a step toward the direction of how Ice should play – defensively.
Scion of Storm
Changes:
- Damage reduction: 1380 → 1275
- Condition change: Target has at least 75% of health → Target has no charms
It’s hard to determine whether Storm’s condition received a buff or a nerf. Killing bosses in PvE will definitely become trickier, while the new condition might prove to be better for PvP. Namely, for the stage when the opponent is already below 75% of their health.
Scion of Myth
Changes:
- Damage reduction: 1260 → 1150
- Condition change: Target is stunned or caster has 2+ stun blocks → Target is stunned or caster has 3+ stun blocks
Myth was already the best school in terms of fulfilling conditions for double damage. The change to 3 stun blocks is a nice move, since (PvP wise) most of people already place a pair of stun blocks on themselves before obtaining enough pips to unleash the attack.
Scion of Life
Changes:
- Healing reduction: 1315 → 1200+600 to all friends → 1100+300 to all friends
While Scion of Life didn’t receive a single change in its condition, its healing value was changed twice. The initial effect was really underwhelming, as there were many alternatives which could do the same job for a smaller amount of pips. The Life spell got changed with a unique mechanic (a powerful single heal + an AoE heal), which can be useful for some of the toughest bosses.
Scion of Death
Changes:
- Damage reduction: 1040 → 975
- Condition change: Target has 33% or less health → Either target or caster has 33% or less health
Scion of Death was another Scion spell that really needed a change in the double damage requirement. The implemented change synergizes really well with draining; it can easily return a nice chunk of health to you while significantly weakening the opponent if you don’t run into any shields.
Scion of Balance
Changes:
- Damage reduction: 1225 → 1125
It looks like the Balance spell is the most balanced out of all 7… pun intended. The spell itself didn’t receive many complaints and we didn’t see any change apart from the obligatory damage drop because of the lower pip cost.
Comparison of The Changes
We’ve discussed condition changes in previous paragraphs, so it’s only fair to touch damage changes as well. We’re going to compare flat damage decrease, then we’ll follow by checking what difference did this make regarding damage/pip and at the end compare damage decrease in percents.
| Original_Value | New_Value | Change | Original/pip | New/pip | Change/pip | Decrease | |
| Fire | 1300 | 1200 | -100 | 108,3 | 109,1 | +0,8 | 7,7% |
| Ice | 1185 | 1100 | -85 | 98,8 | 100 | +1,2 | 7,2% |
| Storm | 1380 | 1275 | -105 | 115 | 115,9 | +0,9 | 7,6% |
| Myth | 1260 | 1150 | -110 | 105 | 104,5 | -0,5 | 8,7% |
| Life | 1200+600 | 1100+300 | -100 | 100+50 | 100+27 | 0 | 8,3% |
| Death | 1040 | 975 | -65 | 86,6 | 88,6 | +2 | 6,3% |
| Balance | 1225 | 1125 | -100 | 102,1 | 102,3 | +0,2 | 8,2% |
* Decrease and values/pip are rounded to 1 decimal number.
** For easier comparison, the original value for life spell is healing after first spell update.
*** Decrease for life spell is calculated without healing over time effect.
**** Life spell got healing reduction, but it’s refered as damage for the sake of simplicity
The Life spell is quite special in this case, because it follows with an AoE heal. While we’ve added new and old values of complete spell, we’re going to compare only the initial healing. It would be hard to get a solid conclusion, since the total value of the AoE heal depends on the amount of teammates.
Flat damage difference
We can split the Scion spells into three groups based on their decreases in flat damage. Fire, Storm, Life and Balance received the short end of the stick. Storm in particular got it slightly worse than the rest. Then we have Ice and Myth in mid range, both of which received a smaller nerf than the previously mentioned schools. On the top is the Death school, which received by far the lowest flat damage decrease.
Damage per pip difference
Things start twisting around when we start comparing damage per pip. While death has by far the highest damage per pip increase, it also has by far the lowest flat damage per pip (due to it being a drain). Following Death, we have all three elemental schools with an increase of around 1 damage per pip. Life and Balance remained approximately the same, while Myth school now deals less damage per pip than it did before.
Decrease in percentages
The damage decrease in percentages shows us a similar story as the damage per pip difference. Death has the lowest decrease percentage, followed by all three elemental schools. Surprisingly, Myth is really close to Life and Balance in this perspective.
Final words
Overall, the spells are looking pretty good now. There is one big dilemma here, which can be applied to every single spell. Since they are pretty pip-costly, should we really aim for this double damage? Should we aim for something that can be little risky and can quickly backfire? I’m wondering how many players will actually decide to go ahead and use the updated Scion spells in an actual fight – whether it’s PvE or PvP.
