July 5, 2018 March 21, 2019
Underrated and Situational Spells for PvP
There are many spells we almost never see in PvP. There’s good reason for that, since some spells are simply worse than others. However, this doesn’t mean that they’re completely useless. Unlike spells that are useful regardless of school and level (tower shield for example), the spells that will be highlighted in this article have a specific, limited role in PvP. They might not be useful at certain levels and might not fit with all playstyles. They’re situational spells – harder to use, but offering big rewards if used correctly.
Balance
Hydra/Chimera
It kinda makes sense that we don’t see a lot of these spells in the Arena since the Balance school has many good tools to work with. But a lot of good tools leads to people putting balance wards on their pets at all level ranges. Non-Balance damage spells help you get around them. While these two spells are not as good as other multi-hit spells, you can still catch opponents off guard and quickly go around their Tower Shield.
Donate Power
This spell falls more into team PvP than 1v1. If you play as support you might find yourself having a lot of spare pips. It’s true that trading 3 for 2 doesn’t sound like a great deal, but how will all these leftover pips help you in the end, when the match is over?
Power Play
Global spells always boost your and your opponent’s stats, which generally isn’t a big problem (except when you play vs your own school). Power Play stands out as a bubble that no one loves. Still, this bubble can prove useful at low and mid levels, since even minions get affected by it. Keeping yours up and your opponent’s down can be beneficial when using this bubble.
Steel Giant
Steel Giant is the only Balance school DoT spell and it’s an AOE too. It’s pretty weak as a standalone spell, but since it’s a backloaded AOE DoT spell, it makes for a great minion killer – even from second.
Death
Beguile
Although this spell is deadly in team matches (especially when you start first), it has its uses in 1v1 as well. Exalted+ (but not limited to) matches to be more specific. Although the opponent most likely won’t help you directly, you can still use this spell to buy yourself more time and stall the opponent out of Shrike.
Lord of Night
Unlike Beguile, Lord of Night has more uses at low and mid levels. Due to the damage per pip being the same as Vampire and Wraith, it’s a nice choice to get some health back. The 25% trap infection often doesn’t do anything, but at low levels there is almost no healing boost and power pips aren’t as stable. As such, healing can be harder sometimes and the 25% might prove useful. This spell is a good choice even at mid levels – a good way to drain some health when your pips fail, and to stack a 25% with 50% infection.
Sacrifice Minion (Steal Health)
These spells are often neglected and while all can be stated down, Steal Health is probably the most interesting out of them. That’s because the spell isn’t treated as a healing spell, but as a drain. This means you can enchant it, use blades with it (or remove weaknesses) and most importantly – it is unaffected by Doom and Gloom or Infection.
Empower
This spell is quite popular among jades (especially Jade Juju’s), but it has some uses among other schools and strategies. It’s a nice way to quickly build up some pips out of nothing. This is especially useful at max levels where even 4 or 5 pips can deal deadly damage. Another use of the spell is getting rid of those pesky Efreet weaknesses(or any weakness). You can read more about empower here.
Dark Pact
Another self hit spell, which is a good way to get rid of weaknesses or put a blade on yourself. It can also simply be used to add another stackable blade. Ironically unpopular among death wizards, since it eats their blades, the TC form is nevertheless a decent spell for any other school.
Midnight Sprite
This spell actually requires trained the spell Sprite and getting the mutation from Celestia. The end result is a one pip death spell, which leaves a 20% universal trap. It’s the perfect spell for any non-Death (or Death if you don’t have any blades on) if you want to break a tower shield, get rid of weakness and leave some extra buff on your opponent.
Death Bat
Death Bat is similar to Midnight Sprite. It’s a one pip spell, just that instead of leaving a universal trap it leaves an overtime on the opponent. It’s a cheap off-school attack that can be a great opportunity for a much stronger attacking combination.
Fire
Detonate
For a long time I was sure that this spell was useless. That’s until i saw a video of someone actually applying this in team PvP. The premise is simple. Fire serves as a support school here – not a full support, but just enough to have 4 pips ready to detonate a partner’s heavy DoT. Using it the same round as your partner casts Bone Dragon, Basilisk and Heckhound has the potential to instantly kill one of your opponents.
Ice
Angry Snowpigs
There’s nothing wrong with Ice getting another super useless Lore Spell. They’re doing pretty well already, but Angry Snowpigs has some niches where it can be used. It’s more of a utility spell, a good way to get rid of two towers at the same time or a good way to punish a fire wizard using thermic shield.
Life
Goat Monk
There’s only one situation (except using it for the sake of using it) where I can see this spell being useful. It’s to finish off your opponent when you don’t have enough pips for Centaur.
Brulee Sucre
Now, this spell is actually really useful. I assume that it’s not often seen simply due to its only source being the Immortal Lore pack. The heal over time gives you the same amount as 4 pip satyr and the damage over time does the same amount as a gargantuan enchanted 3 pip Nature’s Wrath. A pretty good deal for a 6 pip spell that goes around shields!
Wings of fate
Another spell on the list that’s useful in team PvP with having situational use in 1v1. Minions aren’t as popular on max levels as they are at low and mid ones, but you can still see them from time to time. 4 and 5 pip shadow spells, combined with Leprachaun to kill the minion are generally a better option, but sometimes situation may arise when you can’t afford 2 turns. Or you’re about to finish off the opponent and you can sacrifice a shadow pip to find a way around the shield.
Myth
Keeper of the flame
Myth has a pretty low amount of single hitting spells, so giving them one that leaves a single trap doesn’t make much sense. But it’s still a nice finishing spell when Cyclops is too weak and you don’t have enough pips for Ninja Pigs. It can also be a pretty deadly combination with Basilisk at mid levels, where the health of our wizards isn’t too high yet.
Storm
Catalan
While the accuracy debuff on this spell is pathetic, it has some uses. Accuracy isn’t too high at low levels, which can discourage opponents from attacking you for the round. Fir mid-level Jades as well, accuracy isn’t too high, so you can take a chance to combo after they manage to put Stun blocks on. Similar to Goat Monk and Keeper of the Flame, Catalan can also serve as a finisher when you fail pip for Triton. Stormzilla works too, but Catalan gives you fixed damage, meaning that it’s easier to know your actual damage output.
Storm Elemental
Storm Elemental is actually a pretty decent minion, since it has a lot of health, defensive mechanisms and can use Disarm or a natural attack. Still, Storm has a pretty quick tempo and it’s often not worth summoning him. There are times when you face tougher, more defensive opponents when it becomes useful. If you get an opponent that you can not squash in 5 minutes, you’ll need more tools to help you. That’s where this minion can prove useful.
Krokopatra (Attack 405)
There are a few different versions of Krokopatra TCs, but the lowest damage one is definitely the most interesting one. Besides the damage dealt, this card also removes one blade as well as one shield from your opponent. 5 pips seems a bit much, but this hit has to be treated more like a utility – you get rid of two Tower Shields and one blade – all in one turn. Granted, Storm Elf is more effective when it comes to shield removal, but those aren’t always available.
Rain Beetle (Mutated)
Everyone know the Rain Beetle pet card. But there is another version of Rain Beetle in the form of a treasure card. This spell requires the trainable Frost Beetle spell and the Mutate Beetle (storm) TC. The card is dropped from certain mobs around the Spiral, but the easiest way to get it is probably visiting Elik in Old Town. The spell will mutate your beetle from Ice to Storm, reduce the pip cost to zero and keep 80% accuracy. It’s a great way to remove shields while you keep building pips. You can basically treat this spell as a wand TC with accuracy reduction. You can read more about Rain Beetle here.
Astral
Empowerment
Overall players use one out of 2 auras in Arena: Fortify for defense and Infallible for offense. Empowerment isn’t used too much, but there are some interesting ways you can use it. It’s especially useful when you can directly control whether you’ll get an extra pip or not. Heals that are equal or stronger than 4 pips will give you one back. But that’s not all. Using spells such as Athena Battle Sight or Savage Paw will give you an extra pip as well, since the after-effects are put on your wizard.
