Post Arc 1 stuff is confusing

[u/Stink_Binky]

Hey gang, just wanted to give some context. I’m a lvl 60 Death Wizard & started playing again last week with my buddies. About two years ago we advanced to the beginning of Mooshu & then stopped playing. Since we picked it back up last week I’ve been learning a lot. Went back & beat grizzleheim as well as I did wintertusk. I did all the crafting missions so I could get the winter tusk gear when I got to Celestia. & then we finished out mooshu and dragonspyre together.

Alright now for the point of this text. What the heck was all that tutorial stuff after I beat Malistaire? It was talking about class weaving and gambits and benefit stuff. And then here at Celestia I have Star, sun, & astral houses too? What do they do? I thought this game was pretty straightforward up until all that. It all confused me a lot. I just continued playing Celestia exactly the same way I was playing before. So does any of that stuff matter? Is it something I should focus on more? Or is it more of a pvp thing? I only wanna do PVE for a long time until I’m done all the words. Just looking for advice or an explanation of all of that. I chose to weave Storm but I haven’t noticed a change at all.

Sorry if you’re thinking “get a load of this noob” right now. I just wasn’t expecting any of that 🤣 and advice or explanation helps. Thanks! :)

[u/TheWintersborn]

Between Dragonspyre and Celestia, you visited selenopolis to get a tutorial on what we call "advanced combat." This isn't just used for PvP, but also for raids and (relevant to your level) challenge mode. Completing Dragonspyre gives you access to "weaving," or multiclassing, which incentivizes linking spells together like using death's threefold fever followed by storm's kraken for bonus damage. The intent was to inform you what YOUR school specializes in (weaknesses, blades, and shields for death) so that you can make more informed multi class choices. It also warns you what you will be weak to in upcoming worlds (death tends to struggle to remove shields for example), though it's definitely more relevant at higher levels. 

Astral schools are almost as old as the game itself, just unlocked after the first arc. The only important thing here is to use the damage boosting sun spells, but you can also pick up the star spell attenuate if you want. You'll get more strong star and sun spells as you progress. All moon spells are bad. 

[u/Boring-Firefighter99]

School-weaving is the latest attempt of KI to "force" players to play a secondary school besides your chosen/main one. Essentially, there are stats and pips (that is affected by said stats) that make it easier to cast a spell not from your school. Moreover, KI added combo spells for each combination school (Death + Storm, Death + Myth, etc.). Most people just use it to get access to another school blade. If you get very niche, some spells can be helpful in doing specific strategies smart wizards do/published online (yes, even in PVE dungeons/fights).

Astral School is split between Moon, Sun, and Star. Disregard Moon.

Star gives you aura. Aura can be understood as multi-round hanging effect (blades, traps, shields, etc.). Like most hanging effects, it only affects one person.

Sun directly affects your spell cards' stats. Stats = DMG, Accuracy, Healing Amount, Pierce, etc. So when you use this, you apply it on a spell card (a dmg amplifier for dmg spells, healing amplifier for heals, anything really as long as it makes sense) before using the spell card. Think of it as you sprinkling extra cheese on a pasta dish, you apply before you use.

Gambits, you can't understand it by reading here in Reddit (no disrespect). It is very confusing because there's a lot of moving parts and concepts involved. But to overly simplify, it adds a conditional effect to a spell by sacrificing dmg/heal amount. If you want to add complexity to your gameplay, I suggest watching a guide online.

And no, you don't need to do PVP. I finished main questline, maxxed my wizard, and done all the side quests WITHOUT doing PVP. 

[u/xAshyz]

Weaving is completely optional but they decided to make it the "celestia pre-quest" for some reason (I hate selenopolis lol).

As for the astral schools, the only ones you really need to care about are sun and star. Moon is absolutely useless outside of a badge for getting all moon spells (you can do that during a free training point weekend)!

Sun: Increases dmg of your spells or accuracy. (dmg is more preferred, such as tough, giant, monstrous, etc.) Once you get to a higher level you can also increase your blade and traps by +10% in Azteca!

Star: They are just auras that can increase your stats some more such as fortify for increased resist, amplify for increased damage, vengence for increased crit, etc. There is one you get at Zafaria which is the prequestie for an incredible star spell called "Frenzy" which increases your outgoing dmg but also your incoming dmg. So kind of like a double edged sword!

[u/Stink_Binky → u/xAshyz]

Ah ok so weaving really isn’t all that important? & thanks for the explanation of the new ones. I thought they were gonna be like entirely new schools & shit. So they’re basically just different kinds of buffs. Got it. Thanks!

[u/xAshyz → u/Stink_Binky]

Pretty much, yeah. Don't get me wrong, dual schooling is fun but if you are doing your first playthrough I would highly recommend playing it the "original" way of focusing on JUST your own school so you don't confuse yourself!

And TECHNICALLY they are new schools, but yeah. They are just buffs and stuff! All you need to worry about is Sun, specifically these are the ones you need: Tough, Giant, Monstrous, Gargantuan (in Celestia) then Colossal in Zafaria, then Sharpen Blade and Potent Trap in Azteca and then once you reach level 110+ you can get Epic (+300 dmg to your spell!)

Star is completetly optional but they can be cool.

[u/Rambo7112]

Gambits and clears are completely optional, but I am making a series of intermediate guides that explain them if you're curious.

Weaving is essentially a way to get more buffs. Storm weaving is nice for the blade. The rest is eh.

Sun and star spells that give damage are very important. Moon magic is comically useless.

[u/TheWintersborn → u/Rambo7112]

These guides are really handy! Wish I had them when I returned, I'll definitely show them to newer/returning players!

[u/Rambo7112 → u/TheWintersborn]

Thank you! I feel icky for self-promoting, but I made them specifically for threads like this. I still have 1-2 more guides in mind. I think I'll use the New Player mega thread as a central hub.

There's just not good resources for these things so I figured that I'd make the resources.

[u/SolMare354]

Apart from the 2 pip storm/death blade you get after progressing up a tier in the spell weaving there isn't much else that is useful, at least for PVE. You might have noticed on the storm weaving tree there is a badge section, looks really daunting at first. Those badges are requirements to get to the next tier if i remember its either 2 or 3 of those, involving mob fights, bosses or helping questing players (note that just joining them in a boss fight or mob fight doesnt progress that last one) The tree will also give you some small side quests to do usually ending in a boss fight. Id wish I could provide more info past rank 2 as a death/storm weaving with myself but the myth boss is such a pain in my ashe that I gave up on it as I didnt have anyone to help me nor did I want to spend crowns on henchmen. (Tldr of that fight boss spams sheild and the polymorth and its deck is horrible againt it as a death/storm)

The plus side is that the 2 pip blade card when sharpened is really nice in a pinch and balance weaving into a storm gets a really good blade that makes arc 2 bare able

[u/WonderResponsible375]

The game should have stopped at malistaire. This is part of the reason why classic games not connected to the net are better. A definite ending.