Spell Mechanics

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# Overview

This page is to provide information on spell mechanics and interactions between them. It contains a break down of the various status effects and secondary mechanics of the different elemental spell types. It also gives info on how Dark spells work and brief overview Legendary spells.

# Elemental Spells

Elements with Status Effect

* Fire - Burn
* Ice - Freeze
* Toxic - Poison
* Water - Soak

Elements with Secondary Mechanics

* Lightning - Arching
* Wind - Knockback
* No Element - None

## Fire

### Status Effect: Burn

Fire spells have the status effect burn.

* Burn applies a damage over time to the effected enemies.
* Burn base damage is 20 per tick and 1 tick per second. (i.e. 20dmg/sec)
* The burn effect can transferred to other enemies and heroes through contact.
	+ If your hero attacks a burning enemy they will be inflicted with burn as well.

### Fire Spell Interactions

These interaction occur when a fire spell hits a unit currently afflicted with a status effect.

* fire on burn:
	+ The burn duration stacks. The new duration equals the sum of the two spells.
* fire on freeze:
	+ The spell does double damage.
	+ The unit is thawed from the freeze but is now soaked.
	+ The unit does not get afflicted with burn.
* fire on poison:
	+ The burn causes any remaining poison damage to be dealt instantly, and burns the target.
* fire on soak:
	+ The soak status is removed and a cloud of steam is created. All enemies walking through steam are dramatically slowed.
		- Steam still effects enemies regardless of their elemental immunities(?)
	+ The burn status is still applied.

### Other Notes

* Burn's damage is affected by items that increase spell damage.
* Fire will also transfer to and affect pools of poison on the ground, creating a fire pool.

## Ice

### Status Effect: Freeze

Ice spell have the status effect Freeze.

* Frozen enemies are locked in place for the duration of the effect.
	+ Effect timer is displayed as light blue bar next to stamina count.
* Combos on Frozen enemies will do full damage as if they were stunned and remove the frozen status
	+ Backstabs also remove the status as well. So be careful how you rearrange your heroes to not waste the effect.

### Ice Spell Interactions

These interactions occur when an ice spell hits a unit currently afflicted with a status effect.

* ice on burn:
	+ The spell does double damage.
	+ The burn is removed and the enemy is frozen like normal.
* ice on freeze:
	+ Refreshes the duration limit and extends it greatly.
	+ The new duration is the sum of the 2 spells durations multiplied by 3.
		- Needs further testing but, using a 5s and a 7s freeze seems to create a ~36s freeze.
* ice on poison:
	+ No interaction, but the freeze effect is applies alongside the poison.
* ice on soak:
	+ The duration of the freeze is greatly increased.
	+ To an absurd degree, the 5s freeze spell's duration went up to about an 60s!

## Toxic

### Status Effect: Poison

Toxic spells have the status effect poison. The poison status is indicated by the unit pulsing with a bright green glow.

* Poison applies a damage over time to the effected enemies.
* Poison base damage is 10 per tick at 1 tick per 2 seconds. i.e. 10dmg/2sec
* The poison effect can transferred to other enemies and heroes through contact.
	+ If you hero attacks a poisoned enemy they will be inflicted with the status as well.

### Toxic Spell Interactions

These interaction occur when a toxic spell hits a unit currently afflicted with a status effect.

* toxic x burn:
	+ The unit will NOT be poisoned.
* toxic x freeze:
	+ The poison effect will not expire until the unit is no longer frozen.
* toxic x poison:
	+ ??
* toxic x soak:
	+ The unit will NOT be poisoned.

### Other Notes

* Poison damage is effected by "spell damage up" items.
* The poison buff spell slot will make the poison tick once per second instead of every 2 seconds.
* Poison will also transfer to and affect pools of water on the ground, creating a poison pool.

## Water

### Status Effect: Soaked

Water spells have the soaked status effect. The soaked status is indicated by the unit turning a dark blue and dripping drops of water.

* Soak is unique in that it has no direct effect on a unit but will last until another interaction removes it.
* In addition to water spells, puddles of water also apply the soak effect.
* Soak's utility is in its ability to combo strongly with the other elements and provide permanent way to hit ghost type enemies.

### Water Spell Interactions

These interactions occur when a water spell hits a unit currently afflicted with a status effect.

* water on burn:
	+ The burn is removed and a cloud of steam is created.
		- Steam slows all enemies walking through it regardless of immunities.(?)
* water on freeze:
	+ It refreshed the duration of the freeze.
* water on poison:
	+ Removes the poison status and applies soak.
* water on soak:
	+ A puddle is created on the unit's current position.

## Lighting

### Secondary Mechanic: Arching

Lightning spells have the secondary mechanic, arching.

* Arching causes a spell to hurt all nearby enemies as well.
* The damage applied by arching is the same as the damage done by the spell(?)
* Other spell effects are not applied by arching.
	+ e.g. the Electrophobia
	Lightning damage: 10-70
	Causes target to fear and run away for 5 sec
	Cooldown: 45 sec spell does not apply the fear effect to enemies hit by the arch

### Lighting Spell Interactions

These interactions occur when a lightning spell hits a unit currently afflicted with a status effect.

* lightning on burn:
	+ The unit explode dealing extra damage.
	+ The damage from the explosion seem to be either 20 or half the spell damage.
		- The only way repeatable test I could do was with the 40dmg lightning spell...instinct says half tho.
	+ The burn is removed
* lightning on freeze:
	+ The lightning spell damage is doubled when hitting frozen units.
	+ Unfreezes target and arced units. Soaks and forms puddles.
	+ Arch distance is increased
	+ Other frozen units increase the arching further(?)
* lightning on poison:
	+ Arching spreads the poison status.
* lightning on soak:
	+ The lightning spell damage is doubled when hitting soaked units.
	+ Arch distance is increased
	+ Other soaked units increase the arching further(?)

## Wind

### Secondary Mechanic: Knockback

Wind spell have knockback as there secondary mechanic. Besides the obvious use of getting enemies out of your face, knockback also is a very effective way pass around status effects that spread on contact.

* Knockback has varying levels of strength. Spell text explicitly mentions a short, a long, and a up type knockback.
	+ Short: Airburst
	Wind damage: 40-60
	Short knockback
	Cooldown: 20 sec
	+ Long: Tearing WindFile:TearingWind.png
	Wind damage: 100-140
	Long knockback
	Cooldown: 45 sec
	+ Up: Acrophobia
	Wind damage: 30-50
	Knocks the enemy target high in the air
	Causes target to fear and run away for 8 sec
	Cooldown: 45 sec
* Short knockback seems to be about as far as over hitting a unit through stamina. (?)
	+ Most wind spells have short knockback even if it is not explicitly mentioned
* Long knockback seems to be about half the lane. (?)
* Up launches the target directly upwards, but slightly back. Casting it during stamina knockback will cancel the stamina knockback, with wind overriding.

### Wind Spell Interactions

These interaction occur when wind spell hits a unit currently afflicted with a status effect.

* wind on burn:
	+ The burn duration is refreshed(extended?) on the unit sent flying, and a spray of fire burns nearby units.
	+ It provides a good way to spread the status.
* wind on freeze:
	+ The enemy will slide backwards until it hits another foe.
	+ The enemy and foe that it hits will be lose all their stamina and get stunned.
		- After the collision the freeze status will be removed from the enemy.
* wind on poison:
	+ It extends the status duration slightly(?).
	+ It provides a good way to spread the status.
* wind on soak:
	+ The spell will spray water onto nearby enemies.
	+ Will freeze any soaked units it targets.
	+ Freeze has an extended duration similar to ice on soak(?)
		- The last boss can do this to your heroes if they get soaked. A very dangerous situation to get stuck in. Be careful when using water spells in this fight.

# Dark Spells

Dark spells act like the normal spells they are based on but haven no cooldown. Instead they cost HP on cast. The amount of HP they cost will be double the amount of the normal cooldown in seconds. For example, Vortex's cooldown is 90 seconds so Dark Vortex would cost 180 HP.

# Legendary Spells

Legendary spells are improved or power spike versions of normal spells. The changes generally involve dramatically reduced cooldowns or increases to damage/effect duration.