Spells must first be unlocked with skill points.There are different types of spells available in the game. The main difference, aside from the effects they offer, is the way in which the spells work. We can distinguish:. Augment - spells from this group offer bonuses to specific stats of a single unit. Those can increase the effectiveness and combat capabilities of a unit by, for instance, giving them damage reduction, or can even offer additional properties, like a complete immunity to discipline loss for a short time. Spells from the Augment group are always cast on a single unit.
Effects that this group of spells offer can make a unit significantly stronger, capable of defeating several entire units of enemies on their own. Augment (area) - spells from this group are identical to the one describe above. In most cases they are weaker than single-target augment spells, but they can buff several units at once. Spells from this group are (maybe except from the ones of the Vortex kind) probably the most powerful in the entire game.
The ability to increase the discipline, attack, defense and speed of several units at once can give you a huge advantage over the enemy. Hex - the opposite of augment.
Spells from this group allow a caster to decrease combat capabilities of a unit (such as defense, attack), or inflict various negative effects, like decreased resistance to fire or increased discipline loss, which causes the unit to be more likely to route. Spells from this group are used on single targets. They are effective primarily against single, powerful units, such as Lords / Heroes focused on melee combat, or a monster decimating your army. Hex (area) - the same rule as with the first two spells. The only difference to single-target hex is that spells from the 'area' group allow you to curse several enemy units at once.
Similarly to the area of effect augment magic, spells from this group are extremely overpowered - a single spell can, for instance, decrease the discipline of several units to that extent, that the units will route almost immediately. Direct damage - spells from this group are used to inflict damage onto a unit. Some of the spells found in this group are capable of dealing immense damage, making them extremely effective against durable units, such as monsters, heroes, or especially Lords. The perfect example can be the Spirit Leech which can drain 2/3 of a Lords health with a single usage! Using it two or three times on a Lord will kill him, crushing the discipline of the enemy army and potentially ending the whole encounter within seconds. Magic missile - spells that are quite similar to the ones described above. The only difference is that magic missiles (like, for instance, the Fireball) hone on the target and are almost certain to hit even the most mobile targets.
Unfortunately, they deal significantly lower damage than the ones found in the Vortex group, although it's compensated by lower Winds of Magic cost. Vortex - a group of spells capable of dealing the highest damage, while also having the highest cost in Winds of Magic points. A good example of a spell of this group is the Firestorm. Casting it will summon a fire tornado on the battlefield, flying around the area and decimating units in its range.
The major drawback of those spells is that they can simply fly off in a random direction and cause, literally, zero damage. Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that those spells are effective against large groups of enemies - they won't do much damage against single targets. Bombardment - spells from this group allow the caster to deal damage in a specified area. It can be a spell that summons bolts of lightning. Spells from this group are deadly against stationary targets (like infantry units that are in combat) and are capable of annihilating whole units in seconds. However, they are completely useless against targets that are moving, as well as units that have high mobility.As you can see there are several groups of spells in the game and understanding them (and trying each one in combat) can have a significant impact on the course of a battle. Spells offer vast possibilities - a single, well-timed spell can turn the tide of a battle that was doomed a second ago.
Before you cast a spell make sure that it won't be blocked by an obstacle.This chapter can be summed up in a single sentence - 'click on a spell and select your target'. Even though the process looks roughly like that, process of casting spells is a little bit more complicated.
You have to take some factors into consideration, so that your spell won't be blocked by obstacle and the Winds of Magic points wasted for nothing.The first thing you must make sure of is the resistance to magic of the target. Most units in the game doesn't have any resistance to spells, but there are some exceptions to this rule. Resistance to magic can be increased with Hero / Lord abilities, as well as by giving certain banners to units. Dwarven units, given the fact that they cannot cast spells on their own, have 25% resistance to magic.However, some units are more vulnerable to certain spells as well. Ncr power armor mod.
A good example are the Trolls, that receive more damage from fire spells thanks to their regeneration ability, or some Vampire Counts' units that have ethereal form. Ethereal units are almost immune to physical attacks, but they have extremely low health pools, making spells very effective against them - such a unit can be wiped out with a single spell.
Additionally, vulnerability to spells can be increased by certain Hero / Lord abilities and items.Another thing that you must remember about is the environment. Aside from spells from the Vortex and Bombardment group, as well as Augments and Hexes, a lot of spells need direct line of fire to be able to hit the target.
A perfect example is the Fireball spell - it automatically homes in on the target, but every obstacle (not to mention an elevation) can block the ball from hitting the target. This will cause you to waste precious Winds of Magic points.
Each time you want to cast a spell, make sure that nothing will block it.The last thing that you must monitor all the time is the reserve of Winds of Magic points. If those points run out you won't be able to cast any spells. Additionally, it's worth to keep some points accumulated in case you need to immediately cast a specific spell. Sometimes it's best to not cast spells to the right and left and just keep the points in the 'vessel' in case of an emergency.
Welcome to!A subreddit for all of those who love the Total War series. I recently learned how to overcast, I feel a little dumb not realizing it wasn't a passive upgrade. I don't really understand how much or how exactly overcast enhanced spells.
Either I'm overlooking something in tooltips or I don't know where to access the information for overcast.When should I overcast instead of regular overcast or why? Are they simply a number value increase or do any overcast spells behave differently? I really want to play a campaign focused on magic, but I'm not really sure what faction to use for that or how exactly I should go about it in general.Spells are my least utilized aspect of the game, even when I play Vampires I tend to only use a few spells from LLs and ignore the rest of their repertoire. I guess the same applies to other factions now that I think about it. Overcasting is one of the biggest, worst explained systems in the game.Almost everything else, the new player experience/advisor covers, but the magic explanation is shit.TO overcast; Click the spell icon an additional time in the battle UI (so; say your spell is fireball, click once and it lights up slightly, click again and it lights up brighter and is now 'overcast' - requires you to have upgraded it overcast level)In the skill trees; the first point of a THREE point spell is just the basic spell. The 2nd point tends to be something like 'grants you the 'spellnamex' upgraded' which means overcast, and -30% CD to 'spellnamex' (the basic spell when NOT overcast) - This means that even if you NEVER overcast, you still get benefits to the base spell via talent points, usually CD and mana cost reductions.
How To Overcast Spells In Total War Warhammer 2
The 3rd point also tends to add -X winds of magic cost to both the upgraded, and the normal spell, as well as reducing the overcast risk% by some XYZ amount.Like others have said, overcasting comes with a risk of damage dealt the caster attempting to cast. (the% of risk usually shown in the skill tree, not sure if shown in battle UI off the top of my head). And in general it's 50%.
There is usually a talent for reducing that by -15.An overcast 'fail' causes damage to the caster, but the spell will still be cast. You can overcast by double clicking the spell. They cost more Winds of Magic and have a small chance to hurt the caster. Most spells can be overcast but not all. The effects can be read in the tooltip when double cliking or inspecting the Lore spell book (quick access it right clicking a spell), but the most common are increased damage, increased duration, additional buffs, additional debuffs or area of effect (if originall single target).For instance, you want to use regular cast Wind Blast against light armored troops, but if you want to damage armored enemies then try to overcast it and see how it works wonders, as overcast Wind Blast adds armor piercing damage.
Right click on your spells - it'll open the spell browser that'll show you how it looks, and tell you what it does.There's a little double-arrow that lets you see the upgraded version.To fire your overcast, double click - but know that a miscast will cause your mage to hurt themselves. It's very dumb to overcast when they're on low health, especially if it's your lord;).The answer is - it varies. I mean, it always increases costs, so it isn't always worthwhile.There's a spell guide on the sidebar that tells you what happens when something overcasts.I usually overcast when:.
Overcasting makes a single target spell AOE (Invocation of Nehek, Pha's protection, Withering, Occam's Mindrazor, Glittering Robe, Doom and Darkness, ). It does the thing, harder. A larger debuff is usually worth having. So for example - wither (plague spell) does -60 armour instead of -30.
It does more damage - direct damage spells will run for longer and thus do more damage. So for all the reasons you wanted to direct damage, you want more direct damage. Final Transmutation, fate of bjuna. But also stuff like Wind of Death does more damage, Warp lightning does more blasts, Comet of Casendora (in particular, it goes from 48 to 96 detonation damage, and that's enough to go from hurting to obliterating most units).
Increase radius of damage - almost always, when you're dropping an AOE, you're doing it on a blob. Hitting more of the blob is good. (Burning Head, Gehenna's Golden hounds, Wind of Death)It's a bit more variable for spells that increase duration - particularly vortices are prone to wandering off and wasting time.So Flame Storm does more damage and lasts longer, but odds are good that it'll have wandered off for the last part.
Bladewind likewise is prone to wandering off. (but it does move slower when overcast, so it stays on target longer).But most stuff like buff/debuff spells, the increased duration is usually useful. Especially for things like Aspect of the Dreadknight when you get both AOE and increased duration. The only time it might not be is when you expect the fight to be over faster, but I think that's rarely the case.Also range boosts - sometimes that's useful, but I don't use it that often. Just note that as well as increasing range on shem's gaze, fireball, etc. It often also increases damage and blast radius.
(Overcast fireball doubles in radius and damage).And then you've a whole bundle that do 'auxiliary effects':. Ptra's incantation of smiting adds +20 reload skill to missile damage. That's worth having because it's more ROF on a missile unit. (The base spell also adds weapon damage). Pestilent Breath adds a poison debuff to it's damage.
That's useful, if you're casting into melee, because it counts as damage and debuff together. It's not useful if you're hitting something on the other side of a wall though. Traitor kin does direct damage, but also adds a speed malus. The speed malus is larger when overcast.
That's vaguely useful, but I find it's not so worth it. Arcane unforging increases skill reuse time, but the primary purpose is direct damage (at least when I'm casting) so I tend not to bother.
Word of pain adds -27MD to it's -44 MA -60% accuracy. I find that worth having, because I am usually casting it to debuff an enemy lord or monster. Lower MD means they go down much faster.In all this - I find referring to ' to be invaluable. Overcast has a miscast chance that might do 10-30% HP damage to your caster. Most overcast spells add to whatever the main effects are but the main reason to overcast is that many spells upgrade from only affecting a single unit to covering an area of effect which might damage/heal/buff several units for only a bit more magic cost. Also the duration can change for overcast spells which is important to note as AoE effect + increased duration can more than be a 3-5x boost in a spell for only +50% cost.