it works the same as in TD.

you'll spend less money if you'll fix it at griz when the durability runs out.

btw, I am playing a singleplayer mage atm and I'm writing down all the weird things. somewher in the future I'll start a big mage stuuf fix work. spells and and overall mage balance.

i cant play MP games here because I have Vista here installed.

Kali supports Windows Vista I beleive!

Let me know,

Thanks

I have some problems with understanding of game mechanics everybody seems to understand quite easily. I think it is down to the fact I've never played Hellfire. You have changed several names so that I cannot use Jarulf's guide to full extent. I would appreciate some small dictionary. Also, if the spellbook dammages are sometimes incorrect (as you said somewhere), could there be a refference .txt or .xls document?

Anyway, thanks for toning down the repair cost of the Holy Bolt Wand in the last version. I had a game where I could not survive 2nd church level because of a lot of monsters immune to fire and lighning. I was running out of the money for the wand recharges.

If you have specific questions, ask specific questions. Ask them like

1.
2.
3.

and I'll answer the same way.

Mage's difficulty balance is just what I'm doing right now. Several hours ago I uploaded version 1.59m which really smoothes out spell balance for Mages. Hopefully, it even fixes Golem crash bug (not sure about this though). As always, change log provides nice info on that.

Most of the time you don't need to use mana pots. After all, they are expensive. 100 gold for smalls and 300 for fulls! I personally use pots only when dealing with extra strong opponents (boss packs or the like). Natural regeneration covers all mana losses otherwise. It's better to wait 30 seconds than to waste 100 gold on a pot IMO.

If you are playing a mage character then I'd appreciate spell balance reports, too. I have attempted to smoothe out most of the issues. But there could be more of them.

I'm working on a Spell.xls table now. Probably, I'll upload first version of it today. It will be updated from time to time. It will give very detailed info about spell real damages, +varying for SLVL, CLVL, MAG or whatever it depends on, spellbook damages and compare graphs. It will be given at the end of TH Guide.

There's absolutely no use for other spells at Dlvls 1-4. Holy Bolt (slvl 1) is twice as strong as a Fire Bolt (slvl 3) for my clvl 7. And it costs only 5 mana. Almost nothing is immune to it here... Feels like good ol' Diablo ;-)

My current game seems dull. Man, I even do not have to wait those 30 s.

explanations:
1. there's a story in Jarulf about runes - you can inscribe them blablabla, whoever steps blabla. I tried to insribe, but it just goes boom. Is there any difference between a rune and a relict?
2. arcane shield - how much of protection? only melee or range or magic? does it any damage to attackers?

EDIT (Holy bolt) : To be fair, I just tried to replay the same level with the old Holy Bolt (1,57l SVG.3) and I was completely toast. The main difference was the unability to knock back a crowd of oblivion *** with old HB. I did easily kill some 20 and their chief with the new one, though.
Old values (27-42), new values (71-76) - not exactly

Maybe something in between, no? Or increase in mana cost.

something in between is not easy to do because damage is linked to some parameter like Magic or Mana or spell level. SLVL is hard to do for me yet. it's kinda tricky. magic works well. frankly, Im ok with current damage.

bone wings resist holy bolt and take only 25% of its damage. so, they are the worst enemies for mages on floor 4. oblivion knights are hard for melee class. scouts have a hard time with monsters that circle around them using ranged attacks (firewings, stormwings, bonewings).

for a mage, all you need for levels 1-4 is holybolt. from catacombs you'll really need elemental damage spells (inferno, lightning, arcane star)

as I said in tutorials, horror difficulty only introduces the game. true difficulties start on prurgatory mode. that is where you should complain about something being too easy.

in hellfire runes are triggered when something steps on them, here they are like a bomb: set off when thrown

2) Firebolt is totally useless. I've played many mages, and I *never* used this spell (because the first levels are undead only). When entering catacombs, I've always managed to get a Inferno spell book. Normally, Firebolt is designed to be the first fire spell of the game, but in The Hell, due to the four first levels, it can't be the case. The solution could be to upgrade Firebolt as a medium fire spell in increasing its damage but there already is Inferno in this role (Firebolt < Inferno < Fiery Blast < Fiery Nova). I really don't know how to give to this spell a decent role but it deserves a though in my opinion. A non-used spell is a waste.

3) Arcane Star damages seem incredibly high (~4915 with My Mage). I suppose it's not that much considering it can only hits one enemy at a time, contrarily to others spells like chain lightning of fiery blast which can deal tremendous damages to many monsters simultaneously. But I think this spell is currently overrated.

I have Firebolt adjustment in plans. It will be fixed. Probably, it could be used as an alternative to FieryBlast till the latter gets strong enough. And it could be used instead of Inferno when long range is required. What do you think of that ?

Firebolt > Yep, good idea. Fiery Blasts needs high SLVL to be usable. Firebolt could be its replacement during the time needed to find books of Fiery Blast. Such a change should involve serious damage/mana cost/mag required increases. The first book has 25 magic required if I remember correctly. Actually, this spell can be SLVLed up easily (firebolt books are very common).

Now, Charged Bolt needs attention..

upd:

found CB code for spellbook. corrected damage!
Note:
Min. Damage: 1
Max. Damage: 1 + [curMAG/2]
Number of bolts: 4 + [SLVL/2]

About Arcane Star, I don't agree to lower its damage until it's tested on Doom mode. Only fieldtests show true set of things.

Just wanted to remind you that there is the possibility of raising the mana cost.
And you should (or: could later) rewatch the book cost as well. Right now, HB book cost is only 2000, while Firebolt, for instance, costs 3000 etc. And the wand of HB cost could be now back, or at least 200, in my opinion.

/questions/
3. If SLVL now does not affect damage, does it have any other effect than lowering the mana cost?

Thanks, Mordor, keep on

I will not raise Wand's price because it's a beginner's only hope actually. Without it, mages would have a very hard time in the beginning. Until they find HB book.

SLVL has no impact on damage but it has 2 other effects: 1) lower mana cost, 2) increase missile flight speed