November 23, 2022Guides,Test Realm,Videos,Wizard101
Estimated Reading Time:
Novus brings with new spells for Wizards who have completed Lemuria. Although these spells are for the level 150-160 range world, they're awarded very early on in the quest line. Here's a look at what they do and my ratings for and thoughts on the effects and visuals.
Spell Animations
Check out this video to see all of the new Novus spells in action! Note their conditional effects triggering, indicated by the "Clear" keyword on the cards.
Balance Spell: Scales of Destiny
Spell Rating: ★★★☆☆ | Visual Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Cost: 1 pip, 1 Life pip, 1 Ice pip
Effect: Deal 235 Life damage, 255 Ice damage, and 255 Balance damage. Gain 1 Ice or Life pip if the caster has over 50% health.
At a total of 705 base damage, Balance's spell seems pretty powerful. It's also one of the tougher ones to pull off, because you need two school pips instead of one, which means this is the only spell of all seven that you can never cast the first round of combat. That is balanced by the fact that its condition is the easiest to meet - if you have over half of your health, you get either the Life or Ice pip needed to cast this back. This makes it a little bit clunky to use, and most of Balance's multi-school-hit spells see little to no play.
All of the spells this round are pretty strange, in keeping with the theme of Novus. While the corn stalks and ice crystals feel a little odd, I like the overall feel of this spell.
Spellement Upgrade Path
Upgrade paths for all of the new spells are currently pretty straightforward. In this case, each upgrade adds 10 damage to each hit of the spell, or 30 damage total. The base damage for the final upgrade totals 765!
Death Spell: Gravestorm
Spell Rating: ★★☆☆☆ | Visual Rating: ★★★☆☆
Cost: 3 pips, 1 Storm pip
Effect: Deal 450 Death damage, convert half to health for caster. If the target has negative charms (weakness, infection, etc.), remove up to 2 for a corresponding number of +325 Storm damage flat blades on the caster.
Death's spell is a pretty straightforward steal health spell. The damage on it for the pip cost is pretty impressive, though. That said, a lot of single-target drain spells don't see much play for Death. In this case, the spell removes weaknesses from an enemy for a Storm blade, so we'll talking about a ridiculously specific scenario where you've placed some kind of debuff on the enemy which they haven't removed or triggered and may benefit from a flat damage Storm blade. The damage by itself warrants some consideration, but not likely at level 160.
The animation on this one is a little bit cooler and does a good job of combining Death and Storm effects in a way that feels natural, if not fully polished.
Spellement Upgrade Path
Upgrade paths for all of the new spells are currently pretty straightforward. In this case, the first upgrade increases the damage by 20 and the second by 25, which is roughly equivalent to Balance's upgrades when factoring in the drained health.
Fire Spell: Glimpse of Infinity
Spell Rating: ★★★☆☆ | Visual Rating: ★★★★★
Cost: 3 pips, 1 Myth pip
Effect: Deal 680 Fire damage over four rounds as a protected damage over time effect. If the enemy has positive wards (shields, etc.), remove up to 2 for a corresponding number of +40% Myth traps on the target.
Fire's spell damage is very competitive with other spells of its cost, and adding the protection to the damage over time effect is interesting. Most of the time, Fire will be opting for some of its heavier hitters than this midrange, delayed-damage DoT, but in certain scenarios, it could be used. Although the addition of the Myth traps if the enemy has shields is probably never going to be used, the actual removal of up to two shields is something to take note of. It puts the Fire spell a step ahead of the Death one, at least.
This spell has one of the coolest animations. It combines the full skybox look with objects in the summoning circle for an animation that's short and sweet but super interesting to look at.
Spellement Upgrade Path
Upgrade paths for all of the new spells are currently pretty straightforward. In this case, each upgrade increases the overall damage output by 30, exactly equivalent to Balance's upgrades.
Ice Spell: Deathly Depths
Spell Rating: ★★☆☆☆ | Visual Rating: ★★★★☆
Cost: 3 pips, 1 Death pip
Effect: Deal 495 Ice damage. If the target has positive charms (blades, etc.), remove up to 2 for a corresponding number of -55% Storm damage charms on the target.
Ice's spell has damage that suffers a little compared to the others. It only does as much damage as Death's spell, but with no drain health effect. That's a little strange to me. The damage feels undervalued by one pip, being roughly equivalent to a handful of other 5-cost Lore spells (though those will likely change) but without the guaranteed effect. The conditional effect on this spell is only really good against Storm wizards, but the removal of blades could be decent on its own. This might be a spell used in very niche circ*mstances for Ice.
The animation on this one is also pretty great. Although some of the bubble and underwater effects feel a little flat and strange, the skull is spooky and magical. It makes for a cool animation.
Spellement Upgrade Path
Upgrade paths for all of the new spells are currently pretty straightforward. In this case, the first upgrade increases the damage by only 20 and the second increases it by 25, again matching Death but with no drain health.
Life Spell: Starspawn
Spell Rating: ★★★★☆ | Visual Rating: ★★★★☆
Cost: 3 pips, 1 Fire pip
Effect: Deal 535 Life damage. If the caster has any negative wards (traps, etc.), remove up to 2 for a corresponding number of 172 Fire damage over time effects (4 rounds) on the target.
The Life spell has pretty great damage for its effective pip cost, outperforming Earthwalker and dipping into Centaur territory. This might be a decent single-target spell for Life, especially when considering that the added effect removes traps on the caster. It's one of only a handful of spells in the lineup that has a positive condition and trade-off for another positive trade-off. This could be used to clear a Feint off the caster and deal additional damage to the target, for example. I could see it used situationally in both PvP and PvE.
The animation on this one finally got fixed and it looks pretty cool. It's one of the weirder ones, but I think that gives it extra points.
Spellement Upgrade Path
Upgrade paths for all of the new spells are currently pretty straightforward. In this case, the first upgrade increases the damage by only 20 and the second increases it by 25, which matches Ice and Death but isn't quite the increase that Fire and Balance are getting.
Myth Spell: Improbable Gaze
Spell Rating: ★★☆☆☆ | Visual Rating: ★★★★☆
Cost: 3 pips, 1 Ice pip
Effect: Deal 50 Myth damage, then 500 Myth damage. If the target has any negative wards (traps, etc.), remove up to 2 for a corresponding number of 650 damage absorb shields on the caster.
Myth's spell has a decent base damage of 550 split into two hits. The damage alone is an upgrade to Minotaur, but consider how often Minotaur is used by Myth wizards and that's probably about as often as you'll see this played. I do like that it has the double hit effect for shield removal, so there are scenarios where it could be helpful. The effect removes traps from the target though, so this isn't necessarily a positive effect, which is weird when Life gets to remove traps from themselves. That said, a 650-damage absorb is a pretty great reward.
The animation here is pretty cool. It's also one of the weirdest ones, in keeping with the theme. Is that... is that a whale eye being reassembled off the broken-up body of the fallen whale?
Spellement Upgrade Path
Upgrade paths for all of the new spells are currently pretty straightforward. In this case, both upgrades increase the secondary damage by only 20.
Storm Spell: Tree of Strife
Spell Rating: ★★★★☆ | Visual Rating: ★★★★★
Cost: 3 pips, 1 Life pip
Effect: Deal 810 Storm damage. If the caster has any positive charms (blades, etc.), remove up to 2 for a corresponding number of 580 health heal over time effects (4 rounds) on the caster.
Storm's spell is one that seems pretty good, and perhaps the most likely to see play as a lower-cost single hit. The 810 Storm damage easily outdoes anything else at this pip cost. It does remove blades from the caster, awarding 580 health up to twice as a heal over time effect. This is a little bit more realistic as Storm could be using an Elemental Blade, with the leftover blades being converted to 1160 health! Storm's spell is the one of the few on the list which has good damage on its own, a reasonable condition, and a payoff that's always helpful and not school-specific or situational.
The visuals on this spell are also one of the best also. I love the ship in s teacup along with the burst effects that tie in both the Storm and Life elements well.
Spellement Upgrade Path
Upgrade paths for all of the new spells are currently pretty straightforward. In this case, the first upgrade is by 30 damage, and the second by 35. These are some of the bigger (and 35 is the biggest) margins on any of the spell upgrades.
What do you think of these new spells?
Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!
