Rare Iconic Spell Card – Eradicating Beam

Requires 45 Spellcraft

Oral: Verse

Movement: Full

Mental: Focus and Hate

Cost: 81 Mana

Cast Time: 6.4 Seconds

Range: 30 Meters

Effect: 107 Damage

This spell launches a powerful eradicating beam that lasts for 6 seconds, during which time you can move the beam. The beam deals this spell’s damage every half-second. The beam is especially damaging to objects.

Divine: your active affinity must be partially divine in order to cast this spell

Evil: Virtuous players who cast this spell will lose virtue points each time they do.

I quickly found myself taking a look at my iconics:

Iconic Spell Slots [6]

Devour Magic

Invert Hostility

Mana Shield

Moment of Mastery

Moment of Solace

Psychic Parasite

Could I make room? Psychic Parasite or Invert Hostility could go; probably the latter given that Cuby and I were both high enough to avoid most of the damage from the enemy’s footsoldiers.

Then again… the beam spell was almost 1300 damage over 6 seconds. If Moment of Mastery made the whole thing crit, it would be 1900 damage. It would lose me virtue points, but I honestly didn’t mind that so much—I would be using the spell for the specific purpose of killing the enemy players, which meant I’d be casting it maybe once or twice.

But overall its damage wasn’t higher than Implosive Missile’s, which could hit for almost 1100 total now if it was Supercharged over a 7.8 second cast, and definitely had all that damage multiplied by the crit—but it could be dodged, whereas the beam needed to be dodged 12 times.

Holy shit, I thought. I’m actually not going to learn this spell.

Invert Hostility and Psychic Parasite were both game-changers in a hypothetical battle with Nerien and Haroshi. The beam, while extraordinary looking, couldn’t be fragmented or rune-trapped on account of its absurdly high spellcraft requirement.

Although….

I could invest it. Investiture was now at 7.2 seconds total—and popping out a surprise mega-laser in the middle of a battle was certainly appealing… but in a fight, was it better than throwing out two Invert Hostilities instantly? If we were going to face Nerien and Haroshi, the crowd-controls might be better—locking them up and letting Cuby shred them to pieces was likely higher, safer damage.

There were always my other Iconics, but Moment of Mastery was my only get out of jail free card for their own overpowered combinations, whatever they may be, and Moment of Solace was even better. Mana Shield was right out: no way I was giving it up after the mage passive that gave it constant regeneration.

My current Moment of Mastery wore off, time resuming its normal pace, and I showed Cuby the spell while I cast another. “I want to leave this for now,” I said, still unsure that I was making the right decision. Then, as she began reading it, I added: “One sec.”

I cracked my new Moment of Mastery and opened my Ability Selection for level 13:

Ability Selection

Choose a new spell to learn. You may later replace this spell with any other spell you are eligible to learn by consuming its Spell Card or using a Spell Book.

Spell – Reactive Armor

[You already know this spell. Choose a different spell available to you.]

Spell – Unnatural Confusion

Requires 6 Spellcraft

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Oral: Command

Movement: Full

Mental: Focus

Cost: 6 Mana

Cast Time: 2.0 Seconds

Range: 20 Meters

Effect: Unnatural Confusion

You make your target’s thoughts sluggish and confused. The target takes a penalty to its precision, and its ability to make decisions becomes impaired. Creatures gain a resistance bonus to this spell for each time you have cast it on them in a given day.

If the target is already in a state of natural confusion when you cast this spell, its effect is greatly increased.

I took Unnatural Confusion, glad for another crowd-control. Then I opened my Hierarch selection:

Spell Augment – Purging Spell

Base Spellcraft: Add 1

Spellcraft Multiplier: Add 100%

Cost: Add 20%

Casting Speed: Add 20%

This spell augment can only modify a damaging spell that has a pure Divine Affinity.

The modified spell gains a bonus 6 Precision against infernal or undead creatures, along with a 25% bonus to critical hit damage.

Spell Augment – Free Spell

Spellcraft: No Change

Cost: Special.

Uses: 1

Recharge: 60 Seconds

The modified spell costs no mana to cast. This does not effect upkeep, and only halves the mana cost of spells which continuously drain mana as they are cast, such as Beam.

Purging Spell was similar to a Technique Augment that Cuby had gotten at level 13, and I took it with a sense of satisfaction. The angels who had assisted us had really known what they were doing with these divine classes—I was already critting often against the enemies in this place, and this would make it better.

Then I equipped my Matriarch’s Wing Cloak, gaining the Charm of Gliding spell. My current Charm of Gliding was in one of the Spell / Spell Augment slots I’d gotten from skills, so I looked at my inventory to see what I had that could replace it:

Uncommon Spell Augment Card – Huge Spell

Common Spell Card – Conjure Light

Common Spell Card – Charm of Water Breathing

Common Spell Card – Charm of Darksight

Uncommon Spell Card – Visions of the Past

Uncommon Spell Card – Emotive Attenuation

Most of them seemed obviously useless right now, but I brought up Emotive Attenuation:

Spell – Emotive Attenuation

Requires 18 Spellcraft

Cost: 17 Mana

Cast Time: 3.9 Seconds

Duration: 6 Seconds

Effect: Emotive Attenuation out to 113.1m

Oral Components: Single Word

Movement Components: 1 Hand

Mental Components: M - (Focus)

This spell allows you to detect strong emotional states in your surroundings, as well as get a general sense of the direction they are in, if not their exact location. Creatures who are not in a state of intense emotion will only be detected by this spell if they are within close radius of the caster. This effect extends through solid material.

The only other option was Huge Spell, so I took Emotive Attenuation—it might help us hunt the enemy down. Really, with my Supercharged Spell, the range on the ability would be extraordinary.

Then I opened my skills page and learned the second rank of the Hardy skill, buying it with General Skill Points and leaving the rest of my points for now—that was the only one I knew that I needed, and we were in a hurry.

I smiled, though, at my character sheet: I had a little over 1500 Hit Points and my Mana Shield was over 500 more.

“I’m ready.”

So do you think we can just… take them? Cuby asked, using the mind link so that we communicated quickly.

I thought about it for a moment. Yes.

I have so much more stuff, Alatar—I have a Rousing Command, Grasping Impale, Knockdown Strike, Battle Trance, Jolting Shout, Crippling Strike, Double Strike—and the Vilefire Strike from that sword I got reduces healing received.

I could more or less guess what most of these did. They probably still kill bosses faster than us—even much faster. Better that we find them and finish it before they meet another boss and get a fourth boon across their party.

Let’s go, she said. Are going down and trying to follow them, or are we taking the pit?

I can sense them through the walls, now, I said. At least, I can if anyone in their party is feeling extreme emotions. Let’s take the pit and see what’s down there. You can fly us out if it’s a trap of some kind.

All right, she said. Then, her smile almost audible through thought speech: I’ll go first, naturally, since I’m much harder to kill.

I looked and saw that Cuby had more than 2200 Hit Points. I could have laughed. Naturally, I said.

Because Cuby had all manner of crowd control effects herself, now, I invested her with a Supercharged Haste and a Hardlight Construct, then readied myself with a Fragmented Supercharged Implosive Missile.

Then I followed Cuby by jumping into the pit, casting my glide and diving with my candle-flame out for illumination, unable to shake the sense of elation that I still carried with me on account of our victory.

Cuby was chosen. We out-leveled them.

For once, it felt like our enemies would have to be the ones to come up with the tricks.