spells
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Conjure spells on your phone to prepare for 'Fantastic Beasts'
J.K. Rowling's prequel to the Harry Potter series is set to hit theaters next week and Google wants to help you prepare by turning your phone into a magic wand. On an Android device, you can cast "spells" with an "OK Google" voice command. After you alert your phone with the magic phrase, follow it up with a command like "lumos" and "nox" to turn the flashlight on and off. You can also use "silencio" to mute any sounds and notifications. Sure, it's rather simple, but it's a neat way for Potter fans to get ready for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ahead of next week's debut.
Etsy doesn't want you selling spells
Etsy's online shop is mostly known for its handmade crafts, but it has also developed a reputation among the supernatural crowd as an easy place to find spells, potions and other mysterious goods. Well, those merchants will have to find another place to hawk their wares. Etsy has quietly updated its guidelines to ban all "metaphysical" services that promise a tangible outcome, like revenge or weight loss. The company isn't wasting much time cleaning house, either, as it's kicking out many of these vendors with little to no warning.
Wizard101 adds four new dungeons
Wizardry is not a safe profession these days. Wizard101 has grown even more dangerous with the addition of four brand-new dungeons spread across the game's level range, and Massively fully expects multiple online casualties to result from this irresponsible action. The new dungeons are the snowy Shangri-Baa Mountains (level 25), Barkingham Palace (level 40), the House of Scales (level 60), and Castle Darkmoor (level 100). The latter is vital for wizards seeking a new spell for their arsenal, as a Castle Darkmoor quest will award one new shadow-enhanced card for each school of magic. The November update came with other improvements to the game, including bypassing combat idlers' turns, more member benefits, and savable equipment sets. We've got a video covering the shadow-enchanced spells for you to watch after the break.
Tree of Savior answers questions about wizards and companions
Are you excited to get your hands on Tree of Savior when and if it gets a release over here? Then you'll be happy to look through the latest community Q&A, which has been helpfully translated into English. Like most community addresses, it covers a variety of different topics, ranging from casting spells on the move to working with companions in the game. Not all spells in the game can be cast while moving, depending greatly upon the type of spell and the class using it. Similarly, there's been discussion about which classes, if any, will be allowed to dual-wield. Companions can be stored at the barracks, allowing you to choose between several different companions based upon the situation, although not all companions will have the same degree of closeness with a given character. For more information, peruse the full set of answers.
How to learn what you're doing on a boosted 90
Look, it's okay to admit that in some cases, players who've pre-ordered Warlords of Draenor or even bought the level 90 boost are on level 90 characters that they don't actually know how to play. In some cases, this isn't the case -- if I used the boost, for instance, I'd probably know how to play that 12th warrior I boosted to 90. But if I were to boost my hunter, there would suddenly be 29 levels of huntering to absorb and take in, and if I were to use the boost on a rogue I'd hate myself for it and quit playing in a storm of recriminations. Also, I would have zero idea what I was doing on a rogue for the ten seconds before I realized what I'd done. Now that I've had my fun, let's get serious - how would I play a rogue at 90? Or a mage, or a priest, or another class that I'd never played before? Well, there are resources out there -- WoW Insider has a rookie guide, for starters -- and there are other sites like Wowhead and Icy-Veins that can and do give you an overview of what your new class does. There's also a very useful resource built into the game itself. Your spellbook has a great deal of information for you about what your class can do and how to go about playing it, that can get you pointed in the right direction to begin play. We're assuming you're a returning player who has not played in a while or a new player just getting started with this article - established players starting a new alt may already know much of this.
Arcane Brilliance: Next steps for playing a fire mage at level 90
Every other week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. Stacey Landry is the resident mage here, bender of space and time, conjurer of delicious confectioneries and expert at dressing well while setting things on fire. Congratulations! You've always wanted to play a mage alt but somehow never find the time, or perhaps you're considering a new main for Warlords of Draenor. Either way, you've decided to boost a mage to level 90 or re-spec your mage and you are faced with a decision. What spec would you like to play? We're going to talk eventually about all three excellent specs, but for now we're going to start with fire. Being a fire mage has always represented the somewhat reckless side of wizardry. Fire mages used to take talents that would increase their damage done in exchange for damage taken. (Nothing ventured, nothing gained!) Modern fire maging is a little less risky than that and comes with many advantages. You might enjoy playing a fire mage if you want:
WoW Archivist: Spells we've lost
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Back in June, Ghostcrawler identified "ability bloat" as a major issue that he'd like to address in WoW moving forward. GC later confirmed Blizzard's intention to cull spells, but admitted "there will be many tears." Since the tweet, WoW Insider and many others have speculated about which spells will disappear forever and which will remain. While I agree that bloat is a problem, it's not the first time that Blizzard has looked at reducing our endless action bars to more manageable proportions. Many beloved spells have already vanished, along with many strange and pointless ones, too. Let's look back at some of these spells from bygone days. Shaman Most missed: Cleansing Totem In Wrath, the original Poison Cleansing Totem and Disease Cleansing Totem merged to become Cleansing Totem. It attempted to cleanse a debuff of each type every three seconds. Shamans loved this "fire and forget" method of cleansing, but Blizzard killed the spell because they wanted removing debuffs to require the active attention of a player. Least missed: Windwall Totem This totem had a cool name, but the narrowest possible application. It reduced damage from ranged attacks. Only attacks made by bow/gun-type weapons and thrown weapons counted -- not spells. Because wind affects bullets but not fireballs? Weirdest: Sentry Totem Long mocked as "Screenshot Totem," Sentry Totem allowed the shaman to switch camera views to it to keep an eye on a distant location. It had some strategic applications in battlegrounds, but given that it took up the air totem slot, few shamans used it. The totem did, in fact, help players to get great screenshots of boss kills, though. Never forget!
Massively Exclusive: Albion Online dev blog explains diversity with spells and crafted items
Previously, we learned about Albion Online's territory control, housing, the economy, and more in our exclusive interview with CEO Stefan Wiezorek. Thanks to this exclusive dev blog, today we get a look at the relationship between crafting and spells and how that translates into deeper character customization. In short, Albion players will craft spells that can be put on crafted gear, which in turn gives them access to that spell whenever they equip that item. This system offers an endless possibility of combinations as players equip various items, each with their own set of spells added on. For a detailed run-down of this system, check out the full dev blog after the break.
Darkfall patches in new boats, a new dungeon, and other improvements
Maybe you've already been on a boat in Darkfall Unholy Wars, but you haven't been on the newest boats. You couldn't have been. They've just been patched in today, allowing players new ways to be unstoppable due to their aquatic mode of transportation. But that's just the least of what's been changed in the latest patch being deployed today. In addition to having new boats, the patch features a new dungeon known as Svartvann as well as the new Darkbrood family, infesting Svartvann as well as Aldan Enak and Grivendale. There are also some noteworthy changes to Primalist spell functionality as well as a new skill meant to disable perpetual blocking. And you can have a new ship module if you can't get enough of aquatic antics. If none of the above strikes your fancy, you can at least enjoy the requisite bug fixes and UI updates that should make the game more fun to play for everyone. [Thanks to LanMandragon for the tip!]
Talents and abilities you never use
Any given class in WoW has a ton of different spells and abilities. More than I can reasonably hotkey to my decidedly un-fancy two-button mouse and $5 thrift shop keyboard, in any case. I do my best with keybinding and click modifiers, but inevitably there are some things that just aren't going to make the cut. Fortunately, these abilities usually present themselves without a whole lot of deliberation. For example, on my druid, I don't remember the last time I used Soothe. The other ability I find gathering dust in my spellbook is Hibernate. I know I used Hibernate to help with crowd control for trash packs in Ulduar and Ruby Sanctum during Wrath of the Lich King, but since then? Nope. Hibernate does not live on my bars.
Steve Jackson's Sorcery! gamebook coming to the App Store
Steve Jackson's Sorcery! is an old series back from the early 1980s where you "played" through a sort of Choose Your Own Adventure-style story, except that instead of just flipping pages, you actually cast spells, fight in combat and do other fantasy-based activities. These books were reprinted back in 2002, but it's been announced that they're coming to iOS soon, as fully interactive books to play with. Most interactive books on the App Store are either meant for children or show off only a limited amount of interactivity, but these seem different -- they're heavily dependent on text, but they do offer some nice interactive touches from the original books. There's even some fun procedural stuff: When you do combat in the game, the book creates custom-made text for you to read about the outcome of the battle. It all looks very cool, and it's a nice throwback for those of us who played with these books all those years ago. Steve Jackson's Sorcery! is set to be submitted to the App Store right away, so we should see it for ourselves very soon.
Goblinworks illuminates Pathfinder's spellcasting system
Thinking about becoming a Wizard or Sorcerer in Pathfinder Online? It's not going to be like rolling a mage in another MMO, where you'll instantly have access to infinite firebolt and ice shard spells that are conveniently located on your hotbar. No, it's going to be complex and deep because this is Pathfinder and that is what Pathfinder does. In a new dev blog, Designer Stephen Cheney spells out (har) the approach the team is currently taking with arcane casters (i.e., Wizards and Sorcerers). While these classes will get a huge reservoir of basic cantrips to fling out during normal combat, their actual spells will be difficult to acquire, powerful to perform, and limited in number of uses. Cheney talks about how wizards will put together spellbooks, why it's important to have a pouch full of spell components, and what keywords you're going to want to collect in order to build the type of caster you envision. It's a lengthy read, but as a wizard apprentice, you're already used to that, aren't you? [Thanks to Matixzun for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite long-cooldown skill?
In Guild Wars 2, one of my favorite skills to use is the ability to unleash a cranky mechanical golem upon my foes. It only lasts for 40 seconds and has (I think) an 180-second cooldown, which means I don't get to use it as often as I'd like. However, it always makes me absurdly happy to pull it out, and I wonder if the long cooldown is one of the reasons I appreciate it so much. It's pretty common for developers to balance powerful skills with a lengthy cooldown, leaving the choice up to the player as to when and where it's best to unleash hell. It's not uncommon to be in a dungeon run and have the leader instruct players to pop their cooldowns on difficult fights; sometimes that long-cooldown skill is what makes the difference between victory and defeat. So what's your favorite long-cooldown skill? When do you tend to use it? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Neverwinter's magic spells are pretty wizard
Cryptic Studios and Atari Perfect World Entertainment have shared both the video above and the gallery below, both designed to show you what the upcoming Neverwinter's Control Wizard class is capable of. As you can see in the video especially, the spells are heavily inspired by pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons, and the game will have you casting old favorites like Magic Missile, Ray of Frost, and the destructive Ice Storm.You can also see a few other 4th Edition D&D mainstays, including Tiefling heroes (they're the ones with the horns) and some NPC zombies and skeletons. The free-to-play MMO is set to be released early next year.%Gallery-169797%
PBS draws link between digital music ethics and magic spells, somehow makes it look simple (video)
AAC files and the arcane don't have much in common on the surface. After some digging, however, PBS' Idea Channel has found that magic is an uncannily good analogy for digital music rights and explaining the thorny ethical issues that come with them. Both music and spells stem from grassroots cultures that give away their content for free, but (at least until an anti-magic clampdown at eBay) have since become businesses. That nature poses a key ethical question: when we're used to a free experience and can copy songs or spells as much as we like, what does it take to keep us as honest customers? As show host Mike Rugnetta suggests, it's a matter of personal responsibility -- if we want more of either, we have to think of the commerce as showing support for future work. You can catch Mike's clever train of thought after the break, and ponder what constitutes DRM for a potion while you're at it.
Breakfast Topic: What WoW spell would you most like in real life?
We recently tackled the Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: What spell would you most want? The question was meant for your class in game, but reader Andrew wanted it to be about having spells in the physical world. So here we are. For my part, my answer would be exactly the same: Zen Flight. This minor monk glyph won't be released until Mists of Pandaria, so you can't find it in game yet. But you can see my monk Krikkit above being all zen-like in the beta. Wouldn't it be great to float in line at the grocery store, looking all relaxed and glowy? Sure, people would look at me funny, but they do that already -- I have shocking pink hair. Oooh the Zen Flight colors would look great with pink, wouldn't they? Hmmm ... maybe a bit too 80s. Anyway, I could use it everywhere. Waiting for mass transit? Yes. Crossing the street? Yes. Disneyland? Yes, please. What spell would you most want in the physical world and why?
Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: What spell would you most want?
Each week, Blog Azeroth hosts a Shared Topic for bloggers to answer on their own blogs and then link to in the forum. This week, Arvash from The Crimson Hammer asks: In the new Mist of Pandaria expansion, Druids will be getting a new spell called Symbiosis, which will allow them to "trade" a spell with another player, based on the player's class and combat role and the Druid's specialization. So my question is, if you could have any spell you want from any other class, current spells or new ones in MoP, what would it be? How would you work it into your rotation, gameplay, etc.? Arvash gives a good overview of Symbiosis, but here are some details for those who don't already know: The druid doesn't get to choose which spell to receive or trade. The Symbiosis recipient also doesn't get to choose the spells. You can't use it on enemy players or any NPCs -- just one member of the party or raid. Wowhead has more details and the spells that get traded.
Incantor brings World of Warcraft to real life (hands-on)
There's plenty of cool stuff to see on the floor of this year's TechCrunch Disrupt, but nothing's likely quite so eye-catching as Incantor, a mobile game that utilizes your smartphone and, naturally, a magic wand, to bring fantasy-style action to the real world -- or as the game's creators put it, to "bring World of Warcraft to real life." The wand speaks to your handset via Bluetooth, detecting your gestures and generating "spells." Hold your phone in portrait, and you'll get personal information, including your character level, spell bag, etc. Flip it to landscape, and you'll get a Google Map overlay, showing you other players in your area. There are 13 different game play modes in all, and you can play as a group or solo. Moveable Code was only showing off one wand at the show, but the company expects to make 10 available in all, representing different classes. Interested parties can find out more at the Kickstarter link in the source below. Beta testing will begin in early Q4, with widespread availability coming by year's end. The wand, which offers up feedback based on gameplay (including interactions with other players), should run you around $60 when it hits the market. You can play the game sans phone, but we're told its not quite as fun. Either way, sparring, quests and games capture the flag should get people outside a bit more than PC-based MMORPGs. Sunscreen, however, is not included. Check out a video of Incantor's creators demonstrating the game after the break.%Gallery-155977%
Warlock green fire spells spotted in MoP beta files
Green fire is coming, again! Maybe. Side effects of speculation may vary. Not only has the Codex shown up in recent datamining, but curiously also warlock spells with green fire as icons. Conflagrate, Fel Hellfire, Rain of Chaos, and Fel Immolate all have minimal descriptions and could very well be just creature or boss spells. But Fel Incinerate gives me hope, for it has not only the range and cast time, but the base mana that the real warlock Incinerate does. What boss would need to know the base mana cost, hmm? After the original flurry of excitement, Wryxian noted in the subsequent denial of green fire implementation that the devs wanted green fire "to be an epic accomplishment" for players. With the beta appearance of The Legacy of the Masters (Part 1), players are speculating among other things about a Quel'Delar-like quest line again. In the end, nothing might happen and green fire will stay unfulfilled on our warlock wish lists. But I for one haven't been so excited since I got my Dreadsteed the old way. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Raid Rx: An overview of druids in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. Last week, we covered some of the more notable monk abilities along with the expected playstyle. Recently, the level cap on beta has been raised to level 87, allowing every class access to their new level 87 spell. Much of the talk this week on the major sites and blogs is about Symbiosis. We touched on it several times, but now we get to take a closer look at it in further detail.
