User:Blash/Magic Overview

Introduction

Notice: TMW has recently been given a magic system for eAthena. In the future, it will be replaced by a different one for TMWServ. This walkthrough describes the eAthena magic system.

In TMW, characters can learn different skills, in which they can level up in. All characters come with the "Basic" skill. Magic in TMW is made up of 6 different skills, of which you must acquire and train:

• Magic (general magic level)
• Transmutation Magic
• Nature Magic
• Astral Magic
• War Magic
• Life Magic

Acquiring and Training Magic

Since your characters don't come with the ability to control magic, they must receive and progress in magic through a magic trainer. Magic trainers are NPCs. Magic trainers can both give you magic, and level you up in magic, in whatever schools of magic they can train in. In TMW, there are currently 7 NPC magic trainers. These NPCs you can typically ask magic-related questions of. Once you visit a magical NPC, you can ask all other magical NPCs what they know about the one you visited, via the "What do you know about..." enquiry. Some magic trainers are easy to find, while others require searching through more obscure parts of the TMW world.

Leveling up

Leveling up requires that you gain experience in magic. You do this by practicing spells. Casting the same spell repeatedly will result in gaining no additional experience after the first cast. Also, good spells for gaining experience consume items. Once you have gained enough experience in a particular type of magic, you can go to a trainer in that kind of magic, talk to them, and they can advance you, as long as they are an advanced enough trainer for the level of magic you are advancing to.

Learning Spells

Spells are mostly taught by magic trainers, but a couple other NPCs have quests in which they tell them to you. Magical trainers will teach you spells as you gain experience and level up, so as you practice spell casting, check in with your magical trainers from time to time.

Casting Spells

Once you obtain spells, you cast them by entering them in to the Player chat tab, placing a pound sign (#) in front of the name of the spell, followed by the spell's parameters, separated by spaces. If a parameter to a spell needs to contain spaces, use double-quotes (") to enclose it.

As I mentioned before, spells may require items. There are two kinds of items:

• Components - these are consumed by the casting of a spell.
• Catalysts - these can be required by a spell, but will not be consumed by it.

In addition, different spells are of different levels. For whatever level a spell is, your magic skill level must be equal to or greater than it, in both the spell's school of magic and in general magic, if you want to cast it. For example, to cast a level 2 nature spell, you must be level 2 in both your Nature Magic and in your (General) Magic skill.

Finally, in order to be able to cast a spell you need your magic to be enabled (your M.Attack value > 0). This is explained in the next section.

Magical Stats

The number 1 stat that increases your magical abilities is Intelligence. Intelligence is not necessary to advance in magic and learn new spells. What intelligence does is determine the effectiveness and strength of a cast spell. The more intelligence you have, the more bang for your cast. Intelligence is used to compute 2 of your stats: M.Attack and M.Defense. M.Attack stands for "magic attack"; this is how powerful the cast will be. M.Defense is "magic defense"; this is how well you will be able to withstand magical attacks on you. MP is the amount of magical energy available to devote to casting spells. It recharges over time. In TMW, your ability to use MP depends on having a non-zero M.Attack value. If your M.Attack value is zero, you may notice that your MP bar is grey (disabled). If this happens, it is because your M.Attack value is being penalized by negative status effects or worn equipment.

For more info on the Intelligence stat, see the Stats page.

Equipment and Magic

In TMW, equipment can either penalize, boost, or be neutral towards your M.Attck value. It is very important to wear the right equipment so as to not hamper your M.Attack value.

Determining Magic Bonuses

There are two ways to determine what magic penalty or boost an item gives. One way is by watching how much your M.Attack value changes when you equip/unequip an item in-game, although this doesn't work if you're M.Attack value is penalized to a negative value, since a negative value will wrap to 0, thereby not allowing you to see the change in the negative value. Other than when that happens, the amount your M.Attack value changes when equipping/unequipping is the amount of the bonus/penalty.

The other way to determing magic stat changes is by checking the full reference of equipment and their magic alterations in eAthena item database file accesible via the Item Reference, although it's not easy to read. To alleviate this problem, save the text file and import it into a spreadsheet program in the CSV data format (I haven't tried this myself yet, though, so no guarantees as of yet).

In addition, the next sections also provide information on the magic bonuses/penalties of equippable items.

Penalty Items

section subject to change

section fully accurate as of 6/13/2009

In TMW, almost all things worn will penalize your M.Attack value, with the exception of weapons, which have no effect on your magical stats. Magic penalties are especially big from metal armor. The following list includes things that penalize your M.Attack value:

• All gloves
• All boots, except cotton boots
• All shirts and chest armor, except a silk robe
• All shields
• All Helmets, Many hats
• All pants

The worst penalties come with shields and chest armor.

Helpful Items

section subject to change

section fully accurate as of 6/13/2009

Few things will not penalize your M.Attack, and occasionally, you can wear something that actually gives a bonus to M.Attack.

The following is a substantially complete list of such obtainable items:

• Silk Robe, Serf Hat, Graduation Cap, Cotton Headband (+0)
• Cotton Boots, Noh-Mask, Wedding Ring, Pinkie Hat, Cat Ears, Bunny Ears (+1)
• Top Hat, Funky Hat, Christmas Elf Hat, Antler Hat, Santa Beard Hat (+2)
• Christmas Tree Hat (+4)
• Circlet, Demon Mask, 4-Leaf Clover, Towel (+5)

Two items give good bonuses, but it is not determined whether these are obtainable:

• Monster Skull Helmet (+10)
• High Priest Crown (+20)