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Mage Wars => Rules Discussion => Topic started by: keejchen on May 21, 2019, 08:21:48 AM

Title: Elementalist Glyph Clarification
Post by: keejchen on May 21, 2019, 08:21:48 AM
Playing a bit with Elementalist these days. Once we started using glyphs, a few questions came up. Posting glyphs for reference:

Elemental Glyphs
The Elementalist has four Glyphs: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. When he casts a spell or reveals an enchantment, he activates all inactive Glyphs that match a school on that spell. Enchantments only activate Glyphs when they’re revealed, not when cast. Example: If the Elementalist casts Volcano, which is both Earth and Fire, then he would activate both of those Glyphs, if inactive. If the Elementalist casts Beam of Frost, which is Air or Water, he would pick one of those Glyphs to activate, if possible.
When active, each Glyph can be deactivated for a special ability:
Air — Once per round, when a creature you control makes an attack, you may pay 1 mana. If you do, deactivate this Glyph to gain +4 on that attack’s effect roll.
Earth — Once per round, when a creature you control is attacked, you may pay 1 mana. If you do, deactivate this Glyph and that creature gains Armor +2 for that attack.
Fire — Once per round, when a creature you control makes an attack, you may pay 1 mana. If you do, deactivate this Glyph and that attack rolls 2 additional dice.
Water — Once per round, during the Upkeep Phase, you may pay 1 mana. If you do, you may deactivate this Glyph and heal 2 damage from your Mage.


Timing
Can Fire/Air Glyphs be used on the same attack spell that are used to activate the specific glyph?

Example: With inactive Fire Glyph, Element declares Firestream on enemy mage. For attack spells, you go through steps 1-4 of casting a spell (Declare, Pay, Counter, Resolve). After the Resolve step, the actual attack begins and we go through the attack steps 1-8. The card is discarded once the attack sequence is over.

In this sequence, when do glyphs get activated? And where is the window for declaring the use of a glyph on an attack?

Similarly, at what point do we have the window to use the Armor+2 from Earth Glyph? Can we wait until dice are rolled and make the choice based on results?

Boosting Attacks
Fire and Air Glyph both boost attacks, but to what extend? Since it is not Ranged+X, can I use Fire Glyph on zone attacks like Voltaic Discharge to roll 2 extra dice against all creatures in zone? Or will it only work against one? Or not at all?

What of sweeping and double strike attacks?
Title: Re: Elementalist Glyph Clarification
Post by: Reddicediaries on May 21, 2019, 08:39:12 AM
Where can we see the mages and their stats cards?
Title: Re: Elementalist Glyph Clarification
Post by: DaveW on May 22, 2019, 04:27:31 PM
Where can we see the mages and their stats cards?

I guess you could buy the set with the Mage in question.
Title: Re: Elementalist Glyph Clarification
Post by: Reddicediaries on May 22, 2019, 05:10:48 PM
Where can we see the mages and their stats cards?

I guess you could buy the set with the Mage in question.

This is part of a project to bring academy mages into arena.
Title: Re: Elementalist Glyph Clarification
Post by: Kaarin on May 24, 2019, 06:26:23 AM
Boosting Attacks
Fire and Air Glyph both boost attacks, but to what extend? Since it is not Ranged+X, can I use Fire Glyph on zone attacks like Voltaic Discharge to roll 2 extra dice against all creatures in zone? Or will it only work against one? Or not at all?

What of sweeping and double strike attacks?
In Arena those will boost only single attack of an attack action. Academy doesn't make distinction between attack and attack action, but definition of Doublestrike and Sweeping mention second attack. So it's separate attack and doesn't benefit from glyphs used on the first attack IMO.
Zone attacks aren't precise in their definition. Rules doesn't explicitly say if it's single attack with multiple rolls or multiple separate attacks.
Quote
These spells will attack every creature in the play area (and every conjuration in future expansions),  including  yours!  Roll  for  each  object separately, one at a time, in any order you wish.
Title: Re: Elementalist Glyph Clarification
Post by: wtcannonjr on May 24, 2019, 07:58:47 PM
Boosting Attacks
Fire and Air Glyph both boost attacks, but to what extend? Since it is not Ranged+X, can I use Fire Glyph on zone attacks like Voltaic Discharge to roll 2 extra dice against all creatures in zone? Or will it only work against one? Or not at all?

What of sweeping and double strike attacks?
In Arena those will boost only single attack of an attack action. Academy doesn't make distinction between attack and attack action, but definition of Doublestrike and Sweeping mention second attack. So it's separate attack and doesn't benefit from glyphs used on the first attack IMO.
Zone attacks aren't precise in their definition. Rules doesn't explicitly say if it's single attack with multiple rolls or multiple separate attacks.
Quote
These spells will attack every creature in the play area (and every conjuration in future expansions),  including  yours!  Roll  for  each  object separately, one at a time, in any order you wish.
In Arena, spell effects that are worded as "attack rolls X additional dice" would apply to zone attacks. If the effect is worded as "attack gains Range +X" then these would not apply to zone attacks. The example I am most familiar with is the Siren has an effect (I don't recall the spell or ability) that increases the number of dice on the Tsunami attack spell. This type of interaction with a Zone Attack is pretty rare in Arena.
Title: Re: Elementalist Glyph Clarification
Post by: mager on October 10, 2020, 01:12:31 AM
Was there any answer to the Timing part of the original questions?
Title: Re: Elementalist Glyph Clarification
Post by: Coshade on October 13, 2020, 01:10:47 PM
Hey there!
This was updated back in May to specify. The original text was taken from Academy, so when you convert it to Arena you gains steps to an attack. You can reference these on the dropbox, but for a quick answer if you are on the forums here is the description for each (may change as this is still playtesting).

Air: During the Declare Attack Phase pay 3 mana for a +4 to the effect roll.
Fire: During the Declare Attack Step you may pay 3 mana to gain Melee +2 and Ranged +2 traits for that attack.
Earth - During the Upkeep Phase you may pay 2 mana to gain the Armor +2 trait until the end of the round.
Water: During the Upkeep Phase you may pay 2 mana to heal 2 damage.