Arcane Missiles and Ranged +X

[iNano78]

"Terrible card. Nobody plays it. OVERRATED! Sad."
 - Tweet from the President of Sortilege


I assume this counts as one "attack action" and thus only the first of its 3 attacks will get the Ranged +1 bonus for Hawkeye, Steep Hill, etc (despite not officially being "Sweeping").

Too bad...

Still, if your Wizard is running Hawkeye and a Steep Hill anyway (and probably Gloves of Skill, too), you can get 4 dice of Unavoidable, Critical, Ethereal damage on the first attack at Range 0-1 for 6 mana and a full action (to be followed up with an Arcane Zap, of course) - which is nothing to sneeze at. I'm not aware of any other way to get such a powerful Critical attack.* The 2-dice attacks at up to 2 other targets is a bonus. Of course, the (Air) Wizard isn't exactly hurting for Ethereal attack spells. Just trying to figure out a way to use this highly thematic spell.

* I guess it's technically possible to put Maim Wings and Hawkeye on your [mwcard=FWC12]Psylok[/mwcard] that's perched on a Steep Hill... then find a way to lure your opponent into Range 0-0. LOL. Screaming Zombie can't take Hawkeye, so that won't work. Ranged +X doesn't work on zone attacks, so Oscuda's out of luck. Even with all the tricks above, a Screech Harpy could only get up to 3 dice for its Unavoidable+Critical+Ethereal attack.  If only there were a way to give a creature "Poison +1" before pushing it through Wall of Poison Gas!!

*edit* Also, if your Hawkeye Wizard is perched on a Steep Hill, and also has Lightning Ring, he's already hurling 6-dice Lightning Jolt (4 mana quick-cast)/Arc Lightining (5 QC), 7-dice Piercing Thunderstrike (6 QC), 8-dice Lightning Bolt (8 QC), or 9-dice Thunderbolt (10 FC). So 4+2+2 FC Arcane Missiles aren't really overwhelming except against a very highly armored opponent (or Resilient Zombie swarm...).

[VictorE]

Roll for each attack separately to me suggests that this is 3 separate attacks and thus should get ranged + on each attack. This is not sweeping or doublestrike as those are the same attack.

[Enti]

I am pretty sure those attacks are made during the same attack action, but one never knows in MW until an official ruling has been made! ^^

[Arkdeniz]

I think the clue is in the first sentence: "You may make THIS attack". It is a singular event, not a series of three different events. So yes, I read it as Sweeping in all but name.

It may be useful to compare the language of Arcane Missiles with that of Whirlwind Strike (also a three-target attack): "it may use THAT attack [note the singular again] against up to three different target objects. I attacks each target one after another, in the same manner as the Sweeping trait."

[Coshade]

This is a pretty interesting conversation. While I know Arkdeniz is correct (based on how the design was intended). Below is just some thoughts on it. As other have posted it should most likely receive a supplement just to clarify the transition between Academy and Arena attack rules.

There is a question to be made about what rolling these attacks separately would mean. I wanted to look through the rules about it. The entire effect is considered one attack sequence in Academy. This is because there is no Additional Attacks Step in Academy. There is also no Range + effect in Academy. However Academy does have Doublestrike. Academy defines double strike as having an additional attack sequence before the Counter Strike step. Melee + in Academy specifically states you can only acquire the + melee the first time it makes a melee attack once per round. Once per round is the key word here. That is why double strike cannot gain the melee bonus in Academy. These are fundamental different reasons for Melee + not getting the bonus in Arena. It makes me question a little about how these separate attacks would not be in the additional strikes, but rather an attack sequence entirely separate on its own. If it is an attack separate on it's own, then you would get the range +