#wizard guides

Outsiders Camp

2. Graveholm

3. Mortal Plain

4. Howling Lands

5. Black Lagoon

6. Scholomance

[[ my pyromancer partner and I are working on cataloguing the unique cheat combinations possible for parts 2 and 3, so this post will be updated as we discover them. or you discover them! drop the cheats you notice in my askbox so we can fill out this guide!]]

this dungeon is at the end of Darkmoor, and is very doable with two max wizards, depending on how difficult you feel like making it for yourself. (our particular duo is fire/life and that's an excellent combo).

there are three parts, and you should make three separate decks for each.

Part 1: Entrance Exam (30,000)

no blades, no traps, auras are fine. (as @stormbreaker101 mentions, you can use blades, but it takes 20% of your health, and thus may not be worth it.) this fellow cheat casts on the first round, either an 80% shield for each school, or 4 HoTs that last for 50 rounds. you need to remove these shields or HoTs in order to kill him.

some specific spells that remove heal over times are spellemented Triton and Skeletal Pirate, and you can get treasure cards of these. otherwise fire King Artorious who will remove all seven shields, and of course shatter works to remove them as well. there are other spells, but I'm not going to list them all.

for once, you won't be spamming AoEs! instead you'll be spamming single target hits. but you can have tons of fun utilizing gambits, which also kills him faster.

so your first deck should contain single target hits that gambit off each other, like the way spellemented Nature's Wrath does 140% damage by detonating the bomb from Burrowing Bane. (I'm a life wizard). after you've removed his shields or hots, it'll just be a game of pip up and hit.

Part 2: the Preceptors

you'll be tasked to find sets of four items. these are "tests".

swords are found lying on the ground

wands are music notes that you magic touch (mostly found on the water at the base level and you can reach pretty far)

cups are sparkles emanating from balls that you can only see in the photomancy shadow filter (you need to be pretty close to capture the sparkles)

coins are also found on the ground, and each symbol correlates to a different amount: Squid = 5, Dragon = 4, Scratch = 3, Jaws = 2, Hat = 1. you need them to add up to 25.

you don't need to complete all tests, and the next fight is considerably harder the more preceptors there are. we've successfully beaten three of them at one time, but it was NOT FUN. two should be the limit if there are only two wizards present. the cups test correlates to the Preceptor of Decadence specifically, and he sucks! don't do the cups test unless you're looking for a challenge.

just do wands if you'd like the easiest option.

this deck differs depending on the preceptor you are fighting. you can tailor it for the single/combo you're choosing. there's no late cheat, so if you need to flee and return with a more appropriate deck, that's fine.

coins = storm (Preceptor of Savagery)

Savagery: (13,680)

cheat-casts Triton when you cast a HoT, which clears it to give himself a blade.

whenever he hits you, it triggers an additional attack

swords = ice (Preceptor of Order)

Order: (21,745)

cheat-casts Wyvern if you blade, which places a trap, and gives him a shield

if you are fighting Order and another, you can blade once he's dead

wands = myth (Preceptor of Deviousness)

Deviousness: (16,865)

will detonate DoTs on you if you cast a blade, but will not remove the blade

he really is the easiest

cups = life (Preceptor of Decadence)

Decadence: (18,390)

cannot kill him with an AoE

clears DoTs or bombs

must kill him with a single target and he'll come back with half his health, after which you have to overkill him, so buff up and hit really hard!

you cannot do one preceptor at a time. once a preceptor is defeated, it triggers the next phase of the dungeon, regardless if all wizards have completed the schoolhouse rock quest.

after your preceptor(s) is defeated, pick up his statue and place it on one of the pedestals in front of Balaur. you get more drops for more preceptor statues placed on the pedestals - but this is what gives Balaur his extra cheats (info provided by @stormbreaker101)

Part 3: Balaur

Balaur is a four part fight and we've found it works best to not get fancy and keep it simple. (still going off a two wizard expectancy here. you can make adjustments if you have more wizards).

for our life/fire combo:

I (life) provided elemental traps and (potent) feints, and then heals, which are necessary since the fight lasts so long. the fire wizard fire-trapped and hit.

whatever combo you've got going, a single hitter is easier/quicker than both trying to buff and hit.

you have to - it's literally non-optional - kill the dragon(heads) in a specific order: balance, life, death, ice.

depending on which Preceptors statues you've placed, the dragons will have different optional cheats. the seasonal (main) cheats are always the same. their breath attacks always do about 800 damage.

there is a late cheat, it's a mana-burn to remove the wizard's pips and about 3000 damage. not the worst, especially if you have a healer on board.

Balance Balaur - skips your turn first round to cast balance of power, an an additional option cheat. (for ice/storm, double pip every turn auras - defeating him removes the auras)

Life Balaur - skips your turn to cast circle of thorns.

Death Balaur - skips your turn to removes all blades (recurring every turn) and shields and casts deadzone.

Ice Balaur - removes all pips from wizards and casts balefrost. every turn he gets two pips.

you can only feint them the turn you hit.

and that's Heretical Academy! once you've got a couple rounds under your belt, you can knock it out in about an hour-hour and a half.

1. Outsiders Camp - behind the spiral door

2. Graveholm

3. Mortal Plain

4. Howling Lands

5. Black Lagoon

6. Scholomance

I'm making this for myself, mostly, but you can use it too. based on one lvl 100 and one max lvl (otherwise have 1 hitter and 3 buffers and augment accordingly)

I feel it goes without saying that you should be sure to have full potions before you go in. if you have to flee and teleport back it will take you forever to walk all the way through the castle, but such is life. don't bother using healing spells, just use the wisps and your potions (some of the bosses forbid heals anyway).

The Castle

Fight #1:

Howling Chaney (life) - 20,000 health, 3 Hounds of Heck - 5,280 health

turn one: feint/blade, turn two: feint/blade, turn 3: feint/hit

Fight #2:

Sir Blackwater (star) - 18,000 health, Darkmoor Serf - 5,200, 2 Darkmoor Squires - 5,930

only aegis-ed blades, no universal buffs or globals

turn one: spirit/elemental trap/school trap, turn two: potent spirit/elemental trap/potent school trap, turn three: feint/hit (somebody pack an extra hit in case a minion blocks your crit)

"Puzzle" - crimson lens, neutral density filter

Upper Halls

Fight #1:

mob fight - 4 Darkmoor Gargoyles (myth) - 4,640

AoE or blade if required

Fight #2:

Ahktang Wormcrawl (fire) - 15,600 health, 3 Draconian Eidolons 4,620

no blades or globals

turn one: feint/trap, turn two: potent feint/potent trap, turn three: feint/hit

Fight #3:

mob fight - a bunch of draconians with 6k health

AoE and blade if required

Fight #4:

Spirit of Darkmoor (sun) - 14,700 health, 3 Darkmoor Gargoyles (myth) - 4,640

she sucks and will cheat attack for any and all buffs, but you gotta buff, so just blade and feint and kill her as fast as you can. the mobs might use earthquake, but three feints should be enough to kill her provided she stops cheat casting long enough for you to take a turn. this is not an impossible task, it's just annoying. be chill and patient.

if you're all lvl 100 wizards, really try to kill her faster because otherwise she will kill you, storm wizard.

Fight #5:

Shane Von Shane (death) - 19,470, Darkmoor Serf - 5,200, Darkmoor Gargoyle - 4,640

no feints, somebody has to hit him every turn, no heals

turn one: hit/blade, turn two: hit/blade, turn three: hit/blade, turn four: hit/hit (if you have four players, one person hits every turn, the other two buff the main hitter, and you can take him out in two turns instead)

this is a Darkmoor instance in Black Lagoon containing the Shadow Self Magician. it can be tricky to time this one right, because he can activate his cheats after you counter them if you don't kill him quick enough. and then it goes on forever!

Shadow Self Magician - 17,295 (shadow)

he casts an Invulnerability Aura on the first round

in the second round, he'll cast a dot on himself, one for each wizard present, and a hot to each wizard

casting a positive charm or ward transfers the hots to himself, and casting a negative charm or ward transfers the dots to the wizard. all dots and hots must be transfered to deactivate the invulnerability aura

he might cast a 90% weakness on you, and you'll have to get rid of that and chance missing an opportunity to kill him, in which case you go a couple more rounds transferring dots and hots

the wizard who kills him must have a dot transferred to them, otherwise he'll revive

multi-blades or traps will transfer as many dots or hots. feints transfer one of each

Dungeons

Darkmoor Castle

Drowned Dan

Loon Knight

A Bunch of Instances

Heretical Academy

Dark Bog

Visual Guides

Smashing Pumpkins

Frostbranch in Wintertusk (ice, 4,435 health) -

cast a single target hit on him first round, which will earn you a "mark of courage" and get rid of/prevent him from cheat-casting smoke screen (-50% accuracy).

this resets every five rounds, but you can kill him before then.

Belloq in Zafaria (balance, 5,070 health) -

if you're alone, cast a dot on the first round, blade and kill him.

or you can wand hit until you have enough pips for a bigger hit.

but you can totally get him all by yourself if you don't wanna wait for a teamup.

Belloq also appears in Azteca twice, the first time he's normal, no cheats, the second time, in the Wings of Obsidian Butterfly Shrine, he has to be hit every time or he cheat-casts Ra. dots don't work. teamup for this one.

Tim-Tim Snakeeye in Zafaria (Black Palace dungeon) (storm, 5,675 health) -

if you heal yourself in one round, he'll pierce his own (-90%) tower shield, and you can attack the next turn without him replacing it.

if you fail to kill him, he'll recast the spell, but you can do it again.

using pierce also works.

Xibalba -

it's just a dungeon.

you blade and feint and kill the boss three times and then you kill them all again in one fight with Undying Malistaire who you DO NOT BOTHER TO TRY AND KILL.

feint the other guys and zombie wife guy will doctor doom himself.

Ponce de Gibbon in Azteca (myth, 15,000 health) -

you can solo him, but you need to kill him in three rounds if you are. if you're in teamups, the non-hitter should go first.

he places a stun shield on a random wizard on round 2, which is usually the wizard in the first place, which means he's gonna beguile that wizard in the fourth round.

you can get rid of the mark by attacking him in the third round, negating the beguile in round four.

he'll sacrifice in the fifth round, hitting the wizard and healing himself, resetting the whole thing.

aka Celestial Pyramid. there are three rounds/rooms to this dungeon. you could do it by yourself, I guess, but don't be daft. bring a friend. join a teamup.

Round 1:

Quentin Quail (13,095)- cheat casts whenever the wizard casts any charm or trap or aura or global

Drake Lockley (17,795)- cheat casts whenever the wizard casts any charm or trap or aura or global

Round 2:

Old Quack (19,605) - will remove all your blades

Soul Eater - is a normal minion

Round 3:

Loon Knight (24,500) - cheat casts whenever the wizard casts any charm or trap or aura or global

Luna-tick - is a regular minion until Loon Knight polymorphs it into one of the other bosses you just fought and they do the cheat cast thing!

every round/room the strategy is the same: spam aoes!

aren't you glad I made this guide just to tell you to spam aoes for this dungeon?

if the bosses are cheat casting the dungeon takes longer, so it's not worth it to try and sneak some buffs in, even during room 2. if you just spam aoes and don't goof off this will take you maybe 30 minutes. or less! depending on your damage.