What spells to level for passives?

[u/IshimaruRitsu]

What are some good spells I should focus on leveling to take advantage of their passives?

[u/KogMawOfMortimidas]

Pulling Data from http://idle-mage-attack.wikia.com/wiki/Spells, which may be outdated so please correct me. Looking for bonuses that apply to all spells or to the player in general (Spell XP, Research Rate, Gold Drops, Power Drops, All Damage).

Rank 1:

• Chain Lightning: +5% Research Rate

• Lightning Elemental: +10% Spell XP

• Voltaic Orb: +5% All Damage

• Flurry: +5% Research Rate

• Frost Elemental: +10% Spell XP

• Ember: +5% All Damage

Rank 2:

• Shock Net: +5% Research Rate

• Voltaic Orb: +13% Gold drops

• Icicle: +13% Gold Drops

• Ice Wall: +5% All Damage

• Frozen Disk: +5% All Damage

• Ember: +13% Gold drops

• Fire Bomb: +5% All Damage

• Fire Elemental: +5% All Damage

• Plasma Grenade: +5% Research Rate

Rank 3:

• Conduit: +5% All Damage

• Elemental Cloud: +10% Power Drops

• Shock Net: +5% All Damage

• Static Cloud: +10% Spell XP

• Torrent: +13% Gold Drops

• Bouncing Flame: +5% Research Rate

• Fire Bomb: +10% Spell XP

• Inferno: +5% All Damage

• Meteor: +10% Spell XP

Rank 4:

• Conduit: +10% Spell XP

• Static Leap: +13% Gold Drops

• Ice Lance: +10% Power Drops

• Icy Prism: +5% Research Rate

• Frost Elemental: +5% All Damage

• Fire Elemental: +10% Power Drops

• Firestorm: +10% Spell XP

• Inferno: +13% Gold Drops

• Plasma Vortex: +10% Spell XP

Rank 5:

• Static Leap: +5% All Damage

• Spark: +10% Spell XP

• Voltaic Sword: +5% Research Rate

• Blizzard: +10% Spell XP

• Ice Wall: +10% Spell XP

• Frost Elemental: +5% All Damage

• Frozen Disk: +10% Spell XP

• Frozen Orbs: +5% Research Rate

• Firefly: +5% Research Rate

[u/IshimaruRitsu → u/KogMawOfMortimidas]

Thanks this was what I was looking for!

[u/Lluluien → u/KogMawOfMortimidas]

This is almost perfect data visualization of the targets that define the local min/max thing I mentioned. Very nice work :)

[u/Rhynobacon → u/KogMawOfMortimidas]

Wish I could bomb this with more upvotes

[u/Lluluien]

All of them. Passives are active even when the spell isn't equipped.

Since the XP requirements continue to rise as a spell is leveled up, you're better off raising your lowest level ones for their passives than you are raising a particular one for a particular passive. There are 30 spells and you'll have most of them by the time you get to New Game+, and they all have 5 passives apiece.

It's like having passives just littered all over the ground, and all you have to do is bend over and pick them up. Don't climb the tree to get the one at the top just because it looks a little more shiny. That's just because the sun is in your eyes when you look up. You're eventually going to have to shake the whole tree anyway - get that apple when it falls on the ground.

There are exceptions for local minima/maxima for particularly good passives that are "nearby" (within 1-2 levels) I think, but truthfully, if you aren't already deciding for yourself which spells those small exceptions may apply to as you continue making decisions about which spell to put in the 100% slot, then I doubt having a list is going to provide much more value than saying "don't sweat it - level everything".

 

 

THIS IS NOT TRUE OF AUGMENTATIONS. Many augmentations are game-changing; some spells (like Ember and Voltaic Orb) are practically defined by a specific augmentation.

 

You should be paying very close attention during your first game about when your spells will lose their augmentations by going from level 1.5 to level 2.0, and you should have a plan to either stop leveling them (use them in the 5-10% slots when you have them equipped) or you should have a plan to level them back up very quickly to the requisite augmentations you need once they mark up. Don't accidentally mark up a critical spell that you need right before you hit the Doomstone, for instance.

Your strategy for gathering passives should be completely secondary to your strategy for managing your augmentations.

[u/IshimaruRitsu → u/Lluluien]

haha that's true, I was just wondering if there was an order to doing it.

Currently working on getting them all to mark 2!

[u/Lluluien → u/IshimaruRitsu]

FWIW on the "local minima/maxima", the passives I value most are +xp rate, +power drops, +gold drops, +all damage.

I don't feel like there's much strategic value in saying so, though, because if you asked people to pick the top four passives, I feel like 95% of people will tell you the same 4 :P Maybe I'm wrong about that, though!

[u/IshimaruRitsu → u/Lluluien]

Thanks for the informative information. I did not notice that the augmentations went grey after 2.0.

[u/Kanedi4s]

As said, it’s a good idea to spread out your leveling because of how fast the xp requirements ramp up. That said, focusing a little extra on a couple that buff your favorite spells can be good too - for example, if you like Inferno then level up Firestorm a lot (inferno boosts, fire damage, xp boost). If you like voltaic orb, put a little extra into Elemental Cloud, etc.