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Mana Burn questions

AuthorMessage
Mastermind
Nov 27, 2013
363
Long time balance wiz here.

I have the mana burn spell and use it for pip-control attacks in pvp.

It frustrates me that the animation for Mana Burn is glitched and often does not show the numerical amount of damage that it casts.
I am also puzzled why the spell cannot be enchanted, for damage or for accuracy.

I recently discovered to my surprise that Mana Burn does not hit with balance damage. It is apparently a universal damage attack.

My questions are:

- Are there other spells like this, that are not any particular school-type damage? and cannot be enchanted?

- What damage factor is used to calculate the amount of damage this spell casts? There is not a "universal damage" stat in my gear.

- What resist factor is used to calculate the resist to this spell? Again, I have never seen a "universal damage" gear stat in the game.

Anybody know? Any theories out there why this is?

-- puzzled in Peoria

Mastermind
Nov 27, 2013
363
Also - if a player uses mana burn while in shrike, they will not receive a pierce blade and their backlash will not be reduced. Apparently it is not rated as an "attack"

This puzzles me, I hope someone can shed some light on it. thanks

Delver
Mar 31, 2015
203
ChicoValerian on Dec 25, 2018 wrote:
Long time balance wiz here.

I have the mana burn spell and use it for pip-control attacks in pvp.

It frustrates me that the animation for Mana Burn is glitched and often does not show the numerical amount of damage that it casts.
I am also puzzled why the spell cannot be enchanted, for damage or for accuracy.

I recently discovered to my surprise that Mana Burn does not hit with balance damage. It is apparently a universal damage attack.

My questions are:

- Are there other spells like this, that are not any particular school-type damage? and cannot be enchanted?

- What damage factor is used to calculate the amount of damage this spell casts? There is not a "universal damage" stat in my gear.

- What resist factor is used to calculate the resist to this spell? Again, I have never seen a "universal damage" gear stat in the game.

Anybody know? Any theories out there why this is?

-- puzzled in Peoria
Agree with the glitch and no enchant parts. Although once upon a time you could Elucidate enchant Mana Burn, but that was totally broken.

However, Mana Burn definitely works with Balance Damage boosts and outgoing Pierce etc. so for all intents and purposes, even if it is coded as universal damage which I am not certain of, it doesn't really matter, you can continue using it as you have. It's the same way for Spectral Blast, Nested Fury, Gaze of Fate, etc.

You can easily test this by going to Unicorn Way (wand hit until you go first) and Mana Burn immediately with different pieces of damage gear on (making sure your other damages stay the same).

The resist calculation is always according to type of damage that your spell deals. If a piece of gear does not have a school assigned to the damage icon, then it gives universal damage (the Alpha and Omega Ring, for example). Universal damage does not have a class associated with it and is shown on your character stats page by your damage in all schools increasing by that particular amount.

Amplify adds universal damage, and so does Balanceblade, Hex, Feint, etc. etc. (You should know this bro).

Since there is no Balance Shield (yet), the only meaningful consideration is whether adding universal damage in addition to school-specific damage in gear improves Mana Burn's efficiency.

For instance if a piece of gear gave both Balance Damage and Universal Damage, but in most cases gear adds either one or the other, but not both.

King Artorius uses a Balancespear (specific to damage), so if you King Art and then Mana Burn, whether the Mana Burn takes the Balancespear or not will tell you if it is coded as universal damage or not. Which I will shortly test, as I am curious myself.

I thought of Insane Bolt as another spell like Mana Burn, but it actually deals damage.

Mastermind
Nov 27, 2013
363
If you look at the Mana Burn card, there is no balance symbol for the damage, even though there is room for one. So that's the puzzle.

I'll try your suggestion with King Art, good idea.

I know about Amplify and Hex etc, but in those cases the spells add damage to Any-school attack. Mana Burn appears to be a No-school attack, even though it is confined to Balance wizards.

I will have to do some experiments to see, if Mana Burn uses my balance attack percent or something else, and if it is resisted by my opponents Balance resist or something else. That's what my question was.

Delver
Mar 31, 2015
203
Exabytes on Dec 30, 2018 wrote:
Agree with the glitch and no enchant parts. Although once upon a time you could Elucidate enchant Mana Burn, but that was totally broken.

However, Mana Burn definitely works with Balance Damage boosts and outgoing Pierce etc. so for all intents and purposes, even if it is coded as universal damage which I am not certain of, it doesn't really matter, you can continue using it as you have. It's the same way for Spectral Blast, Nested Fury, Gaze of Fate, etc.

You can easily test this by going to Unicorn Way (wand hit until you go first) and Mana Burn immediately with different pieces of damage gear on (making sure your other damages stay the same).

The resist calculation is always according to type of damage that your spell deals. If a piece of gear does not have a school assigned to the damage icon, then it gives universal damage (the Alpha and Omega Ring, for example). Universal damage does not have a class associated with it and is shown on your character stats page by your damage in all schools increasing by that particular amount.

Amplify adds universal damage, and so does Balanceblade, Hex, Feint, etc. etc. (You should know this bro).

Since there is no Balance Shield (yet), the only meaningful consideration is whether adding universal damage in addition to school-specific damage in gear improves Mana Burn's efficiency.

For instance if a piece of gear gave both Balance Damage and Universal Damage, but in most cases gear adds either one or the other, but not both.

King Artorius uses a Balancespear (specific to damage), so if you King Art and then Mana Burn, whether the Mana Burn takes the Balancespear or not will tell you if it is coded as universal damage or not. Which I will shortly test, as I am curious myself.

I thought of Insane Bolt as another spell like Mana Burn, but it actually deals damage.
To follow up, Mana Burn is coded as Damage, not universal damage.

Spectral Blast and Nested Fury however, do not trigger the Balancespear, even though your current damage boost applies to them. Only your innate Damage (and pierce) is considered when calculating the damage for your special off-school hits, unless you cast an elemental tri-trap or blade etc which will stack with your current damage.

Mastermind
Nov 27, 2013
363
Exabytes on Dec 30, 2018 wrote:
To follow up, Mana Burn is coded as Damage, not universal damage.

Spectral Blast and Nested Fury however, do not trigger the Balancespear, even though your current damage boost applies to them. Only your innate Damage (and pierce) is considered when calculating the damage for your special off-school hits, unless you cast an elemental tri-trap or blade etc which will stack with your current damage.
Got it thank you that is helpful. Do you have any guesses why Mana Burn can't be enchanted? What other damage spells are like that?

So damage for Hydra, Chimera, Nested Fury, Spectral Blast is based exclusively on your Balance stats, but the damage it causes to your opponent is based on their resist to the specific school that hits, correct? Odd that the spell changes school as it crosses the dueling circle, no?

Delver
Mar 31, 2015
203
ChicoValerian on Dec 31, 2018 wrote:
Got it thank you that is helpful. Do you have any guesses why Mana Burn can't be enchanted? What other damage spells are like that?

So damage for Hydra, Chimera, Nested Fury, Spectral Blast is based exclusively on your Balance stats, but the damage it causes to your opponent is based on their resist to the specific school that hits, correct? Odd that the spell changes school as it crosses the dueling circle, no?
Yes, that's one of the quirks of Balance. Yes, it is based on their resist to the specific school that hits, however your pierce IS factored in when calculating the final damage. So if someone is bringing out that Immunity, it can be helpful to pack some Spec Blasts.

Dark Nova / Dark Fiend can't be enchanted either. I have no idea why, as they really should be enchantable.

Survivor
May 31, 2009
11
Hey realize this is super old but wanted to throw my 2 cents in. I've been making a moon-school build for awhile now and found that the shift spells are only affected by universal damage, not the school damage-type on the card, while insane bolt is affected by storm damage despite being a moon hit.

As for enchanting manaburn...no. Mana burn is already a super powerful spell. It's the only pip-manipulation spell with a higher removal rate than it's cost; compare (5:6) with (10:6) for lord of winter, (3:2) for piscean, and (10:2) for celestial calender. Even aside from being a debilitating defensive option it'll usually do about 1500 at max when used against someone with 4 power pips, not bad damage at all.