So i know this wasn't my idea but i saw someone post "Mith: a guide for the perplexed" and i thought that they had an awesome idea. i have a level 73 Balance wizard and i have found a way to do wonders with this school. Now like the Myth guide, i will not tell you the specifics of how to play. i will only say how to guide yourself properly.
first off, as we all know, Balance is a little bit of every school (except death which i find strange.) with that balance is a great part of a team while still being tough on their own.
Any charm or ward can be used by the other schools, so i think balance's true power comes with others. With balanceblade bladestorm and hex that is an added 75% to another school's damage percentage. that would make a big difference with spells like leviathan, efreet, medusaa, you name it.
Even without a team Balance can do a ton of damage with the highest damage card in the game: Judgement. without blades traps or damage percent and you have all power pips the damage comes out to be 1400. the reason no one thinks about this is because balance comes with the least amount of blades and traps to use so leviathan can easily pass it. But if Balance wizards want more blades and traps to use, chimera, hydra, and spectral blast become a great tool. i have had a chimera do around 5000 damage with each head. that was only using 9 damage helping cards! so Balance can be one tough machine.
Balance also comes along with all of the school shields, cutting any attack in half. that makes a leviathan do around 600 instead of 1200. something easily replenished with a pixie and incoming heal percentage. helping hands and availing hands can become helpful over-time healing spells if a life isn't around. lets say a heckhound was used against you and it did 300 damage every round. would you raher have a satyr heal you the first round and get 600 damage instead? or have an availing hands counteract the damage every round? i'd say the latter.
All in all, Balance is a great school everywhere. The only bad thing about Balance, is having to deal with what others say about it.
So i know this wasn't my idea but i saw someone post "Mith: a guide for the perplexed" and i thought that they had an awesome idea. i have a level 73 Balance wizard and i have found a way to do wonders with this school. Now like the Myth guide, i will not tell you the specifics of how to play. i will only say how to guide yourself properly.
first off, as we all know, Balance is a little bit of every school (except death which i find strange.) with that balance is a great part of a team while still being tough on their own.
Any charm or ward can be used by the other schools, so i think balance's true power comes with others. With balanceblade bladestorm and hex that is an added 75% to another school's damage percentage. that would make a big difference with spells like leviathan, efreet, medusaa, you name it.
Even without a team Balance can do a ton of damage with the highest damage card in the game: Judgement. without blades traps or damage percent and you have all power pips the damage comes out to be 1400. the reason no one thinks about this is because balance comes with the least amount of blades and traps to use so leviathan can easily pass it. But if Balance wizards want more blades and traps to use, chimera, hydra, and spectral blast become a great tool. i have had a chimera do around 5000 damage with each head. that was only using 9 damage helping cards! so Balance can be one tough machine.
Balance also comes along with all of the school shields, cutting any attack in half. that makes a leviathan do around 600 instead of 1200. something easily replenished with a pixie and incoming heal percentage. helping hands and availing hands can become helpful over-time healing spells if a life isn't around. lets say a heckhound was used against you and it did 300 damage every round. would you raher have a satyr heal you the first round and get 600 damage instead? or have an availing hands counteract the damage every round? i'd say the latter.
All in all, Balance is a great school everywhere. The only bad thing about Balance, is having to deal with what others say about it.
The damage bonus of balanceblade + bladestorm + hex are not 75% but 95%. You not add but multiply them: 1.20 * 1.25 * 1.30 = 1.95
I have a level 55 Balance Wizard with Death as secondary. The only spell I use from Death, however, is feint. Power nova, coupled with feint and blades makes for one heck of a way to take out monsters. I quest with my life wizard from my second account on my second computer, and with my life wizard to heal, I can actually one shot the three monsters with power nova. It just takes a little time to set up the attack, but with my life wizard to heal, I can do just that.
I use both blades, and my life wizard has gear that gives me the same blades but for a different percentage, so all four blades work together. I have learned not to rely upon wand spells, though, as I don't want to break my blades or my traps while setting the attack up. This makes it hard when I come up against monsters that use ice shields.
Had I known the gear that comes with the Pagoda bundle was balance gear, I would have given the bundle to my balance wizard instead, but it actually does come in useful for those extra blades, irregardless of which one of them ended up with the set. My life wizard actually has more health now than my balance wizard, hehe.
I'm an archmage Balance wizard~ in fact, my sorceress was my first wizard, and we've been together a long time. I didn't bond with her, until she was level 60-odd~ it takes a very-specific personality to succeed with Balance, and I'm definitely not it. :P
That said, the key to playing Balance well (in my humble opinion) is to know your limitations and learn to rely on spells other than Judgement. I won't lie~ Lady Judge is still a favourite for boss fights, though I've retired her from my main deck. In Avalon, I found that single-attack spells are a waste of space, and trimmed mine down to only 12 cards:
3 Power Nova 3 Colossal 2 Amplify 2 Balanceblade 1 Availing Hands 1 Reshuffle
Optional: Bladestorm, extra Hands or 'Shuffle. Sideboard: Amulet Balanceblade, amulet Hex, 4 Super Torment/wands.
- Other things worth noting:
~In a battle of the AOEs, Power Nova outclasses Ra. It's a solid spell, with the after-effect of Weakness to foil any strategy almost instantly.
~Colossal is your best friends. Keep it handy, and use liberally.
~Because Balance doesn't have stackable, school-only blades, like the other schools do, look for items or pets that come with Balanceblades. My desert beast pet and Witch's Star Necklace each come with one, and they stack with my trained one and Bladestorm. If you can find a TC one in the Bazaar (and they are rare), more power to you!
Always carry Cleanse Charm and Shatter TCs~ unlike other schools, we have to spend 4-9 pips to break shields, and it's not as simple as wanding off Weakness or Tower Shields with an off-school wand, so stick a few of these in your treasure deck, for good measure.
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I hope this added something to the guide. Well done, & happy trails!
