Grimoire 101

This is the Official Steam guide for Grimoire: Manastorm. There is also a ingame Tutorial available on the "Play" menu. Topics: Combat, Movement, Selectable Spells, Classes, Settings and Binds, and Game Modes. Last updated August 27th 2015.

Basic Combat

The majority of Grimoire’s combat is centered around each player's base spells which include 4 active skills and one passive skill. In addition each player may pick two selectable spells on the class selection menu. There are two categories Movement and Utility from which the player picks one each from a pool to customize each class.

The 4 active spells for each class usually follow this basic pattern:
Spell(1) (left click) is short ranged but high damage.
Spell(2) (right click) is your general use spell and can often be charged.
Spell(3) (Q) is a more unique/advanced/class-specific spell and can often be re-triggered.
Spell(4) (E) is your “ultimate” spell and usually has a long cooldown.

Basic Movement

There are three types of movement:
1) Running (W,A,S,D) - Only one speed.
2) Manashift (W,A,S,D + Shift) - Only use for Mana. Each player can Manashift three times before needing to recharge. Can be used mid-air or on ground.
3) Movement Selectable Spell (F) - Customizable on the Class selection screen.

By using Manashift and movement spells players can dodge incoming spells, move around the map quickly, gain high ground on an opponent, escape from a bad fight, or charge the enemy. The default movement spell is Teleport and can be used by pressing F and is perfect for doing any of the above.

Utility Spells

Many spells have also been designed around the idea of reacting to enemy spells especially with utility selectable spells. A couple examples include using Spellshield to block incoming damage from one spell or Stoneskin to absorb the effects of an entire meteor storm ultimate. You can lure enemies into Chains of Binding to trap them in place making them a prime target for spells. Or block a huge amount of damage from one direction with Fortify.

Damage Ranges and Types

Most class spells have a range of base damage potential. This means that most spells (Some ultimates are excluded) base damage can vary. In addition to this there is a lot of AOE (Area of Effect) damage in Grimoire. This can also cause the damage these spells do to vary based on how far away the target is from the location the spell hits. Direct hits cause the most damage but catching an enemy with the edge of an AOE will still do significant damage. You can utilize AOE by aiming for the enemies feet at close range or at an object near them or behind them (if they are on high ground you can often hit a building or object near them).

The Selectable Spells

After picking a class you also have the option (Bottom-right of screen) to choose a movement spell and a utility spell (Default is Teleport and Spell Shield). As I talked about before these play an active role in movement, defense, and combat. This is one of the places where players can customize each class to their preferred role and/or playstyles.

Movement Spells:

The default movement spell key is “F”. There are currently four selectable movement spells in the game. We recommend Teleport for new players and it is the default.

Teleport moves the player from their current location to another based on where your crosshair is aimed. Teleport is most commonly used to dodge incoming spells, travel around the map more quickly, and to control high ground. Many maps also have places where you can teleport over various obstacles or even buildings to surprise enemies.
Celerity has a short cooldown and can be used to give your character a boost of speed for a short time. Most commonly used to dodge incoming spells and gain a sustained movement advantage in a fight.

Juxtapose is a projectile spell which the caster can teleport to as it travels by pressing the movement spell key again. Most commonly used similarly to Teleport but gives the player more options. Can even be used mid combat to dodge multiple incoming spells.
Repel detonates a kinetic blast of energy at the target location that will knockback enemies and yourself. Most commonly used to "rocket jump" by jumping and casting at feet or to knock players off of the map or into another spell.

Utility Spells:

The default utility spell key is “R”. There are currently four selectable movement spells in the game. We recommend Spell Shield for new players and it is the default.

Spellshield creates a shield that absorbs damage from a single source and removes debuffs effects. Lasts up to 3 seconds.
Stoneskin turns the caster's skin to stone for a short time and prevents all incoming damage but also reduces your movement speed. This spell can be retriggered to cancel the effect early.
Chains of Binding places a trap at the aimed location. Enemies caught in the trap are then surrounded by a wall of magical energy which can only be escaped by using a movement spell like Teleport or Juxtapose (or bouncing out with Repel). Players can only have one trap out a time.
Arcane Barrier places an impenatrable shield in front of the caster which absorbs all damage and blocks movement.

Game Modes

Grimoire currently has two game modes Conquest and FFA.

Conquest is inspired by some of our favorite games like Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 2, and the Battlefield series but with our own twist. Players are divided into two teams: Validus (Blue) and Mangus (Red) and fight for control over powerful magic ley-lines which when controlled serve as a teleport back into battle. Every player starts in a basic spawn room and then can enter the map by traveling through the teleporter which takes you to the ley-line (control point) closest to the central point which your team controls. Controlling ley-lines gives points to your team and the first to 1000 points wins (or the team with the most points when times runs out). This game mode is still a work in progress and other features will be added throughout early access.


Here you can see the Minimap. Triangle icons represent the ley-lines and who controls them. The Green icon is you. Under the minimap are banners which represent ley-lines as well and actively change. In the bottom right is the map name..


A Magnus captured ley-line on Conquest_Slums.

The second game mode is a classic free for all which takes place on smaller versions of our conquest maps and is a perfect way to learn the basics of the game before entering an objective based game mode. First to 30 kills wins.

The Classes

Fire

Fire is designed as an easy to pick up class for players new to Grimoire but can also be a lot of fun for more experienced players (It is my personal favorite right now). At its core the class is an area damage dealer. Spells 2,3, and 4 all do medium to large area damage making it an ideal class for defending control points or commonly used but narrow paths. A charged Fireball + Magma Bomb plus a small amount of Flames damage will kill a player and is a great combo.
Spell(1) (Flames) - Sustained short-ranged trace fire damage.
Spell(2) (Fireball) - Chargeable projectile. Charge increases size of projectile, AoE size, and decreases speed.
Spell(3) (Magma Bomb) - Physics projectile with knockback component.
Spell(4) (Meteor Storm) - Rain of 6 meteors falls in target area after 1.25 seconds.
Passive (Path of Fire) – Manastepping leaves behind a trail of fire that will damage enemies.

Ice

Ice excels at close ranged area damage which also slows enemies movement. A popular tactic in Alpha testing was to Teleport onto a group of enemies, then use Spell 3 and 4, activate the Stoneskin utility selectable spell and then use Spells 1 and 2 to finish off enemies depending on their range.
Spell(1) (Frost) - Launches a lance of ice at your target. Can hold up to three ammo charges.
Spell(2) (Frost Bolt) - Chargeable forked projectile. Charge focuses the projectiles down to 1 projectile with higher AoE and travel speed.
Spell(3) (Frozen Orb) - A shockwave of cold blasts from a concentrated ball of cold, applying slow to all nearby targets and freezing the immediate area for 5 seconds.
Spell(4) (Blizzard) - Surrounds caster with an AoE damage cylinder. Slows movement on hit.
Passive (Chilling Grasp) – Collects ice on your opponent with every attack which eventually roots them in place for a short time.

Life

Life is Grimoire’s first and currently only healing class. My favorite way to use the class is as a combat healer. Use spell 2 to heal yourself and allies at range. Spell 3 can be redirected after casting and does more damage the longer its been out so cast it at the beginning of fights for a strong area damage mid fight. Spell 4 is perfect for creating cover that heals making it a perfect spell to use when taking a control point or when you need to create a temporary stronghold to defend ground.
Spell(1) (Thorns) - Fires homing projectiles at short range.
Spell(2) (Anima Blossom) - Chargeable projectile that can either damage enemies or heal allies. Healing/Damage and flight speed increased with charge. If you miss with the spell it will leave a healing globe on the ground which allies can collect to gain health.
Spell(3) (Call Wisp) - Fires a slow moving projectile wisp. Wisp gains damage over time. Retrigger sends the wisp to a new target at high speed.
Spell(4) (Tree of Life) - Summons a tree to at the target location. In a 512 area around the tree allies are healed for 8 health per second for 10 seconds.
Passive (Rebirth) – When you normally would die, instead you will transform yourself into a critter. As a critter you cannot attack, you have a small amount of HP and your movement speed is increased. If you are not killed within ten seconds you revert to mage form with 50% hp/mana. This passive has a 60 second cooldown that does not start until you are back in mage form.

Earth

Earth excels at medium to close range and can be challenging to use at first but rewarding once you get the spell mechanics down. Spell 2 and 3 both are very "heavy" and so players will need to aim above their targets in order to properly arc the spell. Spell 3 can also be used to create soft cover in the form of a smoke cloud. Spell 1 is basically a shotgun and does mass damage at close range but can be difficult to hit with. Spell 4 does a large amount of damage and is perfect for area denial, as a initiating attack, or even to escape death.
Spell(1) (Pebbles) - 8 Small Projectiles that spread out over distance.
Spell(2) (Boulder) - Physics projectile that has a short cooldown and does AOE damage.
Spell(3) (Sandstone) - Physics projectile that does AOE damage. Can be retriggered to create a dust cloud at retrigger location.
Spell(4) (Lodestone) - Teleports player up into the air. Player becomes invulnerable after teleport, and can aim beneath themselves. After 3 seconds the player crashes back to the ground at their aimed location and deals high AoE damage.
Passive(Earthen Mantle) – Damage resistance is increased base on the current amount of mana steps you have available. 3 mana steps available – 40% resistance, 2 mana steps available – 25% resistance, 1 mana step available – 15% resistance.

Lightning

Lighting is Grimoire's long range specialist or "sniper" class. Spell 2 has an extreme range and instant travel time making it perfect for doing consistent damage with careful aim. Spell 3 also can be used at long range and after a delay slows any enemies in its area of effect making them vulnerable to follow up Spell 2 hits. Lightning can also defend itself fairly well at close range with a combination of Spell 1, snap shot Spell 2, and Spell 4. Spell 4 arcs area damage around it and can be stopped at any time by retriggering the spell. It is perfect for flushing enemies out of cover, doing damage at close range, or defending an area/path.
Spell(1) (Electricity) - Sustained short-ranged trace lightning damage.
Spell(2) (Lightning Bolt) - Right click fires long range trace lightning bolt.
Spell(3) (Thunderstrike) - Ground targetable delayed lightning strike. Slows on hit.
Spell(4) (Lightning Orb) - Lightning orb projectile that moves slowly in direction cast and damages any enemies that are close. Can be stopped with retrigger.
Passive (Magnetize) – Damaging an enemy player with a lightning ability applies truesight to the damaged player for 3 seconds. While truesight is active, the player is visible through walls. There is a secondary effect to denote the tagged player is behind a wall(no line of sight.)

Nether

At it’s core Nether is all about control. Control over space, ley-lines, and paths. And of course control over players.Three of Nether’s four base activatable spells are designed around this control and when used together with other classes can easily turn a fight in favor of the Nether mage. Grab enemies with Spell 3, Trap a group of enemies in place with Spell 4, or deny area control using Spell 2.
Spell(1) (Chakram) - Send out a chakram of Nether energy that returns to you. Can damage enemies twice and travels through solid objects on return.
Spell(2) (Rift) - Summon a pool of Nether energy that deals damage to mana and health over time.
Spell(3) (Void Tether) - Launch tendrils of Nether energy that when it hits will pull your target to your location and deals damage.
Spell(4) (Vortex) - Create a powerful gravity well at the target location that sucks in nearby enemies and prevents them from moving or casting spells.
Passive (Coming soon) – Your Manasteps are instead mini teleports.

Settings and Default Key Bindings

This ingame help overlay showing the default key bindings and basic HUD information can be accessed at any time by press “H”.

A more traditional FPS style or your own custom key bindings can be found in the Options menu along with mouse sensitivity settings and audio options.

Also in the options menu are some graphics options (more will be added throughout Early Access). If you are experiencing low frame rates please try enabling the “Low-end PC” option or lowering your resolution.

Console (`) is also currently enabled. Helpful console commands:

• suicide
  
• togglevideomode (Removes all HUD elements)
  
• stat NET (Ping and latency numbers)
  
• stat FPS (Framerate)
  
• invertmouse
  
• setname NAME

[Brent]

Varkill, that is a great point. I will be updating the guide soon and will try to make references like that so that it is easier to understand what certain spells do. Thanks!

[ｖａｐｅｃｌｏｕｄ]

Nice Guide!

[Sarvok]

It'd be nice to tell us if spells are directly based on UT mechanics.
Like the lightning spell 2 would be the shock rifle's primary, earth spells 1 and 2 would be flak's primary and secondary...
Tell me if I'm wrong but those really felt that way.

[Brent]

Just updated.

[Brent]

It's free to try right now and plenty of people ingame to play against :)

[(Raptor) Jesus]

This honestly makes me want to purchase this game, it seems to be extremely interesting.

[Microsoft Excel 2016]

I carry my team like a b0ss but this game is still awesome!

But this guide didn't really help that much, as i already knew almost everything.

The only flaw i could find was that lightning excels at "snipering", not close combat. But lightning is awesome at close combat! You use 3 and 1 and rapidly use magestep. If things get tight use 4 and then create a barrier (The unbreakable), then you teleport behind your adversaries and butt-f**k them with 1!

[correction]

Even though i carry my team all the time i still love this game 11/10

[Ve]

Nice guide!

[Reon]

SI ME GUSTA, el grimorio Dev tiene Penes GRANDES