How do multicast spell modifiers work?

[Aquillion]

They seem to activate extremely rarely, but I can't figure out why.

[Nellvan]

Place the multicast modifier first, then to the right the spells.
To make it work reliably you need a wand that doesn't shuffle. Same goes for spells that trigger other spells. Shuffle = random casts, no shuffle = spells/effects always activate from left to right.

I've posted some examples in this thread : https://steamcommunity.com/app/881100/discussions/0/1628538005528478723/

[Aquillion]

No, at least for me, they almost never work even on non-shuffle wands.

I have no trouble chaining "trigger on impact" or "timer" spells on non-shuffle wands, but multicast spell modifiers seem to operate only occasionally at random, even when I place eg. one first in a non-shuffle wand followed by a single other spell.

[muck]

The double spell modifier won't cast two of the same spell, it'll cast the next two spells in the line up at once. If you have been placing the double spell modifier and one other spell, it can only cast that one spell. Similarly to how the modifiers that change the the direction of cast spells (such as the pentagram modifier that shoots 5 spells in an area around) you won't be able to make that formation if there aren't enough spells to fill the slots.

[Aquillion]

Does this also mean that if you have, for example:

Double Spell, Triggered Spark Bolt, Triggered Spark Bolt, Fireball

...double spell won't do anything, despite having three spells after it, because the triggered spell chain is seen as a single spell? Because I think that might be my issue.

[arat360]

That seems likely.

[arat360]

I can give you a tip though, any spell modifiers placed after a double cast will apply to ALL SPELLS being cast by the double cast. For example if you have something like (Double, Damage Up, Fire Trail, Critical Plus, Shock Bolt, Shock Bolt) then you will fire two fire trail, 13 damage, 20% crit Shock Bolts. I have not tested this, but I assume it works the same way for triple and quad casts

[sarcasm83]

Originally posted by Aquillion:

No, at least for me, they almost never work even on non-shuffle wands.

I have no trouble chaining "trigger on impact" or "timer" spells on non-shuffle wands, but multicast spell modifiers seem to operate only occasionally at random, even when I place eg. one first in a non-shuffle wand followed by a single other spell.

I've thought it might sometimes be that it doesn't cast two spells, because the mana cost is too high for more projectiles than one if the wand isn't recharged fully... Though, I have no idea if that theory is right.

Either way, I've been kinda weirded out about some wands inconsistency too, when it comes to that.

[Nellvan]

Originally posted by Aquillion:

the triggered spell chain is seen as a single spell?

From what I've seen so far , no.

I'm pretty sure it goes left to right, executing every step along the way. Double spell fires the next two spells, if there's another trigger among those it'll fire the next one that hasn't been used yet, etc.
This is wrong, see post below.

I'll just repost my examples to keep this thread less confusing.

This is right after shooting once, and there's the "energy orb with timer" and the "spark bolt" going off together. When the energy orb his the ceiling, it will shoot another sparkbolt from that point.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1872214285

With a slighty different sequence, there's not much to see in this moment, but when the orb hits anything, there will be 2 sparkbolts going from the impact location, going in different directions.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1872214266

Originally posted by sarcasm83:

I've thought it might sometimes be that it doesn't cast two spells, because the mana cost is too high for more projectiles than one if the wand isn't recharged fully.

I think this is true, forgot to mention this before. Just holding down the fire button will make it fail eventually (unless the wand is good enough), but everytime I gave the wand enough time between shots, setups like those did work.

[Aquillion]

I was just testing it, and triple-cast -> triggered bolt -> triggered bolt -> normal bolt will produce only a single triggered bolt (which will then produce the second one, and then the normal one as normal.) So they're definitely being lumped together into one spell.

[Nellvan]

Yeah you're right. In my first example I misinterpreted why / how it works. I now managed to get a combo of spells where it's easier to see what happens

Triggered spells are indeed connected with their trigger, so you need a non-trigger spell to end the chain and start the next one , which is considered to be the next "spell" that will be used by the multicast.

Triple scatter spell > (spitter bolt /w timer > spark bolt) > (spitter bolt /w timer > spark bolt) > (energy sphere /w timer)

I didn't have a wand big enough to add something to the energy sphere, but it's enough to see that this now works as it should. It's reliable as long as the wand has enough mana.

Both spitter bolts and the energy sphere fire together, and then each of the spitters spits out a spark bolt.