Egyptian magic how?

[fourismith]

I've looked through the wiki and dredmorpedia and I still don't understand how this skill works, could anyone explain it?

[Haldurson]

There are 4 glyphs --

• tier 1: Glyph of the Asp -- adds poison damage to melee attacks
  
• tier 2: Glyph of Imhotep -- increases trap affinity and trap sight radius by 1 (makes it easier to see and remove traps)
  
• tier 4: Glyph of Anubis -- Increases necro and putrefying damage and resistance by 1
  
• tier 6: Glyph of the Eye of Ra -- adds 1 to Fire and Righteous damage, and 2 to fire and Righteous resistance

Tier 3 gives you the main Egyptian attack spell, Call of the Sandstorm. Each Glyph that you have active at the time will increase the radius of the spell. Furthermore, the type of damage that is inflicted varies by which glyphs you have active. Without any glyphs, all you get is a bit of blasting and slashing damage. With Glyph of the Asp, you also will get some Asphyxiative and Poison damage. With Glyph of Imhotep, you also can debuff most creatures caught in the attack, plus will give you some buffs. With Glyph of Anubis, you will add some necro and Putrefying damage to the attack. With Glyph of the Eye of Ra, you will add a bit more debuffs (although it will make the target more resistant to cold), plus will cause fire damage, and potentially ignite the target on fire.

Note that all of that is cumulative, so with all 4 glyphs up, you will do massive damage over a wide area.

Tier 5 is a minor heal plus decent buff, plus will create poison at the diagonals.

Egyptian magic builds can be INCREDIBLY powerful, not only because of how much damage it does, but also because it does so many different kinds of damage that you'll be hard-pressed to find an enemy that will be significantly resistant to it (Dredmor himself, as well as Vlad Digula, can be problematic, but even they will take some damage if your magic power is high enough).

Eventually, you'll want to be able to maintain all 4 glyphs up for as long as possible. If you have other magic skills that buff you on top of those glyphs, you can run into problems, which is why I frequently will take both Blood Magic AND Ley Walker when creating an Egyptian build. I also frequently will include Alchemy for good measure, as well as Astrology. Maybe I'll include Fungal Arts for the early pet and shrooms (or Golemancy). They help to keep you alive until your build really gets going (like most mage builds, it starts out slow, so you need some help surviving in the early stages of the game).

Some people also use Egyptian Magic as part of a more Hybrid/Gish build. When doing that, you don't need as much mana, nor do you need to put a lot of points into the skill. In that case, you are primarily interested in the Glyph of the Asp to add to melee damage.

[fourismith]

So why am I getting debuffed and damaged when I use the sandstorm? Is there a way to mitigate this damage?

[Haldurson]

Originally posted by fourismith:

So why am I getting debuffed and damaged when I use the sandstorm? Is there a way to mitigate this damage?

Make sure you target the spell well away from where you are. You can hit yourself with your own Area Effect spells if you aren't careful. Glyph of the Asp will also create poison clouds that will persist, and you can easily walk into them if you aren't paying enough attention.

Those are the two possibilities that come to mind. If that's not what you are talking about, can you tell me what the name and effect of the debuff is that you are noticing? Maybe there's something I'm forgetting, or maybe the debuff is coming from somewhere else.

As far as mitigating the effect of your own spells, anything that either resists magic or the specific damage type (if it's a DoT type debuff) will help. Magic resistance, for example, can help you resist your own offensive spells. Also, for example, Fire Resistance will reduce fire damage (yes, yoiu can ignite yourself on fire with Call of the Sandstorm if you are within its radius).

You really have to be careful how you use AE attacks like Call of the Sandstorm, particularly because the radius of the attack varies by the number of glyphs you have up -- it's easy to forget that after your get a new glyph that the radius of the attack will increase. So just be extra careful.

[fourismith]

I've just realised it's not actually a self targeted spell lol. I kidna feel dumb now

[Haldurson]

Originally posted by fourismith:

I've just realised it's not actually a self targeted spell lol. I kidna feel dumb now

No problems. I''ve hit myself with my own spells many times by accident. -- I think everyone has.

One mistake I always used to make -- I'd occasionally take "Killer Vegan", and then save the game (or get interrupted), and forget that I even have it. When I start playing again, I'll go around killing everything in sight, not even paying much attention. And then a dozen kills later, I'll notice that my health and mana is in the toilet.

[fourismith]

Is killer vegan actually any good? the loss of xp doesn't seem to make up for the bonuses it gives

[Haldurson]

Killer Vegan is actually a really good skill. The main issue isn't the loss of experience, since you can still kill animals with ranged attacks without any consequences. The issue is that you have to modify how you play, which a lot of people don't handle well. It's not a skilll that's good for beginners, or for those who aren't willing to change their play style to fit their build.

/edit A really good resource (in spite of the fact that it hasn't been updated in a long while) is this thread from the official forums, along with the attached PDF document: https://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/project-community-skills-guide.3033/

Not everyone agrees on every point, but that's to be expected.

[fourismith]

Ok, this sandstorm is silly good

[waldorf]

Yeah I've had the same question for a while and I'm glad to finally have it answered

[PinkHairMasterRace]

i want to see a sequel i love this game i usally go with a warrior or rouge build cause i just like killing everything i have about 67 hrs in this game and i would really like a sequel

[Lip_Gloss]

Originally posted by fourismith:

I've just realised it's not actually a self targeted spell lol. I kidna feel dumb now

:D lol

[faelyn]

Great way to play Egyptian build is utilize Haywire. Magic training, tinkering, perception,Egypt magic,ley lines, wand crafting,alchemy. Last 2 you can switch out as you like. Wand gets you to level 2-3, take first in leyline then 2 in Egypt magic after that you'll rock everything.

[lionhart]

Originally posted by Haldurson:

Eventually, you'll want to be able to maintain all 4 glyphs up for as long as possible. If you have other magic skills that buff you on top of those glyphs, you can run into problems, which is why I frequently will take both Blood Magic AND Ley Walker when creating an Egyptian build. I also frequently will include Alchemy for good measure, as well as Astrology. Maybe I'll include Fungal Arts for the early pet and shrooms (or Golemancy).

That's how I did it. I also got my base mana regen up to seven with enchanted rings and armor; that seems to be the minimum level to stop mana bleed with all four glyphs up.

I can confirm that a correctly built Egyptian mage is ridiculously powerful; in fact I would say game-breakingly so. With Egyptian magic maxed out, and a large enough mana pool, the gameplay reduces to this:

- Open door.
- See huge crowd of monsters.
- Cast Sandstorm.
- Wait for everything to die.
- Collect XP
- Collect loot.
- Repeat.

[Codex]

Originally posted by lionhart:

Originally posted by Haldurson:

Eventually, you'll want to be able to maintain all 4 glyphs up for as long as possible. If you have other magic skills that buff you on top of those glyphs, you can run into problems, which is why I frequently will take both Blood Magic AND Ley Walker when creating an Egyptian build. I also frequently will include Alchemy for good measure, as well as Astrology. Maybe I'll include Fungal Arts for the early pet and shrooms (or Golemancy).

That's how I did it. I also got my base mana regen up to seven with enchanted rings and armor; that seems to be the minimum level to stop mana bleed with all four glyphs up.

I can confirm that a correctly built Egyptian mage is ridiculously powerful; in fact I would say game-breakingly so. With Egyptian magic maxed out, and a large enough mana pool, the gameplay reduces to this:

- Open door.
- See huge crowd of monsters.
- Cast Sandstorm.
- Wait for everything to die.
- Collect XP
- Collect loot.
- Repeat.

just so you know, i own the game on GoG.

personally, i used psionics and ley walker to absolutely destroy everything.

just went psionics first and then ley walker, got thaumaturgic power all the time, used the magic tap, and just cleared out absolutely everything using pyrokinesis.

[lionhart]

Originally posted by Codex:

personally, i used psionics and ley walker to absolutely destroy everything.

just went psionics first and then ley walker, got thaumaturgic power all the time, used the magic tap, and just cleared out absolutely everything using pyrokinesis.

My Egyptian mage also had Psionics and Pyrokinesis, so you can imagine how scary powerful he was. :)

This was my first time seriously experimenting with a pure mage build (I always used warriors/rangers in the past). I had tried mages before but they always died on the early floors. They are probably the hardest type of build to get going, but the rewards on the later floors are immense.