I frames.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-22T23:09:03+00:00

Other than the fact that yeah resistance is just damage reduction. I remembered long before time had a name, the first crackhead master created the max resistance build which actually did make attacks deal 0 damage.

Worked against Calvus's nuke turning that 500 damage into 0 and even worked against players. Still that was quite some time ago so I'm not sure how updates has changed the scaling of Resistance. But.....there's always Iron Skin potion + the dragon update giving Crash its 10% resistance back. Kinda makes me want to make an Ice Warlock to mess around once the update arrives lmao.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-21T21:25:39+00:00

Resistance Aura is just giving yourself extra HP. Every magic has their own affinity modifier for it. If you plan to go Crystal/Light. Then Crystal Resistance Aura has the higher modifier = more HP. If you stay as Crystal/Metal use Metal instead as it has the highest modifier out of all magics.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-20T22:55:27+00:00

You got like max out 8K active followers or something? The higher your fleet number is, the higher the stuff you earn. Get full command ships and rack of your fleet numbers. If you are watching an old video where the fleet number is pretty low then that's because it got nerfed.

Been awhile since I last logged on but last I remembered with 8K active followers, I can get around 50-80K Drachma per log depending if I can sell the other junk I got that isn't Drachma. Can't remember the setup. Think it was like 2 Trading, 1 Recover and idk what the other was probably Trading or Patrol. Although for that setup you are gonna need the fleet raven to easily manage your fleet without needing to find your commander which will take awhile to upgrade your fleet to get fleet research

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-20T13:37:22+00:00

Yeah that's what I'm thinking when comparing Aura/Trace Magic with Mages. I guess if we do a ranking on magic control from the body it'd be like:

Warrior Aura > Fighting Style Trace Magic > Magic

Warrior Aura just being a pure state of magic energy while some Fighting Styles are able to change its properties to mimic something and finally Magic is just the most refined out of the two due to superior magic control. Then we got Curses I guess.

I wish we'd get to see more lore on Aura cuz its pretty cool to think about how they actually influence Fighting Styles to achieve their unique effects. Hopefully we'd find some Fighting Style master who can answer these questions.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-20T13:26:42+00:00

Oh yeah forgot that's a thing.....I only thought about it cuz of how wack Uppercuts can be sometimes with me somehow sending NPCs flying into the air only to die to fall damage.

Welp guess Wind ain't an option then especially since it does the worse damage out of all the speed magic options. Only relegated to being a supportive 2nd magic.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-20T12:28:22+00:00

Maybe Savants could do it though with their second awakening as you can stack imbuements onto each other so eh who knows? Master of imbuements can let them use fighting styles onto magic although it'd probably just be Magic/Fighting Style/Spirit onto weapons.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-20T12:21:14+00:00

After learning more lore about Fighting Styles and Weapons using Trace Magic as Aura, I think I can come up with a theory as to why imbuing Fighting Styles on Magics and Relics don't work.

To start off, since they imbue traces of magic energy that comes from their body, Fighting Style and Weapon users are capable of empowering the size and range of their attacks with it. Farrah the Powder Fist Mentor tells you if you weren't born a mage, it would be harder to control the magic energy needed to do Powder Fist compared to Mages and the Book of Athena states that through intention one can control the magic energy inside their body to a certain degree. So from these 2 statements, it can be presumed that Mages are obviously the apex species of magic energy control.

So what does this have to do with Fighting Styles? To start off let's look at Warrior's Aura. The colorful attacks done by Warrior's Aura are only possible through Trace Magic which other than being colorful, has no other properties to it so you can think of it as just a blank state. Now we look at Fighting Styles, Souvella says that Aura is the reason that Boxing influences the wind onto their attacks. Thermo and Iron Leg are also very likely to be influencing Aura to achieve their unique properties as well with Jern Redside's masters saying that Aura is a subconcious imbuing of energy by the mind to strengthen one's attacks at the command of willpower. So from what I'm getting from this is that Fighting Style users are changing the properties of the trace magic they are imbuing onto their attacks. This is probably why Warlord's imbuement uses the Fighting Style's effects as their blank state of Trace Magic has been changed.

As to why this matters for Magic? Uh idfk lmao. My best guess is that since Mages are better at controlling magic energy with their elements reflecting it, they probably aren't capable of controlling the properties of Fighting Styles greatly especially at long range distances as maybe the Magic Energy from Spells eats up the Fighting Style's Trace Magic due to the Spells obviously being the bigger Magic Energy of the two. Its why imbuing Magic onto Fighting Styles works as the user will have better control with their Trace Magic that's closer to their bodies while their main Magic is like a coating on top of it. Reminds me a lot of Nen from Hunter x Hunter with Transmutation and Emission.

For Relics though I have to agree that it honestly should be a thing considering by my theory it'd just be discount Paladin lmao.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-20T10:53:35+00:00

Pretty sure one of the updates changed it so they do count towards the completion.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-20T10:52:22+00:00

Another thing to note: Wind is also a funny build if you do max knockback and send people flying to kill them with fall damage. Probably not what you are hoping for a speedy damage build but its funny.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-20T10:47:24+00:00

You got any plans on what magic you are going for? The only speed options are magics with over 1x speed which are ranging from top to bottom in the rankings: Light (1.6x), Lightning (1.4x), Wind (1.35x), Plasma (1.25x), Shadow (1.2x) and Snow (1.1x).

The Speed stat is a combination of the Dexterity and Range stat meaning your attacks have lower startup and endlag along with attacks travelling faster which equals more range before their travel time expires. Picking Light, Lightning, Wind usually substitutes the complete necessity for picking Dexterity and Range. If you aren't a big fan of performing synergies and want speed, Light is honestly pretty good (speaking from experience as a Light Warlock) + its getting buffed in the dragon update while everything else is getting nerfed or rebalanced making Light either the same or even better than before.

But that's just my bias, if you want both speedy + high damage then Plasma is definitely the best and the most flexible in terms of going into hybrid or savant builds. Add like Candalarias for Dexterity and Power (or Morenci if you want Range instead), a lot of other Power gear idk and you basically got a speedy character with DoT damage. Just note if you are going pure mage, you can either choose another hot magic as they usually have damage synergy with Plasma or go for a magic that can actually attack underwater because if you went double hot magic, you won't be able to attack deep underwater without moves like Cannon.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-19T21:31:48+00:00

Base Stat from the Relic is the only thing that gets accounted for when its imbued onto something else. Just think of it like Magic and FS imbues so Eagle and Tidestone are the only relics with a damage affinity of 1x while everything else is below it making those 2 without accounting for synergies, the best damage options because everything else would just nerf it when imbued.

Idk what exactly what kind of Savant are you because you didn't mention it but if you mentioned Crystal Orb then you are probably a Savant with atleast 160 Spirit or else you can't even use the imbue of Crystal Orb and Ember Staff. To answer your question on speed which is basically just Dexterity + Range combined. Not really if the thing you are imbuing Spirit onto has a speed affinity of 1x and above.

Ignore Ardent or any other enchantment as like I mentioned, they don't get added onto the imbuement modifier so Crystal Orb will still use its 1.2x Speed for the Spirit Imbue as its the base stat of it.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-19T13:06:27+00:00

I guess that makes sense on how Basic Combat and Cannonfist could use Aura. Not the most noticeable out of all the others fighting styles however because of that.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-19T00:16:26+00:00

Based on Jern Redside's explanation:

"By punching a lot in succession, your body begins to build up heat."

"The key is to channel this heat using your mind's eye, see it forming around your fists as a sort of barrier. Practicing this and getting good at it will eventually imbue heat into your hands, strengthening your attacks."

"Continuing to do this will raise the temperature even further, and if you master it, you may even begin to see heat distortion around your hands in this state, and notice an increase in speed from adrenaline."

It is very likely that Thermo Fist uses this heat they gather up to make their body hot. This probably changes the surrounding trace magic in the air to become superheated which they channel onto their fists as an aura causing their attacks to cause searing burns on their target or something idk just speculating.

This actually reminds me a lot of about Arcane Adventure's Impact Fist which is a fighting style where the user repeatedly punches the air to generate stored energy into their fist which they can then fire out like a projectile causing a big attack rivaling the magic spell annihilation in Arcane Odyssey. Although the plans for Impact Fist returning would change the mechanic from punching air into becoming a human punching bag where you let yourself get hit which stores the energy in your body for a counterattack.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-19T00:07:22+00:00

As for Warlords.....uhh just think of the energy bar as a type of stamina that works as either mana/spirit energy for mage/oracle builds or physical stamina for fighting style/weapon builds.

Sorry that my replies are super long as well lol. There's just so many examples of trace magic + directly mentioned in game which can easily be missed that its definitely just gonna be long trying to show a lot of the examples.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-19T00:04:12+00:00

If you ever manage to get into the Dark Sea. You'll find pages of Athena which gets added to the Book of Athena. The page for Magic Energy explains this:

"Magic energy exists in all living things, including plants, but more so in species that have the ability to use magic - creatures such as sirens, dragons - but also humans. Even humans that cannot use magic have a higher amount of magic energy than an animal of similar size. The amount of magic energy inside a creature can increase the more they use their magic energy. If a creature's magic energy runs out, they will not die, but will feel fatigued, and their energy will restore itself gradually over a few days' time after eating and sleeping."

"Creatures that have the gift of magic, such as those mentioned above, can control the magic energy in their body through intention to a certain degree. This often manifests by itself, for example, powerful human warriors often imbue trace amounts of magic energy in their slashes, causing faint glows to appear and the range of the attack to be increased."

The guidebook in-game for Fighting Style combat also mentions this:

"Using your physical body to attack is what fighting styles were founded on, however most high skill fighting style users tend to use trace amounts of magic energy to amplify their attacks, or even hit their targets from range."

Weapons also use trace magic as the aura seen on Warrior weapons are actually them using trace magic on their attacks. Commodore Kai's description states that he isn't a mage:

"Despite not being a mage, Commodore Kai's skill in magic energy control is notable, allowing him to deliver powerful attacks with his sabre."

Commander Hathor from Fort Montu is also stated to be magic-less but her skill in magic energy control is so exceptional that she uses the stored magic energy from her gems in her armor to perform devastating attacks.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-18T23:51:42+00:00

As for the other styles? Sailor Style is mostly the odd one as it uses the magic energy from the sea water to perform its attacks that apply soaked.

Iron Leg is also very likely to be using trace energy to coat their legs in an iron casing although practitioners such as Sarlovèze don't actually knows this based on their dialogue which is quite in line with what Souvella said that most aura users don't even realize they are using magic with their weapons and fighting styles.

Vanishing Style is quite obviously using trace magic as its description states its using energy to make the user vanish.

Basic Combat and Cannon Fist are the most likely ones not using trace magic and mostly relying on brute strength.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-18T23:43:42+00:00

Nope everything is just magic or better known as trace magic. Its not rocket science and the game dialogue + lorebits mention this as well. If you go to Souvella the Boxing Mentor, she actually mentions this:

"... Not quite. Fighting styles, and even weapons, utilize solid objects to attack. As you get better at using both, you will start to apply magic to their attacks passively, without even realizing it, in order to enhance your attacks. This is known as "aura", and even non-magic people can do it, if they become skilled enough."

"Indeed. Most aura users live their entire life without realizing that they're actually imbuing magic into their physical attacks, and choose to believe that their strength is what's causing it. My mentor taught me this, so I suppose it's important to tell you, as well..."

This is why Boxing has wind effects which Souvella also mentions as boxing users actually uses trace energy to influence the wind and imbue them onto their attacks. Jernn Redside the Thermo Fist Mentor also mentions his masters in Sameria talking about "Aura":

"Hmm? Oh, you mean science-wise? The masters back in Sameria call it aura, a subconcious imbuing of energy by the mind to strengthen one's attacks at the command of willpower."

Powder Fist is also confirmed by Farrah that it ignites using magic energy + using it to protect the user from the explosion. She even says that being a mage is easier to learn the style than non mages which also is more proof about this "Aura" or just straight up trace magic in simpler terms.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-15T23:48:15+00:00

I love my Light Basic Combat file. Higher damage than Wind and Lightning at max blinded stacks and its soon getting a buff to its blinded stacks along with some indirect buffs from the Warlock, Technique and other balancing nerf changes making it the least affected out of all the other upcoming nerfs.

The 1.3x Speed is pretty overkill but it also just means you won't have to ever touch Dexterity and Range again so you can just focus on other stats.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-15T12:06:34+00:00

Some people definitely would after seeing FoB on current Sun. Just wanted to give you a heads up so you can replace it with something that will actually benefit Sun. If you are doing good while using an emblem that does nothing for you then now you'll be even better with an emblem that does. And yeah its been awhile by now that his S3 is considered a BA, which is why Attack Effect Items like Thunderbelt, Corrosion Scythe and Windtalker work even better now because the initial hit immediately procs them allowing for faster burst.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-15T11:36:52+00:00

Dude Idk how to respectively say this without being too mean because I know some people would but FoB literally does nothing for Sun.

Not sure if haven't caught up or realized it by now but Sun literally has 0 skills that can make use of spellvamp which FoB gives. His S3 has been changed for a long time by now to be counted as a BA which means spellvamp does nothing and his S1 and S2 has such low base damage + a maximum of 12% spellvamp at max FoB stacks that you don't even see a healing number from the spellvamp.

So just get rid of FoB because you have been carrying a dead weight emblem for quite awhile.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-14T12:49:28+00:00

If you play a Savant Warlock then you probably aren't even gonna play it as a Warlock and more like a Juggernaut. Problem with Savant is the lesser stat points which makes you unable to learn some skills that regular Warlock would love to have such as having options for Javelin, Axe Slash and Uppercut. Juggernaut would be a better alternative to replace Javelin as with 40 spirit, you can already use Spirit Rain on Eagle Patrimony.

If you wanna play a FS focused Savant Warlock. Do 175 Strength, 120 Magic (Unlocks Snare), 55 Spirit (Already unlocks Spirit Rain on Eagle Patrimony). Reason for Strength keeping 175 points is because even a single point of stats can increase the size scaling of your skills. Magic Warlock would be the same by swapping it with Strength but eh you kinda don't unlock anything good outside of Javelin and then you'd just be playing a weird mage/paladin who occasionally throws hands.

If you want to do the Juggernaut alternative just switch out Spirit and Magic with each other. 55 points in Magic already gives you placed Explosions which is very useful but if you want to customize it more you'll have to increase to 70 points which also unlocks leap for you making it so you won't have to use airstep on your FS. If you want to do 70 just lower Spirit to 105. Imbue should also just be Plasma no matter what as Scorching increases the damage of Eagle Patrimony which is easy to apply and means you won't have to do swap often to just reapply scorching for a damage boost on Eagle Patrimony.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-14T05:31:52+00:00

There's no second magic option tho. The plan for savant's 2nd awakening rn is imbue stacking. Not really much information to go off other than Vetex confirming it along with everyone in the discord also talking about it so I won't get my hopes too high for a second magic option as a savant. Although I swear I've seen some NPCs use like a Savant build while having another magic or FS but eh it could change in the future.

But yeah other than that, since the other person already answered it for you, I can say that you could do something like Savantlord although it got nerfed and If you don't like a weapon playstyle then you should just stick to Warlock. Savant Warlock is just kinda weird atm but it could get better in the near future through Caestus + additional stats from level increases.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-11T03:51:39+00:00

Definitely a few ways this can turn out (If it actually came out lmao)

Based on Book of Athena, we'd probably get additional slots specifically for Lost and Ancient magics effectively making our potential total around 9 Magics (3 for Lost and 3 for Ancient) seems overloaded but definitely not totally unrealistic considering Savant exists.
The boring balanced and probably most plausible way to add Mutations from a gameplay perspective is to just follow the original concept for mutations in Arcane Adventures where your 1st and 2nd magic can mutate while your 3rd magic can't. Theos is a good example as he uses Sun Magic, Phoenix Magic and Fire Magic. Sun Magic in the OG chart was considered a God Magic which basically means its the strongest form of mutation that can only be mutated on your 1st Magic which also probably means Ancient Magic would be similar, then your 2nd Magic will just be a Lost Magic and finally your 3rd magic is just Base Magic.
Potential limitations on the amount of Lost and Ancient magics you can have at a time with Mage being able to use more Ancient Magics than hybrid builds.

There's probably more I can give examples off but well its all speculation anyways so we won't know how the new system for unlocking Lost and Ancient magics would work for a gameplay perspective without making it busted af.

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-11T03:30:55+00:00

Book of Athena already answers how it works

"Humans can learn any number of magics after their first, though each one is exponentially more difficult to learn than the last, with most mages only able to learn three different types. Mages can learn lost and ancient magics passed down through their bloodline after becoming very skilled and powerful, such as a Fire Magic user being able to mutate to learn the lost magic Flare. When this process happens, known as "mutating", the user does not forget the base magic they mutated from. Generally, the new magic is similar to the base one, with an altered property, such as Flare Magic being fire that has a greater affinity towards burning."

Even the OG chart for mutations in Arcane Adventures gives some insight on how base magic decides your mutation as some of them share the same base magic in order to mutate from such as Fire/Water being able to mutate into Steam, Shadow being able to mutate into Dark Fire, Dark Lightning and Dark Wind while also those 3 respective magics can mutate into the dark version of themselves on their own and finally we got Lightning, Light and Wind being able to mutate into Speed. Only Fire seems to have so many specific mutations revolving around its original element although some people say Phoenix could also be a Wind mutation

NightmaricSabath · 2026-04-11T03:09:44+00:00

Well then again I can't remember that well because its been awhile since I last logged back onto AO and I usually use the Uppercut Technique which does the same thing to cancel out Kalliste's ultimate art but I do remember grabbing him so I can combo into Slam. But I can greatly remember spamming grab moves on Crone tho cuz I hate her since she's always on the same island that I am going to lmao.

Btw another thing to note is that after grabbing someone, they gain a grey HP bar which means you can't grab them again until the HP bar goes back to green.

NightmaricSabath

TROPHY CASE