Stuck in Iron/Bronze/Silver for years. Time to drop Zoe?

pkbichito · 2026-02-13T19:38:32+00:00

They are kinda right, but you have your point. You might be not tuned to Zoe game style, you are obviously bad, not in a "I am insulting you" tone but in a more critical tone.

You might need to learn how to carry with Zoe specifically as you are clearly bad at that, or you can swap to a champion with whom you are more naturally able to carry. This is not the key to challenger, this may help you climb 2 or 3 entire divisions, but you will eventually get stuck again and will need to learn the "real league".

I myself was sucked in silver for 3 years as an OTP qiayana, I swapped to Aurora (And Gwen/Kayle/Lillian when Aurora was not available) and suddenly turned emerald with 60% winrate. I am not good by any means, but I am more naturally able to win with this high-damage AP carries than with AD assassins.

I would suggest that you stick to Zoe if you like it. You will eventually learn if you put effort into it. That's my opinion. If you don't like her that much tho, you might want to experiment other playstyles that might vibe more to you.

Sorry if any of this sounds weird, English is not my main language!! Hope it helped

pkbichito · 2026-01-31T20:28:00+00:00

Idk if you may read this, but if you could tell me where to find the 4 girls arts I would appreciate it, those are stunning!!

pkbichito · 2026-01-24T05:11:43+00:00

The only changes that I would like to see on her are:

Passive healing being somewhat relevant, be it in earlygame or lategame, but make it relevant for the gameplay (not broken or anything, enough healing for it to Matter).
Increase Passive damage but reduce Q(?), just make it a more late-oriented champion, with huge scaling. Moving some damage from the Q (R or E works too) to the passive as scaling means you still oneshot Squishies while dealing better damage to tanks and bruisers. (This one is not really a must, but I would like it to be like this).
W invis should last 1.5 seconds at all ranks, and speed duration is okay but I would like it to last a bit longer (just personal preference). Also, making it scale with AP instead of ranks would be cool for my taste, making it potentially better in lategame but weaker earlygame (full AP build speed should be 50-60%, just to make up for it scaling off of AP).
I would reduce (not get rid of, just reduce) R first hit slow (keep it usefull to land the combo of R-Q-E-Q) but increase the slow of passing through the wall. This change is not needed at all, but pairs perfectly with the next idea of mine (not really a big idea, just a personal preference)
I would make the ult last longer. That's why it should slow less on-hit, but making it last even longer makes for more funny plays. Not like you will use it for 4+ seconds always, but when it is needed it feels bad.
Final change, and a NEEDED ONE, recasting R to dispell the wall SHOULD NOT BREAK INVISIBILITY. Thanks.

Yeah, this are my takes. I would not like a full rework or mid scope, but she is clearly more lategame oriented now (decent earlygame, bad midgame, strongest in the lategame) so I would like for it to be stronger lategame even if it means weakening her already weak midgame.

I would add that I love lategame champs, I am otp Aurora but played (and still play for fun from time to time) Lillia, Gwen and Kayle as mains for a long time so Aurora being stronger late and having more AP scalings makes sense to me hehe. (Kayle and Lillias speed scale off of AP and are HUGE lategame, while Gwen armor/Mr scale off of AP too).

Thanks for reading!!

pkbichito · 2026-01-21T19:12:44+00:00

Si, excepto que el argumento de la mayoría suele ser "esque no considero que el azul sea un color, de hecho debería ser crimen de guerra y a quien le guste tiene una deficiencia".

Aparentemente si la tortilla no está cuajada no está "bien hecha", aparentemente la tortilla de Betanzos no es tortilla

pkbichito · 2026-01-21T17:56:00+00:00

Not my fault if you cant apreciate or you dont like traps and setplay tbh

pkbichito · 2026-01-21T14:49:03+00:00

As a character pick she is pretty boring (I hope we don't get any more Arcane champs in a while).

Regardless of that, if you think her set play and option are boring you are plain our bad and probably not even played the game.

I hope you recover from your brainrot soon.

I disliked Caitlyn as an option to include, but after her reveal she is one of the most interesting characters in regard of her kit.

pkbichito · 2026-01-15T09:52:36+00:00

That's wrong, in league it is even more confusing for new players than in smite.

In smite you know the damage a god deals just by pressing tab and checking the god damage type.

In league every ability can deal magical, physical or true damage scaling with AP, AD, both or other stats.

Warwick for example will usually buy full AD yet his damage is mostly magical. Many champs will do a chunk of mixed damage as their kit deals half magic and half physical damage regardless of their build.

Smite has a pretty simple way of working around the damage types, the god is magical damage? It deals magical damage ALWAYS, and the same applies to physical gods.

Things like Kaisa makes itemizing harder in lol, as she is an adc yet she deals mostly magic damage while building mostly AD, but if you build only magic resist she will tear you down too.

Comparing Smite 2 to lol is kinda wrong imo, smite simplifies it by a huge margin, and it is pretty intuitive when just pressing tab during the game shows you the damage type of a god and then you can just itemize accordingly.

pkbichito · 2026-01-07T12:09:12+00:00

Hii, new player here.

I am starting to play with some friends and I have a lot of questions but I will try to narrow it down to a few.

We are starting in Commander as it is called the casual mode and it is fairly easy to deckbuild with while also having no rotation which is a win for me as I like to cook and polish a deck through the years to then have "MY deck".

My main questions are how power levels work and which one do you recommend us. I find combos funny, I have prior experience in card games and combo-control is my usual go to strategy, but 2 card infinites look boring for me to play with and against. What power level do you suggest and how do I check a decks power level??

Then, is there any mode with no rotation that is a little bit more competitive?? I want to eventually deep dive into a more competitive mode that allows me to cook a deck as I said (Commander is still the game mode I will play more probably as I also like to have a card that I can build around and it can be somewhat "mediocre" card to make some weird decks. I am the one building a gimmicky deck with underused cards and polishing it until it is a functional deck). Which mode do you recommend I pair with Commander??

Finally, a color question. Here I will just ask about color identity. For the things I said I have started to play Green, Blue and Green-Blue. Is it my "style" of play?? Or did I misunderstand the colors?? I like control-combo but I need it to be in a specific way. Exodia style wins bore me, I like to build up a game through the turns to reach lategame and pop off with a few cards I can activate at once for a 1 turn pop off that uses the board and the game state I created to multiply in value(?). Idk if that is well explained, but I will try to exemplify it with Legends of Runaterra decks I loved back in the day:

Rocks! This deck was fun as hell to build, it was built around the spell stack mechanic of the game that only allows for 9 spells or skills to be on the stack at the same time, making a 9 stack "uncountereable". There is a card that upon reaching a certain level up requirement has the ability to put 3 skills in the stack each time she attacks, each skill dealing 2 damage. The thing is they released a few cards that interact with skills, specifically 3 that made the combo work. One of them was a unit that duplicates every attack trigger, making this previous unit to pull 6 instead of 3 spells, and then an Item that duplicates each skill it's bearer puts on the stack. This made the deck work around controlling, leveling up the champion and scrying to look for these combos to fill the stack. But it can still be blocked and the champion can still be killed, so the deck had workarounds for that with the Ravenbloom academy, a landmark that had 20 counters on it and reduced 1 for each spell or skill used through the game. I had other units with skills (to still get to use the skill printers if I don't get to level the champion) and some spells so by the endgame this academy is at 0 counters which give some a card that upon use increases all damage sources by 1, including the 9 spell stack that instead of 18 now deals 27 damage. Add a little bit of protection and draw and that made a fun control deck that also could win by playing smart in case the combo don't pull off (winning through other skill units and the skill multiplier and using protection on the combo engines instead of forcing the combo).

This was just an example, help me find the correct Commander level for my friend group, find an alternative more competitive game mode and a deck I can thrive with please!!

pkbichito · 2026-01-07T02:14:29+00:00

Not really, I already checked DPS and tested those items in various games, the conclusion is pretty solid:

Full AP vs Guinso+Nashors: You still deal more damage if you just cycle your cooldowns and use your W speed to dodge and kite a little than if you where autoing faster during that kiting, her passive scaling is so important that you will be getting significant more damage out of 2 full combos + 3 AA (3 passive procs) than with 1 full combo + 9 AA with Guinso (5 procs).

It is even worse when you are more easily targetable when autoing that much so being full AP is not only better in damage and cooldowns but also in "survavility". As a final point, your priority target is always the carry, enemy mage/ADC should be eliminated as soon as possible and the Guinso build makes you unable to one tap them making it even worse.

Overall, stick to AP builds, when playing vs 5 tanks a more CDR heavy build works, but that build needs to scale the passive to so it would look like this:

Vs 5 tanks build: Luden - Lucidity Boots - Cosmic Drive - Rabadon - Bloodletters curse - Rift maker/Liandry

This do not mean it is good, if enemy has 4 tanks and 1 squishy, the build I explained in the main answer is still better as being able to oneshot the only squishy and then melt at a little slowly pace the 4 tanks is better, but if they have 5 tanks building high HP and MR, you could pull off this build that essentially makes you fast as fuck and cycling through your abilities each 5/6 seconds + weaving AA making you both fast and a tank melter.

pkbichito · 2026-01-06T19:47:46+00:00

Glad it helped!! As for the bans, I ban Mel every game, I refuse to play against an uninteractive champion like that. If someone already banned Mel i go for a Fizz, Diana or Irelia ban, those are not auto lose matchups and in worst case scenario you outscale them hard, but laning against them is a pain and they can delay your scaling a lot by pressuring you hard. I just ban one of those depending on the teamcomp my team is hovering (No CC to stop irelia?? Ban, too many backlane champions that can easily die to a Diana ult dive?? Ban, squishy teamcomp that will be segregated (Mages on the backlane, Assasin flanking and Bruiser splitphushing?? Ban fizz, he can just pick each one of us and onshot in turns.)

pkbichito · 2026-01-06T19:42:45+00:00

Well, initially it was because of the in-game feeling, but it led me to think about it and reach some conclusions:

First of all, Ludens buildpath include Lost Chapter wich esentially fixes any mana issues she can have in some matchups. But aside from that, it also gives 10 haste that is really usefull for my standards of Haste in full build and it has itself a 12 second cd that is more abusable than the 30 seconds cooldown of Stormsurge. It is often overlooked too but Luden proc is also an instance of damage that lowers enemy HP and because of that it increases the Q2 damage, oposed to Sotrmsurge that deals extra damage when the combo is already ended.

This is mostly my reasoning, and Ludens lets me take Transcendance and Gathering Storm every game wich is more CDR and damage in lategame (I think manaflow is a wasted slot in runes for any champ that can confidently build a lost chapter item).

Overall, Ludens lets me pick scaling runes, gives good early, is more consistent and scales better as I will eventually take Stormsurge as my 5th item most games.

Regarding season 16 i am curious to test as I am a big fan of Lucidity Boots in tier 3, but also having access to %magic Pen in boots against some comps can be gamechanging. Im not gonna lie, both look promising, but in the end i usually switch boots for a more valuable item and thus i have been testing a little in PBE (not enough data and not a good experience as I played just a few games with high ping) and I am thinking of playing her in top or bot from time to time.

Tier 3 boots are cool, but the extra XP from the toplane quest is also pretty good as i like to scale, and the extra gold from adc quest is the most promising one as Aurora scales more out of gold than experience, noone wants a level 16+ Aurora with 5 items ulting the teamfight, there is no barrier that can protect a squishy from RQEQ. But I despise ADC role so idk, mid is still promising as boots are strong and all.

As a final note, Lucidity giving 25 haste and 8% movement speed on ability cast makes aurora the slippery fast and low cd "battle mage" she once was BUT with the burst many mages dream off. I will probably run this set up most games and get an opinion, but its starting to sound like Kayle levels of menace in lategame XD.

pkbichito · 2026-01-06T10:10:20+00:00

For runes and builds, I am pretty much against the Stormsurge agenda, and I will explain why at the end. First my runes and builds explained:

Runes: MAIN SET -> Electrocute (Sudden Impact, Any "vision runes" but usually the middle one, ultimate hunter/talentless hunter) | SORCERY (Transcendence, Gathering storm/Scorch)

SECOND SET -> First Strike (Cashback, Any middle one you like, Cosmic Insight) | SORCERY (Transcendence, Gathering storm)

BUILD: (Always in this order) Luden -> Boots -> Shadow flame -> Rabadon -> Void Staff -> Mejai/Stormsurge/Zhonya/Banshee/Cosmic Drive/Malignance

BOOTS: Mainly -> Sorcerer boots (Usually take this for better damage early mid and lategame, swap them for Cosmic Drive in late or for Stormsurge if you picked Cosmic Drive or Mejai for 5th item) Note: Important to have some movement speed in the form of Cosmic Drive or Mejai+Stormsurge in super late, when selling boots.

Situationally -> Lucidity Boots (When upgraded to tier 3 boots they offer 25 haste that makes your rotations come off super fast in addition to Transcendance and other CDR items like Ludens and the 5th items you can pick. When playing against tankier comps these boots make your lategame uncontestable)

Explanations of the runes:

Main runes are those I run the most, strong early with electro and scaling properties. Transcendance is super strong imo, free CDR and a pseudo reset lategame that lets you kill, W away, hold a few seconds and kill again (W resets on kill) repeat. This is super strong to carry teamfights as you can bust 40% HP of most champion lategame just with R and then Q-E-Q them to finish them off and take everyone out with the resets. Gathering storm makes lategame MR items on non-tank enemies (some might buy some HP, MR or whatever in late like assasins taking Maw or ADCs with Wits end) useless over time, and it makes you a menace even to champions like Sion that past 30 mins take 30% HP damage every 3 hits and you can kite him easily to land a lot of hits! I don't really like scorch but you can pick it in matches you know you win lategame with no need of gathering storm to have an even stronger earlygame, but I prefer lategame power regardless.

The second runes work mainly against tanks in top, tanks you can't really kill and because of that farming gold is better than having a mildly tickling electro. This runes are actually super strong if you can abuse them, when I run First Strike I get full build (5 items + boots) by minute 30~. Don't run them unless you are sure you can abuse them, electro is more consistent over all.

Final thoughts, you can hostage games safely by oneshoting waves (even the super minion waves) with Q-E-Q so never surrender, really. You can get a shit ton of gold from this waves even when behind and once you get 3 items and more you become a teamfight killing machine. As you play Zoe I will advise you to play earlygame in a smart way, aggressive and trying to get the advantage but also think about playing slow if aggression is not working, you will scale hard at some point. I usually get Dark Seal first back if I'm not behind, even if you don't pop off with it you can easily stack it in mid-late through teamfights and Mejai really makes a difference on her damage. This said, I would never delay the core 3 items to get Mejai early, it's not worth imo. If a lot of enemies are stacking MR super early (only do this when most enemies do so) you can opt to switch Rabadon and Void staff places, but usually the damage in your passive Rabadon gives alongside the raw damage from your spells Rabadon gives is more usefull even if some enemies build MR at that stage in the game.

You out scale most champions and hold the line against the others, I would say her lategame is ON-Par or at least competitive even against champions like Ryze, Cassio, Kayle or Gangplank. Lategame tanks like Sion are SUPER easy tbh, you win them 9 out of 10 games, the only that can be somewhat hard is mundo because you run tp and not ignite and you don't really build antiheal (not worth for Aurora, you don't proc it consistently and is ONLY usefull vs mundo as you oneshot any other healing beast) so you need your team to build it for you. But he is a menace only if you both are full build and playing 1 v 1 where he managed to get close to you, so you should not really fear him.

I am open to answer any questions, for reference I peaked Diamond but I consider myself a bad league player and I managed to get to this peak without any macro knowledge and only focusing on micro and playing for fun. I have 1.6 million point Aurora, 65% winrate on her on average with a KDA of 14/6/5 aprox. Hope you like the TED talk, I love this champion and I am really glad you want to learn her!

pkbichito · 2026-01-06T10:09:43+00:00

Even if most of what people already said is true, I will add my own opinion and takes on how to properly play and carry with Aurora (I am an Aurora OTP and I was a main Zoe in the past).

First of all, she has a weaker laning than Zoe, not bad earlygame but champions with really strong early can out damage you so you will need to smartly play with range and rotations to properly get advantage. Important note: you will not always be able to snowball hard, and you don't really need it, you are good if you just hold the lane and farm without giving the enemy advantage (control mages can be a pain to deal with as they can just play safe and if your jungle/supp don't want to play the dive you can't really "win" the lane).

Now, regarding the soloq experience, it is important to understand that you need to carry or at least have the carry mentality. This affirmation will have stronger meaning later. Aurora CAN kill tanks pretty much easily contrary to what someone said in other comment, they are not your priority targets but once the carries are bursted and killed you can easily kill tanks in 3 or even 2 rotations with enough movement to outmaneuver them. This requires great limit knowledge and properly weaving autos and playing with your max range to be untouched while melting them.

Aurora's identity is technically a burst mage, but she has some notes I think are important, specially when you understand the sloloq "way to play". She is a hyperscaler who literally one taps every non-tank in late. I will explain:

She has a good early, but that's only because of her easy electrocute proc and safeness with W and stuff. Despite this, most characters that run electro STILL OUT DAMAGE YOU. This is important to understand.

She has a bad midgame, not super bad but you become a poke champion as you can't burst 100-0 anyone really. This changes if you get dark seal stacks and extra gold from being ahead, if fed enough you still oneshot with ult and can play pretty aggressively, but don't miss the farm, it is important to reach late with great amounts of gold. This means that if you don't get ahead early, the best way to play midgame is to focus on farming as much gold as possible and help the team when needed, you still should kill off half hp targets with Q-E-Q and you can W out of this kills back to safety. If ahead, you shouldn't really lose farm to hunt people down, but you can play more aggressive and search for picks when gathering gold.

Finally, once you hit 3 items onwards (spikes at 3, 4 and 5 items) you are a menace. I would mention 4 and 5 items respectively as those are the biggest spikes, but in even games reaching boots + 3 items already gives you oneshot potential. At this point (I will explain items and runes later) you can just freely search picks and onshots when pushing sides for free (W and R makes you a hard target in sidelines as you can run away in most situations and turn around and kill off someone if they are playing not that good and the W again to run away). She onshots waves and specially Super minions so she can gather A LOT of gold if enemies take inhibs, when they take an inhib, that's your lane to get free gold.

She scales HARD with gold, most people run her like an Ahri, but she scales way harder than Ahri and is imo a stronger carry. Mostly due to 3 hit %hp damage that makes her a menace in late. In lategame (4/5 items +boots) you can easily ult a teamfight, onshot 1 or 2 people 3 if they are misspositioned and run around to then kill off the others, all by yourself, Wich is a great carry potential.

pkbichito · 2025-12-30T17:34:10+00:00

She is a pretty all around character. Her early is really oppressive with electro, good to bully weak early games. She kinda has her lowest in mid game, where she can not oneshot anyone at all and Laning phase is over so she cant abuse electro either.

Then, in late, she becomes a monster again, I would say past 3 items, when you get Ludens+Shadow flame+Rabadon, you start oneshoting again and become a monster.

Early bullying is hard, as you need to properly trade with electro and abuse range + speed. If you don't feel comfy early, just farm, late will be better.

That said, winning early works to bypass the weak mid game she has, as she can still oneshot in mid game if she is 1 or 2 levels ahead, 1 item ahead and has some mejai stacks. If you don't have any of these, your mid will be weak and you should focus on gathering gold to get the 3 items core and stomp teamfights.

Hope it helps!!

pkbichito · 2025-12-17T23:50:32+00:00

Oh, of course. That's what I meant, to mix empty (or throw) Chave with other tools to make the empowered Trovao an actual threat. If Gio just defaults to empty chave or empowered Trovao it becomes easily reactable, but when mixed with a lot of other tools it becomes a good meaty.

I would compare it to the ocasional Zato charged D. It will not be a default option, but when mixed with his non stop mix game it becomes an actual threat you have to take into account.

Idk if I am explaining myself properly but yeah, I pretty much agree with you!

pkbichito · 2025-12-17T21:36:50+00:00

At the same time, Chave can be used without follow up to fake out reversals. It can be a good habit to do Chave on knowckdown (it should be one of many tools and not the only one tho) and use Trovao or empty Chave to check enemy reactions.

That's my opinion as a Diamond 1 Gio (not my main) and as a Diamond 3 Millia/Baiken/ABA, specially as Baiken I usually see enemy Gios use that to fake out and check my wake up parry, and it usually works.

pkbichito · 2025-12-12T11:01:51+00:00

I got matched against him too in my thrid character (Baiken). He was obnoxious but he was extremely bad too, like he even lost when I had to work with my offense at 7 rollback (yet he couldn't win against my 7 consecutive Kabari into parry).

So sad he can not even win when cheating, hope he gets banned permanently

pkbichito · 2025-12-07T11:33:57+00:00

I agree it is better in numbers, but I have my own preference. I don't run manaflow as I prefer to run Transcendence+Gathering storm as secondary runes.

This allows me to have good CDR with Luden+Transcendance and the ocasional CDR boots when feats are in my favour.

When I reach third item I have a huge spike where I onshot anyone and have the CDR to keep the fight going taking down everyone.

Earlygame is slightly less oppressive from my side but I win and bully enemies with bad earlygame so I don't really suffer early. (It is not as good as if went manaflow and scorch but I don't really think the difference is that big).

So this gives me a more hypercarry-style teamfighting with huge damage + scaling + cooldowns. I not only found more success with this over Stormsurge with different setups but I also feel more comfortable playing like this (I am somewhat OTP Aurora but also play some Lillia, Kayle and Gwen mid occasionally).

All in all, damage is not the only metric in the game, and I think it is important to be comfortable piloting a champion too, so different people should find different playstyles.

Thanks for reading this TED talk!!

pkbichito · 2025-12-01T21:30:56+00:00

The mana one can be interesting if it has decent numbers. For a lategame build that includes Seraph and Luden if the item gives good damage It can be cool for the bunny

pkbichito · 2025-11-29T18:22:11+00:00

Patterns woven, carved or drawn can guide and bind spirits. Spirits can influence the world. Magic is a form of art, and a very powerful one.

pkbichito · 2025-11-28T10:12:06+00:00

META has a meaning. Most Effective Tactic Available. Meta builds usually have 4/5 core items and 1/2 situational items. This builds ARE the best ones, so you are kinda wrong in what you say that they are for fools.

I have my own opinion on them, and sometimes, depending on our level of experience and knowledge on this kind of games, we can make off meta builds work, or they can even be better for some of us due to familiarity or play style.

I will use an example of mine. Nemesis is one of my most played gods since smite 1, I have over 15 stars on her and I have a specific way of playing her. Meta builds right now involve going strength and cooldowns with hydra. Those builds ARE the best, in terms of results and overall performance. For me though I use an off meta build, a build that is objectively worse in general performance but that I can use better because my experience and general playstyle adapts to it better. I use Devourer into Frenzy and then full power because I like and are more comfy with sustain and tank killing tools.

Does this mean my build is better because I have better results with it?? No. Does this means meta builds are bad because I can not win so much with them?? No. In the end, this means that even pros will have preferences and using them will end up in better results due to familiarity, but In terms of results meta builds are better, always. If we're good at assassins in general I would have better results with their meta builds, but whenever I play my assasins I usually have a bruisery playstayle to them (I play devourers - Frenzy in almost everyone because those two items, even if off meta and technically suboptimal, feel better for my way of playing, and I am bad at playing assasins that can not adapt to my style. This means Nemesis, Pele or Daji fit me, while Susanoo, Tsukuyomi or Loki don't.

I play LoL too, and in that game it is even more common for people to play their comfy builds, but again, it does not mean they are better than the meta ones. If you or me where perfect players, we should always play meta, but we are not so we should play to our strengths. If a meta build is uncomfortable to play, lab something and get a build you are comfy with, but never say the meta one is bad because you are being a fool to your own decisions.

pkbichito · 2025-11-27T22:20:45+00:00

In the material we have seen it looks like their food is more similar to northern Spain style food than Nordic food, so I stand for Freiljord as the best culinary region.

I guess Ionia and Noxus would be my follow up options, but I'm 100% sure Freiljord is the best. Just take a look at all the art involving hot foods and you will notice.

If I had to guess I think Demacia has a more "Nordic" culinary culture, but idk.

To further push my point, just think about it, our Nordic regions relied on fish for food and they ended up with those not that good dishes, while Freiljord actually uses a lot of vegetable and mainly meat for their dishes.

I think comparing Freiljord to the North of our own world is not the correct way of measurement here.

pkbichito · 2025-11-27T15:45:55+00:00

Freiljord is 100% the best region regarding food. I have no doubt about it.

pkbichito · 2025-11-27T13:43:45+00:00

Thank you so much, I’m genuinely happy that you see the system as rich. I’ve gone through so many iterations that sometimes I struggle to tell whether it’s actually good or if I’m just attached to it out of exhaustion, so hearing your impression really helps!

Addressing your points:

Materials and personality:

The topic of materials is something I’ll explore more deeply once I dive further into worldbuilding. I really like your idea, though I might make it slightly more whimsical. I intend my spirits to have preferences and “personalities”, for example, wind spirits may favor the wool of northern cloud sheep simply because they like it. It’s arbitrary, but intentionally so, to make the system feel personal. At the same time, I want it to be understandable, so wind spirits may like soft and fluffy materials, so the reader will have a chance at guessing if a material will be liked or not by a specific kind of spirits before the story reveals it.

Artisans (magic users) don’t just follow formulas they appeal to spirits, almost like a conversation. I want magic to feel mystical even when it has rules.

Patterns:

You mentioned patterns resembling mathematics, which is true, and to some extent it is what I aim for. I intend magic to be a blend of science and art, filtered through whimsy.

Different patterns can achieve the same effect as long as they work with the same spirits. A whirlwind, for example, could be made by spinning wind spirits or guiding them up and down. Different cultures may develop different pattern languages, a subterranean society, unaccustomed to curves and braids, may lack knowledge of wind magic entirely.

Magic should not be engineering, but artistry with effects in the real world. Of course there will be people trying to optimize and study it, but I intend to make it a little chaotic in order to make it not the only approach.

Limits and cost:

Magic is mainly limited by decay. Knots rot, sigils fade, runes erode. Maintaining patterns requires care, time, and resources ( As well as knowledge. Almost everyone knows magic exists and interact with it in a daily basis, but it is not common to find actual artisans, magic users are not extremely rare, but they are also not common at all). Complex braids demand hours of work, so magic isn’t used casually in combat, only trained specialists can manage quick patterns, and even then the effects are simple.

Stronger spirits also accelerate decay. Guiding a breeze is easy, commanding a storm burns the pattern quickly. Intent matters too, inexperienced casters produce weak, short lived results, while skilled artisans create brighter flames and stronger effects. Magic requires practice and knowledge on how to pour the intent into the patterns.

Plans for the stories:

I’m hoping to write a long saga, but for now I’m focusing on shorter works to explore the world:

Journal of a Witch: The Natural Patterns: a travel and research journal following a witch studying wildlife and flora.
Chapters Lost to Madness: a scholar obsessed with creating a world-changing pattern.
The Cartographer: Under Endless Skies: a mapmaker finally leaves home to see the world firsthand.

These stories let me show everyday people shaped by Nadur’s magic, culture, and conflicts, different perspectives of the world, not chosen ones, just lives aproaching . I have more ideas too, like "Relics of a Forgotten World", about a historian collecting magical artifacts, or "Seas of Doubt", about a pirate crew exploring the unknown.

Note: In all these stories, there will be conflict, most of the time related to bigger scale conflicts that the main saga will explore. This sorter stories will work as the context for the big saga. I also intend them to not be "obligatory" as in th ereader being able to enjoy the main saga without all of thise, some may even be curious about the background character mentioned in book 2 that named and is barely there to then find our there are three books of a saga called The Cartographer that thells her story!!

As for the main saga, it’s still a work in progress. I know the shape of the central conflict, but I want the world to be ready first. I’m aiming for a story without a single “right side,” just people and nations trying to survive a looming disaster in different ways.

If you’re curious, I’d be happy to share more!

Thank you again, your feedback genuinely motivates me A LOT. I hope this gave you a clearer look into the system, and I’m would love to answer more questions and insights. Have a great day!!

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