Guide for using the Empower Card

[Cotxe]

I've been thinking about empowerment and would like to share some of my toughts about it. This spell simply didnt let me alone. Every thing in game has it own purpose, so there has to be something more behind it. And i've been thinking where could be the trick and found out, that with proper playing you can save 4 pips (2 power pips) with one empower card.


Before i start, few notes:
- This is for higher level players (dont know how would it work with lowers); asuming that you get power pip every round
- Also this is for players, who use 1, 3, 5 and 7 pips spells (If you use only death blades, shields and wraith this wont work for you)
- And dont you even try to use it without shield or death resist gear (or both)

The basic logic is not, that you get 1 extra pip, but that you split your power pip on 3 normal ones. With this you dont have to use power pips for 1, 3, 5 or 7 pip cost spells.
It will be easier if i explain with example.
So, let us say, that we will use balance blade, pirate and sacrifice (I wont add regular blade and shields, which costs 0 pips).

Here is how we would do without empower:
1) We start with two power pips and after 4 rounds we would have 6 power pips.
2) Meanwhile we use (with all regular blades + shields) balance blade (1 power pip), skeletal pirate (3 power pips) and sacrifice (2 power pips). Which leave us without any pips.

Now, if we use empower at begining, the situation is diffrent:
1) We spend 1 power pip for empower and we have 3 regular and 1 power pip. After 4 rounds we have 5 power and 3 regular pips. Which is one more than before.
2) We use balance blade, but instead of power pip, we spend normal one from empower. Same goes for pirate (2 power +1 normal) and sacrifice (1 power + 1 normal). If we count all together, we spent 3 normal pips and only 3 power ones.
And we still have 2 power pips to spend.


Hope this will help to anyone and sorry for bad grammar

[andy3218]

Or you could use it for fast crow and if your low on pips satyr or reshuffle

[Cotxe]

Thats too, thanks for adding

Although i would rather use 3 power pips ad one normal instead of 3 normal and 2 powers.

[Zarin64]

Before i start, few notes:
- This is for higher level players (dont know how would it work with lowers); asuming that you get power pip every round
- Also this is for players, who use 1, 3, 5 and 7 pips spells (If you use only death blades, shields and wraith this wont work for you)
- And dont you even try to use it without shield or death resist gear (or both)

May I fill in as an intermediate level player?

First of all, players before level 45 use wands which give one normal pip at the beginning of combat, not a power one. So you are guaranteed to have a normal one for the Empower.
Second, I have 66% power pip chance now at level 44 (5% of which are granted by a fully trained pet), so sometimes I see a string of 4-5 normal pips (I'm not joking, it is actually more probable than three Death spells fizzling in a row).

All of this only adds more power to Empower .

Jokes aside, there are two great uses for it:
1) Huge tempo swing - this game is all about killing them before they kill you, so getting to my bladed Wraith two turns earlier is huge.
2) Using normal pips for off-school/odd cost spells - Satyr, Reshuffle, Feint, Spirit Blade (the latter two make huge difference in damage department), etc. Again, being able to Reshuffle in two turns rather than four is unbeatable. The bosses across the battlefield are quickly gathering pips as you wait for your attack spells to reappear - do you want to be hit by Bats or by Kraken in the mean time? And once they start getting power pips, every turn counts - more than some measly amount of life, further reduced by their own Weakness which was meant for your Wraith/Pirate . Just make sure you don't have any blades before you Empower, or they will be consumed by its damage, increasing your pain.

There are other issues with Empower, though, especially in the "tempo swing" department.
1) You cannot use any Death-enhancing blades before Empower, or they will be consumed, hitting yourself more in the process. This restricts your options at the beginning. Use shields and traps before it, but not blades.
2) If you don't want to take the full damage, you need a turn to put up a shield, further slowing you down. Not to mention that the shield does not contribute to anything else, so you essentially skip the first two rounds of combat this way.

I partially solved the latter by going with Life as my third school (after Ice) and using Legend Shield for this purpose. Even after your -70% Death shield is consumed, -70% Myth stays. With so many enemies throwing around Cyclops and Trolls, this part is actually useful. I wish there were dual Storm/Death shield, though .

So the main idea of using Empower early on is often to speed up not your first, but your second Wraith.

I hope this addition is useful.

[Ronan Shadowwhisper]

Thanks for this. I, too, hardly ever use empower, but now see a clear use.

Respect,

RS.

[warprat]

Happiness and death to everyone... I love using Empower too!

I have trained a pet with the death shield trait. I also use the myth and life dual shields. These are great for any of the death spells that damage yourself. A tower shield will also work in a pinch, but they are more open to being popped by enemies.

I love it when people put weakness, plague or some other type of damage reducing spell on me. I like to pop traps with Empower, as my spell will most probably do less damage to myself than the enemy's spell. This includes casting my own feint spells.

I have the fairy friend trait on my pet as well, sometimes my pet heals me from my own damage. But usually, just speeding up the casting helps enough. The follow up drain spell usually heals the damage caused to myself by the Empower, especially when using Scarecrow.

And, last but not least, I absolutely love casting death minotaur, and using a white pip instead of a power pip.