Magic Legends has an open beta kicking off in just a few weeks, which means that before the end of the month gamers will be forming their first impressions of the upcoming ARPG inspired by the popular collectible card game. Cryptic Studios has a lot of experience with this type of game and has some challenges lined up to keep grinders more than busy once they reach the higher difficulty levels in the game.
A recent blog post from the dev team detailed the Magic Legends difficulty options and explained the philosophy behind how challenges will gradually increase and how rewards will be earned for the most hardcore players. Part of this Magic Legends system involves some regional and world enchantments that will provided extra challenges to players who have Hard or Expert mode enabled.
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The enchantment system will be somewhat familiar to many gamers and includes a rotating list of challenges that can appear to make certain levels or areas more difficult to handle (but also more valuable in terms of rewards). World of Warcraft players could equate the weekly rotating regional enchantments to Mythic Keystone modifiers for comparison...
"Beginning at the ‘Hard’ difficulty and harder, each of the game’s regions and their corresponding overworld and mission maps can have a Regional Enchantment. While on Hard difficulty, Regional Enchantments are optional, whereas, on Expert and Master difficulties, these enchantments are automatically applied."
Color Alliance - Your base mana regen is 50% lower. Whenever you cast a spell, gain 1 mana of any of that spell's allied colors that you have in your deck.
Burning - Nearby enemies do damage over time to you and your allies.
Celerity - Enemies move X% faster and use their special attacks Y% more often.
Final Explosion - Enemies explode after death.
Unnatural Dangers - Hazards do 100% more damage [to everyone].
Mana Overload - Take extra damage (up to 100% more) based on how much mana you're missing.
Necromantic Aura - Enemies have an X% chance to resurrect with 50% Hit Points.
Poison - Enemies poison you when they attack, doing X damage over Y seconds.
Reflect - Enemies reflect 20% of the damage they take.
Unearthly Durability - Enemies take 50% less damage from player-summoned creatures.
Attenuation - You and your allies do half damage with ranged attacks.
Rakdos Resistance - Enemies take 50% less damage from Black and Red Sorcery spells.
Sorcerous Overdrive - Your Sorceries do 20% more damage, but you take damage equal to 10% of your max HP whenever you cast one.
Mana Feedback - Whenever you cast a spell, take damage equal to 20% of your max HP.
Volatility - Enemies do 25% more damage, but take 50% more damage from Red Sorceries.
"The World Enchantments system is in the Prophetic Quill structure of each Planeswalker’s Meditation Realm or through the Guide menu once you’ve completed missions in the Overworld. You can craft these World Enchantments with earned materials gathered through gameplay or purchase them at the Broker, an auction-house style system that we’ll detail soon. There are three different tiers of World Enchantments as well, with each tier increasing raw enemy and map difficulty, while the enchantment enhances the complexity of your encounters. These effects stack with difficulty level and Regional Enchantment selections, resulting in a series of augmentations that up the ante for plenty of challenge."
Overarching Magic - You and your summoned creatures do half damage unless you have an Enchantment spell active.
Betraying Ground - Every few seconds a damaging hazard spawns beneath your feet.
Focused Magic - You do 50% less damage, but you gain a 10s +10% damage buff every time you cast a spell of the same coloras the spell you previously cast (max +60%).
Deliberate Tempo - Whenever you cast a spell, you can't cast another for 3s.
Rotating Shield - Enemies occasionally gain invulnerability shields, which will pass from one enemy to another before expiring.
Healing Spheres - Magical spheres appear and travel across the map, healing your enemies.
Air Support - High-flying dragons appear occasionally to strafe your position.
Paranoia - Enemies target you in preference to your creatures.
Spell Burst - You do -70% damage unless you have cast a spell within the last 5 seconds.
Scholar's Benefit - You don't heal out of combat. Heal for 5% of your max health whenever you draw a card.
Surge Reliance - You don't gain mana unless you are in mana surge. Your mana surge charges 5 times faster.
Mana Brawl - You don't regain mana normally. Whenever you use a class ability, you gain a small amount of mana.
Arachnophobia - Hostile spiders spawn on dead enemies.
Final Strike - Enemies shoot a final bolt of energy when they die.
Death's Servant - A slow-moving but indestructible enemy pursues you. A single touch means death.
Azorius Resistance - Drastically reduce damage enemies take from white and blue Sorceries.
Dimir Resistance - Drastically reduce damage enemies take from blue and black Sorceries.
Rakdos Resistance - Drastically reduce damage enemies take from black and red Sorceries.
Gruul Resistance - Drastically reduce damage enemies take from red and green Sorceries.
Selesnya Resistance - Drastically reduce damage enemies take from green and white Sorceries.
Affliction - 50% of the damage done to your critters is also done to you.
Sorcery Suppression - Your Sorceries do 50% less damage.
Nature's Way - All your non-Green creatures have 60% less Health.
Abstract Ideals - Your non-Blue spells cost 50% more mana.
Magical Purity - Whenever you cast a non-White spell, you gain Greater Snare for 5s.
Dark Devotion - Whenever you cast a non-Black spell, lose 40% of your maximum health.
Volatility - Enemies do 25% more damage, but take 50% more damage from Red Sorceries (being used as an RE).
Both enchantment systems should definitely help add some variety and challenge to the game for hardcore players that plan to return to the title week after week and continue the grind. It will be very interesting to keep an eye on the systems when the beta kicks off and see how enticing the rewards are and whether or not they succeed in making the game a title that players stick with for months on end.
Be sure to check back closer to the open beta release window for lots more coverage of Magic Legends news, updates, and guides.
Magic Legends releases in open beta on March 23, 2021 on PC.