Review Ars Magica 2

It is quite a contentful mod, which will add new ore types to the game for crafting new items. The new mobs are also in place, including the most powerful ones, the so-called bosses. But the salient feature of the mod is that adds magic to the game.

New Bars

When you first spawn in the game world with this mod, you will immediately notice certain GUI changes. Thus, the level indicator has changed, and two bars have been added on the right and on the left. The red one indicates the mana cost of a spell, whereas the blue one shows the overall mana level.

New Plants and Ores

Besides the bars and the magic itself, this mod adds new plants and ores. The first plant is the witchwood tree, which has a rather unusual appearance. The wood of this tree can be turned into planks and then only into steps.

A few plants directly related to magic have also been added. The tarma root grows in caves and can be easily obtained with bare hands. The desert nova, as its name suggests, grows in the desert. The aum flower grows under witchwood trees. The last plant, also associated with magic, is the blue orchid usually found in snowy biomes.

The next innovation is related to the ores. In total, five new ores have been added: vinteum dust, chimerite, blue topaz, moonstone, and sunstone. The first three can be found in the Overworld. The sunstone generates in the Nether. As for the moonstone, it is the rarest one and can be found within a fallen meteorite.

Mobs

The first mob added by the mod is the mana creeper. Unlike the ordinary creeper, while exploding, this one will not cause damage to you or blocks but will simply drain your mana. After death, it drops a cake, eating which you can replenish your mana.

The next mob that this mod adds is the dryad. It is basically a useless and timid creature that lives in forests. But thanks to this mob, you will be able to summon the boss.

The hecate is a very dangerous ghost that spawns exclusively at night, as sunrays instantly kill it. This mob poses a real threat for an unprepared player since it deals 5 damage in one blow. It drops only some amount of experience and makes frightening sounds during a battle, so you should know better than to mess with it.

Another new mob is the mage villager — a resident who now lives in ordinary villages. It sells not only vanilla resources but also the new ones. You should not hit it, as it can fight back, inflicting huge damage using magic — and drops nothing after death.

The mana elemental is a very aggressive and dangerous mob with 20 health points. Casting its magic, it will drain your mana. However, after death, it will drop a mana cake that will replenish your stock.

The mana elemental has a special variety — the water elemental, which also has 20 health points. It will not cause you any damage but will drain a huge amount of mana, so you should avoid it.

The next two mobs are interrelated, as they are direct antagonists. The dark mage is as aggressive towards the player as possible, while the light mage is friendly. But do not abuse the kindness of a light mage, as if you provoke it, it will immediately try to kill you. These two mages have several skins, as in the screenshots below.

The hell cow is a very unusual and dangerous mob, which can boast as many as 50 health points. Fighting with this cow, you will deal reduced damage to it, but the cow itself will inflict 6–7 damage points on you.

Bosses

The latest innovation under consideration is related to bosses. There are 14 different bosses, and each one must be summoned in a special way. The first boss is the Water Guardian. To summon it, the following resources must be prepared and weather conditions satisfied: 8 redstone inlays, a water bucket, rain, river/ocean, and a dirt block. You will have to build a special structure, wait for the rain, and throw a boat with water into the center.

The Water Keeper has 75 health points and quite an impressive damage level. This boss attacks from afar with its bubbles and also summons clones, which deal extra damage.

The next boss is the Earth Guardian. To summon this boss, you will need 8 iron inlays, 8 obsidian blocks, a blue topaz, an emerald, a chimerite, a chiseled stone brick, and 4 vinteum torches. You will have to build a special structure and throw chimerite, emerald, and topaz into the middle, as in the screenshot below.

The Earth Guardian itself is a giant stone boss with 140 health points. The difficulty of fighting with such a monster lies in the fact that it cannot be often hit (this simply will not work).

To summon the Air Guardian, you will need to build a platform at the height of more than 150 blocks, then erect the structure as in the screenshot below, and throw an air essence into the center.

It is better to build a wide platform; otherwise, the boss or you yourself may fall (if the boss falls, it will simply vanish into thin air).

The next boss is the Nature Guardian. To summon it, you will not have to build anything — just kill 5 dryads within 20 seconds. The Nature Guardian itself is the most dangerous boss, though, and can boast 500 health points. It is impossible to kill such a boss without magic.

The Lighting Guardian has 250 health points. You can summon it by installing gold inlays and placing a mana battery, along with iron bars, in the middle. After that, you will have to wait for a thunderstorm (or type the /weather thunder <duration in seconds> command). After the lightning strikes the bars, the Lightning Guardian boss will appear.

To summon the Winter Guardian, you will need to build a ring of gold inlays, place two blocks of blue topaz in the middle, and put a block of ice on top. After that, it will be enough just to create three snow golems. You can summon this mob only in the snow biome.

To summon the Fire Guardian, you will have to go to the Nether and install a 3x3 obsidian frame there, put a coal block in the middle, place a gold inlay on top, and then throw 2–3 water essences on the coal block.

Basics

To start developing in this mod, you will need a special book titled the Arcane Compendium. To craft this book, you will need one item frame, one book, and liquid etherium. The latter is a small four–block pool with a white liquid that can be found all over the game world. You will just have to install the item frame next to the liquid ethereum and place the book in the frame. After that, the process of acquiring knowledge will begin, and the ordinary book will turn into the Arcane Compendium.

The book is needed merely for earning level 1.

To start applying magic, you need to create the eye. If you put it on the ground and then click the RMB, a GUI opens with the three tabs: offensive, defensive, and utility. They contain the trees of all the spells that you will be able to subsequently master. Three blue skill points are initially available, which means that you can learn a few simple spells.

But learning spells is not the same as using them, so you will need another tool — the inscription table. It is quite simple to write down a spell on this table: you need to put a book with a pen in the center and then take certain spells and place them in the available slots. After that, 7 more effects will unlock on the table, which can be placed in the gray slot below.

Then you will need to perform a special ritual, after which you will finally be able to use the spell. For this, you will need any stairs, main blocks, redstone blocks, magic walls, a crafting altar block, a lever, and a lectern.

The altar must be a 5x5x5 structure, as it is shown in the screenshot below.

On the lectern (a kind of table in the first screenshot), you need to put a spell parchment written down on the inscription table. Next, you need to activate the lever and throw a rune, which is added by this mod, in the center.

It remains only to throw the resources shown by the book into the center.

The created spell is visible in your hand, and each of them costs a certain amount of mana.

Essences

An essence is the most important component involved in the creation of some spells and even in the operation of certain devices. There are several ways to obtain an essence. The first is related to the obelisk. It is enough just to put the obelisk on the ground, and it is ready to work. However, to get an essence, you will have to place a bucket of liquid etherium in the slot. The level of the obelisk can be improved with the help of the chalk by merely drawing symbols around it. The second-level obelisk will consume less energy (ethereum) and produce more essence.

But the second level is not the limit, as the obelisk can have the third one. For your device to become even more powerful, it is necessary to build a very simple structure, as in the screenshot below.

To obtain an essence, it is necessary to connect the obelisk with the crystal wrench to the crafting altar. However, it should be borne in mind that these two devices should be located close to each other.

This obelisk generated the neutral essence, but there is also the light essence. To create it, you will need a lot of items, including an obelisk, the wizard's chalk, warding candles, a moonstone, a mana focus, light, and a celestial prism. But first, you need to build the following structure.

Then you need to throw a moonstone and a mana focus into the center and cast the light magic on the entire structure. A celestial prism will appear.

The celestial prism automatically generates essence, but this process can be accelerated by increasing its level. Thus, for the prism to get the second level, it is enough just to draw it around with chalk. As for the third level, you will need either a moonstone block, a gold block, or glass. By choosing the two blocks (the moonstone is preferable), you need to build a simple structure, as in the screenshot below.

The last essence is the dark essence. To create it, you will need the chalk, an obelisk, warding candles, a sunstone, a monster focus, and a damage spell. The following construction is to be created from the above blocks.

Then you need to throw a sunstone and a monster focus in the center and then cast the damage spell. After that, a dark aura will appear, affecting all mobs except the player.

The dark aura can also be improved by using only the chalk. But for the third level, you will need to create a structure of the Nether bricks and obsidian.

How to Create Any Spawner

A very useful feature is related to the possibility of the creation of absolutely any mob spawner. To create such a spawner, you first need to find a usual spawner and draw the following symbols around it.

Now it remains only to create the ender essence, a monster focus, as well as a special Life Drain spell. You should drop the above items into the center and cast the spell. All this is necessary to get an inert spawner. Then you need to craft a crystal phylactery, which will be filled with the soul of a particular mob. That is, you will need to kill the mob that you want to enclose in the spawner (one kill fills the phylactery by 1–4%).

After you have placed the filled phylactery in the spawner, it remains only to power this spawner with the dark aura and connect it with the crystal wrench. A mob will spawn only when the dark aura receives about 5000 energy.

Images Ars Magica 2