Spells and Sockets

Spell slots

You keep every skill you find in your spellbook, but a skill in the spellbook does nothing. To use one, put it into a spell slot on a worn item. An item can have up to 5 slots.

How many slots an item has is rolled when it drops, within the range of its type. Better quality pushes the roll toward the top of that range, but never past it (see Item Quality and Tiers). A weapon always has at least one slot. Rings and amulets have none: they carry stats only and never cast.

Actives and Modifiers

Every skill is one of two kinds. The game shows them with different colored frames, and so does the wiki.

• Actives (gold) are spells that do something: Fireball throws a ball of fire, Frost Nova bursts ice around your target, Heal heals you. They cost mana.
• Modifiers (blue) never cast on their own. They change other spells: Pierce lets a projectile fly on through the enemy it hits, Split casts several copies, Amplify makes a spell stronger. A Modifier needs something to shape. With nothing to shape, it does nothing.

Every skill also has a shape: Projectile, Area or Self. A Modifier is either made for one shape or works on any spell:

• Projectile: Pierce, Chain, Fork, Bounce, Homing, Swift.
• Area: Concentrate, Aftershock, Implode.
• Self: Renew, Overflow, Retaliate, Outburst.
• Any spell: the rest, such as Split, Amplify, Vampire, Ignite and Echo.

Each skill's page shows its kind and shape, and the skill list can filter Modifiers by shape.

Slot order matters

An item's slots are read top to bottom: that is their order in the item's Spell Order panel, and the order its spells are cast. Use the up and down arrows there to move a skill.

1. A Modifier shapes only the Actives below it in the same item. A Modifier under an Active, or in another item, does not reach it.
2. The shapes must match: a Projectile Modifier only shapes Projectile spells. An any spell Modifier shapes every Active.
3. One Modifier shapes every matching Active below it, not just the first.
4. Modifiers add up: two Amplify above a spell make it stronger twice.

1. 1

   PierceModifier · ProjectileShapes Fireball below it (both are Projectiles), and the arrows. Frost Nova is an Area spell, so Pierce doesn't affect it.
2. 2

   FireballActive · ProjectileCast on every arrow that hits, shaped by Pierce. Amplify is below it, so it doesn't affect Fireball.
3. 3

   AmplifyModifier · Any spellWorks on any spell: shapes Frost Nova below it, and the arrows.
4. 4

   Frost NovaActive · AreaShaped by Amplify only.

The item's basic attack · Pierce and Amplify both strengthen the arrows. For the attack itself, slot order does not matter.

"Shapes nothing"

A Modifier that matches an Active but cannot change anything about it does nothing for that spell. The Spell Order panel grays it out as Shapes nothing. It costs no extra mana and earns no experience. For example:

• Giant on a spell with no area (Arcane Bolt).
• Extend on a spell that is over at once (Meteor). It does lengthen buffs and spells that linger, such as tornadoes and Poison Cloud.
• Split on spells cast on or around you: buffs, Heal, Consecrate, Sword Tornado.
• Damage effects such as Ignite on a spell that deals no damage (Haste).
• Swift, Homing and Bounce on a projectile cast by a weapon hit, because the projectile appears on the enemy you hit. They do work once Pierce, Chain, Fork or Split keeps it flying.

The weapon's basic attack

A Modifier in a weapon also strengthens the weapon's basic attack, wherever it sits in the item and even with no Active at all. Each one counts once. That is why a lone Split in a bow already fires extra arrows.

• Bows: the arrows take the Projectile Modifiers and the any spell ones that change a hit, Split included. Split arrows fan out and keep their full damage.
• Melee weapons and staves: the swing takes the any spell Modifiers that change a hit. A swing is never copied: Split in a sword shapes only the spells below it.
• Modifiers that need a spell never touch the attack: an arrow or a swing has no echo, area or duration and costs no mana.
• Strengthening the attack is free. Only spells cost mana.

Modifiers that strengthen a bow's arrows:

Amplify, Bleed, Bounce, Chain, Critical, Fork, Frozen, Homing, Ignite, Pierce, Sanctify, Shock, Siphon, Split, Swift, Vampire, Venom, Wither

Modifiers that strengthen a melee swing:

Amplify, Bleed, Critical, Frozen, Ignite, Sanctify, Shock, Siphon, Vampire, Venom, Wither

When an item casts

Every item casts all of its Actives each time it fires: a weapon one after another in slot order, armor all at once.

• Melee weapons and staves cast on every hit. The spell lands on the enemy you hit: a projectile starts on it, hits it, then pierces, chains or forks on from there.
• Bows cast on every arrow that hits, including split, chained and forked arrows of the same shot. The first hit casts in full. Each further hit of that shot casts at 70% of the previous one's damage, for 50% of its mana.
• Wands attack only by casting, from range. With no Active in the wand, or not enough mana for any of them, you strike in melee instead: a weak blow that no Modifier in the wand touches.
• Armor (shields included) casts when you are hit, then rests for a short while before it can again, each piece on its own. Each armor piece's wiki page shows how long. Armor has no basic attack, so a Modifier alone in armor does nothing: it needs an Active below it.
• Rings and amulets never cast.

Mana

• Only spells cost mana. Spells have no cooldown: weapon spells are paced by your attack speed and your mana, armor spells by the armor's recharge time.
• If you can't afford a spell at that moment, it's skipped. The rest of the item still casts.
• A spell's mana cost grows with your level in its category, as its power does (see Skill Categories).
• Most Modifiers raise the mana cost of the spells they shape. Each skill's page shows its surcharge, such as "+50% mana cost". Surcharges add up: +30% and +50% make +80%. Mana Burn lowers the cost instead, and takes mana for every enemy the spell hits.

These Modifiers add no mana cost at all:

Homing, Overflow, Pierce, Renew, Siphon, Swift

A few more rules

• Requirements: putting a skill into a slot needs a level in its category, such as "Requires Elemental Magic 8". Any skill can wait in the spellbook. See Skill Categories.
• Where a skill fits: each skill's page lists the items that can hold it (melee weapons, bows, wands, armor).
• Chains and forks wear out: each Chain jump hits a little softer than the last, Fork pieces are weaker than the spell, and a jump or a fork piece only uses the remaining count; it doesn't reset.
• Split on spells cast at a target (Meteor, Lightning Strike, tornadoes) lands each copy on another enemy nearby. Split projectiles fan out instead.
• Moving skills: tap an empty or taken slot to pick a skill from your spellbook or from another item's slot. Move and Swap do it in one tap. You cannot take a skill out while your spellbook is full.