Shadow Cities Beginner’s Tips

Shadow Cities Beginner’s Tips by Seil

Okay well, given my nature of wanting to learn as much as I can about the game and to provide that information to others to further their own knowledge, I’ve decided to give this a go lol.

Since there’s already a collection of relatively in depth information provided by a variety of players, I think the best way to go about this is kind’ve a simple and sweet guideline of basics and so that’s what I’ll aim for.

1) Communicate. Get acquainted with your fellow teammates within your battlegroup and help each other out. If someone needs a spirit for a mission and you find one, tell them. If you’re having trouble then ask. If you’re being attacked don’t just run, ask for backup it’s a team effort here. Don’t only build local ties though, spread your wings and add people from all over the world.

2) Place dominators nearby your actual location so that you will be able to harvest them. And try to place them so they’re near as many gateways as possible(also try to connect to as many nearby gateways as possible, don’t load all of your dominators on a single gateway if you don’t have to.)

3) Learn to dodge. When an enemy mage is casting a spell at you, you’re able to select a teammate or friendly structure and warp to it to get a chance at dodging the spell. A well developed dodging skill can be a very decisive factor in a fight.

4) Attributes. Your AP caps at 1000 so go ahead and plan your basic distribution. My build is 75 WIL, 62 VIT, 60 INT, 48 END(This actually leaves 1 AP over but oh well). Customize your build as you see fit but I definitely recommend you read up on How vitality currently works. I’ll explain that more in depth at the end for those who are curious.

5) Get a feel for spirit spawn areas. Find out early on where different varieties of spirits spawn so you have an idea of where to go hunting for your missions.

6) Read up on campaign changes. With each new campaign come new changes. These changes can be major deciding factors on who wins. In the Summer Shadows campaign, earth based spirits gave far more energy per kill and thus were a huge factor in energy gain for instance. Always know your campaign and take any changes into account, adapt to them and use them to your advantage.

7) Spell specialization. Since the max level is 15, the maximum specialization points you can have are 12. Decide what you want to put them in. As a general rule, a player should at have at least level 1 in all spells(this means spending two of your points to unlock new spells, namely Catcher and Ward). They should also max their Warp and War Chant spells. Leaving them with 4 points to use as they please. A general concensus is that increasing beacon, dominator and ward spells is pretty much pointless, it only boosts their starting hp and you can increase a structure’s hp by healing it. So you’re left with Aria and Catcher. I personally maxed catcher and added 1 to Aria and get along fine but this is dependent on your personal style.

8) Slow and steady. You may get worked up in the heat of battle and start drawing your runes too fast resulting in a failure to recognize what spell you meant to cast. Don’t go too slowly, but don’t go too fast either, it may be counter-productive. As a general guideline, while you’re in the middle of casting a spell it’s recommended that you go ahead and draw and hold your next spell so you can quickly release it.

9) Use it or lose it. Never let your mana sit and gather dust. If you’re full on mana then you won’t be getting more. It’s best to use it as you can so you’ll constantly be regenerating.

10) Conserve your potions. Don’t chug all of your potions just to kill some spirits faster, if you can afford to wait and recharge then do so. Save the potions for when you’re neck and neck for a top spot on the leaderboards or in the midst of an epic battle when you’ll really need them. Or for pretty cosmetic things of awesomeness like faction emblems etc =p

11) Becoming a Shadow Lord. I recommend that you only buy a gateway if it’s either a local gateway you’ll be harvesting from or a place you just really can’t pass up. Like a place with an epic name or something =p If you buy your personal local gateway then I recommend only doing so if you intend to pay at least 50 potions to get a realm value of 60, this will provide you with a handy +1 to your harvested energy

12) Read the forums. You’re already here so why not do some browsing? There’s all kinds of cool stuff to be learned here and some really in depth information that is really just too much to throw into a tips thread =p

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Alright now for a lesson in vitality. I’m fairly certain this is how it works at least in general. I don’t know the actual specifics seeing as I’m not one of the programmers =p but from what I have gathered from testing and from staff posts this seems to be about spot on as far as the concept goes.

Mana regenerates every 15 seconds. There are five different mana regeneration rates: 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75.

Which rate you have is linked to a value which is determines by a combination of your level and your vitality. For the sake of simplicity and to actually have a reference, we’ll say this value ranges from 0 to 4. For every level you gain and every point of vitality you have, the value increases by a fraction. The value is rounded to determine what rate you will receive.

ie. If you have a value of 0.49 or lower, you will receive 15 mana per regen. 0.5-1.49 = 30, 1.5-2.49 = 45 and so on.

Due to this, the amount of vitality required to receive a certain regeneration rate varies with level. The maximum rate at level 14 requires over 70 vitality but only 62 vitality at level 15 for example. It is likely that this behavior will change to a more static system in the future but for now this is something that should be understood and taken into account.

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