Basic Uses and Applications of Black Magic

This is just an essay on black magic of Final Fantasy and Warcraft lol. Hope you enjoy my view on it. Please do not attribute me to being a heretic ._. This is simply a 'for-fun' essay that can be used as a guide to GAMING black magic (apologies if there's any resemblance to real life black magic-if it exists).




Black magic, a term used for the ability to conjure spells attributed to the elements of the natural world which our forefathers believed in: Fire, of the Sun; Water, of the Sea; Land, of the Earth; Wind, of the Air. It includes the use of voodoos, curses and hexes. Simple black magic usually involve the use of basic fire, ice, lightning, etc. Tertiary forms include the ability to morph a being. As its name suggests, black magic gives the impression of magic gone dark and evil, and will bring harm to people. While black magic exists for such purpose, it is not necessarily all bad, for it is its user that determines the usefulness of black magic.

The invoking of basic fire and lightning spells is often seen as good as using a sword to fight in a duel. It injures the opponent, but will do no more to add any other advantages, besides weakening the opponent beyond physical damage. Often, it can be used to bring down the vitality of the opponent, as well as ending the opponent's life. The element of Fire is brought out in both fire and lightning spells, generating intensified heat on the target. Victims tend to show scorch marks where the spells hit, burning them with great pain that may last for a long period.

Ice spells are useful in many ways. It brings the temperature of targetted area to almost zero degrees celsius, and sometimes even lower. The sudden change in temperature could make the victims slow down due to the freezing cold, or even freeze in their tracks. The Water element attributed could also injure the opponent with its hard ice smashing on the opponent. A useful element itself, these spells are favourited by the those who seek to freeze their opponents and cause a slow and painful death.

The art of summoning the forces of Gaia and Earth is the trait of a land spell. These spells revolve the help of Mother Earth, unleashing its wrath with terrible quakes and fissures. Those who learn the spellcraft of the Elves could also summon the help of tree creatures known as treants, or 'ents'. With the aid of nature, spellcasters could entangle opponents as they cross into nature's paths, making them immobile and useless against other spells in the mage's repertoire.

Of Wind, few will use spells belonging to this element, although it is severely damaging. Tornados and cyclones are summoned into being by its wielder, wreaking havocs on crowds and destroying camps. Blasts of wind can usually knock down airborne beings easily, making air travel dangerous should the magician feel threatened.

Draining magics are unusual forms of black magic. Depending on how the caster uses such magic, it can channel the magical essence or lifeform of the target into the caster, enabling the caster to be stronger while the foe becomes weaker. Such spells are the favourite of those who hunt other mages for bounty, making them less capable to cast spells. Meanwhile, it also reduces the strength of non-magical opponents, making short work of those who seek to harm the mage himself. These spells do not benefit the caster as much as white magic does, but it brings down the vitality of the target, making it an efficient offensive spell. It is difficult to find anyone who uses such vampiric spells recently, for it is not always useful in every engagement, but it is a useful magic nonetheless. Some even believe that the ultimate black magic is draining magics, for it is more vicious compared to other spells listed among the repertoire of black magic.

Curses and hexes usually does not injure the target, but rather enfeeble him, thus rendering him weak against the spellcaster. The common forms of such spells will simply transform the target into a lesser being (a weak animal, for example). Such spells may not bind forever, for it may be broken when a certain condition is met, but is nonetheless useful in a black magician's repertoire. Weakening the foe to the extent where he cannot fight back, the spells can be used defensively or offensively.

Overall, black magic is widely used offensively, making the targets and victims weaker and giving an edge to its caster. However, to label such magics evil is not a correct interpretation of magic, for it is the nature of the caster himself that influence the goodness in black magic. A chaotic sorceror, for example, could use black magic for evil ends, while a lawful-natured wizard could use black magic for good, helping the community rid of evil beings.

Singapore's Shinra Headquarters

Yup! Shinra Headquarters found in Singapore!!! Lol.. it's actually some building near Chinatown, seems to me it's an office building, but its exterior reminded me a lot of Shinra's headquarters in Midgar. Hence, I took a photo of it from my mom's car, and modified the centre for Shinra's logo.. of course, in Midgar, Shinra Headquarters is the tallest building, but there's an equally tall building beside the one i edited in this photo, so it aint perfect lol.. Just made it for fun and for those who enjoys FF7. Hope you guys like it lol. O and for my music sheets, please give me some time to upload the rest because I havent got time to do so lately. Will get it done soon though.

My favourite piano pieces

Yup these are my favourite piano pieces from Final Fantasy series. Too bad, I can only play the melody portion, but these are still nice songs... I've just updated my music sheets for those who like to play these songs on your very own piano. The songs uploaded are as follows: Final Fantasy 3-The Invincible (the airship that was said to be ranked second in that game.. it's more in terms of speed), Final Fantasy 10-To Zanarkand (a very popular song in the piano collections), Final Fantasy 7-Ahead on our way, Tifa's Theme, Aeris' Theme. I have to post the sheets below in smaller sizes because it's hard to shift the sheets into a good position. Hope you enjoy :)

The Invincible-Final Fantasy 3

To Zanarkand-Final Fantasy 10

Cloud in Gunz

Well after I made the picture of Sephiroth in Gunz, I thought I should also do justice for Cloud. And here you go, Cloud Strife with his Buster Sword (it looks in bad shape though, couldnt do it well using Windows Paint). His hair looked a bit more funky lol... but it's still ok overall.. I used dungeon as the background to depict him trying to find Sephiroth in the basement of the Shinra Mansion (you will know this if you either played FF7 PS version or look out for their story). Although in Gunz, the next room is supposed to be a dungeon hall and stairs, it's supposed to depict the library of the Shinra Mansion. My tags for this picture would be Cloud chasing Sephiroth... Cloud hunting Sephiroth... Cloud in Shinra Mansion... Cloud and his buster sword.... Cloud in Gunz.. Again a disclaimer: Cloud does not exist in IJJI Gunz (if there is it aint me lol). My Cloud account has been deleted to make room for Vincent Valentine (I'm trying to make him next). O and ya, the REAL Cloud doesnt wear pants with GZ on the back lol.. but there aint another suitable pants in Gunz, so i used it for him.. This picture really took a lot out of me, because I have to modify the original Gunz armour to make it have what looks like Cloud's shoulder guard, and change the armour to a vest (both of which are not available in actual Gunz).. Hope you like the picture and feel free to comment.

Sephiroth in Gunz

Yup Sephiroth in Gunz... I made a picture of him in the MMORPG GunZ the Duel (N.A-Ijji). The end result is just right at the header and here in this post... Feel free to express your views about this picture!

Comments by the maker (which is me): If you are all wondering, I actually made this using only Windows Paint. Took me half an hour to do it.. I don't have the money to buy Photoshop equipments so ya.... My tags for this picture would be-Sephiroth paying his respects to Jenova....Sephiroth and Jenova...Sephiroth in Gunz... The statue is in this context, Jenova lol (looks like anyway if you played FF7). Anyway I will try to 'up' his level in future lol.. and make it to 50 (which is the level he appears as in the original FF7 game). O and don't bother searching for Sephiroth in the GunZ high scores, because my character name is actually Sephiroth XII, and the rest of the pictures are done by using my main-Amornica and my other male character-MasterKenobi.

Using Kael the Invoker- Dota 6.49c Aiplus 1.52 Revision 7

Kael the Invoker Mini Guide, composed by William, made by William, tested foolproof by William. AI Map and spell list sponsored by the fellow blogger who uploaded the link on his blog, so.... acknowledgements to him LOL!

People will know Kael as the super boss that you can unlock and fight against in the standard 6.49 map by Icefrog (loading screen has the new picture with a centaur kahn vs pit lord and some other heroes around them). However, in the ai map (6.49c aiplus 1.52), you will now be able to USE KAEL HIMSELF! I will be making a mini guide on how anyone should be using him, although everything is really up to you.

If you are looking for the map download to Dota 6.49c AIplus 1.52 (revision 7), you can get it here. Of course, besides using Kael, you can train other heros like Lanaya, since other AIs are noobish and do not provide a challenge. This Ai map is good, cuz it really test you to the limit.There are also other extra heros you can play include Maverick the Gambler (his skills are really based on luck and gambling), the old Naix (when his Rage was his ulti and he has a good passive poison sting), and the old Silencer which has not been seen for very long (but you got to admit, the old Silencer is really lousier than the one most players are using now since the old 6.42s). And just for a note, you can still use old naix even if you put -ai (all intelligence).. hehe :D

Download Link: http://dota-allstars-blog.blogspot.com/2008/01/649c-aiplus-dota-allstars-map-free.html

Guide:

K first things first. What exactly are Kael's skills you may ask. Well the answer is 4 main skills, plus the ability to Invoke 27 spell combinations for you to use. Best of all, the hotkeys are very easy to use. First skill, Quas, has the hotkey Q. 2nd skill, Wex, is W. 3rd skill, Exort, is E. If you are wondering where these words appeared from, these are the letters you had to find back in 6.49 when unlocking Kael as boss, except Exort is what Icefrog lettered as Extort. And his 'ulti' Invoke, is R. However, whenever you invoke a spell, the spell doesnt take effect immediately. Rather it's almost as if it's placed on standby for you to cast at any time anywhere till you invoke another spell combination. To cast an invoked spell, press V, and you will perform the spell. THE BEST THING IS, all skills and spells got very few mana cost and cooldown, and Quas, Wex, Exort can be used with no cooldown or costs at all!

The setback? Well of course every hero has their setback. Kael is an intel hero, which makes him pretty weak in terms of health. But we can easily overcome such problem. The main problem would be to cast what kind of spell combination.

As I mentioned, there's practically 27 combinations (if you actually take your time to permutate, you will get it lol). How so? Well, the 3 skills, Quas (Q), Wex (W) and Exort (E) can be cast in different orders to make diff spell combination. As Kael's hero personification is that of the original Frozen Throne's Blood Mage, you will see that the original Blood Mage (Kael'thas) have 3 fiery balls floating around him. That is what we call the reagents. Whenever you use a reagent (or in other words use the skill), the balls will change to their respective colours. These colours are actually the same as the elemental bosses you fought in the original 6.49 to unlock Kael as boss. Hence, for Q, you will see some kinda storm balls; for W, you will see storm balls; for E, you will see fire balls. Each reagent affects Kael in different way, and the order in which you make the reagents will affect the spell combination. So let's say, I type E,E,E (meaning makes all 3 reagents Exort), and press Invoke. I will get a Fireball. But if i type something like E,Q,E, I will get another spell. Or E,W,E.. E,Q,W....W,Q,E...W,Q,Q. you will definitely end up with many different spells. For more info on what are the spells Kael can summon, you can check it on top (if you need to, download this picture and zoom in to see clearly.

K here's the main part. How exactly do we use Kael. First of all, when you start the game, type whatever code you want for the game..-apem, or wat so ever. Then, type -fun. You will see an extra tavern on the south east corner of the map (incidentally the 6.10 series seem to have this tavern too, but I'm not too sure). Choose that tavern and choose Kael. Now, for an intel hero, you will probably be tempted to buy lots of intel stuff for him. While this may work just fine, I suggest buying things that will improve overall offense. So instead of buying things like Dagon, I rather you buy Orchid Malevolence, or even Eye of Skadi. For an intel hero, a good item combination is actually these 2 items, plus satanic, cuz you can never always rely on spells late game. But for early game, you can pick your choice. A good buy in the start of the game is juz boots and mayb a ring of regen or juz flask.

Now, when you check your skills, you will realise that you don't have attribute bonus skill like everyone else do. This is because Quas can already add 1 to your intel every time you learn it; Wex adds 1 to agility; Exort adds 1 to strength. Quas will also boost your damage as your current reagents; Wex boosts movespeed (good for chasing missions); Exort boosts hp regen per sec. Every level of the skills you learnt will increase the effect, as well as the number of reagents each skill uses. I suggest you should learn Exort first, as there is a good hp regen added when you use them as your reagents. Make all 3 reagents Exort, and use it to farm. The main skills I suggest that you should pump often is Exort and Quas. However, do learn one Wex before level 6 so that you can summon all kinds of spell combinations when invoking. Otherwise, you will only have access to spells that use only Quas or Exort or both. Exort is a skill that is pretty important in many ways. It is useful for overall performances, both farming and spell-wise. On the other hand, if you are going mostly for spell damage and physical damage, you might want to put more emphasis on Quas instead, as it boosts many kinds of spells' damage. For example, Quas Wex Wex will summon a tornado blast whose dmg is based on your Quas level. And Quas Exort Quas (if i rmb right) will invoke a spell that cuts 1 armour for every Quas level. Of course, Wex and Exort may also boost damage for other certain spells. Quas is meant for most offensive players, as every Quas learnt boost your intel (=damage), and if you make them your reagents, will further boost your damage. I once managed to get +106 damage at only level 17, with some useful items of course, but also by boosting with 3 Quas reagents. If you cut your opponent armour with the spell, and use physical damage to lower your opponent hp, chances are you will either rout them or can kill them.

The pros and cons of this hero is pretty obvious. Pros: If you learnt to play it well, you can counter any hero with him (Kael is best against intel in fact). By using Skadi to improve your physical offense, it will really help things along. Buying intel items will obviously boost his damage, but instead of making him pure intel, you can convert him into a stronger physical hero (helped by using Quas). Cons: If you still can't get a few good spell combinations at your fingertips, then there is no point trying this hero at all, cause early game you will really have to rely on your spells. And if you are one who must cast a spell BEFORE level 6, then there's no hope for you to play this hero, because Kael's first 3 skills are almost like activable self-boosting skills. Or if you really cant play a hero with low hp, don't bother using Kael at all...

Personally, the main spells I will use is Tornado Blast, Frost Nova, Disarm (makes your opponent unable to attack physically. I used it on Darkterror just as he Chronosphered and he couldn't hit me cuz i disarmed him b4 hand), Power Word (the cut armour spell) and sometimes Chaos Meteor (juz to flaunt my skills lol.. Tornado Blast will be faster and more effective than this). A good few others include the arcane arts (passive skill that reduce spell dmg based on Wex). One major flawed spell is the Invisibility Aura. While it seems that the units around Kael will go invisible, for some reason my opponent manage to attack me, which makes me think that the aura has a glitch or some other error, so don't bother invoking that.

That's the general gist of using Kael. If you have any questions on using him, you can place your comments here. And that's about it for my mini guide (still seem long for a mini guide lol).