--- Introduction ---

When the Book of Seas first came out, lots of people raved on about how powerful it is, because of the apparently high damage of most of its spells. Then, after the new spellbook craze wore off, people began looking down on the Book of Seas, dismissing it as �weak� as most of its spells hit only a fraction of the damage that�s on the label, and many are very limited in uses.

In truth however, Seas is a very powerful Book, and under the right circumstances (which aren�t hard to create) it can almost be a guarantee for victory. Now I don�t claim to be a very skillful Seas user, but I think I can say I�m decent; so here�s my take on this often misunderstood Book.

Just a note. The description for the Book of Seas says that it �focuses on diverse attacks from above, below and summoning armies of minions�. In general, however, you won�t be summoning many minions, as both Water Trolls and the Brine Goblin aren�t that great. It*s quite possible to go through a game with Seas without summoning anything but a Water Lord. 

--- Level One Spells ---



[Water Ball]

The spell description says it can do up to 60 damage, but in truth it is almost completely incapable of doing that much. You�re lucky if it does half that. The main purpose of this spell is to destroy land, which it is quite capable of; for tunneling (though it doesn�t do it very well) or sinking your enemies.

If you want your Water Balls to not do less than 10 damage, never fire it at full power unless your opponent is on the other side of the map, and try to make the Water Ball fall on top of your enemy instead of going for direct hits.

A mildly useful and rather unknown fact is that if you shoot a Water Ball into the Sea, it will reflect out of the Sea with double the number of water droplets (increasing its maximum damage to 120). However, this is hard to aim and doesn�t really do much damage still, it�s mostly for fun and for destroying LOTS of land.



[Summon Water Trolls]

You can use them to trap your enemies if you wish, which they do quite well. Don�t always rush to bump them into your enemy for free 5 damage though: if you don�t make them attack on your turn, you can place your Water Trolls at strategic locations so that if your enemy touches them, they get hit and stunned.

A good opening tactic is to summon Water Trolls above your target, but a bit to the side. That way one Water Troll will stand on one side of their head (preventing movement that way) while the other one is on the other side of the person a bit further away, without being triggered. Then when your target tries to shake off the Troll on their head by walking in the other direction, they will bump into the other Troll and be stunned.

As you may know, Trolls can by Hydrated for more power. I�ll explain that later when I get to the Hydration spell. 

[Deluge]

One of the best spells all around, even for non-Sea users. Almost everyone uses Deluge for its high damage and accuracy. Can destroy most Towers and still damage the Arcanist inside for a healthy amount. It is actually quite easy to hit the full 90 damage or close to the full 90 as long as your opponent is exposed. Since it can bounce off land a bit, you can use the landscape to reflect a Deluge onto an otherwise sheltered enemy. Don't expect it to dig through much land though: even an Ice Shield is quite capable at blocking a Deluge attempt.

You can also use it to knock someone into the water if they�re close to the edge. Note that although Deluge can be blocked by Fire Shields and Wind Shields, the Shield quickly fails and the suspended water droplets will fall onto your enemy and still dish out healthy damage.



[Brine Bolt]

Another Seas spell that is commonly used outside of Full Seas. Brine Bolt is one of the most powerful melee spells: you can pin someone to the landscape and use this to obliterate them with 60 damage per turn, if they do not have a melee spell themselves (unlikely, everyone has Drain Bolt at least) you can possibly scrape an easy win.

This is Seas� Bread-And-Butter spell, for holding off enemies while you prepare your tactics: or for peppering them to death if they are incapable of dealing with it. 

[Summon Brine Goblin]

An unusual summon in that it is the only one without a recharge, and can be spammed. Unfortunately it isn�t much use at all. Primarily you might want to use it for trapping enemies: theoretically your enemy will be reluctant to destroy it for fear of the explosion. However, the Brine Goblins only actually explode when they land even if they�re dead while they�re flying through the air, so even if the enemy does kill a trapping Goblin with say, Drain Bolt, they�re unlikely to be hurt by it at all.

Also, since you can only summon the Goblin close to you, it is likely your enemies will kill it and have it explode in your face. The main problem with it however, is that it simply doesn�t do much damage: even at point blank it does about 40. It does destroy quite a bit of land though.

An interesting fact about the Brine Goblin is that if it is hit by a Brine attack, even if it doesn�t kill it, it will immediately explode on the spot. You can thus combine Brine Goblins with Brine Bombs for decent damage if you want. 

--- Level Two Spells ---



[Maelstrom]

This is probably a Sea User's best friend, and is a good spell overall: however, since it requires the rather useless Water Ball it isn�t that commonly used outside of Full Seas as people would like to. The point of this spell is not its damage, it�s its ability to sink people too close to the Sea: the damage itself is quite pathetic. It doesn�t reach very far up, but still further than many think.

Another use of Maelstrom is to create a cave for you to hide in: this is especially useful on maps with lots of land like Grassy Hills and, to a lesser extent, the Graveyard. So it�s a spell good for hiding (creating caves or sinking people near your hiding place) and obliterating hiders.



[Hydration]

This spell is meant to be used on Water Trolls. Normal Water Trolls grow to 100 HP and 15 damage with one Hydration, and then to 200 HP and 30 damage with another Hydration. People often forget, however, that Hydration itself also does 50 damage, so it can be used as a desperate but reliable ball attack if you need it: to take off a protection shield from a flier, for example. Do note it only has two charges though.

Note that Hydration not only power up Trolls, it also �heals� them. So you might want to get the most out of your trolls and have them take damage before you upgrade them. On the other hand, you�re unlikely to find a situation where you can repeatedly use Trolls against your enemy, so this scenario is unlikely: just Hydrate them when you want to.

The best way to use Hydration is to stick your Water Trolls next to your enemy and use Hydration on them. That way you upgrade your Trolls as well as hitting 50 damage. You need your Trolls to be close to your enemy for them to work anyway, summoning them in a �safe spot� almost never lets them see action. Remember that large trolls are not very maneuverable and are easily stuck, and they easily hit each other and stun themselves, so don�t summon them in small place. 

[English Summer]

This is probably the weakest Seas spell of them all. There are few situations you would find this spell useful, while it can be highly damaging that doesn�t happen until about the third turn it is cast, plenty of time for your target to get away. You�ll mainly be using this spell to force your opponent to leave a tower (if Deluge is unavailable), disable Deflection Shields in the area or if you want to discourage an enemy from standing at an area, such as a place they can attack you from. Being restricted to a single charge doesn�t help either.

I�d say only use this spell if there�s nothing else to do, as its few functions can be done better with many other Seas spells.



[Brine Bomb]

A bomb that is exactly the same as an exploding Brine Goblin: in fact, when a Brine Goblin dies it actually creates a Brine Bomb in its place (you can see this when you Static Ball/Shield a Brine Goblin as it dies). Like the Brine Goblin, it has low damage but a high blast radius. You might be able to use it as a Tower Killer, but it certainly isn�t reliable for that. You can also use them to detonate Brine Goblins to decent effect.

In general however, you�ll only use this if you have nothing better to use. It�s restricted to four charges, but that doesn�t really matter since you won�t be using it much anyway, so if you do need it it should always be there. 

[Rain of Clams]

This is one of Seas most powerful spells, if completely unreliable. Use this on enemies, or multiple enemies, in a depression: the deeper the depression, the better. The spell can cover a very wide area as the Clams bounce a lot, so be sure to stay well clear and protected, and make sure there�s lots of land around the area so the Clams won�t bounce their way into the sea. If you�re lucky, this spell can do around 150 or even 200 damage, but usually even under good conditions it does 50 � 100. ALWAYS save this for the best circumstances, do not waste it on an opponent on perfectly flat land, on a slope or on a peak. It won�t work.

It�s advised to use this spell before using Ocean�s Fury, because chances are Ocean�s Fury will destroy too much land to make this spell work. Note that if the Clams hit something when they bounce upwards, they will chew through it and stick on the top. Just a fun fact though, you can�t really use this ability much as the Clams are quite unpredictable in their behavior.

--- Level Three Spells ---



[Ocean�s Fury]

Despite saying it does over 5,000 damage, Ocean�s Fury is not usually high damaging at all except under the best circumstances (i.e. enemies at the edge of the map against a cliff). It usually doesn�t hit the higher portions of the middle of the map, and it completely fails on Arcane Crystals, so take note of that. The initial wave of water droplets destroy lots of land on contact, but most of the water droplets don�t destroy land much at all; so a reasonably thick piece of land can provide sufficient cover.

The primary use for this spell is not the damage (although you can do a lot if you use it at the right time), but its land destruction capabilities. As a Seas user you want less land and more Seas exposure, and Ocean�s Fury can provide the perfect environment for Seas users.

Of course, this spell is highly dependent on the Map. On some maps it destroys nearly all the land, while on others it doesn�t destroy enough land to benefit you and actually thins out your hiding places, making you more vulnerable. In general, Grassy Hills, Graveyard and Goblin Caves aren�t that good for Ocean�s Fury (though the right rendering could still make them good candidates for a Fury). The other maps, even Arcane Crystals (where Ocean's Fury can actually reach, that is), can be obliterated reasonably well with it. 

[Summon Water Lord]

Big and scary. But that�s it. It has no special attacks, only the very weak Water Ball. Essentially the Water Lord is a gigantic meat shield for you. However, it not as good at being a meat shield as its HP implies, since it takes extra damage from spells even when you don�t mount it. It appears that the Water Lord takes double damage normally and triple damage if it hurts the rider, though this doesn't seem to always hold true.

Also note that while the Water Lord is an Arcane Minion and cannot be zombified, it CAN be healed (but cannot be drained). However, like damage to the Water Lord, Healing to the Water Lord is extremely unpredictable. Sometimes it�s healed for 25, sometimes less, sometimes it doesn�t get healed at all. It seems to me that the amount you can heal is dependent on how much HP the Water Lord has: the less it has, the more effective your Heals (but it never seems to heal the full 25).

The most important ability of the Water Lord is Dive. As long as your Water Lord is on the sea, you have infinite teleports and can immediately dive into a big chunk of land and create a very safe cave for both of you. If they Aura of Decay you? Dive into another big chunk of land. This Dive ability also knocks things away where the Water Lord dives and resurfaces, so you can use this to knock people into the water. Be careful though, because often the force of the resurfacing throws you off the Water Lord, so try to ensure there�s enough land to smack you back onto it when you Dive. 

--- The Seas Familiar ---



[Seahorse]

Now this is what makes the Book of Seas shine. All your Seas tactics should be based around this nifty little familiar, which IMO is easily one of the best, if not THE best. At level 1, you gain the ability to swim, along with all your minions. Unfortunately, this includes the monkeys on the Mos Le'Harmless Map� Anyway, as a Seas user you MUST exploit the Swimming ability to its fullest extent. With it you can hide close to the Sea where your opponent must risk being sunk to get to you, while you have no such troubles.

The secondary ability of the Seahorse is Water Damage reduction. Note that the only spells that Seahorse protects from are Water Ball, Deluge and English Summer, it does not protect against Maelstrom, Hydration or Ocean�s Fury: even though it says they are Water spells.

Also note that it is not necessary to charge it to level 5 if you wish to use Water Protect: level 3 can completely protect you from Deluge and English Summer, and at level 4 Water Ball can only ever do 1 damage to you in one shot.

The primary reason you would use the Water Protection ability is either to protect you from enemy Deluges, which is a VERY common spell, and to prevent Water Ball from hurting yourself when you use it (which all too often happens). You can also use it to English Summer yourself without being damaged, but you wouldn�t use English Summer in the first place.

Always heal yourself as your charge your Familiar, the Water Protection ability is not that useful and truly isn�t worth the HP. It�s just a nice bonus to build on when you�re twiddling your thumbs waiting for your enemy to come to you. 

--- Basic Strategy ---

The basic strategy of the Book of Seas is to hide. Use the Seahorse, hide on the Sea. On maps like Sky Castles, Mos Le�Harmless, Arcane Crystals (and to certain extents, Elven Isles and Murky Swamp) this is as easy as Gating into a watery cave or just jumping into an exposed lake. On others (Grassy Hills, Giant�s Mountains, Goblin Caves and Graveyard), it�s a bit more complicated but sometimes even more effective: simply wait till turn 3, use Maelstrom under sturdy piece of land, and Gate into the newly created Cave after the Maelstrom ends (or before it ends if you�re desperate, it doesn�t do much damage to you). On Grassy Hills this Maelstrom trick can make you near invincible, with no Armageddon to destroy your land defenses.

Obviously to use the Maelstrom trick you need to hold off your enemy till turn 3, and maybe till Maelstrom ends. Use Brine Bolt to attack your enemy while you pin them against the landscape, if your opponent cannot counter it effectively you can keep doing this to buy for time or even defeat them with this tactic alone. You may also use Water Trolls and Brine Goblins, plus any other spells you may have brought to help you. Preferably you should force your opponent to go on defensive, so you can take the chance to cast Maelstrom; or at least build defenses of your own enough to last for a few turns: which isn�t very easy as very few Seas spells can be used effectively for defense, so bring good non-Sea defense spells. 

Once you�ve found yourself floating on cool, clear water, analyse your environment. Are you in a flooded cave with enough land to shield you for a few turns? If so, you may want to heal up or start throwing Air strikes, or Ocean�s Fury. If your enemy is nearly upon you, or is already upon you, summon a Sea Lord and make sure it is floating on the Sea. Then, use your Sea Lord�s Dive ability to create another, hopefully safer, cave.

Then it�s simply a matter of throwing Air strikes and Maelstroms (or Ocean�s Fury if not yet used) at your enemy, using your Water Lord�s Dive ability to get out of sticky situations and to soak up any damage that gets through. If most of the land in the arena is destroyed, either by Ocean�s Fury or the Armageddon, you can begin to adopt Seas most annoying but effective tactic: sinking enemies.

Unfortunately, Seas doesn�t really have a very good Sinking spell. Maelstrom certainly is a very good one, but it is not universally useful. Water Ball can destroy lots of land from under people�s feet, hopefully sinking them; but it is unreliable and the spell has little knocking power. Hydration is quite good at knocking people off, but it only has two charges.

You could bring other spells like Arcane Flash for this purpose, though personally I�d rather use my spare four slots for other spells: IMO, your own inability to sink is enough compensation for Seas� lack of a Bread-and-Butter sinker spell.

So conclusion? Basic strategy for Seas is to hide on the Sea (with Maelstrom is required), use the Water Lord for defense and mobility, and win by using your powerful air and sea attacks or by repeatedly sinking your enemy if most land is destroyed. Well, this is my take on it anyway� 

--- Recommended Spells ---

Obviously if you�re using Full Seas, you�d be using the twelve Seas spells, leaving you four extra slots. I�ll try to suggest some spells to fill in those four slots, and give a rating out of ten for them based on how useful I think they are.



[Arcane Flash* 6.5/10

Since Seas is often about drowning people, Arcane Flash can easily be your best friend.IMO though, this is just a �luxury spell�, you do not really need it. While Arcane Flash can make sinking enemies easier, you already have the Swimming ability which allows you to drown enemies under the most easy-to-drown environments without facing the hazard yourself. Nevertheless, this is a good spell all-around; but you're probably better off using other, more essential spells than this.



[Arcane Gate] 10/10

A no-brainer. Since you may need to Maelstrom caves to Gate into, this is very important: but Arcane Gate is almost compulsory for any set-up anyway.



[Flame Shield] 6.5/10

It�s an all-around useful spell to have. Unfortunately since it is disabled on use, even if the spell is just flying by without posing real danger to you; it is easily rendered useless by flying Armageddons, and a lot of your spells are so collaterally damaging and covers so wide an area they can disable your shield.

You should in general have enough defenses in terms of land cover and the Sea to protect you without really needing this. But yes, it is a nice defense to have if you really want to be really, really secure.



[Rock Slab* 6.5/10

You can use this to trap your enemy repeatedly and buy yourself lots of time, or use it to block off holes in your defense. Overall very useful, but it doesn�t work under all circumstances (due to it's shape) and certainly will not suffice for all your defensive needs. Besides, as a Seas users you should be destroying land, not creating it, though Rock Slab doesn't create much land to make a difference here. 

[Wind Shield] 6.5/10

A good initial defense while you prepare your strategies. Much better than Fire Shield as it is impenetrable by stray spells (Blast from the Past for example). Unfortunately with a single use and just three turns of effectiveness it doesn�t help very much overall. Still, very good for getting you out of particularly nasty situations while you prepare your escape.



*Ice Shield] 6/10

This spell is good for a bit of basic defense, but mainly use it for trapping your enemy while you Brine Bolt them, which could either own them or find yourself outgunned: but at least you buy some time this way. You can also use it to protect yourself slightly from your Ocean�s Furies, but you shouldn�t need to� The main reason you want this though is to use Ice Castle.



*Ice Castle] 7/10

Any Castle is welcome for Seas, which has very few defenses. Ice Castle being rechargeable makes it perfect for the task and its requirement Ice Shield is not half-bad either. The downside to this Tower is that it freezes water, and since you can swim you don�t need to freeze water: which just serves as a potential platform for your enemies.



[Den of Darkness] 6/10

It�s a level one tower and very, very strong, plus it has an Aura of Decay. You can use it for a strong defense and also to trap enemies and hurt them badly with the Aura and your Brine Bolt. The fact that it is level one makes it good. The fact it is one use does not. As strong as it is the Den of Darkness is not impenetrable, and you want a consistent defense. Unless you believe Water Lord will be sufficient, use a recharging tower.



[Drain Bolt] 8/10

A healing spell and a melee attack spell. Drain Bolt is great, especially with Water Trolls: since you summon two at a time, you can use this to get 60 HP or more (if you know the Draining trick) with a single drain. You can also use this to trigger a Brine Goblin pinning an enemy, giving you 60 HP and damaging your opponent with the Bolt and the Goblin. Drain Bolt has some awesome synergies with Seas, but on the downside you already have a melee attack spell: Brine Bolt, so that aspect of Drain Bolt is somewhat wasted.

Drain Bolt has another advantage for Seas: it is a decent Sinking spell. With good knocking power and a decent sized, clean land destruction, Drain Bolt can sink enemies in ways Water Ball cannot hope to do.

[Protection Shield] 7.5/10

A good all-around defense spell. Since your strategy is somewhat based on hiding you can easily collect quite a few Shields this way. On the other hand, it's just raw defense, no real tactical component to it.



*Sky Ray] 7/10

Considering Seas already has great Air Strikes, why is Sky Ray useful? For people who use Spirit Shield. Sky Ray cannot be deflected, so it is perfect for people who likes to fly high in the air with Protection Shields and a Storm Spirit providing deflection. Problem is, it isn't universally useful, all your opponent needs is cover.

Still, an extra Air Strike is nothing to sneeze at and is always good for Seas, especially since two of Seas' three Air Strikes are one use.



[Forest Seed] 6.5/10

A long-range trap spell that can also double as a strong defense, which you can drain for HP if you use Drain Bolt. It is somewhat like Rock Slab but stronger, but it also recharges while Rock Slab has no limits. It�s also somewhat bigger and creates more land, something that isn�t always desirable for you� nevertheless, the fact it cannot be escaped from quickly except by Gating and it�s defensive abilities makes it a strong contender to Rock Slab.



[Sphere of Healing] 8/10

It�s a healing spell (duh). Unfortunately you�ll need to hide to be able to spam this and earn significant amounts of healing. Fortunately, Seas is great at hiding. Also a Lich-killer, because of its Flash ability: you can easily drown Liches with this. Use either this or Drain Bolt, but don�t use both; that�s just a waste. 

[Entangle] 8/10

It stops people from flying, jumping or gating. You simply have to love this spell. Use this, go hide, and it�s unlikely your enemy can ever reach you.

The primary use for this spell though is to counter Protection Shielded Fliers, which Seas cannot deal with because it doesn�t have a good one-shot attack except the restricted Hydration. Worse, since as Seas you would be hiding a lot, your enemy could do the same and stack Protection Shields. With this spell, that is no longer a problem: even if they don�t sink, they won�t be able to move for a very long time because the Protection Shields also prevents the Entangle from wearing off.

Of course, Entangle wearing off on damage is a big let-down. Which is why if your enemy uses Protection Shield, rejoice! You can ensure they won�t be annoying you without either getting Armageddoned, or deliberately shooting themselves



[Summon Man-Trap] 5/10

You use this for Sanctuary. No other reason. If you use this, it might be wise to bring Drain Bolt as well, since the Man-Trap can provide lots of HP for you to drain. Can also be used to trap enemies, or drown them with Vine Whip. But like I said, only use this to use Sanctuary.



[Sanctuary] 7/10

Defensively, Sanctuary is inferior to Ice Castle in most ways. It destroys too much land, is a bigger target and requires a rather useless spell. You�ll want to use this over Ice Castle for its enchantment destroying ability, to take care of Protection Shielded Fliers. It�s not as reliable as Entangle though, since it can only reach Fliers close to you.



[Clock Tower] 8.5/10

Likely the best Tower. Ever. It�s level one, it recharges, it moves, and it�s the same compact size as the Ice Castle without the annoying Water Freeze. Definitely recommended for a very good, very strong defense. Its mobility is also especially good for Seas since you�ll be walking on the sea, and the sea is flat: you�ll be almost completely unaffected in terms of mobility. 

--- Recommended Maps ---

Since the Book of Seas is so terrain dependent, the type of map can affect the effectiveness of Seas very strongly. In this section I will give my rating out of ten to each map and explain why I think the map is good or bad for Seas.



[Grassy Hills] 7/10

At first glance this Map is extremely bad for Seas, it has no real sea exposure and no Armageddon to destroy the map for you. In truth Grassy Hills is reasonably good for Seas, by using the Maelstrom-Cave trick explained earlier. No Armageddon means that there won�t be anything to destroy you very substantial land cover, and there isn�t any shelters to block your powerful air attacks.

Ocean�s Fury however, is not recommended here because it is unlikely to expose more sea for you and will only reduce the amount of cover you have, only use it here for damage if you can.

On the other hand, Rain of Clams can be absolutely deadly here. The problem with Grassy Hills is the lack of initial Sea exposure, making you potentially vulnerable before you can create your Maelstrom Cave. Once you get past the first few turns however, you can be invincible: but, so can your opponents if they use the very annoying Spirit Shield, so it works both ways.



[Giant�s Mountains] 6/10

Somewhat like Grassy Hills, but a bit worse because it has less land to provide you with shelter, and sometimes the mountains aren�t scalable for you to get close and summon Water Trolls on your enemies or use Brine Bolt. The Armageddon is also particularly bad because it comes from below, which unfortunately you will spend a lot of time in as a Seas user.

Just remember that generally Armageddons start near the edges, so be sure to hide somewhere near the middle of the map and not on the sides. Ocean�s Fury works quite well here, and the Armageddon can destroy lots of land for you, so this map isn�t half-bad. 

[Elven Isles] 7/10

If this map renders the normal way, you�re in luck. This map often has lots of built-in flooded caves for you to teleport in immediately, allowing you to skip a lot of the procedures you�d otherwise have to attempt. Better yet, the Armageddon comes from above, is deadly, but doesn�t destroy very much land, so you�ll be quite safe from it underground until quite late into the game.

However, this map sometimes renders flat, with little Sea access and definitely no shelter for you. In this case, you may be in for a hard fight, though you may find Maelstrom more effective than usual.



[Goblin Caves] 4/10

Somewhat like Grassy Hills again with the Maelstrom-Caving trick, and like Grassy Hills it is resistant to Ocean�s Fury. However, this map is bad bad bad for Seas, because the Armageddon: Fissure: comes from below, and even the initial �introductory� Fissure can kill you with a direct hit: and, since you�ll be spending time right at the bottom, you�re very likely to get yourself a direct hit. On the up side, Fissure destroys lots of land extremely quickly, but it isn�t worth the risk of an immediate KO.



[Murky Swamps] 6/10

This map can provide good sea access, but doesn�t provide a lot of shelter which you do need. The Armageddon, while from the sky, is very destructive and digs surprisingly quickly through what little land this map has.

The good thing is, being a very low map, Maelstrom works very well here, and Ocean�s Fury absolutely obliterates it. So, you won�t find it easy to defend yourself here, but you certainly will find it easier to destroy your opponents. 

[Graveyard] 6.5/10

You would think with a similar render to Grassy Hills and a rather weak airborne Armageddon, this map would be good for Seas. Well, it is, to an extent. There�s not nearly enough land to make perfect shelters like Grassy Hills, and the Armageddon seems weak at first but actually digs through the terrain quite well. The irritating this is, the Armageddon doesn�t destroy the land cleanly, but leaves bits and pieces everywhere, making sinking people hard even when it seems easy. Ocean�s Fury can work well or poorly depending on the rendering of the map. However, there's no denying the reasonable land cover, and the Armageddon is airborne after all. Not a bad map for Seas, but not the best.



*Sky Castles] 7/10

Lots of water is initially available to you with this map, so you can immediately snuggle into the sea here. The copious cloud cover is irritating in that it renders your Air strikes quite useless (especially Rain of Clams), but likewise your opponent has a hard time getting to you. To be able to confront you they need to be dangerously close to the Sea if they do not want clouds to get into the way, allowing you to sink them with ease. The low lying clouds however may interfere with you drowning enemies, so you may need to destroy the clouds near the sea before you are truly secure. Ocean�s Fury here can destroy anyone at the sides, but leave the middle (where you should be) pretty much unscathed. 

[Mos Le�Harmless] 7/10

I always consider this map to be a *Seas� map rather than a �Nature� map. Mos Le�Harmless often has immediate sea access for you, and the layout of the map means that enemies are either at the mercy of you air attacks with no cover, or at the bottom of the map with you and vulnerable to your sinking tactics. Ocean�s Fury destroys this map utterly too.

This map would be the best for Seas, if it weren�t for the Armageddon of monkeys� since the familiar affects your minions too, your monkeys cannot sink, and they keep throwing dangerous Thorn Balls at you and filling up your minion slots, preventing you from summoning anything. They also destroy no land, so they don�t help you much; and since the map will have little cover left after being blasted by your Sea spells, you may find yourself scurrying to escape from your monkeys. Of course, your opponent will be too, but you'll be more affected due to unsinkable monkeys.



[Arcane Crystals] 7.5/10

This map does have some initial Sea access, though it has very little cover because of how flat it is and Ocean�s Fury does little here, it doesn�t reach the middle 1/3 of the map. So why is Arcane Crystals so good for Seas? Because of the Armageddon. Arcane Arrows destroy the land extremely quickly and efficiently, and it�s also not very dangerous.

The Arcane Arrows that spawn on your turn aim for you but cannot damage you, so you�re unlikely to get damaged by it unless you stand in the way of the Arrow spawning spots and your opponent. Unfortunately, the Arcane Arrows do damage your minions, so your Water Lord might not survive long.

Very soon though, the land will be gone except for little ledges on the two edges of the map, and you with you no-sink ability will completely dominate. You don�t even need to do much: the Arcane Arrows aiming for your enemies might not hurt them, but it is still very capable of destroying land and sinking them.

The problem is this map has little land cover. 

--- Enemies of Seas ---

Here are a few individual spells and tactics which are effective against Full Seas, which you should watch out for. I�ll give each of them a rating out of ten, the higher the rating, the more dangerous this is to you as a Seas user. I will also try to suggest ways to counter these threats, to varying degrees of effectiveness.



[Volcano* 6/10

Dangerous, and not very dangerous. If you�re walking on water you should not be damaged too much even if a Volcano is cast right under you. However, if there�s land very close to you above you or below you, they will detonate on that and you�ll suffer serious damage. Make sure that while you�re on the water there�s nothing below you but the sea and nothing too close above you, and it's no problem.



*Fissure] 7/10

In the same way the Armageddon of Goblin Caves makes it undesirable to a Seas user, an Arcanist wielding the power of Fissure is bad news to you. As long as they withhold their Fissure, they are denying you access to the Sea. Your best bet is to stick close to the Sea, but not close enough so the initial Fissure Blast will mortally hurt you.

If you�re desperate to get to the Sea, here�s a good way to remove the threat. Summon a Water Lord on the Sea with you mounting on it: stand on the sea and summon the Water Lord on your head. If they Fissure you immediately, the Water Lord might die but you will not be harmed, and can simply walk/Gate away from the Fissure; henceforth you can travel on the seas without fear.



[Storm Spirit] 6/10

A minion that can cast Spirit Shield, a recharging Wind Shield. Very, very effective defense combined with Flight and Protection Shield, as it deflects Entangle and most other spells. If you're lucky Deluge can punch through it's shield and kill it. Sky Ray is a good counter to this if your opponent and/or the Spirit is exposed.

You could also choose a map with a good Armageddon to (hopefully) disable Spirit Shields (or kill Storm Spirits) on your turns. 

*Ice Castle] 4/10

Just a minor point. The Ice Castle can freeze the Sea, so you cannot sink it. Even if you do enough damage to destroy the castle and throw the target into the sea at the same time, the Ice Castle does not break until it touches the water and freezes it, so they�ll still be standing on a thin sheet of Ice. Not that significant, but worth a mention.



[Frost Giant] 7.5/10

Now this is a serious threat to you because the Frost Giant is capable of freezing the sea, so it can get close to you if you�re swimming and unleash it�s very, very deadly attacks; and you cannot sink it. The Ice Slyph also has this ability, but since it�s weaker I won�t mention it. If your enemy summons a Frost Giant against you, you can try to trap it with Trolls or Goblins, or establish some defenses and kill the Frost Giant as fast as you can: or just get away. You can�t run forever though, remember Frost Giants can recharge�



[Drain Bolt] 5/10

Worth mentioning because if you�re Drained while on your Water Lord, your opponent gets 60 HP. Which means against a Drain Bolter, you should never fight them head-on while on a Water Lord, you�ll give them a big advantage and will just weaken your Water Lord and heal them for no reason. Simply avoid direct contact, that should be what you�re doing with Seas anyway.



[Aura of Decay] 5/10

It�s not that powerful, but it certainly is annoying; especially when you�ve just teleported into a Maelstromed cave. You can try to get out of the way if you can, use defensive spells to block its damage (towers, shields), and/or use Water Ball to dig a tunnel out of the Aura area. Like said, this is more of an annoyance than a real threat, but it still should not be underestimated.



[Swallowing Pit] 7/10

It destroys your Water Lord in one turn. Your best bet is to Hydrate your Trolls and make them dangerous enough to force your enemy to use Swallowing Pit on them, so you can use Water Lord safely. 

[Flight + Protection Shield] 7.5/10

Worst nightmare if you�re not prepared for it. Seas has no spell that can do good damage to fliers, i.e. all damage concentrated to one shot (except Hydration). If you aren�t prepared for this you can end up with a flying, unsinkable enemy which you cannot deal with. This is why you should always bring a spell like Entangle or Sanctuary along, so they can�t pull this trick on you: if you have either, this tactic should not be a big problem.



[Full Flame Users] 6/10

You need to be careful of their super-powerful Volcanoes. Other than that there isn�t that much that�s threatening about them, apart from their ridiculous damage output and huge blast radii of spells which can quickly whittle down your cover: but they still stand little chance once their Volcano is gone.



[Full Stone Users] 7/10

Their Golem Resilience means that almost all of your spells do next to no damage to them, and they also have Fissure. Thankfully, as a Seas users you don�t need to out damage your enemy, you can simply sink them; and their Resilience doesn�t protect them from that. As long as you can solve the Fissure problem, they should not be too much trouble for you to mop up, as they have nearly no long-range capabilities.



[Full Frost Users] 9/10

Full Frost users are your absolute worst nightmare. They have very powerful spells which you cannot hope to match, deadly minions that make your minions look like toys, and they can freeze water, meaning they are unsinkable and have basically the same advantage you are. The only thing they do not have is melee capability, so you can theoretically Brine Bolt them to death: but they can cover for that with Ice Castle + Snowball, or they could simply bring other melee spells of their own (Drain Bolt, for example). If you get matched with a Full Frost user, be prepared for a very tough fight. 

==The end==
Thank you for reading my Guide to the Book of Seas for Jagex LTD's wonderful game, Arcanists. This guide was originally made on www.funorb.com under my username Cursed Pride, and this guide may only be found there and on www.supercheats.com.