~{A guide to prestiging}~ 
Writted and edited by City of Wonder/Aligerous

- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Arcane Spells
- Fire Spells
- Cog Spells
- Synergetic Combos
- Book Sets
- Suggested Maps
- General Tactics
- Other books
- Miscellaneous

Introduction: 

Note: I do not have prestige ten, and I wouldn't call myself an expert at Arcanists, but I have aided people out of the prestige trap before, and think I am able to aid those going through the process. This guide contains tactics for all aspects of prestiging. Many of the tactics here are my own, where a good portion of them have been gathered from all across the forums and the games, and due credit is given if some of the information came from you. 

Prestiging. Ah, that painfully annoying process so many of us go through, in hopes of having a bigger, shinier, hat. While going through this process, a single foolish mistake can often reduce people below the required rating line, entering them into the eternal torment dubbed "The Prestige Trap" making the game miserable and making getting a single wands a nearly unspeakable task, with the only compensation a triangle over their heads, as they toil miserably in vain for the wands to earn the spells they held so dear. 
However one brave, dashingly handsome, and astoundingly brilliant Arcanist has deemed to deliver some of his many secrets, in hopes that he may ease the pain of those who have foolishly entered deep water, unknowing how to swim. 
The following contain tricks and tactics available to a prestige user, among other (hopefully useful) things. 

As you will discover, where most books rely on sheer brawn and luck when it comes to prestige, mine relies on arcane and tactics, especially arcane sigil, which is the basis of many of my techniques. When used tactically, my book is incredibly powerful, when used poorly, it... doesn't work.

Arcane spells: 

-Arcane arrow 9/10 A staple spell for prestigers. This spell has a myriad different uses to it. You can use it to charge imps, as a point blank combat technique (inadvisable), for digging, for launching, for sinking (yes, thats different from launching. Sinking generally involves the sea, not the sides of the map), For attacking in ways your enemy cannot counter it (such as at angles or ranges which they cannot cross for any reason, for charging Arcane Tower, even for multiple of these at once. It is a very useful spell. It should not be used for direct damage in most circumstances. 

-Arcane tower 6.5/10 A useful spell, magnified on Arcane Crystals. This tower starts with a mere 25 hp, but can be charged up to 100, is small, and thus harder to hit from a range, can make arcane arrows net at 120, and can even teleport to escape maelstroms or volcanoes, or any other threat. It can be used as a weapon with arcane arrows and energizer by teleporting on an enemy's head with 100 hp, then using arcane arrows. Note that for Arcane crystal use, arcane arrows will stop aiming at you, so you need to place yourself where they will have to hit you to reach your enemy. 

-Arcane gate 10/10 A required spell in EVERY book. Never go without it. It can free you from nearly any situation, from a clawing fissure or volcano, to being head-towered, from being trapped in the sea, and can be used to find hiding spots on certain maps where your enemies cannot reach you. I find it effective on 10 second games at Arcane Crystals to go to one side, and if they follow you, gate to the other, forcing them to start again, where you can pummel them along the way. 

-Summon imps 8.5/10 A deadly strategy, magnified like many arcane spells by Arcane Crystals, just by putting them near or on you. These summon-three-at-a-time minions start out insignificant, but can be charged to decent hp easily with Arcane attacks, the most effective being Arcane glyp*, or the Arcane CrystalsArmageddon. They are a useful spell for prestigers, and if tactically used pose a potent threat. Use their explosions not only for damage, but to help charge other imps. They are very hard to hide from at 250 hp, because the blast radius is so massive. 

-Arcane glyph 6/10 Not exactly an epically powerful spell, except for charging imps to a max of 100 hp, 150 with energizer. Even if you don't use imps, its worth it for its truly epic level 2 spell. 

-Arcane bomb 4/10 Utterly useless in most situations, its best effects are A launching someone off in addition to another task, and B escaping traps, say mudball, and still dealing some damage. Not really worth it in my opinion. 

-Arcane energizer 8/10 This spell�s value comes in making arcane similar to nature: for one hit kills. In three turns, you can have an imp capable of killing a familiar user, and kill them on that turn (this method is in techniques). It can also be used with sigils to make them much stronger. 
Additionally, they are useful for Arcane Arrows, making them much more respectable at 60 damage. 

-Arcane portal 7.5/10 Well I don't carry it, but it has a few uses, some more obvious than others. First off is that it was the un-thought-of counter to head-clocking, because often someone standing on your head will be instantly teleported to the other end, say right above the water, and even if it doesn't you can put them in the water next turn if they stay. Other than that it can be effective at fighting hiders and transporting imps across the map without ending your turn. 

-Imp destruction 3/10 If your enemy carries imps, you can deal an unexpected, and lethal, blow if timed right. But almost no one does. Chances are increased on Arcane crystals, but still minimal. A more realistic tactic is using this like flurry to kill someone taking sanctuary in a tower (other than arcane, obviously) 

-Arcane sigil 9/10 Now this spell comes in handy. It can be used for imps (not suggested) but its main use is trapping, and in a combo I love using (in the combo section), which catches everyone off guard. 

-Arcane flash 5/10 Sure it�s really useful and such, but actually it�s not really a good choice for prestigers. Why? Because a prestiger has very little chance of winning during long turn times, and relying on flash is difficult under these circumstances. Not to mention Arcane Crystals, the map I most highly suggest, nearly nullifies it. I shouldn't have to mention how to use it, and I won't here. It is deadly in skillful hands especially. Very little is more deadly than repeated successful flashing. 

-Arcane zero 8/10. Somewhat redundant in short turn times, unless a full fire is involved, but a good choice anyway. Recommended. 

Fire spells: 

-Fire ball 7/10 Another staple spell. Learn to aim well and the results are desirable. Needless to say, do not use this at close range. It has no real combos, but it** useful as a basic bread and butter damage spell. You may not get a great deal of chances to use it on Arcane Crystals unless you happen to have decent aim. A good thing is it�s a solid one hit spell, meaning it does all its damage almost every time you hit with it, and is effective against a full stone user. 

-Lava bomb 3/10 Bring this only if your good with bombs, and only then if you plan for magma bomb. Its blast radius should be noted. It explodes after five seconds. 

-Flame shield 7.5/10 An underestimated spell that becomes extremely useful in games with low time settings. This can protect you from almost everything, and is a prestigers sole hope against full seas. Aerial attacks save for two become useless on you. Very powerful, and rather underestimated. Note it can be pierced by projectiles fired at high velocities. Note it only gives you aerial protection so spells such as maelstrom, fissure, and volcano are still a threat. Deluge has some ability to pierce as well. 

-Napalm 6.5/10 another staple damage spell. Not excellent, and only works at close range, but good for hiders. Actually this can be used to make terrain intraversible, which in 10 second games, what prestigers are advised to play, this is actually useful. Who knew? 

-Rain of fire 8/10 5 spread out arrows each dealing 25 damage. a good aerial with an excellent level two. If facing a flier, aim slightly to the left or right if you want to actually hit them. Aim slightly to the side you want them moved away from as well. Good aim does make it a tower-killer. It also has decent ability destroying cover, and can be used to enhance its own level two. 

-Fire arrow 7/10 Allows you to snipe across the map, good on Arcane Crystals. Its restricted to four charges. Despite its advantages, it�s not really worth the slot. It�s not very different from fire ball except for its homing ability. Do not use this when fire ball would suffice, it would be a waste, and you never know when this handy sniping spell will save the day. Spell is suggested. 

-Magma bomb 7/10 deals 150 damage. Easy to learn hard to master. Synergetic with static ball. Not much to say here. Its high damage is caused by five hits of 25 and a starting detonation of 25. This spell works best between an enemy and a minion, terrain is also effective but less so. Suicides are effective if they�re your only hope for a draw, but it** rather crude, and in 10 second games, hard to pull off if you�re not already adjacent to them. 

-Flame wall 8/10 A flame wall that is placed on terrain, an enemies head, or a tower. Perfect for fending off aerials and preventing pre-turn aerials (i.e. English summer) and allowing your flame shield to remain functional. A good choice for dealing with a den of darkness nearby, or in fact any tower, even cog tower if they cannot move to escape. Note that Sanctuary does NOT remove this. It can also function as a barricade in certain conditions. 

-Napalm bomb 1.4/10 Utterly useless, with four charges. Its what brine bomb was cloned after, and again. useless. do not bring it. I suppose it could be used to block terrain, but it isn�t practical. Most people just fly anyway. 

-Rain of arrows 8/10 A very powerful, highly suggested, flame-shield penetrating, tower-slaying, aerial. This spell is also amazingly synergetic with Arcane Sigil. Don't waste it. Use on a tower if its being a pain, but its better for harming the arcanist. 

Cog spells: 

-Static ball 5/10 An effective defensive spell, capable of blocking all but thunder shock, aura of decay, and sky ray. Also has possible offensive synergies. 

-Mechanical arrow Varies/10 Easy to use the normal way, but the way it detonates makes it a tower-killer if you detonate it right. It maxes out at 160, the description is incorrect. If you can explode this in the air properly, bring this spell. I can�t tell you how to use it, namely because I haven�t mastered it yet. 

-Recall device 4-6.5/10 Useful for traveling, can bring your tower with you, and doesn't end your turn. A tactical spell to be sure. Useful for escaping maelstroms and volcano without losing your precious tower, and a prerequisite for calling bell, which can be a powerful spell if used well. 

-Clock tower 8/10 A 75hp moveable (helpful with maelstrom, common on short time Arcane Crystals) level one tower with a powerful level two. Almost a required spell. 

-Blast from the past 4/10. Normally very useful, but in short turn games its nearly worthless. And its recent nerf reduces that still. 

-Static shield 4/10 Remember to use static shield during use if you don't want to be pummeled. Not worth it. 

-Cog fall 3/10. Good trapping spell, but not synergetic at all with prestige spells as far as I know. 

-Calling bell Varies/10 Once you manage to buy the 3 wand volcano, this can be very useful, but you should wait to by volcano anyway. You can also pull someone to an Armageddon, or on Arcane crystals below your head, where they will be blitzed by your arrows, but I find that rather pointless as you could walk there normally if you can hit them with calling bell. Another use is getting rid of pesky water lords by trapping them in a crevice above the water line, or dragons, or even dark knights. This spell has many synergies. 

-Cuckoo clock 7.5/10 High damage and useful, I suggest it simply because of its damage. To me the spell seems rather crude, but it is also effective. Also gives you a good chance versus full stone users. 

-Clockwork bomb 6/10 useful as a tower-killer, but not a preferable choice. The fact that it explodes at a random time makes it useless, and it enjoys waiting until you land on it to detonate. It can be used as a trapping spell if you get close enough. 

-Steam dragon 6/10. Rather underrated in my opinion, sure its not great, but is can be useful if simply as a shield that automatically heals. Combined with a flame shield it can be effective. 

-Redo 8/10 Regain your limited use spells. Gain fire arrow back, make the sigil/rain of arrows combo even more terrifying, or repeat it, regain cuck** clock for the stone user. A useful spell if you have space. Just be careful to time it right. This spell is all about timing. 

Synergetic combos: 

Now that I have described the spells, let me give you some ideas of how to use them. These tricks are invaluable to prestiging. Some require a measure of anonymity to work, but most have the required levels anyway. 

Sigils + Rain of Arrows: 9/10 A highly powerful technique. First trap your foe with access to the sky using a sigil. Add as many sigils as you can (nice to remove their gate first if possible) if you add four, or more using redo, you can then deal a blow with rain of arrows, dealing seventy-five and propelling them through the sigils. This deals up to 195 damage without using redo. Not only that, the sigils massively amplify the launch power, often sending them off the arena even in Arcane crystals, or often into the water. Make sure to aim the rain of fire below them to achieve the launch effectively. Takes a bit to master: practice on yourself in the sandbox if necessary, but highly effective, and not too difficult. If you add sigils with redo this is lethal. Arcane Energizer is also highly effective. 

Imps + Arcane energizer + Arcane glyph: 8/10 Steps: Arcane energizer, Arcane glyph on a peak, summon imps. Move one imp through all the glyphs and move imps to your foe. You deal 160 damage and charge your other imps as well. You often even sink your foe. 

Static ball + Fire arrows: 6/10 No one really ever gets what your doing, so they ignore it. Basically, cast a static ball on yourself several times and spam your fire arrows. Then fire arrows streak toward them, dealing heavy damage without letting them heal or ending your turn, possibly giving them no chance. However, this one is slightly obvious sometimes, and people who move can stop this entirely. Also works with magma bombs, fire balls, and napalm, but you must be at close range. I do NOT recommend it, as it is impractical and difficult to pull off. 

Arcane Energizer + Arcane tower + Arcane Gate + Arcane arrow: 7/10 Rather simple really, charge an arcane tower to 100, use energizer, teleport on their head to trap them, and use arcane arrows. Best when they don�t have gate. 

Arcane Portal + Arcane Sigil: 8/10 Easy to perform to boot. Works best on those fancy-clothed Arch mages who have big frilly clothing coming out everywhere. The basic strategy is to make arcane glyphs just over your head, inward to terrain, and then to make an arcane portal, being careful to get as many pixels of your foe in the other end as possible, so they come through, hit the sigils, and bounce into the waves. 

Arcane Glyph + Arcane Flash: ?/10 This takes tremendous skill. In theory, you use sigils to amplify knockback and redirect people sent by flash, allowing you excellent patterns of motion and increased damage. 


Book set suggestions: 

This is a build for prestigers that I find highly effective. 

1. Arcane Arrow 
2. Arcane Tower 
3. Arcane Gate 
4. Summon Imps 
5. Arcane Glyph 
6. Arcane Energizer 
7. Arcane Sigil 
8. Arcane Zero Shield 
9. Flame Shield 
10. Flame Wall 
11. Rain of Fire 
12. Rain of Arrows 
13. Static Shield 
14. Cog Tower 
15. Cuck** Clock 
16. Recall device 


Generally I start with flame shield, tower, and recall device. Start out with a solid defense. Hide under terrain if possible. Then I start working on the use of sigils and rain of arrows with arcane energizer. If that doesn�t work I move on to imps one the Armageddon starts. Remember NEVER to get into an exchange of blows, you will always lose. You need to fight tactically, as if playing chess. Set everything up, then at the right moment, strike to kill them. 

Suggested Maps: 

Grassy Hills: 7/10 An excellent map, but you really cant fight Stone users here well, and Levante/Zarneth tactics are difficult when you have these few spells. 

Giants Mountains 7/10 Good map for calling bell if you prefer that strategy. Not a lot of cover. 

Elven Isles: 5/10. a full stone user�s paradise. The gate method works on them here usually, but your at a large disadvantage. This map is inadvisable. When it renders flat you�re virtually hopeless. 

Goblin Caves: 6/10 too much cover at first, too little later on. You cannot defeat an Overlight user here easily. Another good Calling bell map. Try to use fissures that start on their turn for maximum effect. The Armageddon is the major battle decider here 2 times out of 3. 

Murky Swamps: 6/10 this map hates me, you may have better luck here, but your simply too vulnerable here, and you need to play defensively to conserve your un-returnable hp. It has some cover at first, but is all too easily obliterated 

Graveyard: 4/10 Oh don�t get me wrong, the map is great. The greatest problem is the concentration of seas users and liches here, making victory difficult. 

Sky Castles: 6/10Too much seas users amplification. The good news is even they cannot easily attack you here, so you can create a draw effectively. The clouds nullify aerials as well. I love this map normally... just not with my prestige book. 

Mos le�Harmless: 6.5/10 The Easter-egg from Runescape, this island is good for your aerials and has decent cover sometimes. This map can be effective if you play it well. Storm users can be powerful here, but they aren�t a great threat. 

Arcane Crystals: 9/10 My absolute favorite map, for this book or any other, regardless of time. You can easily fight guerilla warfare, your aerials are effective, there is usually adequate cover, the Armageddon magnifies imps, and is all around the best choice you have. Highly suggested. 

General tactics: Most people will tell you that for prestiging �Oh, just spam cuck** clock and flash, and use cheap tactics. It won�t make you friends, but it gets you out of the trap� But personally, I find this advice foolhardy at best. You cannot get out of the prestige trap using mere brawn. You may have cuck** clock, but 90% of enemies carry cuck** clock, shock bomb, mega boulder, snowball, dark knight, sometimes ice bomb... And they use all the �cheap� tactics as well. In short, with less damage, defense, point blank, and absolutely no rehealants, you will be outmatched. So what do you do? Use your brain . The most effective techniques for prestige hatters are simply using low time settings. Most of the tactics that writhe through the game like parasites right now fail utterly in turn times of 30 seconds or less and in ten seconds are utterly useless. You cannot walk up to flash someone in 10 seconds. You cannot walk up to someone and bftp and then tower on their head in 10 seconds. In short, 10 seconds requires more skill and strategy. In ten second games, you must aim and fire projectiles and spam aerials. You need to think on your feet and move quickly. 10 second games are not only more skillful and tactical, but in my opinion, more fun to play, partially because of it, partially because of the varying tactics. More importantly for you, they even up the playing field. 

Generally, just focus on setting up a one hit kill (or close to it), possibly ignoring your health, or set up defenses and manage between offense and defense respectively. You may instead need to slowly drag them down over time. Don�t let them get to close, unless they are best at long ranges and standing on their head in arcane tower with an energizer proves more effective. Use techniques proportionately with what they are using. For example, imps for full stone, melee for fire and storm and sometimes frost, rain of arrows and sigils for anything else... It's very versatile really. 

Tactics versus__: 

In ten second games, when your not fighting careless people who fail to set their turn time, you do have to deal with people who actually know what they are doing. Some will use full books, while you will often face mixed books. As a prestiger, you often have a disadvantage, so I suggest you read the following tactical defenses. 

Full flame: Sometimes the best way to deal with them is jump on their heads and melee them. Use flame shields to block rain of fire and seek cover and tower. Your tower will be killed by volcano, but your Arcanist will be unharmed. Then use arcane gate far away. Just keep pummeling them, their hp reduction is your greatest boon. 

Full Stone: They only have two aerials if they don�t bring deluge, both 1 use, one nearly worthless, save that it can sink you. Try to tempt them into fissuring you, but stay somewhere safe, then teleport away from the fissure. If they carry deluge, use your best friend the flame shield and keep decent cover. It also blocks mega boulders. My basic strategy is to use Arcane Crystals (I always do) then gate to one side. As they pursue you so they can actually do damage, teleport to the other side . As they follow you, just keep up guerilla warfare with aerials and well aimed spells (such as arrows) eventually, you can pull off a win. Or just end their misery with imps. That works very fast. 

Full storm: Again, their weakness is the lack of hp. Melee is also very effective, as they can�t fight from that range. Just pummel them. Don�t forget about the synergetic combos section. 

Full frost: very deadly, they can generally hide beneath terrain and use comet. Fortunately, they are rare. They have no point blank outside of their towers however, so use that. Their frost arrow is very dangerous, so flame shield right away. Flame wall and flame shield are often your best friends in 10 seconds, and now is no exception. 

Full Underdark: Sadly, these are very hard to counter as a prestiger. The Rain of Arrows + Sigil is your best hope. You need to deal heavy damage with this foe or sink them turn by turn if you can. 

Full Overlight: The best thing you can do is press the attack. If you give them time to heal, they can be unstoppable. Another nigh-on-impossible to counter foe. 

Full Seas: Another nigh impossible to counter enemy, possibly the very worst. Flame shield is your strongest weapon against the aerials, so stay on high ground for maelstrom and fury. If you have calling bell, their water lord is almost the very purpose of the spell. If they ever go on land you can use the RoA + sigils for heavy damage. 

Full Nature: Unlikely on Crystals, your suggested map, but I will go into them: Rain of fire is the best anti elf spell in the game. Because they are most common on grassy hills, I suggest you practice side-hiding with them. 

Full Cogs: A minimal threat, often used by recently prestiged. Do not be tempted to use this, it doesn�t work. The time is just not compensation for the hp. Like all non-defensive familiars, hammer them, and try to stay towered. 

Notable Mixed Books: 

Levante/Zarneth: Only truly a threat on grassy hills. You have no real counters, which is why I dissuade grassy hills. Against them I dig a horizontal path with Arcane Arrows to avoid their aerials and charge imps. Hiding on the side or not, you cannot avoid imps at max hp. If they let you charge them, you can win. 

Typical Mixed book: RoA + sigil is very effective, as always. They have many aerials, so use flame shield, and try to find cover high enough to deal with maelstrom. If they gate to you and use brine, you should give up your spot and find another. Imps also work. You need to think with this, and plan your moves in advance, more so than any other book (save maybe nature and seas), and prepare for the spells they may have. 

Wands: 

Wands, of course, are the greatest difficulty that prestigers have. Wands are given out for the titles you earn in Arcanists, but only the good ones, where negative titles reduce your wand gain. 
Imp Master, Minion Master, Most bouncy, Most fit (previous two are for most jumping and walking), most resilient, most powerful etc. are good titles. Most wet, most annoying, most useless and such are BAD titles that you want to avoid (most annoying comes from spamming a spell.) The more good titles you get, the more wands, and you ARE able to get wands below the required rating, if you get enough titles. Thus, in your spare time, you may consider simply jumping and walking constantly. Using this, one can get wands anyway. 

It has been suggested recently that the 'bad' titles may in fact award wands anyway. I am currently trying to test this. 

What to Buy? 

So, you have some wands now, but what should you buy? After all, buying something that is actually useful is preferable. I highly recommend starting with Underdark. It has drain bolt, another strong tower (sort of), and aura of decay. Using these you can slowly graft more useful spells onto your Arcanist to help you escape the trap. I suggest you finish Underdark, just a personal preference, then move onto Overlight. From here, choose by preference. 

Should you Prestige? 

An important question to ask yourself before sealing your fate by control clicking, is if it is a good idea. Are you 700 rating below the limit with no experience in short turn times? if so, this may not yet be a good idea. I recommend you be significantly above the rating before you prestige (around 500 should do) And that you get the hang of short turn times beforehand. 


This concludes the guide, thank you for reading. I'll update this guide as more books and strategies become known and available. Check back any time.