Guide to Magic Dan Tests
by Yamanoki
**(click the name of a section to jump to it)**
3. The Combat Tests - General Information
- Lightning Rod
- Firebolt
- Lightningbolt
- Icebolt
- Fireball
- Thunder
- Ice Spear
- Healing
- Idle Animation
2. Introduction
Hello, and welcome to my guide to the Magic Dan Tests! I’m Yamanoki, an elf on the Ruairi server. I wrote this guide to help other players get their Magic Dans to 3 more quickly, since going into a test without any idea what the content will be like is a bad idea! (That’s one thing I remember from school, anyway.) All of the strategies contained in this guide were personally tested by me, in pursuit of my own Magic Dan 3 certification. My methods are good enough, but not necessarily the best; you are welcome to experiment and come up with your own variations. Hope this guide helps you!
(Oh, and I like cats. That’s important.)
*special thanks to Rietty for contributing information about the Dan 2->3 Healing test
3. The Combat Tests - General Information
**This section is irrelevant for the Healing Test. If you are looking specifically for the Healing Test, please jump to this section.**
It is strongly recommended to rank certain magic skills to rank 1 before attempting any of the Dan tests. While the Dan test will specifically restrict you to certain skills in an RP-dungeon fashion, the ranks of those skills will be whatever you have in the real Mabi world (this includes Dan ranks). In particular, Snapcast and Fusion Bolt, as well as the relevant elemental masteries, Magic Weapon Mastery, Magic Mastery, and arguably Meditation are useful in all tests. I would also strongly recommend Spell Walk and Inspiration for the Thunder test. Additionally, a given test is identical in format regardless of the Dan rank it is being tested at, except that there will be more enemies at higher Dans.
With the exception of Healing, all of the dan tests have the same format. You will start the test with 5 minutes on the timer and four crystals in the cardinal directions. These crystals charge bolt spells indicating the element of monster they will spawn. The crystals do not give points and reset all cooldowns on death - blitz through them as fast as you can, snapcasting if possible, with your strongest attacks. When a crystal is destroyed, the others will disappear and, after a short delay, enemies will spawn. These enemies are always: Grumbills from the 1st crystal, Sprites from the 2nd crystal, Giant Sprites and some Sprites from the 3rd crystal, all of the particular element displayed by the crystal. You must destroy three crystals and their respective waves.
Sidenote #1 on crystal elements: The elemental nature of the minions will obviously have an impact on how effective your spells are. Keep in mind that it is not always in your benefit to choose an element that is weak to the spell being tested. Giant Sprites are able to use the INT level spell of their element - this is particularly troublesome for Giant Ice Sprites, as being hit by Ice Spear will typically result in getting stunlocked by more Ice Spears and Icebolts from the small Sprites, which can easily ruin an entire run in higher Dans. Keep in mind whether your goal is to amass most of your points during the Crystal phase or the Boss Phase, and plan your elemental choices accordingly. Intentionally picking Lightning-resistant minions during the Lightningbolt test may actually be to your benefit.
Sidenote #2 on crystal elements: Personally, I find it difficult to see the bolt spells being charged by the crystals, so I just kill whichever crystal happens to be closest to my cursor. It is entirely possible to get 12k+ points without paying attention to the element choices at all in each test. Do keep in mind that searching for the right element among the crystals may cost you valuable seconds that you could be using to actually get points - especially if you happen to be using Fusion-Bolt to clear minions in order to rush the boss for points, since the elemental resistances become relatively pointless with Fusion-Bolt.
Sidenote #3 on crystal elements: The elemental bolt that the crystals charge changes between waves. During the first two waves, at least one crystal will charge a bolt spell of each of the three elements, making it possible to spawn any of the three elements for those waves. On the 3rd wave, only two crystals remain; as such, you will only get to choose between the two elements they use. In my experience, these two elements are always Fire and Ice. (I guess somebody at DevCat is a fan of Robert Frost).
After the last enemy of the third wave, the Boss Monster (an Amethyst Golem with Magic Deflect 2) will automatically spawn and will continuously respawn until the test timer hits 0. Every time the Amethyst Golem dies, all of your magic spell cooldowns will be reset.
The specifics of earning points vary slightly with each spell. Generally, points are given upon
a) attacking an enemy
b) killing an enemy (you will also gain the points for attacking them)
c) attacking a Boss Monster (you will also gain the points for attacking them, as well as killing them)
d) where applicable, attacking 3 or more enemies
e) at the end of the test, a bonus amount of points will be awarded equal to some percent of the total damage dealt (usually 1% or .5% depending on spell)
Additionally, you will lose 100 points on death and will be revived automatically after 10 seconds (meaning you lose 10 seconds of potential point-making)
In general, the points gained from a-d vastly outweigh the points gained from e.
Tips and strategies for specific spell tests will be given in the following sections. All of these are intended to allow you to gain 12k points or higher, in order to always get an SS rank, even in Dan 3. If you are not close to 12k points by the 0:10 second mark, you can click the EXIT button to forfeit the test, allowing you to try again on the same day (though you will have to repay the gold fee, it is worth not having to wait another 24 hours.) Depending on which test is being taken, the strategy I have outlined may focus on gaining points in either the Crystal Phase or the Boss Phase. In general, tests which focus points on the Crystal Phase get easier in higher Dans and tests which focus points on the Boss Phase get harder in higher Dans, just because the Crystal Phase has more enemies.
A playlist containing every example video, including Healing, can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAuy2_BJYkbp43aahcj-wta5zvVr91Tff
3a. Lightning Rod
LRod's cooldown resets seemingly randomly when you use it. Using it on more enemies at once, and killing them, seems to increase the likelihood of it resetting.
During the crystal phase, try to constantly be LRodding enemies by hitting as many of them with as high a charge as you can in order to get resets (hitting multiple enemies also gives more points).
Once the boss spawns, the most efficient method is the following: Max-charge Lrod and hit the boss. Then snapcast Firebolt. Then continuously Firebolt the boss until it either dies or your Lrod is off cooldown (in the latter case, the boss should be nearly dead anyway). Kill the boss, using a quick-charged Lrod if it has come off cooldown, and repeat this process. If you're lucky with crits, the boss will die from the snap-casted Firebolt, allowing you to cycle your Lrod cooldown very quickly.
Note that for this test, you MUST get lucky with points during the Crystal phase, or you will not be able to reach 12k points off of just the bosses.
Video example:
3b. Firebolt
Just 1-charge firebolt everything, snapcasting Firebolt when you can. It’s simple and it works.
Video example:
Alternate strategy:
Personally, I use Ice-Lightning Fusion to blitz past the Crystal phase, so that I'm at about 300-800 points when the Boss phase starts (three snapcasted Firebolts and finishing deadly targets with Firebolt). Hitting the bosses with 1-charge firebolt gives 3x as many points as hitting the minions, so I find that I can easily make up the difference and exceed the point values I might get just 1-charging everything.
This strategy seems less effective in higher Dans, however, since the increased number of enemies means that the Crystal Phase takes longer, shortening the amount of time the Boss Phase lasts for; after all, with this strategy, points are mainly accumulated via the Boss Phase.
Video example:
https://youtu.be/GxtGoXwie9M
3c. Lightningbolt
Pre-charge Lightningbolts during the delays between spawns during the Crystal Phase - this will allow you to, assuming you're lucky with spawns, hit many enemies right off the bat for a decent chunk of points. Your goal is to get as many points as possible in the Crystal Phase, as the Boss's Mana Deflector will make it very difficult to gain many points in the Boss Phase (since it'll kill you and slow you down). To that end, intentionally spawning lightning elemental minions for the first two waves is extremely helpful, as the damage resistance will allow you to hit them more times before they die, thus giving you more points. If Giant Sprites start to give you trouble, snap-cast Firebolt onto them to eliminate them.
During the Boss Phase, I found that charging 2-3 lightningbolts before the boss aggroes seems to screw with its AI, causing it to just stand still while you blast it with a barrage of 1-charge bolts. Eventually, though, it WILL try to hit you - load Counter to knock it back. It's tight timing, but the AI seems to cause it to stand still every time it's knocked back for just long enough to not only get some good shots in with 1-charge Lbolt, but also for Counter to come off cooldown right before it tries to hit you again.
If you have trouble with this test, it may be worthwhile to consult the strategy for Icebolt, as that test is essentially a more difficult version of this one. Learning the strategy for Icebolt should make this test much easier, though it is not necessary.
Video example:
3d. Icebolt
Icebolt’s test is similar to the Lightningbolt test. Be sure to have both Counter and Defense assigned to comfortable hotkeys for this test. Much of the following strategy has been copypasted from the Lightningbolt section, with additions due to this test being more difficult.
Pre-charge Icebolts during the delays between spawns during the Crystal Phase - this will allow you to hit enemies many times right off the bat for a decent chunk of points. Your goal is to get as many points as possible in the Crystal Phase, as the Boss's Mana Deflector will make it very difficult to gain many points in the Boss Phase (since it'll kill you and slow you down). Note that the Boss golems are not affected by Icebolt’s innate movespeed slow. Intentionally spawning ice elemental minions for the first two waves is extremely helpful, as the damage resistance will allow you to hit them more times before they die, thus giving you more points. However, it is highly recommended to intentionally spawn a Fire elemental wave as the 3rd crystal - this will allow you to very quickly kill the Giant Fire Sprites with snap-casted Icebolts. In particular, spawning an Ice elemental wave as the third wave may spell the end of a run, as the Giant Ice Sprites are quite difficult to deal with (even if one of them is eliminated with snapcast Firebolt) due to the multi-aggro between them and the normal Ice Sprites, all of which will resist the damage of Icebolt.
During the Boss Phase, I found that fully-charging icebolt before the boss aggroes (and keeping at max cast range) allows one to get off a full rotation of bolts before it closes the distance. Take every opportunity when the golem is loading Defense, Windmill, or Stomp to load a full barrage of icebolts and move to your maximum cast range. Unleash as many bolts as you can before the boss closes distance, and then use Counter to knock it back. On average, you will be able to hit the boss maybe 2-3 times before you have to cancel the remaining bolts and load Counter. In most cases, the boss’s AI will cause it to either load Defense, Windmill, or Stomp, or to run around in a pointless circle, after being countered. Use this time to restock on Icebolts and repeat the process. Regardless of when you decide to finish casting new Icebolts, do not start attacking the boss again until your Counter is off cooldown, or you will take a heavy hit. If the boss attempts to immediately attack again, use Defense to mitigate the damage from the hit and then Snapcast firebolt to knock it away, hopefully causing its AI to cycle to one of the other options. It may take several attempts, especially for laggy users with more restricted timing windows, to learn how to properly combat the golems.
The lower average damage of Icebolt, coupled with Giant Ice Sprites already being the most dangerous minion in the tests even before the elemental resistance, and the fact that the golems are immune to Icebolt’s movespeed slow, makes this test even harder than the Lightningbolt test. In my experience, this test is the most difficult.
Video example:
3e. Fireball
Pre-charge Fireball during every spawn delay, including the Boss phase. Try to clear every wave with the precharged and snap-casted Fireballs - eliminate stragglers during the Crystal phase with Ice-Lightning Fusion Bolt.
During the boss phase, your goal is to be constantly cycling fireball. Precharge a fireball, snapcast a fireball, and then start charging a new fireball before these two hit. The golem should die to the first two fireballs, allowing you to repeat. If it doesn't die (deadly, dodged it somehow, etc), use Ice-Fire fusion to kill it quickly and move on to the next one.
Generally, the boss golem likes to use Windmill after being knocked back. If it survives a fireball and breaks your cycle, knock it back with IceFire fusion until it loads Windmill. Use this opportunity to manually charge a Fireball and hopefully restart the cycle.
Video example:
3f. Thunder
Pre-charge Thunder during every spawn delay during the Crystal phase. Try to hit many enemies at once. Don't bother trying to fully-charge TH - just get as high as you can during the spawn delay, and let it rip. After that, use Snapcast and 1-charge TH. Prioritize the Giant Sprites with your higher-charged Thunders to eliminate them quickly.
During the Boss Phase, Snapcast and precharge TH where you can, but only use 1-charge TH once it has aggroed you. Since both the initial bolt and the followup bolt count for points, a 1-charge TH will give you 2 counts of attacking points, whereas a 5-charge TH will only give you 6 - that's not time efficient. For this test, it is highly recommended that you use Spellwalk to keep your distance from the golems -the initial bolt will aggro them and cause them to run towards you, but Spellwalk should allow you to barely keep your distance while charging the next 1-charge TH, so that your first 1-charge TH blasts the golem backwards right as your next one is ready to be fired. This will also mean that you may end up needing to use Inspiration one time to refill your mana, as spamming a double-mana-cost 1-charge TH can get pricey on the MP.
Video example:
3g. Ice Spear
With Ice Spear, the attack only occurs on the explosion, not the initial freezing. This has several relevant repercussions: points are not awarded on freezing, and the Golem does not aggro on freezing, only on explosion.
During the crystal phase, try to constantly be Spearing as many enemies with as high a charge as you can. It is also viable to try to blitz through single targets/low HP targets with Fusion Bolts, in order to rush the boss, since Ice Spear has such a delay on it. Whichever method you choose, this phase should be self-explanatory.
During the Boss phase, 1-charge Ice Spear the boss and then immediately snapcast Ice Spear on them, and then cycle 1-charge Ice Spears on them as quickly as you can. If done correctly, the boss should be locked into a constant string of explosion detonations that prevent it from doing anything except cry liek little babbi until it dies.
Note: Depending on how lucky you are with crits and positioning, the boss may get knocked out of your Ice Spear cast range before you've landed enough Ice Spears to kill it. Use Spell Walk to stay in casting position - any delay in your ability to cast Ice Spear on the boss will translate into a delay window between explosions which the boss might use to get up and clobber you.
Video example:
4. The Healing Test
The Healing test is the only test which has a different setup from the others. In this test, you will spawn with one target ally animal and one enemy animal. In the Rank 1->Dan 1 test, it will be a dog and a wolf. In the Dan 1 -> 2 test, it will be a chicken and a fox. In the Dan 2->3 test, it will be a small chick and a bear; the strategy is the same in all of the tests. This guide is written under the assumption that, if you are taking a Dan 2 or 3 test, you are familiar enough with the format of the Dan 1 test for me to refer to the ally and enemy animals as their Dan 1 versions; this simplifies the writing on my end.
The dog you spawn with is called Brave Dog. Do not lose track of Brave Dog. You are given 5 minutes to finish the test, but it actually ends when Brave Dog kills the wolf (or at 5 minutes if the wolf survives that long). Throughout the duration of the test, Friendly Dog(s) will spawn. They exist solely to make it difficult for you to keep track of (and therefore to click on and heal) Brave Dog. In later Dans, the friendly spawns will be hurt slightly, making it possible to accidentally CTRL-target them with Healing - keep an eye on which mob is being targeted before you Heal. You are not allowed to interact with the wolf in any way - as such, you must simply keep Brave Dog alive until it kills the wolf. In this test, points are awarded as follows:
a) points for healing Brave Dog *see NOTE below
b) points for healing Brave Dog when it is in danger
c) bonus points when the wolf dies before 5 minutes
You lose 1000 points if Brave Dog dies - though it will respawn shortly after, the delay will also mean you aren't able to make points and will reduce your bonus points from c).
*NOTE: You will not gain points for Healing Brave Dog if the cast would fully-heal Brave Dog (i.e. if it is missing less than 1 charge’s worth of HP). Due to this, and the usefulness of CTRL targeting to find Brave Dog in the swarm of Friendly Dogs, it is recommended not to top off Brave Dog’s HP, but leave it very slightly less than full HP.
Be extremely careful trying to gain points for healing-in-danger - because of how low the threshold is, it is very easy to accidentally allow Brave Dog to die. Healing Brave Dog while in-danger gives 50% more points. If attempting to gain those points, it is recommended to keep Brave Dog closer to 85% HP, as this will typically allow it to barely survive a 3-hit combo. Too much lower, and it might die to the combo instead. Also be aware that the wolf can use Smash. Keep yourself at full charges on Healing, rather than sitting on 1 or 2 - you have plenty of mana for the test.
Occasionally, you will be prompted that Brave Dog is being cheered; Brave Dog’s wounds, if it has any, will be healed when this happens. You MUST cast Healing on Brave Dog during this time - it will give Brave Dog a damage boost, but more importantly, failing to do so for whatever reason will give the wolf a damage boost, making it much harder to keep Brave Dog alive. You might think it's a good idea to let Brave Dog get hurt more, to heal it more, but the damage boost on the wolf is so high that allowing it to occur greatly increases the risk of Brave Dog dying. The damage boost stacks repeatedly, and greatly facilitates getting the bonus points for ending the test early. The damage boost also causes whoever receives it to glow red, in a similar manner to Berserk music; this makes it much easier to track Brave Dog, once it receives a boost. If Brave Dog dies, all accumulated damage boosts disappear from it.
The bonus points obtained for killing Wolf quickly are substantial, and the points lost by letting Brave Dog die are quite a large penalty, compared to the small amount of points gained by healing. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to get an SS grade without managing to defeat the wolf early. Note that the bonus points for defeating the wolf early are always 3000 points - make absolutely sure to get 9000 points via healing before the wolf dies, or you may end up wasting that day’s attempt. This may involve many tries, as it is also possible to kill the wolf so quickly that Brave Dog simply can not be healed enough to reach 9000 points. Keep an eye not only on the timer, but also on the wolf’s health bar. If the wolf is about to die and you have not gotten within 3k points to pass (6k for dan 1’s A, 9k for dan 2’s S, and 12k for dan 3’s SS requiring 3k, 6k, and 9k from raw healing respectively), leave the test regardless of the timer.
It is very helpful to swap weapon sets to bare-handed for this test; the reduction in healing HP means you will have more opportunities to perform additional healing for more points. As mentioned earlier, you have plenty of mana for this test.
Getting the right balance between killing the wolf quickly and letting Brave Dog be hurt depends greatly upon RNG, through the influence of mob AI (there may be long periods where Brave Dog simply chooses not to hit the wolf, opting for Defense or simply wandering) and the frequency of the damage boosts (the earlier, and more frequently, the damage boosts come, the sooner Brave Dog can use them against the wolf). Be prepared to spend a lot of gold exiting and re-entering this test until RNGesus shines favour upon thee.
Video example:
A playlist containing all of the Magic Dan Test videos, including Healing, linked here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAuy2_BJYkbp43aahcj-wta5zvVr91Tff
5. Reward Gallery
Displayed here are the graphical changes associated with the magic Dan skills, as well as the idle animation for getting all eight skills to Dan 3.
5a. Lightning Rod
The released lightning rod becomes black.
5b. Firebolt
The firebolt impacts with a noticeable plume of flames
5c. Lightningbolt
The released lightning bolt becomes black
5d. Icebolt
The icebolt impacts with a noticeable icicle shattering effect
5e. Fireball
The explosion has a plume of flames rising from it. Unfortunately, this plume of flames is almost completely obscured by the smoke that normally accompanies the explosion.
5f. Thunder
The initial bolt, lingering electricity, and followup bolts all become black. Every followup bolt except for the final bolt also strikes with a moderate electrical discharge.
5g. Ice Spear
The Ice Spear detonation has some (difficult to notice) larger icicle shards. Additionally, the loaded Ice Spear has an additional swirl of white around it.
5h. Healing
The particles for healing a target become golden
5i. Idle Animation
This is the idle animation associated with the accessory received by Dan 3-ing all Magic Skills. (Left animation taken from the wiki)
6. Changelog
10/12/17:
- Added the firebolt-only strategy video example to Firebolt
- At this point, the guide is considered complete - updates will only occur if major changes are necessary.
10/9/17:
- Added .gif of my character with the all-dan animation.
9/29/17:
- Added video example to Healing
9/28/17:
- Added video example to Ice Spear
9/26/17:
- Added video example to LRod
9/23/17:
- More updates to the Healing Test strategy.
9/22/17:
- Significant updates to the Healing Test strategy
9/21/17:
- Added video example to Thunder
- Created playlist compiling all of the video examples and placed link into guide. Will populate playlist simultaneously with guide as the videos are made. Also placed the link again in the Healing section.
- Prepared the format for the remaining sections’ video examples
9/20/17:
- Added new image and description to the Reward Gallery for Thunder
- Added video example to Fireball
- Expanded slightly on the Fireball strategy section
9/15/17:
- Added video example to Icebolt
9/14/17:
- Added video example to Lightningbolt (and about time, too!)
9/13/17:
- More extremely minor QoL updates and fixing typos.
9/6/17:
- Small information updates to the Healing Test section
- Minute formatting changes around the Healing Test section
- Added sidenote #3 on crystal elements
- Added slightly more advice to Icebolt & Lightningbolt tests
9/3/17:
- Added video example to the alternate Firebolt strategy. More video examples planned.
9/2/17:
- Added Gallery section and began populating it
9/1/17:
- Added Changelog section. Previous versions retroactively added from memory
- Added Table of Contents
- Various formatting changes aimed at making this draft look less rough
- Proofreading aimed at making this draft more understandable, because I ramble
8/31/17
- Added Rietty’s input on the Healing test
- Added Icebolt test information
8/30/17
- First rough draft written
- Includes test information for all tests except Icebolt