

Life and Arcane elements have exactly identical effects on the manifestation of a spell, except that Life heals and Arcane damages. Beam elements imbue spells with pure magical energy. Earth nature is more dominant the Ice nature, but more often than not, Earth and Ice will manifest together. If a queue contains a projectile element, the spell will be characterized by big physical power. Note that a queue may only have one Shield at a time. If a queue contains a shield element, the spell will have a defensive nature. There is an order of dominance for elements, and the manifestation of a spell is controlled by the most dominant elements in the queue. Some elements have more of an effect on the nature of the spell than others. Self-casting Shield+Arcane produces a ward against Arcane damage self-casting Shield+Earth encases the spell-caster in a protective rock shell but casting Shield+Arcane+Earth gives the spell-caster both the ward and the shell together. Some spells will combine the manifestations of other spells.

Note that the order in which a wizard fills up their queue may be important if the queue involves the elements Ice or Steam. The spell Shield+Arcane is identical to the spell Arcane+Shield (in both cases, the spell will manifest as magical mines, or as a ward against Arcane damage if you self-cast). For a given combination of elements in a queue, the order of those elements does not effect the manifestation of the spell.Other impossible combinations are: Shield and Shield (a queue may not contain more than one Shield element), Steam and Cold, Steam and Water, Ice and Fire, Steam and Ice. The forbidden combinations are: Fire and Cold, Fire and Water, Lightning and Water, Lightning and Earth, Life and Arcane. Certain elements cannot coexist in a queue.There is an enormous number of unique spells in Magicka, but a few considerations limit the total: The manifestation and effects of the spells are determined by the elements in the queue and the method of spell-casting. In general, a wizards cast spells by adding a combination of up to five elements to their element queue and then casting in one of four ways. Spells can be conjured at any time, as opposed to Magicks which must be learned from Tomes before they can be applied. The properties of spells are decided by the way you cast your spells, the order you cast the elements and obviously which elements you use. There are many types of spells in Magicka.
