When building a deck in Wizard of Legend, it's important to understand the idea of "jobs".

There are 3 "Jobs" that Spells (referred to as "Arcana" in Wizard of Legend, but I'm going to call them spells to avoid confusion) can do, and any REALLY good deck is going to have a loadout of spells that cover ALL three of these jobs.

And these jobs include KILLING, PROTECTING, and GATHERING.

There are some spells that can do two or more of these jobs at once (and even one in particular that can do all three but pretend you don't see that in the table of contents yet), and it's actually ideal if you have multiple spells that overlap certain jobs, especially as you proceed through the trials and fill out the empty standard slots in your deck, but in general, you definitely want to at LEAST have one of each covered.

So let's begin by discussing the first job: Killing.

The first and most important job is KILLING. After all, you have to KILL (... or "defeat") all your enemies in order to proceed through the trials. However, all spells (with very rare exceptions) deal damage to SOME degree, so what distinguishes a "Killing" spell from every other spell?

The main difference is that KILLING spells have either very reliable DPS, or very high DPH (Damage Per Hit, for the uninformed). Which is to say, they can efficiently whittle an enemy down quickly, or finish them off with a sudden blast. And you will want at least one DPS and one DPH spell in your loadout from the start. The good news is that in most scenarios your Basic spell will cover your DPS, while your Signature will cover DPH.

Not all signatures are good DPH spells, however (you may select a signature based on it's ability to PROTECT or GATHER, instead). In which case you may need to supplement with a strong Standard spell, but for the most part, a lot of Signature spells ARE good DPH spells so most of your basic and signature picks are going to cover your killing potential by themselves.

The second most important job your spells can do is going to be PROTECTION. After all, while you need to KILL things in order to proceed in the trials, you also need to be ALIVE in order to kill things, so having spells that can protect you from damage in some way is a major asset.

To say the trials can be difficult and enemies can be ruthless would be an understatement. Wizard of Legend carries with it the standard level of rogue-like difficulty, so you can expect to die very easily your first few times. The good news, however, is that your spells can help protect you.

Now, there are three specific ways that spells can protect you: Catching, Kiting, and Ignoring.

-----PROTECTING PT1: CATCHING-----
Spells that "catch" halt the enemy before they can attack you. Unless they have Super-Armor (that yellow glow around them), all enemies can be flinched by simply hitting them with a spell attack. This is probably the most common way you will protect yourself, by simply hitting the enemy and keeping them locked in a series of flinches so they can't fight back.

Just like with Killing, all spells that deal damage "hit" and "flinch" the enemy, but this is not enough to qualify a spell as a good "catch" spell. So what is?

A good "catch" spell takes into consideration the many times you will find yourself facing multiple enemies. In which case, you want a spell with some ability to 'catch' multiple enemies and hit them all at once.

Catching is especially related to melee, and has a greater focus on AOE's that can hit multiple enemies that are grouped up (especially if they are nearby), either because they naturally coalesced there, or because you went out of your way to GATHER them there (another job I will go into detail about later).

As an example, Flame Strike and Frost Blade are great basic spells that can "catch" multiple enemies in front of you because of their very wide-hitting aoe strikes. They also strike quickly, able to hit enemies before they can hit you, which is crucial to catching. And being basic spells with no cooldown, you can easily spam them forever and keep enemies locked down until they are eventually KILLED.

Of course, catching is useful for ranged combat as well. Any ranged attack that can explode over a large area, or pierce through a crowd to hit everyone is a good catch spell. Inferno Beam is a good example of a ranged catcher.

Now that you understand Catching, let's go over the second protection method: Kiting.

-----PROTECTING PT2: KITING-----
Where Catching is very melee-focused, and concerned with stunlocking enemies near you, Kiting is the opposite, and is concerned with keeping enemies away from you. Either by pushing them away, or at least locking them in place so you can run away.

A spell like StoneStrike Kick is a good example of a "pushing" kiting spell. As a bonus, spells that help you kite in this manner can function as KILL spells if there are pits nearby to shove your enemies into. And even if there aren't, Wizard of Legend 2 has a new "slam" mechanic where some spells deal extra damage and stun if their push effect results in the victim being thrown against a wall. Another great example of a pushing spell is Dragon Dive, a personal favorite of mine.

Ice spells which FREEZE the enemy are especially good for kiting, especially in Wizard of Legend 2, where they can stop even enemies with super-armor. Ice Blast is one of the first signatures you have access to, and instantly freezes enemies in a small AOE in front of you. It is melee-ranged, so it can be considered a catch OR a kite spell depending on how you use it, but either way... it protects you.

Ice Spear is a great example of a spell that kites by locking AND pushing, as it carries enemies far away from you, and then freezes them when they all hit a wall. As a bonus, it also pierces enemies that aren't bosses, so it can be considered a "catch" as well, but it is definitely a great example of a kiting spell, as if those enemies survive, they won't be coming after you for a WHILE.

-----PROTECTING PT3: IGNORING-----
Perhaps most useful of all, some spells will actually make you totally invincible to incoming attacks when cast for a short duration, and can thus be used as an easy source of i-frames to dodge dangerous attacks (like Jabara's spinning sand-beams, for example), especially when used in sequence one after another (say, going immediately from Seismic Quake into Submerged Strike).

Spells that let you IGNORE attacks are incredibly strong and should be essentially considered part of the META in Wizard of Legend. If you don't have at least one of these on-hand you are either doing something wrong or purposely nerfing yourself for a challenge.

Now that we've gone over KILLING and PROTECTING, it's time to discuss the third and final job that you want your spells to do. While you don't require this job in order to pass the trials (you just need to KILL things and stay alive. Even PROTECTING is technically not required if you have a lot of patience...), it is still a significantly important job in terms of how much easier the trials become when you have it on your side. And that job is GATHERING.

Gathering is the process of taking multiple enemies who are, at first, spread out in separate locations, and collecting them into a small group that you can more easily deal with and keep an eye on. There are a few spells that offer ways to do this to varying degrees of efficiency, including the starter Wind Signature: Zephyr Gale, which can do this to all enemies directly around you in a generous area.

An Earth Standard that you can unlock after buying several of Serjik's arcana, called Fissure Slam, is another such spell which gathers enemies in a massive area in front of you and pushes them together.

And you're probably wondering, if you're a veteran, why I didn't mention Tearing Whirlwind, the undisputed king of Gathering spells.

Well, that's because it's time to move on to the final chapter of this guide...

I started this guide with the intent that I wasn't going to recommend you anything like a META so that you could make your own decisions and not feel like you were being pushed to only play a specific way with specific spells, but I'm going to make a very special exception for Tearing Whirlwind, because it's a great example of why the various jobs I just went over are so important, because it is the MOST overpowered spell in the entire game purely because it can do ALL OF THEM.

Tearing Whirlwind is a standard spell that transforms you into a cyclone that whirls around the battlefield at speed similar to how fast you can sprint. It creates a massive AOE of whirling winds around you that pick up enemies you run into and carry them with you as you go, while also dealing several damage-over-time hits in the process. When the spell ends, all the enemies (if they're still alive) will be gathered in a nice, neat little group and you can immediately begin swatting at them with whatever spells you have on hand to lock them down.

This spell can KILL with it's rather generous DOT hits, serving as a sort of combination DPS/DPH (if you consider "per hit" to be "per casting of this spell"), and it PROTECTS you by both Catching enemies in it's whirling grasp, and also letting you IGNORE attacks with i-frames for the ENTIRE DURATION of the spell.

Tearing Whirlwind is a great example of what it looks like when you have all of these jobs come together to work for you, and if you're unsure if your build is missing something you can always slot it in as your beginning Standard spell just to be safe.

But I'm not talking about Tearing Whirlwind because I want you to put it in your deck. I'm talking about Tearing Whirlwind because it is a good beginner guide to building your OWN deck. Find spells that can do HALF of what Tearing Whirlwind can do, then get other spells that do the other half.

If you can find two spells that can do everything Tearing Whirlwind does when you use them together, then you've already made great progress towards building a great deck for the trials.

So good luck out there, and remember: Don't use Tearing Whirlwind. It is literally cheating.