How can I counter rock armor?

Question

My brother and I sat down for some Magicka PVP 1v1, and was great and all until he discovered rock armor, and that it can be combined with resistances.

Seeing that I could no longer kill him, I cast my own rock armor with resistances. We proceeded to pretty much have a stalemate for the rest of the match.

Given that Magicka is a game that focuses on weaknesses and strengths, what is the rock armor's weakness, and how can I counter it? Unfortunately the self-cast armor wiki page does not have a lot of information on this topic other than slows the caster down. However, the speed reduction is marginal and not a huge contributing factor when it comes to combat.

For a specific example, say my rival uses this self-cast:

How could I take him out as quickly as possible?

Answer 1

Assuming EDDDD, the caster is still weak against burning or poison damage, and skills that can insta-kill armored wizards like:

• Charged Rock Balls (DDDDD, takes longer to charge for the same range and damage),
• Charged Ice Balls (QRQRQRQRD, make sure to have Anti-Ice Armor up, about one sec should be enough),
• Ice Walls of Death (QERRAS), shielded wizards take no damage from this, but non-Anti-Cold shielded wizards will be chilled.

The Anti-Fire version, EFDDD, will prevent burning, but the caster is still be vulnerable to poison and cold.

The Anti-Cold version, ERDDD, won't prevent the caster from being frozen, but it should prevent them from being chilled. I don't think this version grants immunity to Ice Ball, but it should absorb damage from when it breaks. They are also vulnerable to burning.

The Anti-Water version, EQDDD, will prevent the caster from being drenched.

Answer 2

The most reliable way to deal with someone who plays too defensively is to suddenly cast Nullify and then some quick beam spell, like A-S-F. If you have Nullify, hurrah.

However, magicks are not available in PvP for most of the time, so you have to rely on spells.

1. If his rock shield isn't too hard (around 1-2 rocks in it), some overkilling physical damage can penetrate the armour. For example, a charged ice ball (D-QR-QR-QR-QR, hold RMB, release).
2. You can't really protect against every single element, you always keep a vulnerability, and you usually cannot protect yourself against the opposite elements. For example, has he protected himself against Arcane and Fire? Apply some Water, then some Cold. While he is chilled, you will have some time do charge your ice ball. Has he protected himself against Arcane and Cold now? Make a Fire Lightning (A-F), spam it! Remember that it's impossible to protect against Lightning while wearing a rock armour, and not possible to protect against Fire while wering Ice armour. If he is not protected against Arcane and Lightning, create the powered arcane ice barriers: QR-QR-E-S-A (Ice-Ice-Shield-Arcane-Lightning), apply this to your weapon. Then apply Water and Cold to chill him, as Arcane-based spells deal triple damage to frozen targets. At least make him wet to double the damage of the lightning component. If you see that you have no additional time to apply Cold, make powered arcane freezing ice barriers, substituting one Ice for simple cold (QR-R-E-S-A). If your opponent isn't wet, at least he will be slowed down and likely have no time to cast a counter. If he is wet, he will be frozen. Hurrah!

• Mines! Made by (Shield-Arcane-Something), they can send your opponent flying and apply conditions. Even if he is protected against Arcane, he will be sent flying by the mines, getting a lot of damage, perhaps even leaving the map. If there is no arcane protection, there will simply be a lot of damage. Some good conditions to apply are either Cold or Fire, depending on which protection does he have on. Lightning adds a cood portion of damage. You can also add Steam before Lightning for more damage.

4. Practice to roll the spells faster. Learn to do it as fast as the game actually adds elements to the spell bar. This will allow you to roll just too much damage for your brother to play defensively.
5. Allow more interesting Magicks to drop, like the Advanced and Too Advanced lists. If you enter a stalemate, you will have enough time to find a good Magick and roll it, like the Conflagration, or Lightning Strike, or Summon Death, or Summon Elemental...
6. Be a copycat. If you see that some strategy being too good, copy it.
7. Keep them wet. Most damaging spells in this game contain a lot of elements, one of them being Lightning. E.g. QF-QF-A-S-A. However, it's trivial to make your opponent wet:

• Q-S if they are in LoS, but far
• Q-D (charge for a bit) if they are not too far, but behind cover If they are weaving a Lightning spell, it will be distorted, and if they continue to try, they will damage themselves

8. If your opponent gets annoyed by being constantly wet and shields against water, start using fire again. Keep them constantly on fire!

Magicka is a game of counters. Especially Magicka PvP. So learn to counter, and good luck. There is no and should not be any one-size-fits-all solution