Death Must Die · Arcane Echo
Merris Cast Build
Stack Cast levels, convert Pull Area into Cast Damage, and use Twincast plus Second Bolt to repeat a compact three-spell loadout.
Updated for game data v0.8.8
- Gods
Leigong
Summer
Time
- Core
Lightning Orbs
Inferno
Time Field
Second Bolt
Urgency
- Gear
- Cast Damage
- Pull Area
- Cooldown Reduction
- Luck
Gods
Leigong
Repeat triggers + cooldowns
- Lightning Orbs
- Second Bolt
- Urgency
Lightning Orbs supplies a Cast while Second Bolt adds another repeat chance and Urgency counters High Sorceress's cooldown cost.
Summer
High-impact fire Cast
- Inferno
Vehemence
Gehenna
Inferno gives the loadout direct Cast damage, while Vehemence and Gehenna reward Merris's status-heavy spell play.
Time
Control + Cast support
- Time Field
Gem High
Stillness
Time Field adds area control, Stillness extends Cast effects, and Gem High supplies another source of Cooldown Reduction.
Blessing Priorities
Core
5 blessingsLightning Orbs
Leigong · Cast
Lightning orbs spawn at random that explode when you attack them or after a limited duration.
Build role: A repeatable Cast that benefits from Merris's Cast Damage, Twincast, and High Sorceress scaling.
Inferno
Summer · Cast
Legend
A wave of fire bursts from you, damaging and scorching everything in its path.
Build role: Provides a direct area-damage Cast and another reliable Fiery Fingertips trigger.
Time Field
Time · Cast
On cooldown, create a time field at your position that damages and slows all enemies and missiles in it.
Build role: Adds a damaging control field that benefits from Cast Area, Duration, cooldown, and repeat effects.
Second Bolt
Leigong · Passive
Legend
Whenever a Cast triggers, there is a chance it triggers an additional time.
Build role: Adds a Luck-scaled chance for Casts to trigger again on top of Twincast's fixed 20% chance.
Urgency
Leigong · Passive
Your cooldowns are reduced.
Build role: Reduces cooldowns to offset High Sorceress and increase the number of repeat opportunities.
High Priority
5 blessings
Warped Attack
Time · Attack
Your Attacks become stronger. Enemies you hit shoot out experience shards behind them.
Build role: Best default for Merris's single Attack slot. Its extra experience shards are easy to collect with Telekinesis, add more Cast levels, and help maintain Gem High's cooldown bonus.
Vehemence
Summer · Passive
Whenever you lose life, your Cast damage is increased temporarily.
Build role: Temporarily increases Cast Damage whenever Merris loses life.
Gem High
Time · Passive
Legend
Whenever you collect an amount of experience, you gain Movement Speed, Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction for a limited duration. Refreshes duration on stack.
Build role: Collected experience grants Cooldown Reduction alongside Movement and Attack Speed.
Stillness
Time · Passive
The effects of your Casts last longer.
Build role: Extends Time Field and any other duration-based Cast chosen as a replacement.
Gehenna
Summer · Passive
Legend
Every second, gain experience for each unique status applied to each individual enemy.
Build role: Turns the statuses spread by the spell package into more experience and therefore more Cast blessing levels.
Situational
1 blessing
Meteor Shower
Summer · Cast
Meteors fall from the skies, damaging enemies and Burning the ground.
Build role: Use instead of Inferno when persistent Burning ground and Cast Duration are more valuable than a direct wave.
Gear Priorities
primary
Cast Damage
Directly scales every damaging Cast and compounds the build's talent multipliers.
Pull Area
Telekinesis converts Pull Area into Cast Damage while making experience collection safer and more consistent.
secondary
Cooldown Reduction
Offsets High Sorceress and creates more opportunities for Twincast and Second Bolt.
Luck
Improves Second Bolt and other chance-based spell effects.
useful
Armor
Adds a defensive floor when the control field or movement does not stop an elite attack.
Practical build advice
Watch out for
Low practical survivability
The offensive god trio and light armor leave Merris vulnerable when control fails or enemies close the gap.
High Sorceress cooldown tax
Cast levels add damage and cooldown together, so an under-supported loadout can become powerful on paper but too slow in practice.
What helps
The Penitent One
Suppresses enemy attacks, projectiles, action frequency, and aim without changing the Cast damage engine.
Armor
Adds a stable mitigation floor when Time Field or movement does not stop an elite hit.
Lady Justice fallback
Protection and Divine Shield are the cleanest god-level defensive swap when the offensive trio cannot survive the run's pressure.
Cooldown Reduction
Offsets High Sorceress so repeated Casts remain active often enough to provide both damage and control.
Unique Boosts
Enhancer · Great if you have it
The Eight Color Staff
Mythic · Tier 2 · Sorceress
This Sorceress staff includes a fixed Cast Damage bonus alongside broad offensive bonuses, directly reinforcing the three-Cast loadout.
Enhancer · Great if you have it
Spellstone
Mythic · Tier 3 · Unrestricted
Its fixed effect grants temporary Cast Damage whenever a Cast triggers, which suits Twincast and Second Bolt's repeated casting.
Defensive fix · Great if you have it
The Penitent One
Mythic · Tier 3 · Unrestricted
Its canonical effects reduce enemy attack and cast speed by 20%, projectile velocity by 30%, action speed by 100%, and aim by 200%; Penance also has a 30% chance to Pacify an attacker for 6 seconds.
Talents
Arcane Breeze
Rank 5/5Your Cast Damage is increased.
Build impact: Adds +10% Cast Damage to the entire loadout.
Fiery Fingertips
Rank 5/5Damage dealt by Casts has a chance to apply Seared.
Build impact: Makes Cast damage apply Seared at 100% chance, adding a reliable status layer to every spell.
Attunement
Rank 5/5Your Cast Cooldown Reduction is increased.
Build impact: Adds +15% Cast Cooldown Reduction to offset High Sorceress and keep spells cycling.
Molten Hot
Rank 5/5Your Cast Damage is increased by a percentage of your Attack Damage.
Build impact: Adds 25% of Merris's Attack Damage bonus to Cast Damage.
High Sorceress
Rank 5/5For every level spent in Cast blessings, deal more Damage but increase your Cast Cooldowns.
Build impact: Each level invested in Cast blessings adds +10% Damage, with an equal Cast cooldown penalty that the build actively offsets.
Twincast
Rank 5/5Whenever a Cast triggers, there is a chance it triggers an additional time.
Build impact: Gives every Cast a 20% chance to trigger an additional time.
Telekinesis
Rank 1/1Your experience pull area is increased. Your Cast Damage is increased for every 100 Pull Area points you have.
Build impact: Adds +100% Pull Area and converts Pull Area into additional Cast Damage.
Concentration
Rank 5/5You gain more experience.
Build impact: Adds +5% Experience Gain while supplying the early points needed to reach the Cast engine.
Talent Tree
Fellowship
Rank 0 / 5Your Summon Damage is increased.
- Summon Damage: +2%
Blast Impact
Rank 0 / 5Your Attack Damage is increased.
- Attack Damage: +1%
Static
Rank 0 / 5Your Dash Damage and Area are increased.
- Dash Damage: +2%
- Dash Area: +2%
Arcane Breeze
Rank 5 / 5Your Cast Damage is increased.
- Cast Damage: +10%
Mystical Prescience
Rank 0 / 2You gain more control over your god offers.
- Alterations: +2
Affection
Rank 0 / 3You have more Summon slots.
- Summon Slots: +1
Flare
Rank 0 / 3Your Attack Range is increased.
- Attack Range: +12%
Concentration
Rank 5 / 5You gain more experience.
- Experience Gain: +5%
Astral Warp
Rank 0 / 3Your experience pull area is increased.
- Pull Area: +20%
Green Tea
Rank 0 / 5You and your Summons have increased movement speed.
- Self Movement Speed: +5%
- Summon Movement Speed: +10%
Fiery Fingertips
Rank 5 / 5Damage dealt by Casts has a chance to apply Seared.
- Max Seared Stacks: +5
- Fiery Fingertips: Chance: +100%
Lightning Circle
Rank 0 / 5Whenever you dash, a Lightning Circle damages enemies around you.
- Lightning Circle: Damage: +1
- Lightning Circle: Area: +960
Arcane Attraction
Rank 0 / 1Your Attack Projectiles aim towards enemies.
- Attack Aim Rate: +360
Fire Pals
Rank 0 / 3Fire Elementals fight alongside you, Burning enemies they hit.
- Fire Pals: Elemental Respawn Cooldown: +10s
- Fire Pals: Elementals: +3
- Fire Pals: Elemental Life: +50
- Fire Pals: Elemental Life Regen: +2
- Fire Pals: Elemental Movement Speed: +320
- Fire Pals: Elemental Damage: +1
- Fire Pals: Elemental Attack Area: +50
- Fire Pals: Elemental Attack Time: +0.42
Incineration
Rank 0 / 4The maximum Seared stacks you can apply are increased.
- Max Seared Stacks: +5
Charged Field
Rank 0 / 4For every level spent in Dash blessings, your Lightning Circle deals more Damage.
- Charged Field: Damage per Dash Level: +10%
Attunement
Rank 5 / 5Your Cast Cooldown Reduction is increased.
- Cast Cooldown Reduction: +15%
Bookworm
Rank 0 / 1Your Cast Damage is increased for each Lore item in your Library.
- Bookworm: Percentage: +0.2%
Channel
Rank 0 / 4While you are not attacking, you and your Summons deal more damage.
- Damage: +10%
Molten Hot
Rank 5 / 5Your Cast Damage is increased by a percentage of your Attack Damage.
- Molten Hot: Percentage: +25%
Energize
Rank 0 / 1Whenever you Dash, gain a status that increases the Attack Speed and Projectile Velocity of your next attack.
- Next Attack Speed: +150%
- Next Attack Velocity: +60%
Arcane Intelligence
Rank 0 / 4Your chance for Expert offers is increased.
- Arcane Intelligence: Expert Skills Chance: +2%
Burn Through
Rank 0 / 5Your Prime Damage is increased.
- Cast Damage: +4%
Discharge
Rank 0 / 5Whenever you dash, you release lightning sparks around you that deal a percentage of your Attack Damage per second.
- Discharge: Percent of Attack Damage: +2%
- Discharge: Lightning Spark: +8
- Discharge: Duration: +1.1s
- Discharge: Velocity: +420
High Sorceress
Rank 5 / 5For every level spent in Cast blessings, deal more Damage but increase your Cast Cooldowns.
- High Sorceress: Damage per Cast Level: +10%
- High Sorceress: Cast Cooldown Reduction per Cast Level: -10%
Esoteric Flow
Rank 0 / 5Whenever you dash, there is a chance you trigger a random Cast. The chance for certain skills is diminished.
- Esoteric Flow: Chance: +4%
Fireball
Rank 0 / 3If you do not attack for a given time, your next attack becomes a Fireball that has only one Projectile with infinite Pierce. This projectile has increased Damage and Area.
- Fireball: Fireball Channel Time: +1.8s
- Fireball: Attack Damage: +200
- Fireball: Area: +6
- Fireball: Velocity: +120
Firesoul
Rank 0 / 5You gain additional Attack Damage bonuses from items.
- Attack Damage: +5%
Twincast
Rank 5 / 5Whenever a Cast triggers, there is a chance it triggers an additional time.
- Twincast: Chance: +20%
Magic Missiles
Rank 0 / 3Your attacks have a chance to shoot out aiming missiles.
- Magic Missiles: Chance: +33%
- Magic Missiles: Cooldown: +0.33s
- Magic Missiles: Damage: +1
- Magic Missiles: Aim Rate: +360
- Magic Missiles: Area: +6
- Magic Missiles: Velocity: +900
- Magic Missiles: Range: +800
- Magic Missiles: Magic Missiles: +3
- Magic Missiles: Projectile Pierce: +3
Pet Dragon
Rank 0 / 1A Red Dragon fights alongside you, Burning enemies with its breath.
- Pet Dragon: Dragon Respawn Cooldown: +14s
- Pet Dragon: Dragon Life: +250
- Pet Dragon: Dragon Life Regen: +5
- Pet Dragon: Dragon Movement Speed: +410
- Pet Dragon: Dragon Breath Damage: +1
- Pet Dragon: Dragon Breath Area: +420
- Pet Dragon: Dragon Attack Time: +1.1
Blaze
Rank 0 / 1For every level spent in Attack blessings, your Attack Damage is increased.
- Blaze: Damage per Attack Level: +8%
Surge
Rank 0 / 1Your Dash Recharge Speed is increased.
- Recharge Speed: +40%
Aspect of the Hydra
Rank 0 / 1Your Cast projectiles are increased, but their Damage is reduced.
- Cast Projectile Count: +100%
- Cast Damage: -100%
Telekinesis
Rank 1 / 1Your experience pull area is increased. Your Cast Damage is increased for every 100 Pull Area points you have.
- Pull Area: +100%
- Telekinesis: Cast Damage: +0.2%
Alternatives
Attack choice
Take Warped Attack by default. Searing Attack is the status-focused swap when leaning harder on Burning and Gehenna; Split-second Attack adds little to this Cast-first engine.
Cast capacity
Merris has four base Cast slots. The three featured Casts leave one slot for a situational fourth Cast such as Meteor Shower.
No Leigong?
Use Lady Justice for Light Rays and Eclipse. You lose Second Bolt, but gain Cast Area and defensive options.
No Time?
Use Ninh for Landslide or Rock Hands. Both remain compatible with Twincast and the Cast-level scaling plan.
Cooldown balance
High Sorceress trades cooldown for damage. Prioritize Attunement, Urgency, and gear Cooldown Reduction before stacking many Cast levels.
Upgrade discipline
Secure one damaging Cast early and keep leveling the core package. Four Cast slots are capacity, not a reason to spread levels across unrelated spells.
Defensive fallback
At higher Darkness, replace Summer with Lady Justice when Armor, Protection, and Divine Shield matter more than the Burning package.