Witchery Misconception (wall of text)

[SatanicSanta]

There's quite a big misconception been going about since Witchery became a "big" or "popular" mod, that it is an SMP mod and is only useful in PvP. As some of you have probably seen, I hate this misconception. Here's why;

Yes, it does add quite a bit of SMP/PVP tools, as do many mods I should remind you, but this does not mean that is the whole mod, and that does not mean the mod is not useful in SSP. Let's start with the smaller stuff, and just get to more advanced things as we go on.

Rowan, Hathorn, and Alder trees. These are made of very nice looking decoration blocks.

Ember Moss. This is something one might consider only useful in PvP. In case you do not know, it lights entities on fire briefly when they walk over it. This could be very helpful in automating steak/cooked chicken/cooked porkchop production, in a fairly vanilla setup. Drop the mobs down to 1 heart, push them into an Ember Moss, and bam, you don't have to cook it. Or, you could just use it as base defense

Blood Rose. This is very useful in SMP, but is still kinda useful in SSP. Basically, it will collect taglocks of anything that walks over it. This isn't all that useful in singleplayer because it is a lot easier to get an animal's taglocks than a player's.

Trapped plants (not brambles). These can be used for base defense, but are often times more useful/fun in SMP.

Brambles

Wild Bramble. Can be used for base defense, or just a mob grinder. It is likely more useful in SMP than SSP, but i have personally used in in singleplayer.

Ender Bramble. Here's something people don't often think about: distant travel. You could use this to just travel quickly in any direction, granted you can not choose the direction, often times when I travel I do not care where I end up.

Void Bramble. Same thing as the Ender Bramble. This can also be used to nullify circle magic, which is only useful in SSP.
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Monsters (this only lists the ones that are actually used for something)

Mandrake. These are used for farming. Obviously, you need the Mandrake Roots no matter what.

Owls. They can improve your circle magic, and throw brews/potions for you!

Coven Witch. These are used for increasing your coven size (duh) so that you can perform advanced
rituals.

Flame Imp. These are used for Imp Magic. I will get to that later.

Hobgoblins can be used for automining, believe it or not, and are the only way to obtain Koboldite. When Hobgoblins mine (you just need to leash them and give 'em a pick), they might find some Koboldite Dust. Eventually, those dusts can be traded for nuggets, and then ingots. If a goblin mines with a Koboldite Pickaxe, they will autosmelt and autodouble. Goblins are awesome.

Spectral Familiars can be used to find veins of expensive ores.
​

Torment dimension, boss, Tormentum Mystic Branch effect, Soul of Torment Demon, and any other Torment stuff is really only useful in SMP, unless you want to send NPCs to Torment... I cannot say I have never sent villagers to Torment.

Mog's Quiver. Who doesn't want infinite fast arrows that deal an insane amount of damage to flying/jumping entities? This also has extended use in SMP, but only by a single resistance effect.

Gulg's Gurdle. Hulk Smash! You can launch entities up to 10 blocks in the air just with your bare fist when wearing this. It also has extended use in SMP, same as the Quiver.

Twisting Band. FILLER (I HAVE NOT PLAYED WITH THIS ARMOR YET)

Bark Belt. This isn't really useful ever to be honest...

Biting Belt. It's used to give attacking entities potion effects. This is very useful in SMP, but still fairly useful in SSP.

Seeping Shoes. I'm sure you get as annoyed by poison as I do. These prevent all poison effects, and just bone meal the ground instead of poisoning you. Pretty neat.

Ruby Slippers. No more will you need to use /tp home! Just chant "there's no place like home" and bam you're back (assuming you have infusion power).

Icy Slippers. Screw water and lava, you can walk over that scrub-fluid!

Arthana. Want more mob drops from killing things? Here you go. It is also an Altar upgrade, and a pretty awesome one too (it increases the altar's range by 2x).

Lava Diviner. Digging down is now a possibility that does not almost always result in certain lava-death!

Enchanted Broom. Flight. Duh.

Brew Bag. Easy storage and easy use of potions and brews.

Spear of the Huntsman. An amazing weapon.

And now we move onto Poppets; where this misconception stems from:

The majority of poppets are simply to protect the player from various things, that are not players. There are TWO poppets that are not protection-based: Vampiric and Voodoo. Voodoo is pretty useless in SSP, unless you want to torture your animals. The Vampiric Poppet is actually really useful in SSP. Don't like taking damage? Damage some random animal instead!

Imp Magic

Fiery Touch. This is only useful in SMP, or if you want to light golems or goblins on fire.

Melting Touch. Autosmelt TiCo upgrade anyone? Autosmelt and fortune? No? Okay...

Living Flame. This isn't that useful in SSP.

Evaporation. Get rid of water easily. I have never found an actual use for this, SSP or SMP.

Fiery Tolerance. Very useful for nether adventures.
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Infusions

Light. Unless you like torturing animals, like with the Voodoo Poppet, this is fairly useless in SSP. It is pretty fun to trap cows in floating boxes though.

Overworld. Disarm enemies, create grass, launch blocks, create a gigantic shockwave, punch metal-armor-wearing entities great distances, and, as everyone loves, duplicate ores. You can actually use this on ore blocks to turn them into stone, dropping 2 of the according ingot.

Otherwhere. Teleportation. That's about it.

Infernal. Every single Infernal Infusion effect is useful in SSP, and makes no difference if it's SP or MP.
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And yes, Curses are useless in SSP. There's also only 10 curses in the entire mod.

I'm not going to go into fetishes, conjuration effects, and rites, because they are mostly just utility stuffs, I'm lazy, and I think you should get my point by now.

Also, keep in mind that there may be Witchery addons in the future

If anything is unclear, please let me know, or if you think something is not useful in SSP, I will be glad to have that discussion as well.

Community written stuff!

Also, the mutandis is good for getting those hard to find plants. Each treatment with mutandis will randomly turn a plant/sapling into another. Sometimes it takes a while to get the specific plant you want, but it is often easier than going out and finding it in the world.

 

[Qazplm601]

*claps* i agree with everything here.

 

[netmc]

Also, the mutandis is good for getting those hard to find plants. Each treatment with mutandis will randomly turn a plant/sapling into another. Sometimes it takes a while to get the specific plant you want, but it is often easier than going out and finding it in the world.

 

[buggirlexpres]

Yes. I need to link this to quite a few Running Red players, who choose the PneumaticCraft line because they're not on Multiplayer :<

 

[Wraithflay]

To each their own and all that, but I for one agree with Santa here. Sure the mod has a pretty solid PvP feature set, but there's still plenty for us solo folks to play with. Plus there's the unbridled joy my significant other displays whenever she gets her first owls. Me, I've always intended to go down the Toad path and work on some brewing. Alchemy's fun stuff when properly implemented! Aside from that, I suspect that most solo folks go for the owl for improved flight control on the broomstick, pvp'ers would go cat for improved curses, and the toad's just kind of off on the side somewhere croaking away and being generally ignored. Y'know who kicks ass with toads? Ninja. Damn right son.

 

[ratchet freak]

I'm getting a mixed message here, you say witchery is not a SMP mod but then go ahead and say most of the first half of stuff is more useful in SMP...

I started skimming after that

 

[SatanicSanta]

Owls v. Toads

Why not both?

Also, I much prefer the Infernal Infusion for flight than the Enchanted Broom. The broom is pretty nice for earlier-game stuff though.

I'm getting a mixed message here, you say witchery is not a SMP mod but then go ahead and say most of the first half of stuff is more useful in SMP...

I started skimming after that

Many of the things in the mod have extended use when in SMP, but that does not mean they are not useful in SSP. That was my point.

Also, most things in modded MC have extended use when in SMP. I don't see why Witchery is any different.

 

[Azzanine]

Thing is as soon as you have a decent PvP component all those SSP things you speak of get folded in.

However, I do agree with your sentiment but you can't deny that Witchery reaches it's full potential in a PvP SMP scenario. When playing it single player you pretty much miss out on most interesting voodoo mechanics.
Essentially Witchery is only meeting 90% of it's potential in a SSP setting this is probably where this misconception arises. Could also be a case of SMP players only seeing the voodoo side of the mod disregarding the rest, that happens a lot in mod packs with many mods.

 

[Zenthon_127]

Thing is as soon as you have a decent PvP component all those SSP things you speak of get folded in.

However, I do agree with your sentiment but you can't deny that Witchery reaches it's full potential in a PvP SMP scenario. When playing it single player you pretty much miss out on most interesting voodoo mechanics.
Essentially Witchery is only meeting 90% of it's potential in a SSP setting this is probably where this misconception arises. Could also be a case of SMP players only seeing the voodoo side of the mod disregarding the rest, that happens a lot in mod packs with many mods.

Not even 90% of its potential. Maybe 70%.

Most of the things listed actually proved the point that Witchery isn't as useful in SSP. Don't get me wrong, it's a worthwhile mod to use in SSP anyway because it's non-invasive and still has plenty of neat features. There's no reason NOT to use it in almost any pack because it's simply an amazing mod. However, like AM2 it gets limited (for the most part) to just being "neat" in SSP, or delegated to handling niche problems. The exception to this are utility features like circle magic and Kobolds, which are almost universally good.

Its usefulness also greatly depends on the pack you're using. If you run something like Resonant Rise or Monster (high-tier magitech pack), things like base defense are largely irrelevant. Its armor becomes pointless because the bonus you get from, say, a full set of Bound Armor is far greater than walking on water or inflicting potion effects. I don't need 15 ways to disable and hinder things I can two-shot with something as simple as a Mana Blaster, god forbid a Fluxed Electrum Bow or Energy Bazooka.

TLDR: Witchery's offensive and defensive features, which are plentiful, are nigh useless in SSP unless progression is altered somehow or you're running a very lightweight pure magic pack. Its utility features are frickin' amazing though, so the mod is still basically a must-have.

 

[Salamileg9]

I've never really done Witchery, however I've always wanted to make a Vampiric poppet and attach it to an iron golem with a regeneration effect. Yeah, that sounds fun.

 

[SatanicSanta]

Essentially Witchery is only meeting 90% of it's potential in a SSP setting this is probably where this misconception arises. Could also be a case of SMP players only seeing the voodoo side of the mod disregarding the rest, that happens a lot in mod packs with many mods.

And that's why I play modpacks with only 10 or so mods. I get to really experience the mod.

Most of the things listed actually proved the point that Witchery isn't as useful in SSP.

Yeah I know. All I was saying was that it IS useful in SSP, and is still an absolutely amazing mod. I'm just getting tired of seeing "Witchery is a PvP mod" everywhere.

The exception to this are utility features like circle magic and Kobolds, which are almost universally good..

Those also happen to be the majority of the mod...

However, like AM2 it gets limited (for the most part) to just being "neat" in SSP, or delegated to handling niche problems.

AM2 is also really useful in SSP...

Its armor becomes pointless because the bonus you get from, say, a full set of Bound Armor is far greater than walking on water or inflicting potion effects. I don't need 15 ways to disable and hinder things I can two-shot with something as simple as a Mana Blaster, god forbid a Fluxed Electrum Bow or Energy Bazooka.

I find it funny that your examples were of two of my least favorite mods, but I do see your point

TLDR: Witchery's offensive and defensive features, which are plentiful, are nigh useless in SSP unless progression is altered somehow or you're running a very lightweight pure magic pack. Its utility features are frickin' amazing though, so the mod is still basically a must-have.

I still find it useful in a GT/RotaryCraft pack.

 

[Wraithflay]

If there's one thing I need to explore in Witchery at some point, it's the Witchhunter gear. It's just that it's -very- clearly meant for PvP against Witch players, while protecting you from things like poppet effects and curses. Bit of a downer, that. Regardless, I've never personally gotten to Infusions or Familiars yet, Santa. I've watched the significant other do it at least three times, but never personally. Really need to buckle down and get that done soon, but there's a great deal of infrastructure work going into my present world so I don't have a dedicated site to do Witchery work in yet. Botania and Thaumcraft are set up at least, but all I have done for Witchery is to acquire saplings and wood of the three special trees, mutandis some stuff, and that's about it. Need to go about getting an altar, brewer, and distillation going, but I've never quite figured out how best to set up a really good altar for power, while also having it look good!

As an addition, has anyone figured out an effective way to set up a Hobgoblin quarry? My test runs in a creative world pretty much always went poorly as the dumb things would end up hanging themselves on their leash, suffocating in walls, and/or digging their own platform out which had the added effect of removing them from the chest they're supposed to be storing all that stuff in. Aaaargh.

 

[SatanicSanta]

@Wraithflay witch hunter armor isn't that useful at all, SSP nor SMP.

As for the Goblin quarry, it's not going to be that efficient no matter what. The most efficient you can make it is by giving the miner a Koboldite Pick so you are at least doubling your stuff.

 

[Eruantien]

The only thing that has stopped me from using Witchery so far is lack of (an overabundance of) spruce saplings, which are needed for the mutandis recipe.
Would having a third fume filter on the Witches Oven help, I wonder?

 

[RJS]

The only thing that has stopped me from using Witchery so far is lack of (an overabundance of) spruce saplings, which are needed for the mutandis recipe.
Would having a third fume filter on the Witches Oven help, I wonder?

According to the website, no.

 

[SatanicSanta]

The only thing that has stopped me from using Witchery so far is lack of (an overabundance of) spruce saplings, which are needed for the mutandis recipe.
Would having a third fume filter on the Witches Oven help, I wonder?

Nope. It'll only increase the speed. Make sure you are putting them on the sides, because the top one will not increase byproduct chance.

 

[Qazplm601]

Nope. It'll only increase the speed. Make sure you are putting the top on the sides, because the top one will not increase byproduct chance.

"Make sure you are putting the top on the sides" - satanicsanta 2014

 

[SatanicSanta]

"Make sure you are putting the top on the sides" - satanicsanta 2014

That's what I get for posting while chatting in IRC, reading a wiki, and playing MC all at the same time

 

[Eruantien]

Nope. It'll only increase the speed. Make sure you are putting the top on the sides, because the top one will not increase byproduct chance.

That's... good to know.
So, my only difficulty is in getting boatloads of spruce saplings, same as before... *grind*