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Excelsior!


Nivus Profile

Nivus the Arch-Wizard is a hero in Kingdom Rush: Frontiers. He costs $0.99 on Flash and mobile. He is unlocked at stage 9 on the Steam version.



Description[]

A bit more eccentric than wise, he wrote most spells taught today in the Wizard’s Academy. Nivus wields an astounding power… and with such power comes great responsibility.

Teacher of many, master of none, his magic as unfathomable and unpredictable as his ramblings. He wields great arcane powers with unexpected good judgement as he is fully aware that with great powers comes great lawsuits.

Mess with a wizard and you'll know true regret, but mess with an Archmage and everyone will.

Skills[]

Primary[]

Nivus 1 MAGIC MISSILE NivusMissile (active) (cooldown: 12 seconds) (1/2/3 hero points):

Casts 3/5/7 homing magic missiles that never miss and deal 12/18/24 damage each.
  • The cooldown for this ability has been tested on Android/Steam, not iOS and iPad

Nivus 2 CHAIN SPELL (active) (cooldown: 6 seconds) (2/2/2 hero points):

Shoots a regular bolt that pierces to an additional 2/3/4 enemies.

Nivus 3 DISINTEGRATE NivusConfetti (active) (cooldown: 25 seconds) (3/3/3 hero points):

Disintegrates enemies in range with a combined total health of 170/330/480 or less.
  • The cooldown for this ability has been tested on Android/Steam, not iOS and iPad

Nivus 4 ARCANE REACH (passive) (1/1/1 hero points):

Increases attack range by 10/20/30 percent.

Nivus 5 ARCANE FOCUS (passive) (1/2/3 hero points):

Increases attack damage by 2/4/6 points.

Secondary[]

  • Nivus can teleport across the map.

Order of importance[]

When all of Nivus' abilities are active, he uses them in this order:

  1. Magic Missiles
  2. Disintegrate
  3. Chain Spell

Stats[]

Nivus regenerates 10% of his maximum health per second, taking 10 seconds to fully heal.

Range Damage: Magic Damage & Melee Damage: Physical Damage

Level Health Magic Damage (1.5s)"On IOS: (2.0s)" & Melee Damage (1.0s)
(with Arcane Focus)
Armor Heal Rate Respawn
4 160 14-41
(16-43 / 20-47 / 26-53)
None 16 18s
5 175 15-45
(17-47 / 21-51 / 27-57)
None 18 18s
6 190 17-50
(19-52 / 23-56 / 29-62)
None 19 18s
7 205 18-54
(20-56 / 24-60 / 30-66)
None 21 18s
8 220 20-59
(22-61 / 26-65 / 32-71)
None 22 18s
9 235 21-63
(23-65 / 27-69 / 33-75)
None 24 18s
10 250 23-68
(25-70 / 29-74 / 35-80)
None 25 18s

Tips and Tricks[]

  • Nivus is a fragile hero adept at harassing enemies with the ability to disintegrate crowds of weaker enemies. His good base magic damage and long range excel in hurting a few enemies from afar, beyond the range of most ranged enemies, making up for his low health count and lack of armor. Above all, Nivus can also teleport, so he can quickly get away from any approaching danger, as well as supporting multiple areas almost simultaneously. When using Nivus, the most important thing to remember is to build at least one sufficiently strong barricade of Barracks, so as to provide shelter for Nivus to hide while attacking enemies
  • Nivus deals damage in an unusual way. Out of his regular damage range, he rolls a number, divides it by 18, and rounds down. He then deals that amount of damage in 18 ticks. This means that against high magic resistant enemies he can deal *0 damage*.
    • For example, if Nivus rolls 80 damage, he divides it by 18 to get 4.444. This is rounded down to 4. Nivus then deals this amount of damage 18 times, so 72.
  • Nivus's teleport is slower than that of Dierdre; it takes him a moment to charge up before he actually moves. This animation makes his relocation slightly less fluid, requiring timing to position him in a good position relative to enemies.
  • Chain Spell hits multiple targets, gaining strength as Nivus' base damage increases by leveling up and upgrading Arcane Focus. Its damage may not be instantly visible, but with a fast cooldown, Nivus can wound most regular enemies nicely and reliably. The skill will target the maximum number of enemy, only chaining to those behind the initial target.
    • Keeping Nivus near a Necromancer is good. Not only do the skeletons keep enemies in place for Nivus to bombard them with Chain Spell, but they also stop Nivus from being trampled by foes.
    • With everything fully upgraded, the total damage done by one Chain Spell is actually 175-400 Magic Damage, reaching an significant about 287.5 points on average. However, this damage is divided evenly to all targets, and cannot be concentrated on a single foe in any way.
  • Magic Missiles have infinite range, allowing them to hit enemies across the map, however, they seem to prioritize those closer to Nivus. The damage done is low but is made up by a short recharge of just 12 seconds, resulting in a decent damage skill with a global range. Due to each missile's low damage output, Magic Missiles should only be counted on to weaken an especially tough foe, not directly killing enemies.
    • The missiles will turn to another target should the initial one die, and they can keep switching targets back and forth indefinitely, so that the damage packed in those missiles is never wasted as long as there are still enemies on the screen.
    • In order for Nivus to use Magic Missiles, he must be within a certain distance to enemies, despite the missile's infinite range.
  • Disintegrate is one of the four instant kills in the series that can target multiple foes, the others being Abduction of Sha'tra (Frontiers), Soul Burn of Vez'nan (Origins) and Eruption of Murglun (Vengeance). A multi-target instant kill has its own unique strengths, such as the ability to quickly clear out groups of enemies. However, the range of this skill is ridiculously short, so Nivus must be very close to enemies for it to activate. The maximum total health of all the captured enemies is also rather low, at only 480 HP, which is barely enough to kill two Savage Warriors. For these reasons, Nivus would need to put himself at risk to use this skill.
    • Due to the low maximum total health of all the targets, only use Disintegrate to quickly get rid of grouped, heavily-wounded foes; or try to isolate just one desired enemy, preferably one who is really annoying, and use Disintegrate on it, in which case the health limit can be exceeded.
    • This skill can be very effective against foes who spawn other foes upon death, such as untransformed Lycans and Giant Wasp Queens; if disintegrated, they will not spawn new enemies.
    • Timing is key. It is recommended to adopt a hit-and-run approach for Disintegrating foes. However, one must pay attention to the situation when sending Nivus to disintegrate as a lack of attention would result in Nivus's untimely demise.
      • To minimize the risk of Nivus' death, soldiers or reinforcements can be grouped in front of him, so he can disintegrate the blocked enemies safely.
      • Teleport always comes in handy: Nivus can be quickly moved right into the targeted group for him to use Disintegrate, then quickly moved back away.
  • Arcane Focus & Arcane Reach give Nivus the edge over other enemies: High base damage and extreme range. At Arcane Reach III, the range is even wider than Crossbow Fort with Steady Hand and Accuracy Upgrades. This edge makes up for the wizard's fragility and slower fire rate compared to other ranged-capable heroes, like Mirage and Dante. This slow fire rate means that while Nivus has an extremely high maximum damage per shot, greater than practically any other hero, his DPS is fairly average, and he won't fare so well against floods and hordes as he does versus single, durable enemies. Nivus functions best as a "glass cannon" - a unit best placed slightly behind lines. He can shred enemies but is incapable of engaging foes directly.
  • Nivus is designed so that players only need to pay minimal attention to him and still do great, thanks to the great range he has. However, the use of proper micromanagement should be prioritized to make the best use of Nivus,

Quotes[]

  • "Excelsior!"
  • "Merlin's pants!"
  • "A wizard is never late."
  • "Boom-shaka-laka!"
  • (upon death) "Noooo!"

Trivia[]

  • Nivus and Sha'tra are the first heroes in the saga to have a crowd instakill ability.
    • While Sha'tra is completely unrelated, the other hero with a crowd instakill, Vez'nan, was Nivus's student. However, the two spells appear to be unrelated aside from effect.
  • He starts from level 4 on the steam version.
  • In "The Pact" an Ironhide extra, Vez'nan reveals that Nivus used to be his teacher.
  • ”Magic Missile” is a reference to the spell Magic Missile in Dungeons and Dragons, when creates glowing darts of force that never miss.
  • "Excelsior!"
    • One of Stan Lee's (brainchild of Marvel Comics) most used phrases.
  • "A Wizard is never late!"
    • A line spoken by Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring. The full quote is "A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to."
  • "Boomshakala!"
    • The key phrase from 1993 hit song Boom-Shak-A-Lak by Apache Indian. The song has been used in films and commercials across the world.
  • "Merlin's Pants!"
    • A line spoken by Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (book and film) as an exclamation of shock or surprise. The character of Merlin (though only mentioned in the series) is so well known that his name has entered everyday vernacular.

Gallery[]


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