Hogwarts Legacy’s spell-based combat is pretty fun, with a mix of Basic Casts and spells like Levioso and Expelliarmus to change the flow of battle. There’s a certain learning curve to getting used to the spells, and while you can definitely get away with mashing away every spell available to you, with just a bit of practice, you can improve your combat effectiveness by leaps and bounds. If you need some help, MP1st’s Hogwarts Legacy advanced combat guide should you have clearing enemies and obstacles in no time.
This advanced combat guide will not focus on specific spells like Glacius or Expelliarmus, but will rather go over some useful tips that may require a little repetition to get used to.
Hogwarts Legacy Advanced Combat Guide:
How Juggling Works
Juggling refers to the act of keeping enemies airborne for prolonged periods of time via a chain of attacks. It’s a technique that you can find in fighting games, action games, and more. Being able to prevent your enemies from doing anything for as long as possible not only makes combat easier but also feels incredibly satisfying to pull off. Unlike other games, where juggling may require precise timing and a certain sequence of attacks, Hogwarts Legacy makes juggling so simple that you’re probably doing it without even realizing it.
You’ve learned about juggling while completing the Crossed Wands side quests, as you’d have to juggle a training dummy as part of the questline. However, it’s a lot more than just using Levioso and Accio, and you can effectively juggle with just about any combat-focused spell if you know how the spell works.
Three to Juggle, Four to End
The Basic Cast is your standard ranged attack spell that doesn’t have a cooldown. Pressing R2 repeatedly will fire bolts of your Basic Cast, with the fourth cast dealing significantly more damage. While the fourth Basic Cast’s extra damage is great for finishing off enemies, it’s actually not ideal to use when juggling, as the Basic Cast also knocks the enemy back. Doing so may put the enemy out of range, which may break the juggle and give the enemy an opportunity to strike.
As such, the general idea behind juggling is to send an enemy airborne, perform three Basic Casts, then cast another spell and repeat. By only performing three Basic Casts between spells, you’ll effectively cancel the fourth hit, allowing you to continue your assault on the enemy.
It’s worth noting that for Incendio in particular, you’ll only be able to throw out one Basic Cast at most if they’re already in range. All Basic Casts knock enemies away from you slightly, and doing two or three Basic Casts may push the enemy too far away for you to actually be able to cast Incendio on them.
If the enemy’s already low on health and you’d rather save your cooldowns for another enemy, feel free to simply continue the Basic Casts until you land the fourth one for that sweet extra damage.
Delaying Spells to Wait for Cooldowns
Spell cooldowns in Hogwarts Legacy are fairly short, and you’re able to cast the same spell multiple times in the same fight. As such, you may find yourself pacing around during a fight while waiting for your next Diffindo or Expelliarmus to come up. If you want to execute an extended juggle combo on a single enemy, you’ll want to be able to reuse the same spell more than once, and to do this, you’ll need to delay your spells.
To do this, simply pause briefly between each Basic Cast or spell. Hogwarts Legacy is very forgiving with juggle timings, and by delaying your combo ever so slightly, you can buy enough time for your cooldowns to come back up. Having the “Basic Cast Mastery” talent makes this technique a lot easier as each Basic Cast will also slightly reduce your spells’ cooldowns.
Identifying and Executing AoE Combos
Certain spells, when upgraded via Talents, allow their effects to work over a larger area, and this can open up opportunities for AoE combos. While these are more difficult to pull off, as you’ll want them to be grouped up in the first place, successfully executing an AoE combo can easily turn the tide of battle.
AoE combos are only feasibly possible against enemies that don’t have magic shields on them, as you can use a single Control spell on them at once, so wolves, spiders, and similar creatures would be easy targets.
Executing an AoE combo is simple—target one of the enemies in the group with your control spell of choice and hit them with a damage-dealing spell. You can do this multiple times in succession, but keep in mind that you can’t use Basic Casts or it’ll ruin the whole combo. A simple example of an AoE combo would be Levioso > Accio > Incendio. Of course, you’ll need the Talents for each of these spells in order to pull this combo off.
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The most difficult part of using AoE combos is actually identifying situations when you’re able to pull them off. Try to keep your eyes peeled for enemies that have grouped up together and you’ll start to see more and more opportunities as you play the game.
Closing Thoughts
One of the neat things about Hogwarts Legacy’s combat is that it’s stylish and simple while also leaving room for improvement. Players who are simply content with just button mashing will have just as much fun as players who take the time to develop their own combos.
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