Ok so Im noticing the many posts over and over that seem to have no idea that harnessed mana spells no longer exist in the way they have for ages. Im putting this post in to attempt to teach folks how to use the new Cyclic spells which have replaced held mana spells. Ill repost it in the main forums when 3.0 releases.
First off folks stop harnessing 20 mana and casting an old harness spell and thinking its going to work for more than a pulse or two. They dont function that way any longer. Most harnessed/held mana spells have converted over to a new type called cyclic spells. Cyclic spells typically have a prep range of 5-20 mana (this can vary but for most purposes it stays around this). Now heres the big difference between held mana spells and cyclic spells. No longer does the amount of mana you hold dictate the power of the spell.
The only thing that holding mana does for cyclic spells is dictate how long you maintain the spell. When you prep the spell.. lets use Moongate for example you will prep it at a certain mana... PREP MG 10. Now the 10 there has two functions, it dictates how powerful the spell is (MG has a max prep of 20 so thats not shabby) and how much mana is drained per pulse.
Whats a pulse you ask? Cyclic spells pulse every few seconds to accomplish two things 1) they drain the needed mana to stay functional and 2) they do whatever task they perform. Keep in mind that many cyclics have a simple time based pulse and will do their tasks as much as possible for as long as you keep them fueled.
So back to our example. I have preped MG at 10 mana. I cast the spell and it immediately drains 10 mana from the mana Im holding (Ill get to holding mana in a sec). Now after 4-5 sec the spell will pulse and drain another 10, then 4-5 sec drain another 10 and so on till I run out of mana, end the spell, or simply stop harnessing more. This is a big difference from old held mana spells which just stayed active as long as you held a certain amount, you only lost the spell through nerve damage eventually.
Now how to hold the mana to fuel the spell. Well you now have three options. The first is old reliable HARNESS <#>. If I want MG prepped at 10 to stay open for 3 pulses then I harness 30 mana. The next (and the one I find very neat) is using cambrinth. You can now CHARGE a cambrinth item, INVOKE it (FOCUS no longer makes a link to it, it just says how much mana is in the cambrinth) and cast your cyclic and it will pull the mana each pulse out of the cambrinth. With this you can potentially fill a cambrinth orb with 60 mana, INVOKE it and cast a 10 prepped cyclic and it will run till it uses the 60 mana in the orb. The last option is to get a feat called Raw Attunement. Raw Attunement will allow you to simply prep the spell and cast it. No need for cambrinth or harnessing. It simply takes the mana straight from you each pulse. Good if you dont want to think about harnessing mana or cambrinth.
And that good folks is the quick and dirty of how the new cyclic spells work. Theres several ins and outs to each spell and a few more in depth options I didnt discuss. You can find most on Elanthipedia and Im sure theres always someone that you can ask. But this should get you going on being able to cast the new spell type.
~Tezirite Renzar Lorrani
"Power is merely a stepping stone to more power."
