I haven't played in a year and a half or so, and I must confess, I am a bit lost. I'm hoping someone can help steer me on the right track.

1. I see that magical feats have been introduced. They apparently take spell lots and just generally improve my magical things. It looks like I have all of the spells, but I am not fully sure why. It looks like these changes came out in January of 2013, but there's still a spell preview going on? Is it just because I re-subbed? Do I need to save spell slots for spells, eventually, or can I just start spending them on feats? I'm not really sure how to proceed here.

2. Lore is kicking my butt. I'm just not sure what to do here. The skills in which I had experience when I logged into the new system were Scholarship, Tactics, Appraisal, and Mechanical Lore. I read about the Mech split, but it seems like maybe I want to save my mech until enchanting is released? Beyond that, I have no idea how to train tactics. Is tactics a good choice for one of my required lore skills, or would I be better off using crafting skills? I understand it's likely personal preference, but I'm just not sure how best to proceed here. Is performance a good choice here? I guess it just seems like I have high lore requirements and very few lore options.

3. Magic - there are many different magic skills now. I can't seem to get them beyond at most 3 points of learning. I'm almost certainly doing something wrong. I have around 150 magic in the various magic skills, some a little higher, some a little lower, and about 180 Lunar Magic. I've been trying casting PG, CV, Seer's, and Shadowling, but they don't really seem to train me much. I've been putting 15-25 mana into them, which completely eats up my mana pool, but barely moves my experience.


Sorry if any of these questions have already been addressed. I looked quite a bit and didn't see anything that really jumped out at me about addressing these points. I've read a fair bit on Elanthipedia, but often I was left more confused.

Thanks!
Mike

> It looks like these changes came out in January of 2013, but there's still a spell preview going on?

Yep. GMs still haven't gotten things in their final form.

> Do I need to save spell slots for spells

Definitely. Keep in mind that most spells cost more than 1 slot. It may help to check moon mage page on elanthipedia to plan out your spell choices.

> I've been trying casting PG, CV, Seer's, and Shadowling, but they don't really seem to train me much. I've been putting 15-25 mana into them, which completely eats up my mana pool, but barely moves my experience.

PG and CV are low difficulty spells, so it's no surprise if they don't move you. The others should be teaching you, though. You learn better if you wait for full prep, and also if you use more mana, so cast as high as you can at full prep. You may want to incorporate cambrinth to help with mana and to learn arcana.

>>I read about the Mech split, but it seems like maybe I want to save my mech until enchanting is released?

Definitely save your Mech until you've had a chance to at least play around with the various newly released crafts. And yes, if you think you want to do Enchanting, saving for that is a strong choice. That is what I'm doing.

That said, if you get the hang of things and find yourself training up very quickly, you could always dump your Mech into a less-important craft, then train Mech up again from zero for Enchanting.

>>2. Lore is kicking my butt.

So, here's a short list of the various lore skills and their pros/cons:

1. Crafting skills. Pros: You can make things for yourself, others, or possibly to sell. Training with work orders will earn you good coin. Cons: You cannot train anything else while crafting (except cyclic spells, of which we have very few, and in 3.1 possibly you could Research for magic exp).

2. Tactics. Pros: If you're a heavy combat mage, this is very easy to work into your routine. You train by using ANALYZE on a foe, then completing the listed combo, and you also get a little exp for using bob/weave/circle. Cons: Requires combat, and is yet another skill you have to balance for when finding that "perfect" critter.

3. Performance. Pros: Super easy to train and remains easy all the way up the ladder, can train several other skills at the same time (Appraisal, Outdoorsmanship, Perception, Scholarship, First Aid, plus any cyclics and Research). Cons: Earns you no money and gives no other tangible benefit yet, though there are plans for it to become a real system with real rewards. The one thing it does do for you now is allow you to boost spirit recovery at high ranks.

4. Appraisal. Pros: Super easy to train at low (sub-400ish) ranks. Gains you valuable information about items at low (sub-400) ranks. Cons: Becomes much harder at higher ranks, eventually requiring you to carry around a 200-pelt bundle just to appraise. And beyond a certain basic level of information, you get nothing else out of it. No plans for it to become a fully rewarding skill (yet).

5. Scholarship. You have to learn this one! So I won't go into it.

My lores are Appraisal, Mech, and Tactics. If I could do it over, I would definitely swap Appraisal for Performance, due to the training issues and the promise of Performance becoming meaningful. Right now I can only hope Appraisal will eventually get looked at. Mech is nice because I'd like to eventually be good at making something, and Tactics fits well enough for me as a combat mage.

>>3. Magic - there are many different magic skills now. I can't seem to get them beyond at most 3 points of learning.

I don't know how much I can help you here, since my skills are at a different level. ILLIENA also covered the important points.

What I would add is to remember to put up Aura Sight first (to increase your Attunement and thus the amount of mana you have available), and to try casting a shadowling in your area (again, more mana). Experiment with using harnessing and/or cambrinth, as these will also let you use your mana more efficiently. There are a couple of feats you should strongly consider for their mana help too: Deep Attunement increases mana regen, and Efficient Harnessing "reduces strain of spellcasting on attunement", which could mean lower mana costs. I'm not certain on that one. The Mastery feats may also let you cast more difficult spells, which could teach you more.

Experiment with spells in the "advanced" range. And definitely try out Steps of Vuan for Utility. Until 3.1 comes out, cyclic spells teach like crazy.

Also, don't sweat it if it takes time. It's a process, finding what will teach you well. And in 3.1, you will be able to Research to supplement your magic learning.

If you have any more questions, feel free to email me (the link below my avatar on the left), or IM me at Eyuve.


-- Player of Eyuve

1. I'd go ahead and choose any magical feats you want to try. Once we're off global preview you'll need to free up those slots for spells but forgetting magic feats only costs you a few gold.

2. Tactics is most easily trained at level in combat. Think of it more or less as a nonmagical debilitation (it debuffs your target). Hit pole or melee and analyze critter. You can analyze a few more times for a little tactics exp and a larger debuff once you complete the attacks listed in your analyze. You can re-analyze to remind yourself which attack you need to complete next in the chain order. Once you've completed the attack combo chain it'll award you a good chunk of tactics experience.

2. I'd recommend eventually gaining at least 200 ranks in all the crafts. Doing it is the only way to know if it's something you'll enjoy grinding for a circling lore and having a few hundred ranks in each craft is pretty handy. You'll also know how best to spend your mech lore ranks with a basic understanding of all the crafts. You can only convert ml ranks into each respective crafting skill once so you want to be sure of your choice before you make it.

If you're more interested in being a combat mage tactics will be fine as a 1st lore but you'll want to learn enough outfitting and forging (IMO) as a combat mage so you can quickly and conveniently repair your own gear damaged in combat. Forging ranks (through bladed weapon proficiency techniques) can also heavily augment the appraisal damage values of your moonblade if you use one. I personally wouldn't choose performance as my circling lore because it doesn't have much practical utility.

3. If you're not learning much experience from casting you'll need to tweak casting mana amounts. Using cambrinth and harnessed mana will allow you to cast spells more efficiently at higher mana amounts than straight casting. In other words, prep cv 10, harness 10, harness 10, harness 10 will cost you much less attunement or mana per cast than prep cv 40, cast. There are also magical feats to help with this.

3. Keep in mind debilitation spells have to be trained at level in combat much like targetted magic.

Give Skaen a thoughtcast or a locate and track him down if you need any help.

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