Aspect of Circe (Patch 2)

[caliginousCreation]

I like the updates to the Aspect of Circe, however I just tried a run with it using the "Vow of Panic" and without "The Unseen" Arcana card active (since part of the aspect is gaining Serenity and rapidly restoring magick. I found this immediately to be a terrible combination. Because Serenity will now only activate when using an omega move, you enter an encounter with no magick, build up Serenity, but can't activate it. And you never will unless you get a boon or something else that restores magick.

You get a similar problem if you use up your magick with omega moves and don't have anything on that auto-regenerates it, which again, is one of the best features of Serenity. You are left with the magick to start the thing that would grant you more magick. And since omega moves don't build up Serenity, this is a very possibly scenario regardless of how much magick you start an encounter with.

I think that having a cue to activate Serenity is nice, rather than it just activating as soon as you reach the hits threshold. But making the condition "using an omega move" creates these issues. Maybe it would be better if it could activate as soon as you charge up an omega move? Or perhaps it has to just activate automatically like it did before. In the heat of battle, I don't think I would mind that.

I'm writing this when Patch 2 had just dropped and only played around with it for a little bit, so if there is actually a workaround from these scenarios, please let me know. Are others able to replicate the same issue? You can try it out in the training grounds just by turning off "The Unseen" Arcana card, using up your magick, and then wailing on Skelly until Serenity builds up, but can't be activated.

[Tim]

It's good for Serenity to activate with the Omega move so you don't miss out on precious seconds of its activation. Before, it'd activate at awkward times and you'd miss out on a couple seconds of it.

But I do agree that the way it works currently is very awkward. Aspect of Circe is a surprisingly needy Aspect when it comes to Boons and Arcana! I had success with the Magick-restoring Arcana, which is normally pretty trash, but it's better than gunning for a Gain Boon with nothing to use it for.

I made a topic about it, but I wish they just did something else entirely with Circe, like incorporating a size-changing gimmick. We already have two Omega-empowering Staff Aspects, after all!

[Khai]

I did 2 full runs with Aspect of Circe. At best you get 3 omegas out of a single serenity (timer still goes down when you're charging). It's very clunky to use.

1. I agree with your suggestion. Running out of mana should not prevent you from triggering serenity
2. They should change it so that each normal attack/special hit recharges serenity by 0.5 sec and allow triggering serenity without the bar being full. That would make the play style much less clunky