Progression slows to a near halt

[Gtlg]

Once you hit rituals, progression feels pretty much dead, the main reason being Blaze. There may eventually be another way to get it, but right now Convert Blaze itself is the only way, and it is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful spell. How do you get past the ridiculous mana consumption? I can't even cast it at a low level once without it eating all my mana up then cancelling. One simple thing needs to happen to make this spell viable and let progression feel more natural; remove the channeling aspect of it. Channeled spells themselves are already the most annoying aspect of this game to deal to deal with (interactions with echo, random ♥♥♥♥ happening that stops them before they are done, accidentally removing them because the game has lag for some reason), tying it in to progression was a mistake.

I don't feel enjoyment from this.

[Gtlg]

So do not level Firebolt or Convert Blaze. I just did to see if it helped progression and now I am unable to kill anything. CB eats away at mana faster than I can press a mana potion and then stops working, leaving me at not having enough to cast Firebolt.

[FireMage]

Alchemy

[xipheon]

If even the lowest level kills your mana then you've been neglecting your other progression paths. I was surprised how much upgrading I could to do even in just levelling up spells when I was so focused on the new toys.

[RiverNoodl]

Originally posted by R0NB1NT5CAT5C0:

So do not level Firebolt or Convert Blaze. I just did to see if it helped progression and now I am unable to kill anything. CB eats away at mana faster than I can press a mana potion and then stops working, leaving me at not having enough to cast Firebolt.

Hey there, I just want to point out you can toggle a spell's level in the spellbook screen to make it less power hungry again. it can still be worth leveling up spells and lowering the levels manually again - for setting things up for when it's viable to crank up the heat.

[!?!]

Mana potions.

[Doom]

Originally posted by R0NB1NT5CAT5C0:

Once you hit rituals, progression feels pretty much dead, the main reason being Blaze. There may eventually be another way to get it, but right now Convert Blaze itself is the only way, and it is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful spell. How do you get past the ridiculous mana consumption? I can't even cast it at a low level once without it eating all my mana up then cancelling. One simple thing needs to happen to make this spell viable and let progression feel more natural; remove the channeling aspect of it. Channeled spells themselves are already the most annoying aspect of this game to deal to deal with (interactions with echo, random ♥♥♥♥ happening that stops them before they are done, accidentally removing them because the game has lag for some reason), tying it in to progression was a mistake.

I don't feel enjoyment from this.

When you hit rituals you get closer to the end of content and you need more thinking, as difficulty goes up.

You can select at which level you cast a spell. If you cast at reduced level, it will consume less mana. You do not have to cast at max level.

You can gulp down mana potion right before casting. That's one way to recharge blaze, by the way. Mana potion level 20 or something boost your mana temporarily and keeps regenerating it at that time. So, start charinge blaze cast, while it is charing drink the potion.

[Gtlg]

So now I'm running into the issue of popups blocking potions, so I'm unsure if I click it or not, on top of the lag in having magic activate making it difficult to know whether or not it's activated and, if it is, it deactivates because it's been pressed twice.

[Doom]

Originally posted by R0NB1NT5CAT5C0:

So now I'm running into the issue of popups blocking potions, so I'm unsure if I click it or not, on top of the lag in having magic activate making it difficult to know whether or not it's activated and, if it is, it deactivates because it's been pressed twice.

Use keyboard controls. Q to drink a potion, IIRC.
It's been a while since I played but if you drink immediately after the spell was fired, it will work.

[erandomone]

Hot keys for the potions really help on that end, Q/W and E/R if you've opened the slots.

At the Ritual / End Game stage? It's all about finding the points that could be pushed around a bit. Base mana costs running a bit high? You can click into your basic mana and look at the things that adjust capacity and quality, hunt those upgrades down, and work on them a bit.
Not enough of resource B to upgrade resource A? you can follow that trail, and find what you can do to increase the capacity / growth / quality of that resource.

Always have mutagens running if you don't have a focused alchemy set up for a specific research / task. They keep getting better and better.

Research all the things. Not talking about clicking the upgrades, but putting the massive resource investment into research books. Since it's combat thats giving you trouble, try the Book of the Dragon for all your burny efficiency needs.

[Gtlg]

Originally posted by erandomone:

Hot keys for the potions really help on that end, Q/W and E/R if you've opened the slots.

At the Ritual / End Game stage? It's all about finding the points that could be pushed around a bit. Base mana costs running a bit high? You can click into your basic mana and look at the things that adjust capacity and quality, hunt those upgrades down, and work on them a bit.
Not enough of resource B to upgrade resource A? you can follow that trail, and find what you can do to increase the capacity / growth / quality of that resource.

Always have mutagens running if you don't have a focused alchemy set up for a specific research / task. They keep getting better and better.

Research all the things. Not talking about clicking the upgrades, but putting the massive resource investment into research books. Since it's combat thats giving you trouble, try the Book of the Dragon for all your burny efficiency needs.

super fast aoe stun on 5 second cooldown has helped enormously.

[Spiritbx]

Originally posted by R0NB1NT5CAT5C0:

So do not level Firebolt or Convert Blaze. I just did to see if it helped progression and now I am unable to kill anything. CB eats away at mana faster than I can press a mana potion and then stops working, leaving me at not having enough to cast Firebolt.

You can lower the level of spells in the place you upgrade them.

[DanaO]

You can eventually get your basic mental stats up to where Heated Infusion (around III) starts letting you throw low level firebolts around without needing Convert Blaze. The catch is you'll probably not only be wanting to use firebolts at around level 8 by then, you'll probably be mixing in shock spells with your fire. In other words, expect to need Covert Blaze for a long period of invoking rituals.

As said by several people above, it's good to be able to cast a spell at a lower level than your maximum.

[Gtlg]

I've already figured out the best way to progress is to maximize your production levels through alchemy until it regenerates immediately, then go through and upgrade everything you can, then switch your alchemy to producing mats, then stop playing for awhile.

That's pretty much the game now.