Is magic worth getting?

[space is cool]

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[Wanderer]

its pretty fun, however after i got all the runic magic, i felt i wasnt haveing nearly as much fun just ranging them with powerful spells. Im trying to turn into like a tank mage now. Just dont go to deep into manna early on, you can always get more (keep in mind u trade equal parts health and stanima for magic. There is also a breakthrough skill that gives u 40 manna

[Augoeides]

Originally posted by Wanderer:

its pretty fun, however after i got all the runic magic, i felt i wasnt haveing nearly as much fun just ranging them with powerful spells. Im trying to turn into like a tank mage now. Just dont go to deep into manna early on, you can always get more (keep in mind u trade equal parts health and stanima for magic. There is also a breakthrough skill that gives u 40 manna

Basically this. Runic magick kind of ruined the game for me; made things too easy, but yeah, magick is worth your time. The default symbol spells are really satisfying to pull off, but you have to get used to running in and out of the circles, while making sure that the time for them doesn't run out.

[hyperion]

Well, I skipped it on this play through. As soon as I learned I had to sacrifice permanent reduction in health and stamina, I was like no freaking way. I'm focusing on melee and bow. Sorry, that didn't help you, but for my first play through, no way.

[Neyreyan_Youtube]

yes but it's a harder build for newer players, you need to use armor with mana reduction and you need to use a lot of keys:)
Rune magic is a must but you can basically be a fully automated character:) meaning you heal, attack, defend with no problems as long as you have mana and some mana regen items.
The only problem is that there are a lot of tight spaces where the mage is not so good or the new endgame bosses

[Pottross]

Talking from a straight coop perspective here. Prepare to draw aggro from your teammate with just about every spell you cast. Mob triggers Runic Trap: Aggro. Zap it with Lightning: Aggro. Start channeling Flamethrower: You guessed it... Also some of the endgame bosses seem to find mages exceptionally delicious. Once you draw aggro there your mate can pommel the enemy with a flurry of attacks and the mage will still hold aggro like a champ ;)

[Syzy]

You can put like one "point" in magic and get gear through the game that make spell cost really silly

[Pottross]

Originally posted by Yhyzys:

You can put like one "point" in magic and get gear through the game that make spell cost really silly

(To preface this: The gear needed to make a 1 point caster is not very easily obtainable for a new player though.)
While viable in the current release, it's not as powerful anymore in the beta branch which is supposed to be the next release version. Gear with heavy mana cost reduction has been tweaked, not to say nerfed. You can still achieve very low (99% cap, so at best 1mana/spell) mana costs but I wouldn't go that route any longer. You will be able to spam spells for very little investment in mana but your spells will hit like wet noodles that way. A lot of gear has been changed to give bonus elemental damage in the beta as well. Atm I would rather aim for high mana investment full blown caster build with around 50-75% reduction buffed and like 30% bonus damage.

[Aegix Drakan]

Magic gives you a very sudden power spike, but requires a sacrifice of some max HP and Stamina and requires crafty positioning and specific ingredients or off-hand items to be used.

It's totally worth it even if you just dabble a little bit into it and mix some low cost magic like "Fire Sigil->Spark = Fireball" into your normal attacks on your heavily armored warrior, and also quite worth it if you specialize in it. It just requires additional preparation before you get into a fight, and you need to be aware that you become a bit of a glass cannon the more you specialize into it.

If you're not super sure about it, just choose 1 level of mana transfer at the Ley Line, and experiment a little.

[Katitoff]

Its worth it if you want to cast spells.
Also free light as rune sage.