I did a LITTLE testing tonight, and I'm very tired, so keep those facts in mind. That said, overall the changes were less painful than I was expecting.
>>Aether Wolves: Reduced to 1 slot. Swapped with Glythtide’s Joy in preq tree.
I assume this happened because AEWO is a more useful choice for a novice than GJ (which isn't that useful in PVE, and I've fought plenty of TM critters). I approve for this reason. My personal preference is to have GJ and not AEWO, though, so too bad for me. Darn prereqs.
>>Slot changes
Well... nice. I can't complain. Are any of these losing efficacy or gaining mana cost? I didn't notice in my brief look.
>>Linear mana regen
This was what I was really dreading, as a magic secondary with a focus on cyclics. I was afraid I would not be able to have my cyclic up at maximum mana and still be able to use other spells. However, in a very good mana room (14 mana upped to 17 with Nexus) I was able to keep up DALU at 19 mana (my max) no problem, even while slinging constant BOS 10s. When I upped BOS to 20, it was clear I was going to go downhill, bottoming out in perhaps 10 minutes. PVE training was definitely fine.
Would I like to be able to do more than 1/5 of my TM spell's mana at once? Yes. But I can see how this situation creates meaningful choices. I'm forced to either manage mana carefully (and drop weapon swings due to camb/harness RT), lower the mana of my cyclic or TM, or drain myself out quickly.
At this point I'm mostly worried about what it'll look like when not in such a good mana room. I'm really hoping I won't have to go after the good mana areas quite so zealously.
Also while we're talking about Bard magic, can you explain why a bunch of our spells take 27 seconds to cast, when the typical norm is 22? I've never understood that.
- Navesi
