Kyshakk Koan RaustBlackDragon Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Magical Efficiency's largely considered to be useless since you can always go back to town and you won't have to fight your way past all of the monsters you fought last time to get back to where you were. However, I honestly disagree and feel that magical efficiency is highly valuable and definitely worth putting points in, for several reasons: 1: The highest-tier spells are EXPENSIVE. Anything stronger than lightning spray is going to make you use up your energy very quickly, and in many cases you'll run out in a single battle if the foes are hardy enough, particularly on torment, where enemy resistances are ludicrously high. 2: The "just go back to town" logic is NOT always viable. There are a few dungeons I've encountered where you'll still have to fight your way through a large number of enemies to get back to where you were before. In those cases, if you run out of spell energy, you need to use energy potions, which are limited, rare, and largely ineffectual. 3: Magic users are NOT tight for skill points. There are 6 magical disciplines, and you get 63 skill points by level 30. You could get one school of magic to level 17 and still have 46 skill points left over, which is just 1 shy of allowing you to max all four advanced magic skills AND get the minimum learned weapon skill required to be able to use Adrenaline rush with training. 4: Not a utility argument, more of an overall enjoyment factor, but there are many places where going back to town regularly can get extremely annoying. Granted, I haven't yet beaten the game, so I might be missing something, but I really don't understand why mages should avoid magical efficiency, I think it's an extremely useful skill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Articulate Vlish Kestral Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 The function of magical efficiency is similar to that of first aid, which restore spell energy after each engagement. I wonder which is more effective. I have a few points in magical efficiency on my priest, but I'm never sure how much difference it's actually making. No idea how often or by how much my SP usage is actually being reduced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyshakk Koan RaustBlackDragon Posted August 13, 2012 Author Share Posted August 13, 2012 In my experience, the description is inaccurate. Even at level 1 it will ALWAYS reduce the energy used by your spells by a small random amount, so it's not like it has a random chance of doing a fixed effect, rather it's the other way around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody The Reverend Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 It may not be the "prevailing wisdom" on the boards, but I agree with you - I found magical efficiency useful, for the the first reason you mention in particular. If you use andrenaline rush to spam top-tier spells you may run out of energy in the longer battles. Magical efficiency helps prevent this. And I also agree that frequent runs back to town to recharge can get boring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chittering Clawbug kensuguro Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 I seem to notice the efficiency hit more on the priest, esp if I need to use divine fire or group heal a lot. Even on the mage, I remember various attacks being slightly cheaper than priest attacks, but arcane blow is expensive as hell, so it's easy to run out in a boss match. (I'm in normal mode) So I invested in magical efficiency (4 points currently), but it seems like the more expensive spells will drain energy very quickly anyway. I do get a feeling that though it may help, you'd need a significant amount of points for it to make a huge difference.. so I currently have more points for spell craft. In aggregate though, they have the same effect (increasing total damage or cure / charge) I guess it depends on how the probability is calculated for magical efficiency. Maybe one helps more than the other. But spell craft has an absolute effect for total damage/charge, as opposed to efficiency, which effectively extends your charge capacity. at least from what I can see, these should apply for a scenario where you cast 1 spell 'till you run out. spell energy capacity = E, spell damage= d, cost of a particular spell = c level = L for each skill spellcraft: total d = (d * 1.02 * L) * (E / c) (it's 2% gain per level right?) magic efficiency: spell recharge expected value / turn = S total d = d * ((E + (E / c) * S) / c) So we'd need to know how the spell recharge is calculated for magic efficiency to figure out S. Of course, this is just judging from what I can see. Anyone is welcome to correct if my understanding is wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Randomizer Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Avernum 6 had magical efficiency not being applied to the expensive area effect spells. This contributed to the negative views about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyshakk Koan RaustBlackDragon Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 Ah. Does this apply in AEftP as well? I'm fairly sure it doesn't, but just checking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Jerakeen Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Originally Posted By: Randomizer Avernum 6 had magical efficiency not being applied to the expensive area effect spells. This contributed to the negative views about it. Pretty sure that was a bug that got fixed in the last update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.