The Dungeon had been revealed as Gravity aspected during our trek through it, with little clues building up along the way. And when the Essence screen had appeared it was confirmed. We all had some difficult choices to make. Should we pursue rare Gravity Talents in the 1st Tier? Disease was super strong for the Miasmist. Did she want to delay that to take something rarer? The Dungeon had Aspects of Water/Earth/Light/Darkness/Life/Force/Gravity. Force was revealed by the Gleaming Brutes in the final fight at the core. The Treant was definitely sad about Crassitamancy, commonly called Density magic. This Dungeon had all the requirements. But her Attunement was too low. She'd have to boost it and pray for another shot.

Gravity was a goal for the Shieldmaiden. It was also relevant for some of the top choices for the Crusher and the Eruptor. The Eruptor could really use a boost. She and the Miasmist were slow starters on the road to power. The Cleanser really would have liked to take Hydromancy but Gravity magic was incredibly rare. This was a very lucky chance to pick up Ocean Magic. It had mana options as well. The Arcanist had some very interesting options. While another chance at Arcana Aspected Talents or a dip into Thought might be preferred, this was a chance to improve her control options. Earth, Gravity, Water, Darkness, Life, and Force combined to produce Abyssal magic. This was similar to Ocean magic but it traded Light and thus Blood for Earth and thus Decay.

Fluctumancy Riptide Push 10m Wave Magic focuses primarily on control and mana with some limited environmental damage and is a composite of Force and Water.

Umbramancy Dapple Concealment 2s +1s distract Single Target/Self Ranged 25m Cast 1s 40 mana Murk +1 mark AoE 5m Ranged 25m Cast 1s 20 mana Shade -5% mana cost TYP GRP (Darkness) -5% mana cost TYP GRP (Light) AoE 10m Self Cast 2s 50 mana Penumbral Ropes +2s Root Single Target Ranged 25m Cast 1s 40 mana Haemomancy Sanguinity -5% mana cost TYP GRP (Life) -5% mana cost TYP GRP (Light) Permanent Passive Blood Well +3 mana/s -2 health/s DUR 20s Self Cast 1s 20 mana Blood Bond -2 health/s REC 10 HP/s Single Target Ranged 25m Cast 1s 20 mana Bloodleech +1mark +1dmg/mark +1HP/mark Single Target Ranged 10m Cast 1s 40 mana

Haemomancy is the magic of Blood. It is comprised of Life and Shadow which is a composite of Light and Dark. It has a strong non-domain mana cost reduction passive as well as a relatively unique self target mana well with a long duration. It also has, in the first Phase, a unique life-drain DoT. It trades control from Shadow magic for restoration from life with unique properties.

Cohaerentia Lockdown Snare 5s AoE 5m Range 20m Cast 2s 70 mana Burden Encumber 4s AoE 5m Range 20m Cast 2s 40 mana Link Concatenation 3s Triple Target Range 20m Cast 2s 40 mana Adhere Bind 4s Double Target Range 20m Cast 1s 30 mana

I suppose you can't really dig into Ocean or Abyssal magic without the key ingrediant, Gravity magic. This Elder magic somewhat counteracts Space magic and focuses heavily on control and somewhat less on damage. It is an AoE/multi-target focused Aspect. Gravity Aspected Talents have a number of unique effects just like Time Aspected Talents. Bind forces 2 targets to remain adjacent. Concatenation connects 3 targets over any distance. Marks and DoTs will propogate between them. Encumber adds 1s to any action and stackably increases movement cost 50%. This is distinct from Slow which doubles action time and halves movement speed. These stack. Snare restricts movement but not action.

Pontumancy Ocean Currents -5% mana cost TYP GRP (Force) -5% mana cost TYP GRP (Gravity) +3 mana/s AoE 10m Self Cast 3s 70 mana High Tide +4 mana/s DUR 10s AoE 10m Self Cast 2s 50 mana Heavy Seas Snare 3s AoE 15m Self Cast 2s 70 mana Pull Under 7 DoT/2s +1mark +2dmg/mark Root 2s AoE 8m Ranged 15m Cast 2s 50 mana

Pontumancy, or Ocean magic, is a very complex Talent with six Aspects. It shifts focus over the four Phases like the traditional phases of the moon and the tides. The first Phase focuses on mana and control. Significant mana boosts are available especially for groups that stick together. The deep waters can be a gloomy place and the Darkness Aspect is hinted at in Pull Under which applies a short term malady with interesting delivery and side effects. Heavy Seas is quite situational as a Snare. Can be used to prevent backline dives but is mostly to keep heavily weakened enemies from escaping.

Profundumancy Abyssal Plain -5% mana cost TYP GRP (Darkness) -5% mana cost TYP GRP (Gravity) +1dmg/mark/malady AoE 20m Self Cast 3s 70 mana Crushing Depths Double base DoT damage on enemies under control effects AoE 15m Self Cast 3s 50 mana Compression +4 DoT/5s +1 mark Double damage from marks AoE 8m Ranged 15m Cast 2s 50 mana Thassalaphobia +2 DoT/8s +1 mark per second when under control effects AoE 8m Ranged 15m Cast 2s 70 mana

Profundumancy or Abyssal magic trades off most of the mana and especially the healing of Ocean magic to focus on debilitation and decay. Unique and powerful maladies abound with battlefield control as secondary.

The key thing to remember was the attribute requirements of Talents. None of us could actually take Gravity right now. Elder Aspects required 32 Attunement and then had varying requirements for either 32 in something else or 24 in 2 other attributes. Deep or Tier 1 magic required 24 in Attunement and either 24 in another attribute or 16 in 2 attributes. Tier 2 or High magic was the best bet for most of us. It require 16 in Attunement and 16 in something else or 12 in 2 other attributes.

I, the Miasmist, the Arcanist, the Cleanser, and the Eruptor had 25, 26, 24, 24, and 26 Attunement respectively. Which meant we technically qualified for Deep magic. But we were iffy on the other stats. The Cleanser had 17 and 16 Retention and Rigor. She definitely qualified for Ocean magic. The Eruptor was at 15 and 14 requiring to settle for High Magic for now. That was sad. However Tectonic magic was High magic so she'd still get some Gravity. The Dungeon lacked Fire but it had 3/4 Aspects which was sufficient.

The Miasmist was in the same spot meaning she'd miss out on Abyssal Magic which was quite a blow to her. Still with Disease she'd qualify the next time we found a Gravatic Dungeon. I barely qualified myself because Chronomancy wasted attributes on some physical stats. Star Magic is composed of Light, Force, and Gravity but even though it is a double composite it is still Deep Magic. It had a focus on control but it did damage as well. The Arcanist qualified and began to consider her own options. In the end with her focus on control and range she had to go with an interesting combination of Lightning, Gravity, and Air known as Caelumancy or Atmospheric or Sky magic. It maintained the range of Fulmenomancy while focusing on control and less on damage. Air was a quick casting Aspect while Gravity was slow and as such they balanced each other.

The Shieldmaiden barely qualified for High Magic with 18 Attunement and 12 Will and Fortitude. This qualified her for Burnishing a valuable High magic buff Talent. She could have taken Hardening as well but Burnishing was more useful in our mage heavy party. The Treant was forced to take Low Magic to get get Attunement and other stats up. Luckily Density magic was a melee Talent so it was just her Attunement holding her back. She ended up with Corporomancy. Body magic boosted her Attunement to 16 to qualify for High magic and it also buffed Fortitude to qualify for melee High magic.

Finally we got to the Crusher. Having Leadership as her Capstone Talent hampered her quite a bit. Her Attunement was low as dirt. She was pretty far away from her dream of Glory Magic. Even if she found a Dominion Aspected young Dungeon. She ended up taking Body magic as well. Corporomancy was a very common stepping stone to decent Attunement for melee fighters and it was chosen for a reason.

Corporomancy Attunement +4 Fortitude +2 Brawn +2 Thick Skin Permanent Passive +10 ABS Hearty Permanent Passive +20 HP Athletic Permanent Passive +5 MOV/s Aligned Permanent Passive +30 mana

The first Phase of Body magic was actually all passives. In the second Phase you only had 2 passives and you got 2 self buffs. You had to wait for offensive bonuses, though.

Burnishing Attunement +4 Retention +2 Will +2 Invigorate +1 action next phase Triple Target Ranged 15m Cast 1s 50 mana Empower Offensive Buffs DUR +2s or +2 Strikes Double Target Ranged 15m Cast 1s 40 mana Recoup Clear +1s of control effects each turn AoE 5m Ranged 15m Cast 2s 40 mana Boosted Strikes +5 FRC DMG for Contiguous Horizontal Allies And Self Self Passive Permanent

Burnishing had relatively unique buffs in Phase 1. It was a very powerful Talent for melee heavy parties but it worked well in caster heavy parties as well. To take say 5 frontliners and boost the benefit of Burnishing had drawbacks in other areas.

Disease Attunement +4 Retention +2 Rigor +2 Fever

1 DoT/10s || +1mark || +2dmg/mark || Reduce REC 5%/mark || DUR 10

AoE 8m Ranged 20m Cast 2s 35 mana Mark++ Delirium 2 DoT/10s || +1mark || +1dmg/mark || +2s Distract on 5/10/15/20 marks || DUR 15 Double Target Ranged 20m Cast 2s 40 mana Mark+++ Malaise 2 DoT/10s || +1mark || +1dmg/mark -1 control RES on 5/10/15/20 marks || DUR 15 Single Target Ranged 20m Cast 2s 50 mana Mark++++ Debility -5%HP/s || -1%HP/s per mark || DUR 20 Single Target Ranged 20m Cast 2s 70 mana Mark+++++

As I detailed earlier on Disease had some good and relatively unique maladies. Plus it allowed more marks in general. Every malady specialist loves new mark sources. It also added some debuffing and control to maladies. It wasn't Abyssal magic but it was still amazing.

Caelumancy Attunement +8 Retention +4 Rigor +4 Squall 20 dmg +2s Stun Aoe 8m Ranged 30m Cast 2s 100 mana Storm Clouds +5 WTR dmg|+5 AIR dmg|+5 LGT dmg DUR 10s AoE 20m Self Cast 1s 55 mana Zephyr +5 MOV/s for allies DUR 10s AoE 20m Self Cast 1s 40 mana Aurora +1s distract AoE 8m Ranged 30m Cast 1s 50 mana

As Caelumancy was Deep magic it provided 16 attributes instead of 8. Which is a huge bonus. AoE control effects and some small boosts for allies is the primary impact of Sky Magic. Direct damage is quite low.

Tectonics Attunement +4 Retention +2 Rigor +2 Falling Boulder 150 dmg +2s Stun Single Target Range 20m Cast 2s 90 mana Meteor Storm 50 dmg ENV/4s AoE 8m Range 20m Cast 4s 100 mana Fault Slip 70 dmg +2s knockup Linear 10m Range 20m Cast 2s 80 mana Aftershocks 10 dmg ENV +5 ERT dmg|+ 5 FRC dmg AoE 20m Self Cast 3s 90 mana

Tectonic magic was a combination of Gravity, Force, Earth, and Fire. It had more control than Igneomancy but still did strong AoE damage. Higher damage at a time helped limit the power of physical or magical absorbtion.

The Cleanser just took Ocean magic. It gave the same 16 Attribute points as Sky Magic.

Astromancy Attunement +8 Retention +4 Rigor +4 Starlight -3s control on allies Aoe 8m Ranged 30m Cast 1s 70 mana Stellar Radiation +5 GRV dmg|+5 FRC dmg|+5 LGT dmg DUR 10s impacts strikes AoE 20m Self Cast 2s 55 mana Mini Nova 40 LGT dmg | 20 FRC dmg | 20 GRV dmg AoE 8m Ranged 30m Cast 2s 80 mana Orbital Capture Snare 2s AoE 8m Ranged 30m Cast 1s 70 mana

The first Phase of Astromancy is quite diverse though it focuses primarily on light effects and damage. Stellar Radiation is actually a buff not a domain since it ends. That is why the mana cost and casting time are low. Orbital Capure is a decent control spell even if it uses Snare. With my role as a Haste dispenser I wasn't sure at the timehow often I'd get to use Star Magic but it wasn't that bad. No one overreacted to a turn spent on clearing control.

The party managed to survive a potential crises due to attribute disparity from Tier 1 and Tier 0 traits. Luckily we had strong impersonal reasons to stick together. We considered the impact of the new Attributes on those of us with Manasophy and the increase in our mana pools. Our party composition was very mana limited so pool bonuses, a few new cost reduction options and the bonuses from Ocean magic were quite welcome. Still Refresh and Infuse from Hydromancy were something we sorely missed. Infuse with Haste on was just much better than Revitalize when you didn't need the health recovery.

Chronomancer Arcanist Miamist Eruptor Cleanser Shieldmaiden Treant Crusher Health 78 Health 103 Health 78 Health 78 Health 78 Health 120 Health 126/154 Health 204/232 Mana 352/384 +8/s Mana 406/438 +10/s Mana 348/364 +8/s Mana 348/364 +8/s Mana 352/384 +8/s Mana 174/190 +4/s Mana 180/226 +7/s Mana 98/144 +6/s MOV 5m/s MOV 5m/s MOV 5m/s MOV 5m/s MOV 5m/s MOV 5m/s MOV 5/10m/s MOV 10/15m/s

The larger values are the new ones. Quite a boost for several of us, especially the Treant and the Crusher. A lot of what we gained from our new talents was flexibility. The Miasmist had something to cast while buffing besides Dusk. The Shieldmaiden and the Cleanser benefitted also. The Eruptor and I got a bit left out. Still we probably drastically increased our DPS potential and our control options. Even those of us who had to stick to Tier 2 or gods forbid Tier 3 Talents came out okay. Abyssal magic was so cool, though, hopefully we'd get another shot.