[X] My Assistant

The new patch introduced autocasting (patch notes). Is it worth it?

From perks page:

Innate Arcana I Unlocks the first auto-cast slot in the HentaiVerse. This allows you to select a spell that will be cast automatically. 50 Hath

Innate Arcana II Unlocks a second auto-cast slot, and reduces total upkeep by 15%. 100 Hath

Innate Arcana III Unlocks a third auto-cast slot, and reduces total upkeep by 30%. 200 Hath

Innate Arcana IV Unlocks a fourth auto-cast slot, and reduces total upkeep by 45%. 400 Hath

This post has been edited by Red_Piotrus: Dec 5 2009, 23:47

Well, I'll have to say beforehand that I'm only lvl 50 and therefore did not yet enter any high level grindarenas, nor any bosses.

For IW, it just made me weaker.
That's because you can't use spells (e.g. shield) tactically by turning it on only when you start fighting 6 or more monsters at the same time. (This happens after ~the 10th round for me and I usually don't use it when I'm facing one or two monsters. I tend to weaken them because it's cheaper.) That means, it costs me way more than it would normally do.

But for the first arenas and bosses, this will definitely be useful. The time you don't spend on casting is time you can wack or do something else.

For later perklevels, this will get of course way more powerful and useful. It's less mana for the same power, essentially.

Wether or not it should go before PP, I can't say. I'm still not in the possession of it. My guess is you should probably skip AC for it.

Since I hate not knowing abbreviations myself, here's the legend to those I used:
IW = ItemWorld, PP = Penny Pincher, AC = Autocast

This post has been edited by flint: Dec 6 2009, 00:09

For the time being, I would say no.
* You can't turn it on/off if you don't need it, putting a permanent drain on your mana unless you go into your settings and clear out your autocasts.
* You get no proficiency, which is extremely important regarding the potency of your support spells. This isn't as important for Haste and Shadow Veil, since its AP that determines strength and duration relative to cost while proficiency has more effect on duration. But for Shield and Barrier, you need proficiency to increase their defensive buffs. And for most people Shield and/or Barrier are the basic spells that are cast just about all the time and are the main source of Support proficiency.

If/when these two issues are addressed, I'd say it would be well worth the Hath. Even if you're only using it for one spell, I'd say it'd be a good idea to at least go for the first two levels to get the upkeep reduction. Sure, its only 15%, but those fractions of points of MP add up over a long battle.