Urbaj

Urbaj
Status	Active
Race	Elf
Gender	Male
Guild	Trader
Instance	Prime

Starlight Aura Cost Estimates

I've been trying to quantify SLA cost for spells. From my testing, the lowest SLA-consuming spell is min-cast CRD. I'm defining the SLA used by a minimum mana CRD as 1 "SLA bit."

With 700 Lunar Magic, my SLA pool is approximately 1,700 bits (meaning I could cast 1,700 2 mana CRDs without residue indoors before running out of SLA).

Most spells seem to ramp up their SLA costs pretty close to 1:1 with mana. So a 100 mana BLUR is roughly 20x SLA as a 5 mana BLUR. (The main exception seems to be Regalia, which is always 15 SLA bits regardless of mana. FLU and AVA also have more generous SLA costs than expected at higher mana levels.)

Elison's SLA is per attack avoided, not per cast. Elanthipedia also says that amount of SLA depends on how thoroughly you win the contest. And while the creature I tested on did cause SLA drain every time, they were a tier below my normal hunting. So more difficult enemies probably have higher SLA costs.

Remember that these are just rough estimates. Measurements were made with different Lunar Magic levels (680-720), which isn't ideal. There's probably some user error lurking in the measurements and calculations somewhere along the line too!

Starlight Aura Regeneration

Regen pulses come every 100 seconds.

There are a few different regen rates that determine your pulse size, which add different %s to your SLA pool. PERC AURA will tell you if you have "optimal" or "hindered" conditions. But there are different levels of hindered even after maximum mana NOU, depending on time of day and weather. The most common hindered rates seem to be 75% (which I'm calling minimally hindered), 50% (middle hindered - the red line in the chart), and 33% (max hindered) of optimal.

The optimal SLA regen rate stops improving at 80 Wisdom, with a fully optimal 0-100% regen taking 60 minutes. But while the optimal regen rate maxes out at 80 Wis, your hindered regen rates continue improving, I believe until they also hit 60 minutes. (So past 80 Wisdom, that 50% middle hindered regen rate grows to 100% relative to your capped optimal rate, until it too eventually hits 60 minutes.)

I think there are a few breakpoints:

• 80 Wisdom: Optimal regen caps at 60 minutes
• 110 Wisdom: Minimally hindered regen caps at 60 minutes
• 180 Wisdom: Middle hindered regen caps at 60 minutes
• 240 Wisdom: Max hindered regen caps at 60 minutes

Each point of Wisdom increases your regen pulse size by the same absolute amount. With very little Wisdom that modest amount is really noticeable. But even at very high Wisdom, extra Wis ranks still have a decent impact. Assuming a 50/50 split of optimal and middle hindered conditions, going from 170 to 180 Wisdom should lower average regen time by 3% (62 minutes -> 60 minutes). Assuming worse weather would be an even bigger improvement.

The EXPOSURE deal doubles the regen rate and ignores caps: so a fully optimal regen under EXPOSURE will take 30 minutes.

Discipline has no effect.

SLA regen is improved by Wisdom buffs. Similarly, your overall SLA pool size is improved by Primary Magic buffs (SYMBIOSIS CAST).

(Some caveats: It's really difficult to figure out which hindered state you're in - there are multiple variables, they change at the drop of a hat, and some are a bit rare. The focus of my testing was on optimal and middle-hindered regen rates. Also, even with a full respec, I couldn't test past base 138 Wis. So while the trends seemed pretty consistent, there is a lot of extrapolation being done here, and take it all with a grain of salt.)

Charisma and Caravan Trading

I don't think that Charisma has any effect on contract prices (and presumably also Trading EXP).

Here's average contract price for Ilithi trading routes, holding Trading ranks constant, with different extreme levels of Charisma. Number of contracts tested are in parentheses.

Trading Route	12 Charisma	138 Charisma	Price % Diff
Fayrin's Rest - Darkling Wood	25,145 (36)	26,015 (27)	+3%
Steelclaw Clan - Darkling Wood	22,198 (27)	22,921 (26)	+3%
Shard - Darkling Wood	21,041 (49)	22,808 (35)	+8%
Shard - Fayrin's Rest	9,426 (37)	9,276 (29)	-2%
Steelclaw Clan - Shard	5,821 (53)	5,375 (42)	-8%
Steelclaw Clan - Fayrin's Rest	4,627 (44)	4,672 (30)	+1%
		AVERAGE:	+1%

I wanted to test more to eliminate some of the noise, but a Test server resync threw a wrench in that (because Trading ranks definitely do matter). Regardless, I'm pretty sure that if Charisma had an effect, it would've been obvious with 12 vs 138 CHA even with this amount of testing.

It's theoretically possible that Charisma has some reasonable impact at lower Trading ranks (this testing done around 1,000 Trading).

Weird Mana

Since at least 2021, a small portion of spell casts has resulted in "weird magic" messages about mana streams, often involving unexpected synesthesia. The weird fluctuations seem to be present across all types of spellcasting. All guilds see these sorts of messages at similar rates. The type of magic (augmentation, warding, sorcery, etc.) does not have an effect.

At first, roughly 1 in 5,000 of casts. The initial batch of messages included:

Alarmingly, the familiar streams of mana seem shift entirely away from you for a moment.

You smell lush vegetation, the scent heady and intoxicating.  Your nose itches, and you sneeze.

Strangely, the familiar streams of mana seem to jitter out of your control for a moment.

The mana streams intertwine oddly, forming a curious knot.  The tangle relaxes.

As you manipulate the mana streams, you feel suddenly out of breath, and your heart begins to race.  After a moment, the feeling passes.

The familiar task is disrupted by a moment of synesthesia.  You hear the streams of mana come together as you complete your casting.

As you manipulate the mana streams, you feel like you are falling, and gasp in surprise.  The feeling passes.

The mana streams buckle oddly for a moment.

Something feels off.

Around December 10, 2023, these sorts of messages began appearing more frequently, reaching 0.9% by December 31, 2023 (a 40X increase). New messages also began appearing around this time:

For a brief moment, the mana responds with an unexpected surge, tingling through your fingertips like an electric current.

As you weave the mana streams together, a scream not unlike the scraping of metal on metal resounds, only to warp and be replaced with... laughter?

A momentary distortion in the mana reveals fleeting glimpses of distant landscapes, each branching and vanishing in an instant.

The ambient temperature drops noticeably as you manipulate the streams of mana, causing a shiver to run down your spine.

The mana takes on an iridescent glow, growing in brightness until you are forced to blink.  Then, the glow is gone.

As you manipulate the mana, an unexpected taste fills your mouth, reminiscent of bitter herbs.

The ambient temperature rises sharply as you weave the mana, a sudden wave of warmth enveloping you and making beads of sweat form on your forehead.

On January 5, 2024, a new batch of messages began appearing:

You smell the verdant scent of fresh grass.

Frighteningly, the mana streams suddenly disappear!  You blink in surprise, only to find they have returned.  Did it even happen?

The mana takes on an iridescent glow, growing in brightness until you are forced to blink.  Then, the glow is gone.

The mana streams stretch and droop languidly like ropes of elongated taffy, then snap back to normal.

The mana streams take on a sudden brittleness, snapping and crumbling under your manipulations.  After a moment, they return to normal, and you are able to complete your casting.

You are suddenly shocked with the bitter flavor of too-strong coffee in your mouth.

The mana streams twist and ripple suddenly like ribbons of seaweed underwater, then snap back to normal.

You hear a sound like cracking ice, and are struck with a sense of uneasiness.

Sounds suddenly mute themselves, until you find yourself completely deaf! Your heart pounds for several seconds, then, with a small *pop*, the auditory world returns.

You taste a myriad of fruity flavors in quick succession -strawberry, orange, lemon, lime, blueberry, grape, and taffelberry stick out to you among the chaotic jumble of sensations.

You suddenly taste an intensely sweet flavor, like too much icing on a cupcake.

Out of the corner of your eye, you sense a shifting in the mana streams, a languorous movement like that of coiling snakes.  When you turn to look, everything appears normal.

As you manipulate the mana streams, color seems to drain from your surroundings, momentarily leaving everything in shades of grey.

You smell the warmth of baking bread, the coziness of cinnamon and cloves settling around you.

The streams of mana before you suddenly appear to become shards of light, a profusion of crystallized growth blooming in clusters around them.  After several seconds, the crystals melt away and the streams appear as they always do.

Your nostrils are filled with the scent of the ocean, a mysterious depth to the smell that sinks into dark notes of salty chocolate.

The mana streams suddenly appear thin and threadlike, like the filaments of a spiderweb. They twitch slightly before returning to normal.

Your mouth goes dry with the taste of something cool and freshly alcoholic.

Miscellaneous

Owner of the plaza shop Practical Provisions in Riverhaven (World Room [Lich #7869], go entrance).