My complaint is that most spells and glyphs are useless, and they are getting worse. The ONLY useful spells, IMHO, are Life Infusion and Missile/Arrow, and to a very small degree, Nature Intuition, Flame Burst and Strength.
Below are my thoughts on all the spells I can think of:
Red Way: Lots of spells, but not worth training above 1.
Strength: Useless. WAS a pretty decent spell, but today I noticed that it no longer "stacks" if you cast it multiple times. Now, it only boosts you once, no matter how many times you cast it. So now, I can go from 200 to 212 strength. Who cares?! Now I'll do 460 instead of 450 damage, for 2 or 3 minutes. This is Realm 2 and requires 20 in Red Way... definitely not worth the effort to train.
Meteor: Useless. Realm 3 and requires 40 in Red Way, but you can't even train that high. Also it does less damage than an Energy Arrow, yet takes about 4 times as long to cast, making it useless.
Flame Burst: Somewhat useful, as it can be cast with only 1 in Red Way. Unfortunately the damage it inflicts does not increase significantly when you train, even to 20. Nobody but "noobies" ever uses it.
Electrotouch: Useless. Does an insignificant amount of damage for only a few seconds. Not worth the effort.
Flame Spire: Useless. Looks fancy, but does very little damage for very little time.
Blue Way: Not worth training at all: only 1 spell
Freeze: Slow to cast, must be close to enemy, and does almost no damage. Useless
Dark Way: No useful spells, don't bother to train it.
Darkness: Useless. Creates a "dark cloud" around the caster. Does this do anything? None that I've seen. Useless
Weakness: Useless. Must be in "touch range" and it takes a long time to cast. Does very little damage. In the past, this was a useful spell in a duel, but GMs would threaten to ban you if you used it, saying it was "exploiting a bug." The effect: as your target became weak, they would begin dropping the items they could no longer carry. IMHO, this was the purpose of the spell... yet it was considered exploiting just to type "/cast weakness" while in a duel. I think this "bug" has since been "fixed" so now this spell joins the ranks of utterly useless. Also, if you manage to kill an npc with this spell, you are not allowed to loot it.
Taste of Death: Useless. Death is a misnomer, as it only causes a small amount of damage. Perhaps a more fitting name would be "slight illness" or "minor scratch."
Azure Way: Not worth training
Defensive Wind: Useless. AFAIK, this spell has no effect whatsoever. I never see anyone use it except noobies that haven't yet learned that it is useless.
Nature Intuition: Somewhat useful, in that you can read someone's basic stats, though it requires a lot of training in this otherwise-useless Way (Realm 2, requires 20 in Azure). Slightly useful, but not worth the effort.
Brown Way: Not worth training
Rock Armor: Useless. Does nothing as far as I can tell.
Flying Stones: Useless. This high level spell does about the same amount of damage as a summoned missile with only 1 in crystal way, yet it requires a high skill in Brown to cast, and is slow to cast. People call it the "flying meatball" because of the silly animation.
Stone Fist: Useless. Realm 3, requires 40 in Brown Way... but guess what... you can only train it to 20!
Crystal Way: The only somewhat useful Way.
Life Infusion: This is by far the most useful spell in the game, to heal yourself and others. However, no need to train higher than 1 in crystal way, as your healing powers hardly progress. Pity.
Summon Missile: Moderately useful. Does little damage, but is quick to cast and uses little mana. Don't bother training higher than 1 for this spell, since it doesn't get much stronger as you progress.
Energy Arrow: Moderately useful. This spell is fast to cast, and does a decent amount of damage. It can be quite useful in a duel, and is the only spell you will ever seen used in combat.
Healing Flash: Useless. This spell, from what I hear, requires 80 in Crystal Way. Last I checked, 30 was the max you could train.
Look around Hydlaa, Ojaveda, in the arena, or in BD. How much magic do you see used? Not much. So, my advice to anyone wanting to learn magic: Don't bother. Train to 1 in Crystal Way so you can heal, or maybe to 20 if you're a serious dueler. Other than that, don't waste your time. This was the case when I started 14 months ago, and remains the same today. I would like to see some improvement in magic, otherwise PS will remain... unappealing. Maybe this is a reason for the following stats (courtesy of Under the Moon) about Planeshift:
Total PS accounts: 340,000
Accounts never used: 112114
340000 - 112114 = 227886 people who have tried PS.
Total characters used less than an hour : 141557
Active accounts older than 30 days: 4297
62% that logged in never played more than an hour.
Over 98% that have tried PS no longer play.
-Roahn
