Which magic mod to get started in?

[KaoticSoulz]

Just want to start off with the disclaimer, I have googled, and didn't get a satisfying result.

Anyways, I just started a new world in the most recent version of Infinity Evolved. Went on a mining trip or two, and have my base in a little hole inside an NPC village. I have a decent amount of starting resources, a few stacks of iron, 20 diamonds, blah blah blah. Anyways, I want to get more into a magic mod or two this time around as I usually do only tech mods and have never done more than the very basics of Blood Magic (And this was back in 1.6.4, so it's possibly very different now.)

I just want a nudge in the right direction of which of the mods I should start exploring first. I'm playing single-player, so I don't care about the pvp potential of witchery, which seems to be the only thing people cite as awesome about it, or of blood magic, I just want to know which have you personally had the most fun with. If nothing else, I'll probably start learning about blood magic as the very little experience I've had with it seemed to go fairly well.

The main things I want to know about are the late earlygame, early midgame potential of things like 2x ore processing, flight (jetpack, creative or other) or any auto-mining that may be available (or vastly improved manual mining, I remember seeing videos back when I was trying to get into blood magic way back when of people decimating huge areas with the mod's pick), but I'm not opposed to other things you think are fun about the different mods. I'm just getting back into the game, so I can't remember off the top of my head things necessary past early midgame.

As said above, I'm on the most recent version of Infinity Evolved, and I've not added or removed anything from the core modpack that's installed from the curse launcher.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PierceSG]

Thaumcraft. Just my opinion of course.
I had fun with it. And now I'm having fun with it again in 1.8.9.

 

[Viperion]

Botania is tons of fun, easy to learn, not too rabbit-holish, and gives you some very cool very useful items. I don't know if it does ore doubling though

 

[Someone Else 37]

As far as late-game manual mining goes, nothing can beat Blood Magic. I'm not referring to the Bound Pick (which is still pretty cool)- I'm referring to one product of the mod's spell system. A projectile spell with the correct modifiers will mine out any and all blocks near the projectile, dropping them as items. Applying potency upgrades (one of each tier you have access to, in ascending order) will increase the range that the projectile considers "near", and range upgrades will increase the number of blocks it can break before dissipating. Using all the available upgrades will create a spell that at a simple click and a hefty cost of LP will take out a huge chunk of earth- much more than other hand-held item I've encountered in modded MC.

But that's not all. Adding another modifier to the spell will give it the ability to pick up items near the projectile and shoot them straight into your inventory. Upgrade that effect in the same way as the mining effect (with potency, range, and optionally efficiency modifiers) and whenever you fire the spell, multiple stacks of freshly-mined rock and ore will suddenly shoot into your inventory. You'll soon find that the next problem is to get all that stuff out of your inventory... which, unfortunately, BM has no solution for. Random Things and Pneumaticraft have the Player and Aerial Interfaces, respectively, which both handle this nicely, allowing ME Import Buses and the like to pull from your inventory, even across dimensions.

But, anyhow, I'd also recommend looking into Botania. It's actually a tech mod in disguise- almost everything that EnderIO or the Thermal suite of mods can do, Botania can do as well. No ore doubling, but at least it does have (among many other things) a way to generate ores. I think you can actually build a quarry of sorts with Botania, although there's not really any need to. Botania even handles inventory management with its Corporea system, including a block that lets you request items from your storage.

 

[Adonis0]

My advice is start with one with an in-game guide. Makes things sooooooo much easier

Thaumcraft has the things that you're saying you want from early midgame.
Botania doesn't really have that stuff as it's a magic mod centered around plants, but it's definitely a good one to investigate, it has some pretty good gear that you can get into for mining and things like that (also has a plant that can generate ores in stone so you don't need to go mining)

Blood magic is pretty fun, but no in-game guide so you'll need to go looking elsewhere (the official forum post is pretty comprehensive though).

I don't think you should be looking at them with the perspective of I want x y z out of a mod, what fulfills this. I think you should just get into them a bit, explore around their potential and figure out what you can do with them after you've had a look

(thanks for the comment about the BM spells, I've never gotten into them before so shall have to take a look)

EDIT: I haven't had any experience with witchery either, so a perspective on that would be most welcome

 

[KaoticSoulz]

I've always brushed Botania off as another terrain generation mod like BoP or something because I only ever saw the flowers that it had. I had no idea it was a magic mod, from what you described, @Someone Else 37 I'll have to look into it.

I'm thinking I'll get the basic blood magic setup going then try to figure out Botania with that ingame guide that I just figured out it has. I'm not opposed to tech mods in this run, more just want to start looking into the power of magic mods, so I'll probably get a basic pulverizer setup going if neither botania or blood magic have an ore doubling method.

Still would appreciate perspectives, especially on witchery as it seems cool, I just have no clue of the single player potential and don't have unlimited resources to put into it.

 

[Adonis0]

Well, the thing is botania or blood magic have no need for large amounts of ore generation, so it would be silly to include ore doubling into a mod that doesn't really use ores.

Both of them use their own internal resources (Botania uses the flowers and runes, while blood magic uses..blood)

 

[KaoticSoulz]

Well, the thing is botania or blood magic have no need for large amounts of ore generation, so it would be silly to include ore doubling into a mod that doesn't really use ores.

Both of them use their own internal resources (Botania uses the flowers and runes, while blood magic uses..blood)

Right, I fully understand why they wouldn't, I'm not saying that they should, especially with the lore surrounding them (Blood magic does, actually, have an ingame guide and it's actually really interesting what the mod author has done with it. Thoroughly enjoying just reading through the book.)

 

[Inaeo]

I have a love/hate relationship with Thaumcraft. I loathe the early grind of scanning all the things and running all over the world to recharge the early wands, but once I push through that, I've found it to be one of the most fulfilling mods going. It has a unique crafting system (or two, if you use the alchemy system), and fun little minions to automate via Golems. It is relatively heavy in the use of glass and gold, but it does include an ore doubling mechanic as well as a free to use multiblock furnace. The tools and gadgets are varied in UAE and power, but overall it's one of the best balanced mods ever built (in my opinion). Also, it has tie-ins to Botania and BM, allowing you to power a wand based off either LP or Mana, which makes the early midgame much easier to push into.

I would personally use Thaumcraft, Botania, and Blood Magic in concert. The three cover all the wanted/needed bases of a tech group, but each with their own flavor and roadblocks. They also nicely compliment each other's roadblocks while pushing you on to higher tiers.

 

[KingTriaxx]

I definitely say start with Thaumcraft, since it's got a lot of the utility you want, and very many of the cool toys that other mods have gone on to duplicate. EnderTech's Resonant Exchanger is a tech version of the Wand of Equal Trade for example. It's also got a very awesome automatic mining method.

Blood Magic doesn't have ore doubling, but it also has infinite resources. It can generate them in exchange for blood, and automatically mine them for the same.

Don't entirely discount Witchery. It has lots of PvP potential, but it's got some very cool PvE stuff as well. Not least of which are Death Protection Poppets, which do exactly what they say, and protect you from dying when bound and either carried or left on a poppet shelf. You can also give yourself the ability to teleport around, including back home by wearing a pair of magic slippers. Another power set lets you create water, or stun enemies, if you can recall how to do it.

It's definitely worth playing with, even if you end up not using it for much. I usually go far enough for the Death Protection Poppets, and then stop bothering.

 

[Azzanine]

Start with Botania or Thaumcraft. No matter what you pick you can't go wrong.
Botania is probably the better starting point as it gives you a pretty neat set of armor and tools with an auto repair feature.
Thaumcraft has a bit more utility and when paired with its Legion of addons it also has a vast depth.

In short Botania or Thaumcraft and you can't go wrong.

Witchery and blood magic have too much of a setup to be newb friendly. Blood magic's a bit better when Arcane Arteries is installed but still requires investing in to Botania and Thaumcraft (Thaumium and Elementium).

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[malicious_bloke]

Blood Magic.

Start with self-harm, end up locked in mortal combat with demons while wearing a suit of sexy armour powered by the torture of large amounts of wildlife.

Or Thaumcraft, because it has magical versions of anything a tech mod will do.

And it has literally ALL the addons. I swear half the mods in modern packs are expansions for TC

 

[Azzanine]

Am I the only one who fills up their t2 blood altar like they are playing king of the hill with mobs.
I initially build my one in a dark area and go "come at me brrroe" brandishing the dagger of sacrifice.
Spiders, undead, creepers... all are welcome to my altar! I tend to do my crafting in the day sometimes night if im sure nothings after me.
After a while I just pen up a bunch of villagers and use them up when I need it.

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[PierceSG]

Currently playing in 1.8.9 with the "New" (for me anyway) Thaumcraft 5.

Liking the new golems and control seals very much. Also the new remote input and output essential funnels.

But not liking the fact that there is no real way to clean up the accumulated flux in the aura besides planting silverwood trees and hoping they come with a pure node, and they give back at least one sapling when you cut them down. Hope Azanor adds in an enchant for the Axe of the Stream that improves the drop rate of the saplings.

 

[KingTriaxx]

I tend to put my blood altar up in the air so I can work with it day or night without worrying about mobs. And it typically ends up surrounded by Arcane Lamps so it's all lit up.

 

[GreenZombie]

Of all the magic mods, and the tech mods that masquerade as magic Thaumcraft is the most engaging.

The barrier to entry is a few vis shards, and access to gold, and from this point on it adds progression content that grows with you. The other magic mods, frankly, do not. You can quickly start making thaumium tools and armor, that you can enchant with repair. This will carry you through a lot of the early game.
When you get to the Nether and get quartz, you can break out into Focii for your wand.
The alchemy system gives you ore doubling, and an Infernal Furnace gives fuel free smelting, and an extra yield from smelting in the form of nuggets, for an effective ~2.3x ore multiplication.
At this point you should have the resources to make elemental tools, and fortress armor, which is gorgeous, and the tools have a variety of extra abilities that make them indispensable replacements for your plain thaumium tools.
Golems should be available now that can harvest and plant crops. Move inventories around to automate production and to sort storage.
Also, runic armor gives you loads of recharging yellow hearts.
With this gear you can defeat the end dragon, and wither, adroitly.
You should have encountered scarlet cultists, so can open up the Eldritch research topic, to gain access to the void metal, Void armor and void tools which have self repair as an innate property.
But you can visit the Outer Lands, to fight a variety of end game bosses, to gain access to Primal Pearls that can be used to make items such as the primal crusher.

And this is merely the surface of the mod.

There are items from other mods that can outmine and out dig a Primal Crusher - such as Blood Magic. And mods like Tinkers add tools that are the rough equivalent of Thaumcrafts elemental tools much MUCH earlier, additionally Thaumcrafts ore doubling takes a lot more investment to reach. But reaching these checkpoints with Thaumcraft is way way more satisfying.

Lastly, I prefer thaumcraft because it is "complete". You can drop it on a server and play Thaumcraft and nothing else, and while it may take longer, you will eventually get all the things - flight, rapid mining tools, endgame armor.

Other magic mods I find do not stand well by themselves. You need to supplement Botania with tech mods to actually generate mana. Blood magic leaves you at a LP deficit until/unless you, likewise, use a tech mod to provide powered spawners or use stuff like cursed earth to supply your insatiable blood requirements. Witchery simply lacks anything to help you mine or ore double or fight in the early game.

tl;dr Thaumcraft is the only magic mod worth playing.

 

[KingTriaxx]

You did miss Ars Magicka, but that's not been updated for 1.7 I don't think.

TC on the other hand, is absolutely awesome. In no small part because of the dev. Azanor's one of those masterful coding wizards, who manages things others didn't think possible. After you've done the research the first time, you may end up wanting to turn on easy mode in the configs. It's a fun game but not the most pleasant to repeat. Easy mode lets you buy the researches instead, but they're more expensive than the research game method.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

You need to supplement Botania with tech mods to actually generate mana.

A majority of Botania flowers can be fully automated with just Botania and vanilla mechanics. See challenge guide in the Lexicon.

 

[Azzanine]

A majority of Botania flowers can be fully automated with just Botania and vanilla mechanics. See challenge guide in the Lexicon.

True, you can do botania with vanilla redstone and droppers. But the constructs can look hella ugly.
They don't start looking good until you get a corporia spark system and redstring.
But it is possible with base Botania to reliably automate feeding mana gen.

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[KingTriaxx]

Droppers? No, Open crates. Straight drop every time, instead of randomly launching into another chunk.