Mana

[Lelanya]

Definitely Dragon Abbey, decay isn't a big deal if you have enough mana, and who wouldn't want mana on demand?

 

[Alram]

Definitely Dragon Abbey, decay isn't a big deal if you have enough mana, and who wouldn't want mana on demand?

Enar's is also mana on demand.

 

[Iyapo]

I see no bad here. I think it all depends on play style and city build. Leveled up they are all three pretty great. It is the size on Maze and Enars that give me most pause, but they would save me from needing more mana buildings. I will have to pick one when I get there. . . hard choices!

 

[Henroo]

Enar's suffers because the 2nd thing it does it relatively useless. Unless I have an AW in a rune phase, I am normally hard pressed to get rid of the broken shards I win in the tournament. I don't need an AW making me more of them. And scout times eventually hit 4+ days in the later chapters.

 

[Alram]

Enar's suffers because the 2nd thing it does it relatively useless. Unless I have an AW in a rune phase, I am normally hard pressed to get rid of the broken shards I win in the tournament. I don't need an AW making me more of them. And scout times eventually hit 4+ days in the later chapters.

I can certainly understand why people don't want to build "half" a wonder. I'm a catering city. The Abbey is "half" a wonder for me.

 

[Henroo]

I can certainly understand why people don't want to build "half" a wonder. I'm a catering city. The Abbey is "half" a wonder for me.

Agreed. I did mention this in my post upthread. However: as a catering city, shouldn't you be using a lot of enchantments? Power of Provision to boost supply output, Ensorcelled Endowment to boost both supply and gold production, and Magical Manufacturing to boost good production. Plus pet food for whatever a catering city uses it for. And I am not being sarcastic here: I primarily use pet food on Fire Phoenix and Brown Bear for military purposes. I honestly am not sure what the best use of pet food would be for a catering city. Even as only half a wonder, Dragon Abbey can be a really strong mana producer.

 

[Rythel]

Since the debate between mana wonders has come up, here's my two-cents.

I am a catering city and use 8 enchantments daily along with an additional 10+ every other day. Because I am using enchantments so frequently, I don't have the spare inventory to just burn enchantments to gain mana whenever I want with the Dragon Abbey. This removes the "Mana on Demand" effect of the Dragon Abbey. But that doesn't diminish the absolutely fantastic effect of getting as much mana as I am from it daily.

Because of this, I also have the Maze. I get to use Enchantments daily, purposefully and usefully and get to store a lot more of it over time. Because I can't use it on demand, being able to store it is a fantastic complement to the effect. I also collect 5 times daily so the mana gained from Maze is not negligible.

As a caterer, I would always suggest both chapter 10 wonders. It takes a lot of space, but the amount of mana per space the two wonders together give me is amazing. I am a recent convert to the DA. I deleted over half of the allocated space to mana and a level 3 DA was already making up the difference. So if you're planning on catering, definitely prioritize both.

 

[Alram]

@Rythel
I can see why the Dragon Abbey would be a good fit for your city that uses 86-96 spells per week. I use zero spells per week.

 

[Iyapo]

In my chapter 8 city:
I use spells when I really need them(which was often in chapters 4-7) but i have built away from that dependance on spells. I have a low double digit inventory of all the spells so the DA would be wasted in my city.

I am in a Gold Spire FS so I get a lot of speedup timers per week. I use them in combination with a coldfire phoenix regularly, so the Enar/Maze is a better combo for my city with my playstyle.


Edit: @Henroo I feed the Coldfire and the Polar bear.

 

[Yavimaya]

If I have a Triumph of Tides and sell it, will it re-appear in the MA for my current (woodelves) chapter? I got it in Ch 5 and don't accumulate enough RR/Blueprints to upgrade it quickly for mana.

I recommend saving it in inventory until enough rrs to upgrade only bc it might be a while before it shows up again in your ma or spire.

 

[Sprite1313]

@Iyapo, I am curious your opinion on tying this in with the GBS/CL+LoGN and that plan's reliance on EEs for a lot of culture and goods.

My fledgling city is early days, and I am still weighing options on wonders. I'm just not sure I could bring myself to build the maze because it is soooo big (and I don't like the way it looks; it's bad enough having to hide simia sapiens behind something, not sure I could hide the maze, too).

 

[elvenbee]

I recommend saving it in inventory until enough rrs to upgrade only bc if might be a while before it shows up again in your ma or spire.

I appreciate it... but my inebriated self deleted it Saturday night lol

 

[elvenbee]

So, as someone who recently started Ch9, my main access to Mana buildings are the ones in our Culture Tab. I tried ranking those buildings in order from best to worst (mana produced hourly / spaces required), but I'm curious to see what the veterans would say:

1) Treant's Grave*
2) Weeping Willow
3) Wood Ghosts Housing
4) Mana Fountain*
5) Autumn's Greetings

I've seen people say to avoid the Weeping Willow, but if you only have these buildings (and don't want to spend diamonds on the other culture buildings), isn't it worth it for awhile?

 

[Ashrem]

along with an additional 10+ every other day.

Presumably that is ensorcelled endowment. If you are actually keeepin them running constantly, you don't need to do it every other day. You could apply five or ten on each building on one day and have them stack out to 10 or 20 days of coverage while getting the mana bonus on a day you need it.

 

[Iyapo]

I am curious your opinion on tying this in with the GBS/CL+LoGN and that plan's reliance on EEs for a lot of culture and goods.

I love that strategy! Sadly this is my (former) racing city. My very depressing Itty bitty spell hoard(low double digit) puts many strategies out of reach and I have discovered that I can not race and gold spire and tournament respectably(4k+) and pay for wonder upgrades.

I'm just not sure I could bring myself to build the maze because it is soooo big (and I don't like the way it looks

I have loved the maze since the first time I saw it but I could not justify it in any of my slow growth cities, they had enough spells in inventory to do everything!

if you only have these buildings (and don't want to spend diamonds on the other culture buildings), isn't it worth it for awhile?

If it is all you have then you make due. I would point out that the festival merchants do not cost diamonds. Daily event prizes are also free and you would be hard pressed to find a daily event building with worse per square numbers than the free buildings in the build menu.

 

[elvenbee]

If it is all you have then you make do. I would point out that the festival merchants do not cost diamonds. Daily event prizes are also free and you would be hard pressed to find a daily event building with worse per square numbers than the free buildings in the build menu.

Sorry, I meant the Weeping Willow specifically. It takes up a lot of space, but it’s one of the better ones out of those I think. Out of those list of buildings, how would you rank them from best to worst?

What festival merchants are you referring to? I’m curious if I have one in storage and need RR/BPs to upgrade it. Im not getting much in the way of daily buildings (from the Juuls event, right?). I have the Phantom Bear, Hidden Lagoon, and Eldrasil’s Sawmill, plus 5 Weeping Willows right now. I have a Mana Sawmill that I’ll be upgrading Saturday after the tourney (I have 4 RRs, need 8), but I’m struggling to keep up.

With the buildings provided (list in my original comment), I’m curious if I ranked them differently than veterans would and if they would swap out the Weeping Willows for one of those instead. I haven’t unlocked the Treants Grave, which is the only reason why I haven’t swapped them out for those.

 

[Lady Dastardly]

Sorry, I meant the Weeping Willow specifically. It takes up a lot of space, but it’s one of the better ones out of those I think. Out of those list of buildings, how would you rank them from best to worst?

Your ranking is correct per square, but one thing to consider is that mana buildings require roads. Because of that, the Weeping Willow is my top pick for mana producers from the build menu in Ch. 9. You would need so many more road tiles to get the same amount of mana from the tiny Treant's Grave, making it much less efficient in the long run.

I've seen people say to avoid the Weeping Willow, but if you only have these buildings (and don't want to spend diamonds on the other culture buildings), isn't it worth it for awhile?

Yes, it can absolutely be worth it when you first get into the chapter and need to start making mana. I started with 2 or 3 Willows myself, and still had 1 by the end, just for the culture it provided. The key is to be on the look out for other sources of mana in the MA, events (the Magical Nutcracker, today's daily, is the only building in this event that gives mana in your chapter), and seasons. Any of those buildings are almost certainly going to be better than anything from the build menu.

What festival merchants are you referring to? I’m curious if I have one in storage and need RR/BPs to upgrade it. Im not getting much in the way of daily buildings (from the Juuls event, right?). I have the Phantom Bear, Hidden Lagoon, and Eldrasil’s Sawmill, plus 5 Weeping Willows right now. I have a Mana Sawmill that I’ll be upgrading Saturday after the tourney (I have 4 RRs, need 8), but I’m struggling to keep up.

Festival Merchants are craftable in the MA, as are Mana Sawmills. Festival Merchants are the better producer of the two. I personally would not spend precious RR's on any building that can be crafted. It can take a little while, but crafting new ones when you change chapter allows you to use your RR's on more valuable buildings, such as evolving buildings or sets.

 

[Smooper]

I am at the end of ch. 11 and replacing my roads costs over 8000 mana per square. I am still using ch. 10 festival merchants but can't get anymore of those. Any ideas for mana producers I can build or craft just to get these roads knocked out? (I guess I can go on a spell using spree. I have over a thousand of each of the main 3 and a level 11 DA. )

 

[Yavimaya]

So, as someone who recently started Ch9, my main access to Mana buildings are the ones in our Culture Tab. I tried ranking those buildings in order from best to worst (mana produced hourly / spaces required), but I'm curious to see what the veterans would say:

1) Treant's Grave*
2) Weeping Willow
3) Wood Ghosts Housing
4) Mana Fountain*
5) Autumn's Greetings

I've seen people say to avoid the Weeping Willow, but if you only have these buildings (and don't want to spend diamonds on the other culture buildings), isn't it worth it for awhile?

I used weeping willows temporarily to save some mana and gradually replaced them with festival merchants from the ma as I got them. It was very helpful to me at the beginning of that chapter. Could bring them back as needed.

 

[Lady Dastardly]

I am at the end of ch. 11 and replacing my roads costs over 8000 mana per square. I am still using ch. 10 festival merchants but can't get anymore of those. Any ideas for mana producers I can build or craft just to get these roads knocked out? (I guess I can go on a spell using spree. I have over a thousand of each of the main 3 and a level 11 DA. )

If you don't want to go the spell route:

The only craftable option is the Mana Sawmill. There are a number of mana buildings as prize options in the current Season of Joy, and The Simmering Soup available on the last day of the Mama Juul event is a decent mana producer in your chapter. The Soup will switch to seeds in Ch. 12 though, so keep that in mind if you're very going to change chapters before the end of the event.

If you have RR's, your Mana Plant, Sorcerer's Feast, and Forbidden Ruins will continue to make mana if upgraded to Ch. 11. Those are still some of my very best mana producers in Ch. 17.

If you haven't already built your first sentient factories and stashed them in inventory in preparation for Ch. 12, you'll have some time while you're building them where you won't need mana for anything (unless you cater the spire & tourney). It's a good time to work on the roads since the mana will just decay otherwise.

Or you could do what I did - I skipped the roads in Halflings because they look like muddy ditches and I couldn't stand to look at them, lol.