Magic Book

I understand it looks like a tarot card table but putting a book in the foreground with the table in the background might alleviate the idea your playing a card game with the spells instead of researching them.  Also include a Bunsen burner with a beaker on top filled with "mana". 

I like the cards better also.  I also like how some of these spells require different mana sources to cast.  I wonder why they dropped that concept, as that would make your mana choices more interesting.

I would guess they dropped many of the shard requirements to make the few high-end spells more available to the players. I mean, it's not like we're drowning in them. I like the current idea far more, where spells become increasingly powerful when you control shards.

There was talk once about shards letting you accumulate different kinds of mana, but that was a VERY long time ago.

I dont really care too much about the artwork of the Spell Book, as it currently is is fine.  What I care about is that all information is presented easily.

What stands out to me is

1) Different types of Mana

They Mana types idea is interesting but would need require alot of work to implement and balance.  It could create some interesting games where you are forced to use a particular shard of magic because that kind of mana is the only one available.  Although having acess to a shard allready encourages devotion to a particular type of magic.  So different mana types is just work for little gain.

2) Spells have prerequistes and not just levels to unlock them.

I think the entire spellbook and magic system needs an overhaul.  But looking at just this idea, what would the affect be?  It would force players to committ arcance research to lower level spells to unlock their desired higher level spells.  You couldnt just by pass the junk.  This would make the spell research longer, and would increase the value of spells that lead to better things.  It also just makes 'sense'.  I approve.

Ehhh..I am not a fan of the card layout. Reminds me too much of MTG. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I would just prefer if Elemental had its own unique style like it does now with the spell book.

I would really like to see a modern menu style Spellbook. That's because I hope there are so many spells to choose from you'll need an organized way to look at them.  If you look at how DragonAge actions worked, they had a complex menu driven interface to select really sophisticated filters. Just an idea.

I would also like to have quick spell slots and a hotkey to invoke them.  The current method is clickhappy.