I did kind of like the upgrade chains and almost would like more of them. I like the idea that you're usually not building and then throwing away low level items, but instead use them to build bigger and better.
As a side note, it was way less clear to me when playing that spells cost mana in the sphere fights. I thought it was just managing timeouts. It wasn't until the raid encounters and not being able to cast spells that I realized, and then I briefly thought it was cost in the raids, but just timeouts in the sphere battles.
I kind of had to go back and go oooooh when I realized I was killing my mana farming by trying to rush through it with spells.
I did manage to complete the raid
Spoiler
You need equipment that adds different kinds of shields ;) And I used 100% of my mana casting heals and keeping it on cooldown