The mechanics are absolutely great. I love the variety of monsters and abilities--especially the utility powers (the ones that let you stash cards are my favorites). Every run so far has been very different and I'm always having to think about my strategy and resource use. I like the sketchy art, too, and the tooltips are clear and helpful. However, like others, I'm finding that it lags a lot on the world map, and that it seems to use an awful lot of memory for what it's doing.
It seems like the largest part of your score is based on not "wasting" flowers throughout the level, and they're "wasted" if they don't have anything left to attack and therefore disappear, OR if they get pushed off by new flowers. So... you want to just send one column at a time, more or less just before the next column grows in. The bonuses for having lots of flowers left at the end, and for not letting the tars reach the water, are insignificant next to that. (Although I did incidentally kill all the tars just by ignoring them and sending columns of flowers out regularly.)
Tips for enchanter (5/5): The staff of Magic Missiles isn't bad to start with. Its special effect is that it crits on enemies that are on unstable ground/in water, just like a non-magical weapon, so that's pretty useful, even if not necessarily as good as poisoning/slowing/conductivity. Take advantage of that whenever you can! It's also nice to have a weapon that doesn't have a specific energy type that enemies can be resistant to. And, the things that increase its damage--Spell Power, Magic Mastery--also increase the damage of any other staffs you pick up, so investing in it that way will help you even if you don't stick with that staff. If you do want a different staff, with any luck you'll be able to either 1)buy one, or 2)get one from a Well of Wishing or Scroll of Acquirement. In the second case, I advise waiting a little to use it, because things you get from a Well/Scroll are scaled to your level (I THINK the bonus on them is your level/4, but I'm not 100% sure).
Tips for enchanter (4/5): Mana points. As an enchanter, you get Focus. This is... somewhat valuable! It's an alright thing to spend a talent point on if you don't have a better ability available, especially for its first level. Having a larger pool of mana points is obviously better, as it lets you use abilities more times in a row. It helps make up for using Swiftness. You can also get more mana points by drinking a mana potion when your mana is full (I always use mana potions for that, instead of for refilling my mana), by increasing your Intelligence, or of course with various items. Mana-increasing items are usually just a trade-off against items with Protection, unless you find something rarer, but I think it's usually worth it as Protection only protects against physical attacks and not magical, and having a ranged attack + Swiftness makes it pretty easy to stay away from melee opponents most of the time--so it ends up mostly just protecting you against archers.
Tips for enchanter(3/5): An enchanter also has Magic Mastery available right from the start, which I reckon to be a better investment of talent points than the various elemental mastery skills, since it applies to ALL your spells and ANY staff you pick up, as opposed to just a subset. I'd spend my first talent point there, unless you luck into finding something awesome early on. I think you get more out of the first level than the second two, but still.
Tips for enchanter(2/5): Charm is, by my lights, probably the second most valuable ability, although you do have to be careful with it (see other people's comments about the bad things that happen if you charm a fire elemental, or the spider queen) and there are a few enemies that are immune (I think turrets?). You can charm an enemy you'd have a hard time killing, and let them get themselves killed attacking others. You can charm an enemy that's closer to other enemies than you are, and the other enemies will usually focus their attention on it instead of you (charming an enemy in the middle of a cluster--like in the ambush rooms or the rooms with warnings on the doors--is especially good). You can even charm an enemy just to make it stay close without attacking you, and have it stand in lava/poison gas/freezing cloud until it dies! A charmed priest may heal you. A charmed melee enemy may end up chasing another away from you. Charm is a hammer and nearly everything is a nail.
Tips for enchanter(1/5): Get Charm and Swiftness ASAP. Once you get Swiftness, you should probably just have it on all the time, because it lets you move and attack *in the same turn*, thereby making you the king of the action economy. Of course being able to move twice per turn is also useful in running away, or in not letting fast enemies catch up and mob you. Combined with strafe attack it's especially valuable, because then you can run away and attack at the same time. And, I'm not sure, but I THINK that Swiftness makes your food last longer (not directly; just because it makes moving basically only take half a turn instead of an entire turn). It's true that you may be able to find an item that (essentially) gives you Swiftness, but those also take 30% of your hp, so you have to decide for yourself whether the tradeoff is worth it. If you're having a hard time, though, you probably need all the hitpoints you can get, to reduce the lethality of mistakes.
Tip: strafe attack works with melee, too, and you can use that to deal with crystal golems (or any melee enemy really, though it works best against slow ones). It takes a bit of space to move, but you can let them get to a square right next to and diagonal from you, and then move away horizontally or vertically. E.g. if they're in the square just southeast of you, move west or north.
Bug: the Greater Staff of Storms seems to be basing its damage (as indicated in the mouseover text) purely on the spell power stat, and ignoring the storm power stat that it's supposed to be based on. With spell power 14 and storm power of 21 (including the +3 boost from holding the staff), the damage of the +1 staff I have is listed as 4[7] when, if it were based on storm power, it should be 4[8].
@Bonhomminal, the Keen Hearing talent will let you detect hidden enemies (lava eels, tentacle spitters, crocodiles, ambush rooms)! If they're in lava you do have to look somewhat carefully to distinguish the "enemy" red from the "lava" red, but it is visible. And you can attack hidden enemies with some spells--Lightning Bolt's my favorite for water enemies, and Freezing Cloud for the lava eels (as long as you're careful to place it so that they won't move out of it when trying to chase you). Also, if you boost stealth enough, you can get close enough to attack before they notice you. Strafing is also good--when I do it, ranged enemies often target the square I was just in, rather than the square I'm in now.
Hmmm... most of the time, I like that the loot/random boots aren't related to your class--I like multiclassing! and collecting staffs with different elements to use on different enemies (what's also fun is using poison or cold staff first, to inflict poison/slow, then switching to a different one). And, I mean, getting a melee or range skill boost when I don't have any weapons that use that is kind of meh, but hey--I COULD pick up a relevant weapon; I could find an axe and want to use it if multiple enemies corner me, or a spear/halberd I want to use on a crystal golem, or a bow I want to use on mages so I can shoot them from outside their range. But what *is* disappointing is when you get something that you can't use even if you wanted to--mana-boosting or mana-using stuff when you're playing a barbarian.
Oh... game records aren't working properly anymore. It forgot about all (I think?) my deaths, and it also forgot about my two previous wins for challenge of the day. I think I was about to get a two-game streak, too... I still have the trophies for winning with different characters, though.
Okay, having done several side dungeons now, I have to say I really like the different designs the levels have--especially the last ones. (And it's even better when I have dungeon sight and can see that huge cluster of yellow as motivation....) Actually, the side dungeons are a great idea overall; I always want to do them.
"Spawners will now give all the exp of the remaining NPCs when killed so that the optimal strategy isn’t to sit around grinding them." ...Extremely good change. I admit that I was, indeed, sitting around grinding them.
Problem with the staff of poison that I don't see happening with other weapons: enemies get to move and/or attack even in the same round that you kill them with it! Example: a bat is two tiles away. I shoot it with the staff. The bat moves towards me, attacks, and THEN dies. Another example: a rat is right next to me, with 1 hp left. I shoot it with the staff for 1 damage. The rat attacks me and THEN dies. OTOH, if an enemy is right next to me (or, for a fast enemy, two tiles away) and I attack it for all its remaining hp with a different weapon, it dies before it gets to take a turn.
I seem to find a lot of crystal chests that are just... empty. Unsure if the gimmick is that some of them are always empty and you just have to guess and gamble, or if they're all supposed to have something in them. As it is, the choice doesn't really feel meaningful--it's just a choice between three unknowns, with no reason to prefer any one of them over the others. If you could see what was inside, *then* it would actually feel like you're giving something up by choosing one of them over the others, which would fit with the "the other two will be locked forever" bit. (Would it be too complex to give a hint that's not based on the Wish item categories? I.e. "You see a glimmer of green through the crystal" could be a healing potion, staff of poison, javelins, etc.)
Oh--a minor thing, I *would* like to know what Bless does. I mean, I believe that it does have some kind of positive effect, but I can't tell what that might be. It'd be nice if the mouseover text for it gave some indication.
 "Economical"){kind=icon}
 "A Grim Chase"){kind=icon}
 "Poker Quest RPG"){kind=icon}
 "Tarnation"){kind=icon}
 "Rogue Fable III"){kind=icon}
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