Blood mage needs up!

A very weak ascent, which causes more problems than benefits. x2 the cost of skills is not normal, make at least 50% hp 50% mp. Lifelich is not felt at all. Please pay attention to this!

I was looking forward to trying this ascendancy. Oh well. Also, having to "collect" drops when most of the floor is lava in higher tier content doesn't look, that appealing.

both valid points.
I would like to add that orbs have expiration which is too short due to the reason floor is usually dangerous and you can't get to them immediately, also no movement skills to mitigate that.
The ascendancy first two points are a debuff with no upsideyou pick the 3 percent node and hold on to the other point because it would ruin your character to use it before you get points 3 and 4 (and some decent gear!!) so you basically run around as witch till at least level 50, also half of the ascendancy tree is setup to mitigate the Sanguimancy node, why is it even there - unclear, class fantasy etc. but mechanically half the tree is designed to zero out the Sanguimancy node as if the temp life pool was some amazing buff, you can get it to work with some unique items that add percentage of life to ES for example but it requires so much gear and effort and theorycrafting compared to other classes.
If this is the design - fine, I don't really have a problem with that, but playing the class feels so bad and especially early game.