Skill Targeting and Convalescence + Eldritch Empowerment Poor Synergy

So I'm playing a Chaos DoT Lich and just sort of moseying through the campaign, but I've noticed a few problems that just feel very bad from a QoL standpoint.

First, targeting enemies with Contagion feels really really bad because I will frequently try to target the forefront enemy in a pack, and it will instead target a different, often larger, enemy, sometimes a mob or two away from where the cursor is. This excludes factors like rarity of monsters or name locking, as targeting a pack of white mobs will still occasionally result in the wrong mob being targeted. This feels really bad on multiple levels, as not only am I just not hitting my intended target with a targeted spell, but for a spell that's a part of a combo it's often incredibly debilitating to the rest of the combo if I can't perform it reliably.

I'm not sure what's causing this, but it would be nice if the targeting on single target spells was more strict to where the cursor was located. Having to struggle to clear a pack or, worse, dying because of a loss of player control is a terrible feeling.

Second, I believe there should be some natural synergy between the Spirit gem Convalescence and Eldritch Empowerment, but under it's current implementation they do not function well together. Since Convalescence is considered a Spell instead of a Buff, it gains the downside of Eldritch Empowerment, which adds an energy shield cost to it's activation. This means that if you run out of energy shield, you can not activate Convalescence to start energy shield recharge because you would not have the energy shield to pay the skill cost.

While this may be an intentional interaction, it does not feel good in practice. The downside of Eldritch Empowerment requiring energy shield for spells is paired up with the benefit it provides of extra damage on those spells. Convalescence is a defensive buff with no offensive benefits inherent to the skill itself.

Furthermore, Convalescence does not fit with the in-game description of what a Spell is (which is defined as "skills that use raw magic to destroy your enemies"). Convalescence is not used to "destroy your enemies", it is used to replenish your energy shield. Comparatively, any of the Offering skills, which arguably contribute more to "destroying your enemies" in their functions compared to Convalescence, do not get subjected to the additional energy shield cost from Eldritch Empowerment.

In addition, there is a Spirit gem that is capable of dealing damage to enemies, and is not considered an Attack, but is also not considered a Spell, which makes Convalescence being considered a Spell even more counterintuitive. And that gem is Plague Bearer. Plague Bearer is considered a Buff and has no Spell tags, but is actually capable of dealing damage to enemies directly, unlike Convalescence. It makes no sense that the Spirit gem that can actually "use raw magic to destroy your enemies" is considered a Buff, while the gem that starts regenerating a defensive layer faster is considered a Spell.

In my opinion, Convalescence being treated as a spell is not just thematically incorrect according to the game's description, but also awkwardly treated differently from other similar Spirit gems, and also restrictive and counter intuitive for an obvious possible synergy. I would propose it be converted to a Buff instead of a Spell, as it would not only be more in line with the game's descriptions, but it would enable a fairly reasonable synergy that would feel good as a QoL change.

+1

I was really hoping that Convalescence is my "Oh, sh*t!" button when I run out of ES and can't cast anymore. But no, because of Eldritch Empowerment, I can't use Convalescence when I need it most.

Huge bummer, but this seems to be a trend within the Lich. everything is anti-synergistic:

Necromantic Conduit? Sound great, until you realize it doesn't work on Dots, which is the only actually viable Chaos build for casters.

Eternal Life? Could be really neat if it had synergy with anything that sacrifices life, but it doesn't. So its only purpose is reduced to mitigating "bypasses ES" effects.

But we could go CI, right? That seems great, since we rely on only ES anyway. Well... no... because since 0.2 things don't scale of your pre-CI Max Life anymore. So Atziri, Gaze, Soulless Form and anything else scaling off Life would become useless.

Lich has great potential, but for now it seems like it lacks an identity.