Okay. Well maybe it's just because I'm an idiot. I can accept that.
But my idiot self remembers being confused as to why I couldn't branch any spells. Every other skill in the game shows skill level, so I (again, stupidly) assumed power level must be connected in some way to skill level. Maybe this "power level is not the same as skill level" business should be in the helpfiles or in the acceptance email rather than only on the GDB...just for morons like me. Bam.
I wasn't confused about anything that's actually present in the helpfiles, except magick components. I assumed that you just had to...somehow just "know" and memorize them, and I wasn't sure what you do with them once you had them. It wasn't until I learned how to branch (which took a long time) and branched certain abilities (and access to the helpfiles of those abilities) that I really understood how anyone could possibly work with these things without having an OOC master list of components.
Maybe components are advanced enough stuff that it SHOULD be confusing, sure, but I know it overwhelms a lot of people, especially when some templar is breathing down their neck and won't accept that they don't somehow know everything without being told. And it might be totally IC for that templar to be that way, but maybe a hint or two for the player to work with would be nice. Even if it's just the hint that as they grow as a mage, they may learn how to more easily and innately figure out components.