More Mage Fist reporting:
* Nothing special from fireballing nagas in the Southern Swamp
* Dynamite against Goo Blobs
* In particular, Counter:Fireball is making it difficult to turn the leftover mana I have when I'm about to level up into a head start on the next monster. Urg.
Edit: Just finished a PQI where I got Slime Pit/Elf Priest/Faithless. I took Mage Fist to see how it would perform. Result: Typically at L7 I can clean up L6 monsters with a dangerous attack (weakening, corrosive, etc.) with a fireball and finish up with melee. This wasn't possible. I ended up converting the item, both so I could take out those monsters to get enough XP, and so my health resources would last through both the Tower of Goo and SMM.
On the bright side, I saw the Metal Spider Temple subdungeon for the first time!