I shoulda done this full ascended Pyromancy thing a million years ago!
It makes me kind of sad though, that the Lightning Spear miracles aren't too hot in PVP :( My favorite ; ;
I don't really use magic in games, besides healing really, but when I was doing my divine archer build I tried out some miracles.
Sunlight Spear / G. Lightning Spear is just so fun to use...
I didn't use any magic on my first playthrough other than Heal and Great Chaos Fireball/Storm(only for farming in Painted World). I was too invested in STR, VIT, and END. It worked out well for bosses, not so well for anything else.
My first playthrough was kind of meh though when I think about it. I didn't have a heightened sense of where to look for a lot of stuff, and I didn't start using walkthroughs/wikis till recent plays. I stayed hollowed or offline 90% of the time, and so I never used summoned players/NPCs for bosses. I missed a ton of gear, spells, upgrades, and the catacombs smith.
My second playthrough wasn't much better, but on my third one I started delving into magic, particularly sorcery. I've gotta say, even though it's not that flashy of a spell, I *** love Fall Control. Fall Control, Repair, and Magic Weapon. So *** awesome. The Oolacile Catalyst was really awesome to have too. Such high magic adjust even if you've only got bare minimum INT. Let's you make excellent use of Sorcery without investing too much in INT.
I really loved that playthrough. Fall Control into the Stray Demon's room at the Asylum, take no damage. Awesome. Fall Control in The Catacombs so you don't get bushwhacked by the wheelies at the bottom if you're in a hurry, awesome! Fall Control in the Depths so you don't have to take damage falling through holes to get stuff, awesome! Fall Control in the Great Hollow so you can see how often the game creates instant death falls... kind of awesome. Ok, that one was depressing.
"Aha! I shouldn't die falling this far... oh dear my health didn't go down when I hit that incline and continued falling... uh oh. x.x"