FYI: ride the lightning is here to stay in its current form, although the improvements over time will be going away. But it won't ever be something that doesn't require an ability bar slot, nor will it ever be free.
HOWEVER, that said, RTL is basically the "terrible" double jump option. Once you get access to Enchants, there will be some double jump options you can apply to yourself that way, which are MP-free and don't require an ability bar slot. And then you can stop using RTL. However, there will be a variety of movement-related enchants, and you can only equip one of them. So it depends on what you really value in terms of that; personally I'll probably go for a speed buff and keep RTL tier 1, as I don't tend to need anything higher and the MP cost is so low on the tier 1 as to be hardly noticeable after a few levels, as folks have said.
Hopefully that clears up where things are headed. There's a reason we give a form of double-jump right at the start of the game (unlike most platformers): it's not the only form there will be, nor is it the best form!
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