Shroud of Saints is Broken...and NOT in a good way

[TiaJ]

Right now, shroud is more than useful. Its an emnity douse and roughly a quarter of our mp back over time and compared to some of of our other cool downs (presence of mind anyone?) It does the job soundly.

Judge Xero gets it. You're worried about scaling but we already have one trait that improves shroud, they can easily add another as they add levels. Don't assume there will only be level 50 traits forever

[Impurrrsive]

i tot its a new issue
clicked on it, oh... its just excavated thread
forgot to read the date

i think shroud is ok as it is, attentive bard is really helpful

[Pharazon]

Its actually quite simple from a job design standpoint why things are the way they are in regards to mana. Scholars have to micro manage their pet in order to be able to heal effectively so having them manage mana in a meaningful way would really up the difficultly of playing the class, which is already more difficult than not.

On the other hand White Mages are much more straight forward but needed to have a system like the scholars pet that they could manage. So it was decided that White Mages would have to utilize the varying heals they have effectively to manage their mana usage. In order to not make that system not completely brutal shroud was created as a safety net. If the White Mage is using the wrong heals and running out of mana it is also likely they have additional threat from overhealing so shroud is your "I screwed up" button. As mana pools continue to rise the need for shroud will lessen since you will naturally regen more mana and have more mana to spend while the cost of your heals stay the same.

It's easy to look at Scholar and the fact that they don't have to worry about mana very much at all and be envious but White Mages don't have a pet that makes up a large portion of their healing to keep from dying, and micro manage because the AI isn't all that great.

[Alistaire]

I wish our aggro dump AND mana regen spell weren't tied up in the same CD. besides that WHM's SoS is fine. All they need to rework is our horrible cure1-2-3 combo proc system.

At least you get an agro dump.

[Sirantha]

I actually found in Coil that SCH would need Mage's Ballad more often than I would on WHM due to using Aetherflow for things like Lustrate, and not being able to regen MP as much in between. I genuinely only have mana issues if people in my group are dying and I'm having to take time to res them.

Being a good WHM means being able to manage your MP and your hate. Of course there's always Ballad for help when needed, but the rest of the time you should be able to manage your MP by casting Cures strategically (ie only using Cure II when Freecure procs or when it's absolutely needed otherwise, relying more on your other healer in parties so you don't have to carry all of the burden of AoE healing yourself etc) and popping SoS when you drop to 2.5 - 3k MP. I rarely have major issues, and when I do I always have a BRD ready to pop MB.

[Rbstr]

@ i90 I find I don't really have MP problems unless people are eating lots of stuff they shouldn't and/or dieing.
I guess that's the benefit of good gear, but prior to that it really seems that the MP regen is insufficient. At lower ilevel for t4 or extreme primals you are pretty much going to need manasong at some point even in a fairly smooth run.

WHM has a dual issue of needing to worry about MP and enmity when SCH's design means they have an easier time with both of those. That's not really a bad thing, but it would be nice to have better tools to deal with it.

[Akirakogami]

without white mage mana problems Bard would have no purpose in this game.

[YuiSasaki]

Energy Drain will restore 50% of the damage dealt, as MP back to the caster, this amount is doubled by the Arcanist Trait, "Enhanced Energy Drain." Scholars can Use Cleric stance to increase the damage dealt by Energy Drain to increase MP restoration even more.

As far as I remember Energy Drain restores a set amount of MP. The healing part scales with damage though. ED restores 266Mana each use @ my SCH.

[Judge_Xero]

I think the biggest issue between SCH and WHM in regards to MP management is after being raised. If you are WHM and your Shroud was used before you died you're pretty screwed for big spells until it comes off CD. SCH only needs a minute or less to wait for Aether while in the mean time they just quick cast their fairy. WHM could use a less potent Shroud on a 60s CD in that regard.

[Shyen]

Each class has their own pros and cons. If managed correctly, you can easily go the entire fight without going oom. Yes this also relies on free cure procs, but let's be honest, those happen enough ^^

Flawed.
correct mana management is as vague as it gets, and extremely situational. Conservative mana management might be the answer, although remember: we're talking about a party environment where the variables are very much outside the good will of a healer. Skill is being able to make up for the unexpected. And since the 'perfect run' is a myth, even the most conservative mana management might fail when chocobo dung hits the fan ^^