Daystar set and your piety.

[Vid]

So these are the two different builds I've been working on myself, mostly just to compare and contrast Determination Vs Piety. The 2nd build tries to keep Determination at around +100 total, but focuses mostly on Pie and keeping your total Mana at roughly 5K fully buffed. These are just 2 current builds I personally feel will benefit me the most in terms of learning and mastering the fights for Turns 6 through 9 (currently we are progressing on Turn 8).



Full Determination Build: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/MK89

Mind - 579
Det - 332
Pie - 378
Mana - 4550+

Average Healing of Cure 1 - 1307


Pie Focused Build: http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/MKA2

Mind - 579
Det - 311
Pie - 411
Mana - 4850+

Average Healing of Cure 1 - 1296


So for the cost of 300 extra mana (rough estimates), you will gain about 11 more healing for Cure 1. So in 10 heals that's 110 extra healing, in 100 heals that's 1100 more healing, and so on. As you become more familiar with the higher end fights you may find that you don't need as much mana anymore.


Now, I did not take into account party of food buffs, so let's do that. I will be using HQ versions of Buttons in a Blanket, and Mulled Tea. Also remember that Party buffs give a 3% flat increase to your total amount.


Determination Build W/ Buttons in a Blanket, WHM & SCH Party Buffs (MND & PIE Buffs)

Mind - 596
Det - 348
Pie - 389
Mana - 4650+

Average Healing of Cure 1 - 1348


W/ Mulled Tea, WHM & SCH Buffs

Mind - 596
Det - 332
Pie - 403
Mana - 4750

Average Healing of Cure 1 - 1340

So roughly 100 mana for 8 more points of raw healing.


Pie Focused Build W/ Mulled Tea, WHM & SCH Buffs (MND & PIE)

Mind - 596
Det - 311
Pie - 437
Mana - 5050+

Average Healing of Cure 1 - 1329


W/ Buttons in a Blanket, WHM & SCH Buffs

Mind - 596
Det - 326
Pie - 423
Mana - 4950+

Average Healing of Cure 1 - 1337

So much like with the Determination build, an average of gaining 100 mana will cost you about 8 points of raw healing.


Now if we take the two extremes, Determination W/ Buttons VS Pie W/ Mulled Tea here are the results:

Determination Build
400 Less Mana
19 More Average Healing on Cure 1

Pie Build
400 More Mana
19 Less Average Healing on Cure 1


Now with the opposites, Determination W/ Mulled Tea VS Pie W/ Buttons:

Determination Build
200 Less Mana
3 More Average Healing on Cure 1

Pie Build
200 More Mana
3 Less Average Healing on Cure 1


Conclusion:
Really it's up to you, is 19 extra healing points worth the loss of 400 total mana? Or in the other opposite case, 200 mana worth 5 less points of healing? This is what you must decide as a healer. As you become more familiar with a fight you may opt to min/max yourself with as much healing as possible and forgo any mana benefits. All I'm doing is giving you the raw data.


Edit: Changed the 2nd build to give out 300+ determination instead, with a little less Pie but still keeping the total amount of Mana fully buffed with Mulled Tea at 5K Mana total.

[Alistaire]

Pie Focused Build W/ Mulled Tea, WHM & SCH Buffs (MND & PIE)

Mind - 596
Det - 311
Pie - 437
Mana - 5050+

Hard cap is 5k iirc. You seem to be aware of this mentioning 5k in other places, just this part of what you said made me wonder.

[Vid]

Hard cap is 5k iirc. You seem to be aware of this mentioning 5k in other places, just this part of what you said made me wonder.

To be honest, did not know Mana had a hard cap, thought it was just like Health.

[Menae]

Hard cap is 5k iirc. You seem to be aware of this mentioning 5k in other places, just this part of what you said made me wonder.

Mana is not hard capped at 5000. If I put on my max piety gear and pop a Mulled Tea, I'm at 5111. With a sch in the group, or better food, I'd be higher.

[HaelseMikiro]

Mana is not hard capped at 5000. If I put on my max piety gear and pop a Mulled Tea, I'm at 5111. With a sch in the group, or better food, I'd be higher.

If I recall, there is no cap for MP at all, there IS however a soft cap on Piety at 430, any PIE above that will no longer provide MP regen benefits, only increase your max MP. 430 PIE should be exactly 100 MP/tick during combat, but I haven't been able to gear myself past that point to verify, and I'm not really in the mood to re-spec twice to test it.

[Crater]

If I recall, there is no cap for MP at all, there IS however a soft cap on Piety at 430, any PIE above that will no longer provide MP regen benefits, only increase your max MP. 430 PIE should be exactly 100 MP/tick during combat, but I haven't been able to gear myself past that point to verify, and I'm not really in the mood to re-spec twice to test it.

No, there's no such cap. I can bring myself up to 450 Pie (5151 MP) on White Mage with Piety-focused equipment and food, and in-combat regeneration is the expected 103 MP/tick.