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[Roth_Trailfinder]

Waste Not is a very viable skill.

Waste Not II is much less so.

Waste Not at least only lasts 4 turns. So your 56 CP get you 2 more turns at a cost of 28 CP per turn.
Manipulation gets you 3 more turns. So your 88 CP gets you those 3 turns at a cost of 29.333 CP per turn. Barely more expensive, and also a bit more flexible.

Waste Not 2 lasts 8 turns. Your 98 CP, in theory, should gain you 4 turns, at a cost of 24.5 CP per turn. Right?

Wrong.

Waste Not 1/2 skills are only fully cost effective if you use Durability every single time while the buff is active. Now, thanks to the fact that 5 Durability are just as good as 10 for finishing the recipe, you can use *ONE* non-Durability move during a Waste Not 1/2 without reducing its cost effectiveness. The second one increases the cost savings by reducing the need for the reduced durability use.

Say what?

WN lasts 4 turns. SH2->WN->HTx4 is a common block, especially in 40 durability recipes, that gets you four shots of an 80% success rate 100% efficiency Touch and lowers Durability by a grand total of 20 points (0 loss->0 loss->5 loss->5 loss->5 loss->5 loss).
If you get a single Good in there and pop Tricks rather than the HT, you get (though the ToT can be anywhere after the WN) SH2->WN->HTx3->ToT at a cost of only 15 Durability. The extra 5 Durability not used are just as good as a full 10 Durability chunk, effectively granting you that fourth HT (or some other durability using move) even though WN has worn off.

WN2 lasts 8 turns. SH2->WN2-> gives you 8 moves before the buff fades. No problem, using SH2 again as the fifth move will save the 5 Durability just like the ToT in the WN just did above. And, as far as that goes, you'd be right.

But, that completely ignores the ToT procs you will want to use. SH2->WN2->HTx4->SH2->ToT->HTx2 eats 30 Durability. That means that you only gained 3 turns from the WN2, not 4. Those 3 turns cost you 32.666 CP each. If you get more than just the one ToT proc, that will reduce the effectiveness even further, and over 8 turns, you can very well get several ToT procs.

At 32.666 CP per turn, WN2 is less effective than MM1 or MM2.

So lets look at the gains, shall we? I've seen, at most, 3 Good conditions in any period of 8 turns. Good->Normal can only repeat itself 3 times from what I've seen, before it goes into at least 2 Normal conditions back to back.
SH2->WN2->ToT->HT->ToT->HT->ToT->SH2->HTx2. That WN2 cost you 98 CP, cost you 20 Durability and only gave you 2 extra turns. You gained 60 CP back, but spent 25 of them on SH2, for a real return of only 35. 98 spent - 35 back = 63 spent. 63 spent on 2 turns is 31.5 CP per turn ... if you want to look at it that way. In actuality, it cost you 49 CP per turn, and gave you 35 CP back, to play with later.

WN2 is only good if your plan is to ignore Good conditions. Otherwise, it is the least effective Durability Games move there is.