AST mana problems.

[Hopebringer]

If you're not using cards, you're not conserving your mana as much as possible. (5/6 cards "conserve mana", by lowering the required heal output, making the fight shorter or straight up lowering mana costs) You can always draw a card after using Aspected Benefic/Exalted Detriment without really lowering your Heals per second. You should also use Refresh asap, so you're able to use it twice during a longer battle.

[Donarudo]

stuff

Where are you seeing that 5/6 cards help you conserve mana. I am reading each card now and only 1 of those cards mentions a reduction of mana cost by 20% for 20 seconds. You can't even use time dialation on yourself to increase the timer on that.
The Balance - increases target damage dealt by 10%
The Bole - Reduces targets damage taken
The Arrow - Increases attack speed
The Spear - reduces recast timer
The Ewer - reduces MP cost
The Spire - Reduces TP Cost

Only one card directly affects our mana use. The other cards simply aid the other members by doing this it "MAY" shorten the fight. Also lets not forget even using spread, shuffle, and royal road its still random on the draw. You can't replicate your draw to effectively draw the Ewer card every time. So please anybody explain to me what I am missing on these cards that 5/6 reduce mana cost directly.

[Elendia]

Only one card directly affects our mana use. The other cards simply aid the other members by doing this it "MAY" shorten the fight. Also lets not forget even using spread, shuffle, and royal road its still random on the draw. You can't replicate your draw to effectively draw the Ewer card every time. So please anybody explain to me what I am missing on these cards that 5/6 reduce mana cost directly.

He put the "reduce mana" in quotation marks since he meant it as indirect reduction. Bole decreases the amount you have to heal, Arrow/Balance increase DPS (shorter fight = less to heal), Spear affects Luminiferous Aether's CD, and Ewer is pretty obvious. Spire is the only card which will most likely neither affect your MP costs nor have a noticeable effect on the fight length, hence 5/6.

[Donarudo]

He put the "reduce mana" in quotation marks since he meant it as indirect reduction. Bole decreases the amount you have to heal, Arrow/Balance increase DPS (shorter fight = less to heal), Spear affects Luminiferous Aether's CD, and Ewer is pretty obvious. Spire is the only card which will most likely neither affect your MP costs nor have a noticeable effect on the fight length, hence 5/6.

I disagree with you. He/she specifically stated "conserve mana" they do not specifically reduce mana cost. Also where does it state that Spear directly affects Luminiferous Aether's CD? I will state again only 1 of those six abilities "directly" affects MP cost. It still does not address the underlying issue that AST's do have mana issues even using proper buffs to "conserve mana" as was stated in his/her post.

[Krixus]

I disagree with you. He/she specifically stated "conserve mana" they do not specifically reduce mana cost. Also where does it state that Spear directly affects Luminiferous Aether's CD? I will state again only 1 of those six abilities "directly" affects MP cost. It still does not address the underlying issue that AST's do have mana issues even using proper buffs to "conserve mana" as was stated in his/her post.

6/6 of the cards do directly effect mp consumption. Faster you kill the enemy the less mp you spend. And spear lowers all job CDs, I use it for my refresh all the time. Even spire allows the dps to continue burning to to kill faster. How can you discount that when its one of astros core mechanics?

[Donarudo]

good feedback

I am not discounting them. I am just having a hard time understanding how they directly affect mana conservation. Here is why. Is the draw not random? Even with having shuffle = and spread and so forth? Also lets be honest each encounter is not always going to be the optimal encounter. I want to better understand so I ask these questions the way I do for a reason. The job is new to me, but I am not new to healing. WHM/SCH. So by asking my questions the way I am I will learn. However I do still disagree on some points. Maybe because of the wording of the abilities I am not sure. I get that they may shorten the fight. However we all know fights are usually extended for many reason. Short term AST's manage mana well. Long term is where I feel there is an issue. Maybe I am doing something wrong, but I am not afraid to be criticized if I am.

[Elendia]

I disagree with you. He/she specifically stated "conserve mana" they do not specifically reduce mana cost. Also where does it state that Spear directly affects Luminiferous Aether's CD? I will state again only 1 of those six abilities "directly" affects MP cost. It still does not address the underlying issue that AST's do have mana issues even using proper buffs to "conserve mana" as was stated in his/her post.

Nobody said anything about the cards covering the MP problem - AST has MP problems, that is correct. What the poster said is that the OP can conserve mana with the cards in some way. 5 of the 6 cards can lower your MP usage directly or indirectly as laid out earlier.

[Donarudo]

So here is what I found out so you guys don't think I was just being a jerk. I went back and tested what Elendia and Krixus told me. Here is what I learned. I was misusing Lumi, I didn't fully understand the cards until you two pointed out obvious things which I clearly did not understand. Secondly as stated I do now see why to use spear in conjuction with lumi. Simply put I did not understand it until you two pointed it out. As Elendia stated yep mana issues still, but at least now fully understanding I can make informed decisions as a AST. Thank you guys