AST MP Issue?

[EchuKayu]

Compared to other healers, yes, they do have MP issues. I don't think the argument "Only if the DPS sucks" is a fair one, when on a SCH/WHM they can suck and their MP is just fine. They shouldn't be bad in dungeons, or in raids. It's not one or the other that makes it okay.

Also, if you play around with nocturnal stance, you'll find the MP issues are even greater.

But, I'm glad we have things like a non-ogcd spell proc like Bene II that totally helps with mana like a free..cure... Oh wait.

[Beyondgrave]

It just bother me because I can't really dps and still be ok on mp. If I dps, I find it hard to gain back the mp used when dpsing. Also, I try to avoid rezzing as much as possible since that spell is 20% (cost about 2.6k and I have 129** mp) of my max mp. I even go as far as having our smn Rez for me lol. I play very conservatively and it's still a pain. I know my group hates it when they see me standing around doing nothing but I need to do that or else I will run oom even faster lol. Also, have our whm always at near max mp doesn't help me because it just make me seem like I'm bad at mp management compare to the whm

[Rajeme]

Well, about ress. 1 ress is fine, 2 resses are a problem and you will face mp crisis, 3 resses and might as well wipe lol. I think the MP usages offset the lower mp cost too much.

[Elanshin]

AST are ok mana wise when things go according to plan (but so are WHM and SCH). However it is the crisis management mode that sees AST really go into over drive on MP usage.

Both SCH and WHM can manage to heal up the party when things don't go according to plan fairly efficiently (without mentioning both have better MP recovery tools in the first place) where as AST are stuck spamming Helios as your only option. This is particularly important during progression as mistakes are natural.

I'm just hoping they address the lack of "oh-shit" button (Essential Dignity should be used fairly regularly for MP management in my opinion). The buffs to the 3 Utility spells will hopefully fix this.

[Leiloni]

AST are ok mana wise when things go according to plan (but so are WHM and SCH). However it is the crisis management mode that sees AST really go into over drive on MP usage.

Both SCH and WHM can manage to heal up the party when things don't go according to plan fairly efficiently (without mentioning both have better MP recovery tools in the first place) where as AST are stuck spamming Helios as your only option. This is particularly important during progression as mistakes are natural.

I'm just hoping they address the lack of "oh-shit" button (Essential Dignity should be used fairly regularly for MP management in my opinion). The buffs to the 3 Utility spells will hopefully fix this.

Helios is not a good usage of your mana. Diurnal Aspected Helios is far more mana efficient if you let the HoT tick properly and heals for quite a lot. Always cast that first. In 8 man you'll have another healer there anyway so they will also be casting their AoE heal. Most of the time you won't need more AoE after that and in the rare chance that you do you can then Helios, but often all you need after that is back to healing individuals. Even in 4 man D stance AH is the better way to go. On the occasion that all you have is a small amount of AoE healing to where AH is too much, then sure go with Helios. But in that situation you're only casting it once and going back to the tank so the mana cost isn't a problem since you're not spamming it.

[Beyondgrave]

Anyone know when the buff will be coming out? Is it the same path as Alex savage? Or are we expecting it to drop this Tuesday?

[Raminax]

Don't know much more than "before Alexander (Savage)".

It's not entirely unreasonable to expect the buffs this Tuesday, though.

[Alahra]

I would imagine we'll see it with 3.05, though the Q&A answer was vague enough that we could see changes in hotfixes before that.

[SuzakuCMX]

AST should be the last person to rez. Should go SCH > WHM > AST/SMN. AST has the worst ways to regain MP of the healers, and if you have to rez people you will likely run into MP issues.

Keeping your Aspected Benefict HoT on the MT will go a long way to helping conserve mana. Your Benefic/Benefic II also cost less mana than the WHM/SCH's equivalent but at the cost of a bit of potency, but when you're just trying to top the MT off from 85-99% HP that's better since you won't be overhealing as much.

SCH/WHM have better ways to get the tank from low HP to full, so just throw your ED on them and maybe one Benefic II afterwards and keep using Benefic other than that. The other healer should really be the one doing most of the heavy emergency healing.

If you know there's going to be a single AoE hit, then start casting Aspected Helios early so it goes off right after the hit. The Heal + HoT will heal the party back to full so you don't have to use 2+ normal Helios to top off the party.

Find out the "tells" of the boss's stronger hits so you can start pre-casting Disable on bosses to get the 10% reduction from those hits. Over time that will save you and the other healer a small chunk of MP.

As for cards, I usually spread my first Spear/Ewer and save it for when I need to do some heavy healing or pop LA.

I'm only AST 52 but AST is basically a less potent 2.0 WHM minus Divine Seal/Benediction/Presence of Mind and I did get WHM to 50 in 2.0. These sorts of tips are what helped me conserve mana then so they should help now.

[Akyio]

Probably as much issues as WHM. With SCH i never had mana issues ever and it's very difficult to get them.
I'm a rather low level and careful with mana, but if i do both heal and dps a bit, then i notice that it drops very fast.