Quote Originally Posted by Elanshin View Post
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.