my cd usage is gonna be vastly different, because we'll have different raid dps. so don't follow this 100% or anything; it's just how i did my cds (not necessarily the best way, i don't know either way though) for a4s progression. anyway
progression cd usage went like
1st wildfire - everything
2nd reload/rico/reassemble - on cd. happens around 15% on 1st leg or lower depending on DPS. if quarantined, just use it on the quarantine asap.
3rd wildfire - delay it. it will come up for the 2nd leg, but do hot shot>lead shot with no buffs or anything, then do a wildfire opener with reload+reassemble+rico+hypercharge once you're about to reapply your 1st leadshot on 2nd leg. this way you avoid quarantine 100%. gambling with wildfire vs quarantine makes things really troublesome. if you get quarantined here, do it out of quarantine asap.
4th reload/rico/reassemble - pop reload right as the manipulator goes invuln after 2nd leg. you're gonna waste ammo on hotshot/leadshot like this, but it's worth it for the end goal. use clean reassemble+ricochet on the 3rd leg asap
4th wildfire+5th reload+all buffs- this should all come up after you finish feeding adds to the straf doll. it's safest to do this after carnage (so that you can bfb safely and also don't need to move). this burst is pretty important in 3rd leg. the reason you use reload/rico/reassemble weirdly earlier is so that it lines up for this, while you still get effectively 2 uses of reload/rico/reassemble on 3rd leg when aiming for 1 set of adds
6th reload/rico/reassemble - on 1st set of 4th leg adds.
5th wildfire - on 4th leg after your add is fed when you go into hot/lead reapplication. if you pot on opener, dex pot will be up here. if not, ignore this.
7th reload/rico/reassemble - on 2nd set of 4th leg adds
6th wildfire+8th reload/rico/reassemble - last phase. pot will be up here if you pop it on 3rd leg iirc
from there the it deviates a ton, but theres also no breaks/disconnects anymore so you can figure out whats best for you personally at that point
i never said anything about how to play WHM w
i just said, exactly, "your healers should be able to deal with the mana loss without help from you, though. if not, it's on them, and you playing mana is simply catering to their deficiency."
my reasoning is just based on experience and observations. i know 3 groups where the healers don't need mana at that point on 3rd leg. i dunno what they're doing gcd by gcd or how they manage their manage with ethers or refreshes; i just know that all of them do it well enough that they don't need mp on the 3rd leg. 4th and final phase is different per group; my own group's healers don't need mana other than 15s HC mana+15s~ normal mana in last phase, for the entire fight. so from my pov, the majority of clearing healers don't need mana at that point, and that's why i said that you should not need mana at that same point.