AST's weakness in end game

[TatoRazzino]

We'll have to agree in disagreeing, then. Freecure procs won't be enough to grant better MP management simply because the amoung of MP a WHM saves by getting those procs matches what an AST saves from having spells that cost less MP. For example:

Cure costs 442 at level 60; Cure II costs 884;
Benefic costs 354; Benefic II costs 796;

15% chance to proc Freecure means that one of every 6-7 cures you cast procs. You can get more and you can get less, that's RNG, but you have to be ready to face situations in which you don't get any procs, so it evens out in the chance rate. 7 Cures cost 3094 MP while 7 Benefics cost 2478. A 616 difference. That's what? 3/4 of the cost of a Benefic II? And you save more from the other spells, save more from the fact that Essential Dignity is a very powerful healing spell with a shorter cooldown than Tetragrammaton, saves from Synastry, saves from Lightspeed on intense healing situations, save from the amazing Regen effect from CU, you can also save MP by extending HoTs with Time Dilation. Assize has a long cooldown and is not that reliable as an MP regen tool, specially if you're saving the skill for specific parts of the fight. Also, I line up my LA with cards so I can use CO to buff the party.

[AzureFlare]

Also, I line up my LA with cards so I can use CO to buff the party.

For anyone who cares about comparisons on a job's true potentials: always, always, always do this in any fair comparison. Using CO on just a party buff, even if it is AoE Balance, is a huge waste except for a few very niche cases (filled all your globals and mana-sated on the fight). You'll do more with the mana you get from extending LA and tossing out more Combust(2)/Malefic2/Aero.

[TatoRazzino]

For anyone who cares about comparisons on a job's true potentials: always, always, always do this in any fair comparison. Using CO on just a party buff, even if it is AoE Balance, is a huge waste except for a few very niche cases (filled all your globals and mana-sated on the fight). You'll do more with the mana you get from extending LA and tossing out more Combust(2)/Malefic2/Aero.

I didn't think I had to explicit that strategy, but I now realize that people are not lining up their skills. So, yes, always try to hit everything.

[AzureFlare]

I didn't think I had to explicit that strategy, but I now realize that people are not lining up their skills. So, yes, always try to hit everything.

It definitely isn't as straight forward as most people think it is. I just had an AST on Thordan ex who on one attempt was wondering why he didn't have any mana, yet his base pool was 13k and he used CO without LA. Given, he was under the assumption the MCH in our party knew how to use Promoted Bishop, but he was sitting on 1k while I was on 10-12k. Sure, it isn't as fair of a comparison and a lot of other factors apply (11k mana difference after all), but that's like 3k-4.5k mana he missed on unsyncing his CO alone. He monitored his mana more on the attempt after, still didn't sync LA and CO and was behind by 6-7k mana still.