When do you need Mage's Ballad?

[FoxyAreku]

Literally any time you're not attacking something is also good.

Like the jumps in A1.

[MicahZerrshia]

I find that healers forget and do not ask for it and then scream at you for not watching their mp so I throw it up if I see them hit around 1500 mp in lvl 60 stuff unless there is a lull or the boss is under 5-10% depending on said boss.

I usually will have foes up if there are mages in the pt or we have a dpsing healer so in that case my own mp usually doesn't cover ballad anyway

[Rongway]

If everyone does his job, we won't need it. We all have our own MP recovery abilities that we'll be using on cooldown.
If someone dies, we prolly still won't need it.
If a second person dies, we might need.

When my MP gets low while everyone is playing well, it means I'm ready to restore it myself and I purposely decided to splurge a little. In a farm party situation, everyone should be comfortable enough with the fight that you don't need to ballad.

But that's me. If you're playing with unfamiliar healers and you're really not sure, ask before the fight.

[Pence]

You need be way more specific. The only real reason you'd need ballad these days is Savage (Maybe Rav-Thor, IDK your iLvl).

I've been picked up many times. I'm hot AF. In the game? Eh, I've been around a few PUGs. Every single group has a slightly different start. You can never 'replicate' another group. My first kill? We mixed 3 different YouTube videos with our own experiences and it worked, many times. If you're having ballad problems - you're a bad MCH/BRD.

Both the above (At time of writing) are terrible at their jobs.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

Eh, it's too much of a preference thing, really.

There are some spineless healers out there who feel uncomfortable at 90% MP while others keep their cool when they're at <1k. Either situation may or may not call for a ballad/Promotion. Simply use it as you see fit and don't wait for them to call it out. It'll just lead to 2 possible cases:
1) They'll just ignore it and let you do your thing
or
2) Ask you to turn it off for damage purposes

Neither of above are really bad, but not doing it leads to a possible third:
3) Blame it on you for not using it at all

edit:
In case you're collecting data for a spreadsheet or whatever reason:
Only time and place I'd want it is during transitions when you can't deal damage. Every other time I'll just have to plan it out. Exception would be Alexander Savage floor 4 so far.

[GeekMatt]

SCHs will almost never need Mages Ballad. As an AST/WHM I don't like to see Ballad played unless
1) I asked for it
2) I died
Or 3) It' a standard part of the fight for your party, such as A1S when The Opressor jumps and you're not DPSing anyways.

Ultimately you can't please everyone, and you don't need to try. I've accidentally depleted my MP to near-zero in dungeons and I didn't hesitate when the tank to pulled the boss, it just meant I had to take it easy for the first portion of the fight. Other healers will panic when they hit 30% MP, but that's the healers problem.

[cgbspender]

1300/1500 mp usually. Below this, I might need. At that amount or above, I dont. By the time I fall from 13k to 2k, I saw it coming. Either I dps'ed, or the party was awful. In either case, my mp managing skills are up.

[Knahli]

I'd rather take the chance of playing it when the healer is confident and still has their recovery buffs rather than making them anxious or playing it too late to compensate for their relative inexperience/skill level.

[Roxas_Andrade]

Actually I don't play current endgame (Alex Savage) content and I have to say I don't expect Ballad at anytime. Not that I don't trust the bards or anything, but I trust in my owns skills to get mp back whenever I need it.

If the bard can spare his mp to stop requiem to do the ballad, Im grateful, but usually I don't need it for the content I run...

[Knahli]

On an unrelated note, is using Paean on a Warrior worth interrupting your own DPS for? Even if not, I imagine the difference is negligible enough to not care and just make the tank's life a little happier.