What's the best way to keep your MP up as a spellcaster?

[KDSilver]

People already answered, Lucid Dreaming.

But since you can't tell what's going to happen once in instance, having some Ether won't hurt as a last resort.

[Sunako]

RDM melee combo also cost tp and not mana. Passive regen will bring you 2% mana every 3 second, so using melee combo often as possible make you save some mana.

[kikix12]

Red Mages offensive spells have rather low mana requirements, to the point that Lucid Dreaming is close enough to a break point if not more than that if used on cooldown. That means that you absolutely should not avoid using Verraise two or three times in a fight. If you do, really, a red mage isn't exactly the best choice to pick. It is easy to play well enough in comparison to other casters, but its damage does suffer for the sake of it being able to heal and revive. Not using those two basically removes the reason why the red mages damage output is considerably lowered in comparison to other casters, being around the support classes.

So yes. As a red mage it is a good idea to actually use Verraise, just not to pick up someone that constantly dies. I can tell you from practice though that there are fights where it's actually better to bottom up on mana raising people to the point you cannot even DPS anymore than focusing on DPS and letting party lie dead. It is extremely rare, extremely situational and rather obvious...if the healers are either dead or low on mana themselves.

[Maero]

It absolutely also comes down to timing of lucid. One must be aware of when to use it, you do not want to use it too early.
I know we all want to be the hero at times and revive 3 or so players in the team but that really drains our mana.