The 7.0 update to jobs has altered RDM's Manafication from adding 50 mana to the spellcasting gauge to giving three time-limited stacks of ability to use enchanted melee skills without cost. This was presented in a recent live letter as being intended to be a beneficial change so that players don't need to worry about overfilling their mana gauge when using it.

I'm no expert player and I don't know if the changes are helpful to high-level play, but I have now played my first dungeon as RDM since the change was implemented, and it feels like it is detrimental rather than helpful.

My immediate impression is that it feels less satisfying to use when you can't see that you're spending gauge to charge the spells, and it just doesn't feel quite right.

But the bigger issue is that as soon as you start having to move around for boss mechanics, or finish off an enemy pack partway through the combo and have to run to the next pack, there's a risk that the timed stacks will run out and you're left unable to perform the third hit of the combo, which means that you miss out on not just that one hit but potentially all the heavy-hitting finisher spells after it.

This was not previously an issue as the time limit on performing the next combo hit is more generous than the time now given to use the three stacks, and even if it ran out, the mana remained available so you could still (much later if necessary) perform a third attack to fill the three diamond markers and access the finisher spells. Now you can be left without enough mana to do that.

I also expect this would be quite inconvenient in deep dungeons where you might have gaps between enemy encounters, and against weaker enemies (particularly with a party) you often can't get a full melee combo in at once. Again, under the previous system that would mean you've still got that mana saved away to use in the next fight, but now you're on a very strict timer to get it all spent.

What are other players' thoughts on this change? Is it feeling better or worse for you? Am I just doing it wrong?