I was reading the SCM vs MC thread, and I got to realizing... I don't quite no precisely where I am so far as mana regen goes. I'm a freshly level 63 Druid with MC1 and FT3 (Brokenskull Symbol of Leadership, Earring of Twisted Visions and Earring of the Solstice) and when possible I'm riding a lizard. As near as I can tell, I give myself 12 poibnts of mana regen above base.

FT 3
MC 1
Pot9 8

It sounds like there's an effective FT bonus for riding on the lizard... what is it?

I've got 3 AA's saved up, and I'm working on my 4th as I level. I'm going to choose between MC2 and SCM2. (SCM2 being the one I'm leaning towards, having recently given up my Mana Preservation 3 focus.)

Which should I go with? I'm primarily a healing Druid (Alteration spec) and to me SCM seems more likely to offset the high mana costs of our 63-64 heals than MC. Does this sound right?

Get SCM2 (and 3) before MC2, hands down.

The lizard lets you get "medding" mana regen, without needing to sit, as long as you're not moving or in auto-attack mode.

Assuming maxxed med skill (252), you regen 21 mana/tick sitting/medding. At 63, I believe you regen 2 mana/tick standing (not including buffs, FT, and MC AAs), so the lizard is effectively FT19 for you, so long as you're not moving. Miss half the ticks, and it's still like FT9.5, so as you can see, horses/lizards are very powerful items for casters.

Tat

Assuming you meditate half the time (either on horse or sitting down), SCM2, SCM3, MC2 would be the best route for you to follow.

Daeddwin,
Get your mask spells. The additional 3 points/tick doesn't sound like much but everything makes a difference.

Iegil

I'm working on the Mask spells. I'm trying to persuade my group of friends to go after some of the big targets in Umbral to get Mask of the Stalker. (Since the researched version of the spell requires a Rune of Zephyr and nobody seems to know where, or even if, those drop.) Heck, 3 points a tick sound as good as the 3 FT1 items I'm wearing. :)

Usually when hunting I have an Enchanter or a Beastlord to help me out with the mana regen, but there've also been times when I haven't. ;) And can you ever have too much mana regen?

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>as long as you're not moving or in auto-attack mode[/quote]

Or casting. In otherwords the times when you can sit, you can get regen from the horse/lizard the real benefit is no sit agro.

"Or casting. In otherwords the times when you can sit, you can get regen from the horse/lizard the real benefit is no sit agro"

Absolutely, positively incorrect.

If you are not moving or attacking, you are getting "meditate"-level mana regen, casting or not. I have two points to back this up. 1 - SOE says so. 2 - I've tested it. Last winter I would have multi-Dotting parties in ME, with the toilers. It would not be uncommon to have 5-7 toilers lines up at once, all rooted and with dots loaded up on them (this was when Ext. Affliction added ticks to a dot). When I did this, I was literally casting non-stop for the whole session, except when I needed to go pull some more. And I was definitely regenning mana faster with the horse than without.

Tat

Wow... I didn't know you got the med bonus if you were casting or not. Yee-ha! I guess you really do learn something new every day. I can go to bed now. ;)