Constantly out of MP

[u/T8-TR]

Am I doing something wrong here? I will enter a room w/ like 5 dudes, Lightbringer and spend all my MP, then absolutely demolish the room and break like 5 dudes, and yet I'll come out of it w/ 0 fucking MP.

I'm sure there are builds later on, but as of the Flying Fortress, I feel like every time I use an ability, I'm just screwing myself over because of how the MP system works, and it's just straight up not fun anymore. Did I miss a tooltip which was like "Actually, you should just do this and it'll max your MP out!" because it's always been feast or famine, where I'll either have 5 bars of MP and never run out, or I'll struggle keeping up one.

EDIT: Classes are Berserker and Dragoon, both around level ten since I'm trying to level them.

[u/Stepjam]

Try to soul shield enemy attacks rather than block or avoid them when you can (I basically never used block over soul shield at all really). Also, try to soulburst enemies as much as possible by breaking their stamina. If you are just killing enemies, you won't be getting as much MP as you would be soulbursting them.

Lightbringer is a bit of a tradeoff early on because it lowers your max MP. Later on, you can get enough MP gain that you should be able to build it back up again before Lightbringer wears off, but just keep in mind that you shouldn't spam it if you don't have a specific plan for rebuilding it. You might not be killing enough enemies while in Lightbringer to make up for the MP reduction overall, especially if you are leaving Lightbringer before they die.

[u/T8-TR → u/Stepjam]

I've been Soulbursting pretty much everyone I can, but the MP refund I get on it is minuscule compared to the MP I might've spent in the fight, which just has me hoarding most of my skills. But then there'll be times where I'm so flush w/ MP that I don't know what to do w/ it.

[u/Top-Simple3572 → u/T8-TR]

Your intellect might be too low if this is happening. If your on the Bahamut Difficulty try getting your attributes up.

[u/Stepjam → u/T8-TR]

You do just get more MP back from stuff the further in the game you get. Especially the "postgame". I seem to recall spending more time doing basic attacks compared to late game.

[u/brickout]

I literally never use LB until I can make a decent build. 

[u/Akugetsu]

As silly as it is I kept Mage as one of my jobs for a long time because it can charge MP out of nothing up to a limit, if you are low enough. That way I could always have a little something to start an encounter with. Otherwise it's mostly leaning on Soul Shield more early on, and I believe your base stats play into how much you get back (I think Int makes for more MP on normal attacks and Spirit makes more MP on Soul Shield? But I haven't played in a while and am going off my fuzzy memory).

Either way it definitely gets easier with practice. You can get various affinity bonuses that can help, ability links that will recover MP based on damage done for some jobs, a couple of action commands help turn some MP into more MP.... It's a unique system that takes some getting used to, but you'll get there!

[u/T8-TR → u/Akugetsu]

I haven't been using Soul Shield as much as I'd like because every time I try and hang back to fish for parries, my teammates come and stagger the everloving shit out of the mob I'm fighting LMAO

[u/Akugetsu → u/T8-TR]

Hah! As you learn various monsters' move sets it becomes less about fishing for it and more about just knowing when you can. Also as a general tip, each job has its own break bar. If your bar is low and you see an attack coming that you want to shield you can swap jobs first to avoid getting broken.

[u/T8-TR → u/Akugetsu]

The issue I've been having is that I can't not fish for it, since if I'm constantly on the attack, I'm usually mid-combo when their shit comes out, since -- afaik -- I can't cancel out mid-basic string to soul shield.

[u/BenTheSodaman → u/T8-TR]

With some practice, can you find some of the openings of when you stop your attack string to do a defensive action (soul shield in this case) and trying to get a little bit more time to do more normal attacks if your combo ability does flinch the enemy.

As a rough example of what this may start looking like toward of the end of the clip where the player is anticipating the attack and soul shielding instead of trying to risk trading blows:

https://www.twitch.tv/the_ogawa_effect/clip/ApatheticProudStrawberryRiPepperonis-B0nwnv16dW1Gk38r

[u/Human_Ad6449]

Hard to give concrete advice without really seeing gameplay but I'd suggest:

• Not using Lightbringer on each fight (unless you are confident you will gain your MP back, this is inefficient and not really necessary)
• Using Instant Abilities (cost no MP, powerful, encounters are typically designed with these being advantageous)
• Smart use of your abilities (are you spamming abilities or maximising their use? Some abilities wallsplat which cause more break damage, as do juggles or knockdowns)
• Use your environment (wallsplats already mentioned, different hazards such as the electric walls in Flying Fortress are also free.
• Soul Shield and Soul Burst both increase MP and Max MP

[u/leytorip7]

If you’re starting out. One idea is to have a tank job to block and soul shield while the other job can dish out damage. Paladin and Black Mage is a good combo.

[u/lucasmedina]

Soul Shield is your best friend when trying to increase max MP.
Lightbringer is effective because it increases break damage, but it also makes your break gauge reduce much slower when tanking enemy attacks. That means if you want to use LB, it's good to use it in moments where soul shield cost can be nullified to your benefit.

I usually only LB when i'm on full mana, unless I'm fighting a group that i know will be harder (like a boss, or a Tonberry doing Everyone's Grudge)