level 39, semi decently geared it costs me 286 mana to buff 1 person costs 1716 mana to buff entire group i regen 18 mana / tic 286x6=1716 1716/18=95.33x6sec=9.53 min to med back the mana so, typical grind session looks something like this buffs last 36ish min buff grp med for 10 min fight for 15 min med for 10 min buff group med for 10 min fight for 15 min med for 10 min so roughly each hour, i get to adventure and kill mobs for 30 min and spend 30 min buffing and medding, with a little give or take on either end depending on the group and location, and if external factors / mana regen buffs are available, but this is an average (i can mitigate some what by minimal buffs on classes that never draw agro and other such stuff, but players love their buffs) (i think this may only apply to the sub 50 game) either make buffs cost a LOT less or make buffs last a lot longer or both
If you're a Shaman and giving every stat buff to every person, stop doing that. If you're giving DS and STR to every person as a Druid, stop doing that. If you're giving Symbol to every person as a Cleric, stop doing that. Prioritize your buffs, if a group mate asks for a buff they don't really need, try to educate over spending needless mana.
As Scornn mentioned - Shaman buffs vary by class - Give melee dps str/dex/focus (once you get focus then you don't have to worry about str/dex anymore since it's built into the buff) - Give your tanks str/dex/sta/agi/focus (again focus will cover str/dex - but will need to give tank sta/agi). No sense in buffing casters unless you have a chanter that can use the stamina because they're getting beat on a lot and can use the extra health. If you're a Cleric - Buff tank with hp/symbol/ac - don't worry about the rest of the group except for maybe the puller and again maybe the cc if they're getting beat on a lot. Also, if you're group is taking excessive damage and you're the main healer, try to focus on heals and not dpsing so you're not wasting mana on dps, let the dps classes handle that. Sometimes you can get a solid group as a healer and have mana to dps and go melee etc.. but that depends on the group.
At 39 I would never put symbol on anyone. You aren't going to be chealing the tank at 39, so symbol is basically completely irrelevant unless you aren't paying attention as a cleric and actually let people get down to 300 hp.
You are playing the game incorrectly. As others have already mentioned. Additionally, many group buffs are in the game at low levels now that we are in luclin. Buy your group buffs.
Save your hp/ac buffs for the people that are getting hit. Save your melee type buffs for those that are hitting stuff. Casters don't really need anything that isn't mana regen.
Druids have a full deck of group regen, HP buff, sow, and DS. Shamans have group sow (billy) and str (maybe more - i don't have a shaman on Mischief) but I recall on aradune having a bunch of them - go look for them be a big kid. Cleric - i don't know
One thing everybody missed was your mana regen. Those are rookie numbers. Get you some Potions of Greater Concentration (+3), buy the items needed for the Protection of the Cabbage quest, do the combine, and then go to Fungus Grove and hand in the earring to get the Earring of the Solstice (+1). Get yourself a mount. That way, unless you are in combat, you are ALWAYS sitting, and getting a sitting mana regen rate. As a bonus, your meditate skill will go up automagically, thus increasing your mana regen as you level. Got a friend that has all kinds of high end gear with clickies? Many of those will give permanent effect AAs, and several items give +mana regen. Ask them to pass it to you, and click on the item, and hand it back. I got +5 mana regen just from clicking a robe.
Going to the wayback machine. As a cleric back in the day, I remember using my buffs as a heal sometimes to make mana usage optimal. I also remember only the tank, crowd control, and myself getting all of the buffs, etc.
Shaman eventually get all their stat buffs as group buffs. The first best one is Harnessing of Spirit, which is the early version of Focus, so a HP, STR, and DEX buff all in one.
That was generally my philosophy as well, add the puller if it's a 4th person, the dps shouldn't be getting hit too much. I always carried conc pots though and clarity distillates if i could find someone making them, plus benefit awareness to help with mana issues.
Most of those didn't exist in 99 and 00. I only recall mana not being an issue about Luclin when we had KEI.
