How to maintain mana after the next patch.
Ok guys and gals, so with the changes to mana next patch I've been trying several ways to maintain my mana pool (mainly on PBE) and will list the advantages and disadvantages of each. What other ideas have you guys had to maintain your mana once the patch is released?
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Sapphire Crystal/Refillable - Ok so this one is pretty obvious. You can get an early tear easy with it plus a corrupting pot. All you need to do is last until 750 gold. This is the easiest one so far to do, but you REALLY lack damage so probably best if you have a good base damage/don't care about trading early
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Doran's ring/2hp - this is good for about the same amount of gold tbh, but comes with the advantage of the hp and damage you don't get from option 1. You can back for a tear, a sapphire crystal and another dorans ring, or get a corrupting pot and boots.
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Dark Seal/Refillable - Early damage is nice, you get some mana, still squishy as all hell and have less sustain. BUT all you really need to make this work is 350 gold for a corrupting pot, and if you can last long enough you can always grab boots, a sapphire crystal or maybe even a dorans ring.
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Corrupting pot - Very little damage without it ticking, and even then its less then all but option 1, also still squishy as all hell, but you do gain relatively good sustain out of it. An early back for a darkseal is never bad when you have this, but I have managed to last for a full 1300 gold lost chapter using this one. Note this WAS on Malzahar and my opponent didn't seem to mind me pinging my malefic visions for that sweet 2% total mana back.
So those are the things I tried. In each of these cases I was using manaflow band but it's hard to stack on Malz without losing out on the ping from Malefic Visions, and personally I found its effects disappointing. Timewarp tonic might be a better option if you are looking towards corrupting potion early (Options 3 and 4), but manaflow band does work well if you want to get a tear instead (options 1 and 2).
Anyone else got any ideas/tried stuff out on pbe?