I have Jackal, who when beginning a match needs 7 tiles to fill mana bar… but after using special only needs 6 and sometimes even less to recharge again.
My troops give % mana recovery. Does this only kick in after they use their special for the first time? (recovery vs generation). Is that what causes this behaviour?
when your tiles hit non heroes / enemy mana recharge faster, can that explain it?
Yes - if you fire tiles into blank space (i.e. they don’t contact the opponent) you get a much faster recharge. Jackal I think refills on 3 or 4 misses vs. 6 or 7 hits.
This is why we misfire tiles on the last enemy before a boss level - to max out mana on everyone for a head start!
Perfect. Thanks for the Answers
Ghosted tiles (ones that go all the way to the back) count double for mana generation.
Was recently informed Jackal may actually be at 6.5 tiles rather than 7 tiles, which makes a world of difference for mana troops. I’m trying to nail that down now but having trouble finding folks with a 9% mana gain troop and jackal.
Sorry, my Monastic Battlemages are only leveled up to give 7% mana return. But it says something if you need, what, level 11 4* troops, for the effect to be noticeable.
Heh it gets worse.
Slow = Level 17
Average = Level 23
Fast = Level 29
Very Fast = Level 11
Tried spending the 10k gems we had on beta, only took it to level 8 haha.
Main the troops I’d saved up over the past few months took it to level 5. Bleck bleck bleck.
I can’t believe I played this game 5 months and never picked up on ghosting… Smh
Can someone explain the math to me ?
E.g. Jackal needs 7 gems without ghosting. My lvl11 mana-troops are at 9% so now 6 Gems are enough. Why ?
And why do fast heroes need higher troops than slow heroes ?
As someone stated above, Jackal is assumed to be really at 6.5 tiles. So 9% is enough to get him to/below 6.
I don’t know the math behind the other calculations, but to me it is no logical contradiction that fast heroes need higher than slow. At some point a number falls under the limit.
The mana% is the same for every special speed but as they have different “charging tiles” the slow ones will gain benefits earlier than the fast ones when it comes to spare tiles as they need more of it.
Math:
take the ratio of the base #tiles to desire #tiles. For example, Jackal (very fast) requires 6.5 tiles to charge, and one wants it to be 6. Calaculation: 6.5 / 6.0 = 1.0833. So you need 109% mana boost to get to 6 tiles (rounding up).
The sequence for most heroes is slow to fast because 12/11 < 10/9 < 8/7 . Very fast breaks the pattern because it’s only 6.5 tiles, not 7, so we only need to trim off half a tile, not a full tile. It’s even easier to get Very Slow down to 13 tiles (from 13.5): 4%, which is the base value of a mana troop.
Remember that Lancelot and Khagan boost mana regen in the same manner as troops, so they work synergistically.
Tanks to all for the Info. 
So far my highest mana troop level is 12 but I would like to know something: slow takes 12 or 6 tiles, and mana troop at level 17 cuts 12 to 11. That would suggest that ghosting requires 5,5 tiles, which is still 6. Does that mean mana troop only really affects tiles that hit or does it work different?
Mana troops affect all tile movements. Normal or ghosting.
5.5 rounds up to 6, since you cant get half a tile.
Yeah, but if normally slow needs 12/6 tiles, and with mana troop at level 17 it needs 11/6, that means there is no real benefit with ghosting, or do I get it wrong?
No, there’s no benefit from 100% ghosting on a slow hero with lvl17 mana troop compared to a lvl1 mana troop.
But how often do you ghost 100% of your tiles?
Often 
So the only very fast heroes get benefits both ways, that sucks.
I would rather see gaining mana faster based on dmg dealt by that hero, not just number of tiles… there should be some combination in place.
Yeah, very fast heros sees a result the quickest. But take an average speed hero with lvl23 mana troops for example.
Hit with 3x tiles + ghost 3x tiles = 9x tiles worth of mana = 100%.
Without the troops heshe wouldnt have 100% mana, so there is a benefit there.
Ultimately you decide if the mana troop investment is worth it for you and your heros. The crit troops work very well too. 