I am a perfectionist and am compulsively seeking a complete spellbook, so I succumbed to the 5000pp price tag on Blessing of Austerity in the Bazaar and scribed it into my book.
(
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spel ... spell=4065)
I buffed myself up with everything I have, expecting to see a significant increase in max self-buffed HP with this new spell. Instead I found that it overwrote Heroism, Bulwark, and Symbol, and left me with ~300 fewer HP than I had with the spells it overwrote.
So, the question is two parts: first, does Austerity have a legitimate use, and at level 65 I've simply outgrown that use? (In that case - is there a later spell in the line?)
Second, why did this spell, whose effects clearly left me with inferior HP, overwrite seemingly superior buffs? My guess is that it is better than any of those buffs individually, so it overwrites each of them on a case-by-case basis, and the net effect happens to be negative - does that sound about right?