130 Specialize Evocation No Mana Reduction?
 

I have 130+ Specialize Evocation and when I cast an Evocation spell that cost 105 mana the spell always takes 105 mana.

On the wiki it says:
"The formula for mana preservation is 1% mana preservation per 20 skill points"
http://wiki.project1999.com/Skill_Specialization

So why am I not seeing a mana reduction on my evocation spells?

It doesn't effect every spell you cast in that school. It is simply a chance to have an effect. That said, I'm not sure what the actual chance is.

On the wiki page you linked it says:
Hmmm though this old post on Graffe's is contradictory:

Yes, it's only a chance to reduce mana. I've never done a spec in evo, but same formula that works for conj and alter which I have, and I certainly see mana reduction, if at least sporadic. It's still low, but as you raise it you should see better results.

just figure it to be a 10% mana savings over an infinitely long fight

I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a guaranteed chance to save that 10% mana every cast of that specialization. It's that way on Live currently. Cast any spell and you'll see with specialization it will reduce the mana cost a fixed amount every single cast. Even at 50 or 200 skill.

It is basically impossible to prove that it functioned like this in classic, since mana value wasn't shown in the UI until LoY/GoD. So exact mana cost wasn't easy to decipher based off of looking at your mana bar (again they didn't have % values displayable til PoP). But I have a tough time believing they changed it from a chance to a guaranteed savings at some point during EQ without any mention.

I'd be curious to see the equation we have on this server.

I definitely think it should be guaranteed. Melee on this server are quite powerful relative to casters especially concerning sustained DPS/Utility. Casters are much more limited by their mana bar. Allowing them to sustain their mana when casting primary spells sounds more in line with classic. I definitely remember specialization being a big deal.

Suppose I should carify that I know the wiki says there is a "chance". Yet it seems like the chance is insanely slim or I have the worst dice/rng results in eq.
Everytime I write down my before mana and my after mana, before and after casting an evocation spell it is the exact full cost. I even in practice after leveling cast an evocation spell on myself saw it cost full mana, meditated and repeated a series of 20 casts all full mana cost.

me, too, but only for the underpowered casters

shit. give it to rangers, paladins and SK's as well. fuckin hybrid haters >_> !

I don't recall noting any difference with fizzles vs. specialization on live. I do recall that the spec bonus counted on every cast. Unfortuantely, I did not play any non-hybrid caster to 30+ until well past classic era so this post is completely useless. :p

This is the way it was explained to me back in the day on my necromancer:

Specialization is a 10% mana reduction when it "procs". There is a 1% chance for it to "proc" per 10 points of specialization. This meant that at 60 there was a 23% chance that a spell in maxed specialization used 10% less mana. And then the other spells maxed at 50 which meant a 5% chance. It made enough of a difference to drop certain spells that weren't your specialization when soloing and if a druid said he spec'd evocation you knew he wouldn't be an efficient healer.

As far as fizzles vs specialization, I seem to remember early on that it made a huge difference. When Luclin came out they added some AA's that reduced the chance to fizzle which resulted in a nerf to specialization (and to spell/instruments skills in general). At that time I also played a bard so it was very noticeable that something had changed with skills due to all the "missed notes".