basic skills > more expensive ones?

[Rednak]

Aren't the cheapest skills (agi, bufu) better than the more expensive ones (agilao, bufula)?

That way, it's much cheaper to trigger all out attacks and you won't run out of SP for your (non main) characters...

[Lynfinity]

And what will you do when your enemy has no weaknesses? Tickle them with Agi/Bufu/Garu/Zio/Kouha/Eiha and hope for the best?

[Amaterasu]

It's always better to use a higher tier magic whether single or mutli-target. Except for Tier 4 spells. -dyne spells are the most powerful single target spells. I forget their multi-target counterparts. Tier 4 spells cost 50+ SP to cast, aren't much more powerful than their Tier 3 counterparts and are always multi-target.

[Douota]

The only time it's better is when you're super worried about SP conservation in the early game, but by the time most of your party members get access to higher tier spells, they'll have enough SP to cast them without needing to worry. The only party member that tier 1 spells are worth keeping on is Junpei since his magic stat is so low even at high levels that the only time you'll want to use him for Agi skills is to knock down enemies (Junpei's Agidyne only deals about 50 damage), then you can save more SP for Marakukaja

[Danielle]

The other thing is that, at least in p3 classic, aoa doesn't *always* do a lot of damage. Some enemies are resistant to it, and it does damage based on your equipment so you have to keep on top of that, too. Having options that just nuke most targets, even if they aren't weak to it, is valuable.
But in cases of personas with low magic stats, by all means yeah just keep mabufu or whatever.

[HunterXJacob]

Invigorate

[Faiyez]

I actually understand OP, about it being a good idea to keep the tier 1 spells around when you get tier 2.

Yesterday I actually stopped to think for a while about whether to replace Garu or Dia first. It doesn't really matter though, given the rate you can earn twilight fragments for SP recovery.

[Rambit]

i have never worried about running out of sp. there are so many items and other ways to get your sp back.

[Dustin]

Until you start unlocking MP restoration skills, using lower-tier skills to trigger all-out attacks is a pretty good option. I remember a 4-element Lilim being a prized Persona for a goodly chunk of a lot of runs in vanilla P3.

[Endora]

Aside for what was already told above, there is some recomendations for floors 90 and above too:

I don't know for sure cause I only checked it once, but I think the blue haired navigator's Theurgy restores HP and some SP for the party (Steam doesn't like her name).

The droped itens doesn't restore that much, but they comes at a high rate, so it's safe to use.

You allways can change your party's formation, it will hurt the individual XP but your team will be at the same or close pace (use the big clock to lvl up the bottom lvl ones to your own lvl so the team will not be so weak).

[Necrofitz]

SP restoration from just let me say her freaking name is slightly random. I think average team SP needs to be below 50% and you need to be otherwise healthy. Just one person being basically tapped on SP isn't enough to get it to trigger. You're more likely to get the stat buffs instead. If average team HP is below 50%, pretty good odds you'll get healed over the other two effects.

Also worth noting that at higher floors, until your level difference is pretty solid, all out attacks stop being a guaranteed kill just because you hit the weakness, while as others have noted, SP stops being so much of a concern that popping mid level spells is really any trouble. I feel like the only two characters I have that struggle with SP are Koro and Ken since they're a mix of slightly lesser SP pools and either being a little too single target or multi target focused, both having their own negative impact on SP consumption and pacing.

[AngryChair]

I see your point but after the first block SP becomes less of an issue, after that you can get invigorate 1/2 and spirit drain + drain ability.

There are enough twilight fragments to open everything there is in tartarus while sparing 7 to use the healing clock each visit, and the game throws you a lot of SP recovering items at the beginning so there's not really a point in keeping the basic spells, you are gonna have a harder time in bosses that way when you face shadows without any weaknesses.

[Necrofitz]

Getting a persona with spirit drain on your MC is absolutely invaluable. Only a net gain of 17 SP per use, but find a way to safely use it across battles and you can get a healthy SP pool back for free. I've used it during a block full clear to get my MC back to like 160 SP without any real negative impact to the rest of my team.

[King Kilo]

id say yes but you should fuse a persona specifically for boss battles/guardians.

as said in previous comments, bosses typically dont have weaknesses and are immune to status effects. my main persona usually consistent of heals, buffs, debuffs and ailment recovery skills. I let my party do the damage and I keep them alive. its a very SMT way of playing persona and honestly, it makes the game too easy at times but the point of persona isnt to be challenging, its to enjoy the narrative and slice of life gameplay.

[Endora]

Mitsuru also have spirit drain.

For MC, I go with a combo Invigorate + spirit drain too.

[Necrofitz]

My MC just covers the holes in my team usually. Weaknesses no one else can hit? I got 'em. Yukari having a bit of a rough fight? I can off heal and deal with statuses. I do like having a persona like Black Frost for my current boss battles though who just hits like a truck.

And yes, Mitsuru has spirit drain too, but I usually don't have issues managing her SP. It has been convenient though for the outlier moments where I need her to go a little harder on casting than usual.