Mana Spent Gained as Ward?

Hi, fairly new to LE and not sure if this is a bug. I’m trying a purple helm with 34% implict and 65% prefix of Mana Spend Gained as Ward on a Fireball mage. No matter which spells I cast I am not gaining any ward. I’m not triggering or channeling anything. These are manually cast spells. Any help would be awesome.

Just to be clear: Your Fireball costs mana right? You aren’t at 0 cost?

Correct. Looks like the images actually got screwed up because after relogging I was back to the yellow helm I sold long ago. I think that was actually equipped the whole time the game just told me I had the wrong one on.