[Moto X General] scorpion667:
Cool, I'm sure we can work together to help some of the less knowledgeable folks. There's no shame in that, nobody was born knowing these things. I learned a lot of these things by searching and/or trial and error.

I'll get something out of the way first: I hate Xposed framework. I don't use it.

My guide will involve a few key things for rooted users:

1. I have a tasker script that sets GPS to high accuracy when you open any apps of your choosing (i.e Google maps) and sets it back to battery saving as soon as that app is no longer on your screen (even if it's still running in background). Works flawlessly. ALternatively you can easily set it to turn off GPS unless you're in those apps of your choosing but I don't recommend this unless you uninstall Google Now completely. I'll explain in the full guide.

2. I use a root app to modify the permissions of user apps that are misbehaving i.e pinging for your locations 24/7 (and I will show you how to verify what app is doing what in the background). For example if an app pings for my location excessively, I'll remove it's location permissions and then verify functionality. If an app checks for my contacts every 5 mins (whatsapp) I'll remove it's permission to read my contacts and verify functionality (i.e app still works fine). This is absolutely crucial for apps like Facebook otherwise it will MURDER your battery.

3. I have changed my opinion about Google stuff. Like Google Now, Location Reporting and History, Location Services ETC. I used to disable all this stuff religiously from my first Android phone in 2011 up until last week. Those things really don't make a big difference on battery life. I have definitive proof of this, at least for my config and phone.

4. Android is weird. After you flash a ROM it needs two days to settle. My first day after a ROM wipe is usually mediocre to bad in terms of battery life. People panic when they see this and they apply all sorts of fixes which come back to bite them in the A once the ROM/battery life IS settled. And then they forget to rever those changes and now it becomes a source of confusion. You have to be patient.

5. Some things in Android are interdependent. If I disable Location Services, Google Search (i.e Google Now) behaves weirdly in the background. Most end users won't notice the weird behavior but I can see it in WLD and another app I use (keeping it a surprise for guide). It doesn't save you much battery life at all to disable Location, and makes the phone more inconvenient to use. Instead of disabling location, we manage app permissions to block location which is a much more efficient way of doing it if our goal is to save battery life. I say this as app B might work fine without location but app A might go haywire so while you save battery from APP B, you LOSE that benefit as app A is working harder. Permissions allows us to fine tune app behaviors. It's a more granular level of control.

I still prefer iOS for how they manage permissions but now that I have allowed all the features I like on my Moto X to actually run as opposed to disable everything for the sake of battery life, I kinda like it.

The way I'm gonna structure it is quite simple.

This is how I set up my phone if I wanna flash a new ROM:

-this

-this

-and this

very simple.

And then I will get into the nitty gritty of advanced troubleshooting and wakelock resolution, especially for third party apps.

P.S If Android OS in your battery stats is high, it could well be a third party app hammering NLPcollectorWakelock. Saying your Android OS usage is high means absolutely nothing to me. This is where the advanced troubleshooting will come into play.

Also, trying to make Android OS usage smaller in battery stats is an absolutely pointless battle. You can do it by disabling a crapload of useful things, sure. But as long as only the right things are wakelocksing the device, you will still get amazing battery life. Google's services are very power efficient nowadays, but third party apps that invoke those instruments are more often than not, very inefficient.

Disclaimer: I only speak for myself, my phone, my config, my carrier and my signal strength.