Healing 'big' pulls on Astro

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Originally Posted by Bobkitty

I haven't really experienced any disasters with mass pulls unless the tanks were stacked in STR (which seems to be a massive trend lately, among experts roulette anyway).

I don't know what cooldowns AST have in their arsenal, but my WHM emergency spells/CDs can usually keep them alive for long enough (although even then, it feels tedious cause their health drops in massive chunks at a time).

ps: can you guys crossclass Eye 4 Eye?

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No, we can't cross class E4E. ;( We can't cross class Arcanist at all actually. Only CNJ and THM.

As for CDs, we have the 40 second Essential Dignity. Lightspeed isn't useful because it makes things instant cast, but with a potency hit and a GCD to contend with, so that's trash outside of quick on the run rebuffing of protect/ss. There's also CU and CO that I haven't gotten yet but they've gotten enough complaints that Yoshi has already mentioned buffing them. Disable is only really useful on bosses with abilities that have a cast time.

If we get lucky and get a Bole or an Arrow that can be helpful in mitigating damage or healing it up faster, but that's all RNG. Usually on big pulls I start with the HoT and Benefic spam, if it's tougher Benefic II or ED thrown in, and double HoT-ting if it's really that bad. After that you just hope the tank knows how to use his own cooldowns properly.

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Originally Posted by Bobkitty

I haven't really experienced any disasters with mass pulls unless the tanks were stacked in STR (which seems to be a massive trend lately, among experts roulette anyway).

I don't know what cooldowns AST have in their arsenal, but my WHM emergency spells/CDs can usually keep them alive for long enough (although even then, it feels tedious cause their health drops in massive chunks at a time).

ps: can you guys crossclass Eye 4 Eye?

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Nope. No real mitigation or throughput cooldowns. But I got 20% tp used down for you almost whenever you want! :D

In the high roulette, I use Noctural Sect for the healing power and barriers. Cheap instant barriers. Granted they won't be your safety blanket but they do help.

If things get hairy, and you get an arrow card, then use it on yourself. It'll do your team more good speeding up the healing casts in big pulls than it will speeding them up. And do NOT pop the MP regen late if you know for sure the mobs will have you deadlocked into using nothing but Benefic2. Keep your MP above 50% as much as you can.

In big pull where a slip means winning or wiping, it won't be a great idea to use royal road unless you already had a card stored prior to the big pull. Just use the cards. If bole, then great, less damage to the tank=more time. If spire, then good for WARs and PLDs who love to shield bash everything. If Spear, then better use it on yourself if your CDs are up or on DD that uses many CD attacks, but do NOT royal road it. If Ewer, then yes, goodness yes on yourself immediately. If you ask me, the Balance card is easily the worst card to get in hairy pulls. Extra damage doesn't make you heal more, and as long as threat is under control, it won't benefit the tank much either. Burn it for a card you already have, reshuffle it if you don't, but NEVER let it go to waste.

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Originally Posted by RiisWolf

In the high roulette, I use Noctural Sect for the healing power and barriers. Cheap instant barriers. Granted they won't be your safety blanket but they do help

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You make it sound like diurnal does nothing, especially when the HOTs > the barriers during a mass pull.

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Originally Posted by RiisWolf

If you ask me, the Balance card is easily the worst card to get in hairy pulls.

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That would be spear 90% of the time.

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Originally Posted by RiisWolf

In the high roulette, I use Noctural Sect for the healing power and barriers. Cheap instant barriers. Granted they won't be your safety blanket but they do help.

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Cheap barriers? Asp. Benefic costs 707MP while Benefic2 costs 795; Asp. Helios costs 1326 while Helios costs 1060.
Considering that the barriers are rather weak and Asp. Benefic with barrier - as mentioned somewhat earlier in this thread - leaves you with a downtime of approx. 4.5sec its just..meh..

Furthermore considering the worst cards in a big pull, I agree with fanservice. Spear is in most cases the worst Card to get.

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Originally Posted by RiisWolf

Extra damage doesn't make you heal more, and as long as threat is under control, it won't benefit the tank much either. Burn it for a card you already have, reshuffle it if you don't, but NEVER let it go to waste.

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Please don't tell me, that you ever used Balance on a tank if a DD is in your group...

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Originally Posted by YuiSasaki

Cheap barriers? Asp. Benefic costs 707MP while Benefic2 costs 795; Asp. Helios costs 1326 while Helios costs 1060.
Considering that the barriers are rather weak and Asp. Benefic with barrier - as mentioned somewhat earlier in this thread - leaves you with a downtime of approx. 4.5sec its just..meh..

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I didn't say asp. benefic's barriers are your safety blanket, I wrote that they are NOT. What did you think I meant by that? Pop it after every long cast and everything will be A-OK??
Also, have you played SCH and WHM? You have any idea how much Asp. Benefic and Benefics cost compared to their counterparts? They are cheap. Asp. Benefic is even cheaper than stoneskin.
And why are you bringing Helios into this? I said nothing about it or anyone else being hurt and it's dumb to use that when only the tank is being attacked.

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Originally Posted by YuiSasaki

Furthermore considering the worst cards in a big pull, I agree with fanservice. Spear is in most cases the worst Card to get.

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24 seconds off your Luminiferous Aether and 8 seconds off your Essential Diginity can be a lifesaver. Royal Road will make the subsequent card 30 seconds later half as effective on a single person and additionally useless for a few, I.E. Expanded Ewer card when you're the only one who uses MP. Letting the card sit is a wasted opportunity. You can have one of your damage dealers, other than a black mage, be able to use their cooldown attacks more often. Tank could use it. 30 seconds of no buffs can be killer. But if you feel like burning a away 30 seconds on a gamble then that's your problem, which makes it the party's problem cause your actions and inactions affect the party. Every little bit helps. ;)

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Originally Posted by YuiSasaki

Please don't tell me, that you ever used Balance on a tank if a DD is in your group...

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Can you be less condescending about it just because I don't explicitly mention every little thing I do? Only if he's the only one other than myself alive and/or I got the expanded upgrade, which while in said situation only if I already have the Balance card, otherwise I always slap it on a DPS, usually a DRG or BLM over anyone else. There is three other possibilities but it's so rare I don't want to give you anymore silly assumptions to base your replies on.

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Originally Posted by RiisWolf

I didn't say asp. benefic's barriers are your safety blanket, I wrote that they are NOT. What did you think I meant by that? Pop it after every long cast and everything will be A-OK??
Also, have you played SCH and WHM? You have any idea how much Asp. Benefic and Benefics cost compared to their counterparts? They are cheap. Asp. Benefic is even cheaper than stoneskin.
And why are you bringing Helios into this? I said nothing about it or anyone elsebeing hurt and it's dumb to use that when only the tank is being attacked.

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Let's start here: Indeed, you wrote that they are not a safety blanket, yet my point was that they are not cheap, plus the downtime you are causing with them makes them just not worth it. As of the current state (or at least in my opinion) it's just so much better to double-hot and use gravity/dots/etc. as soon as the situation allows it.
Yes, I played SCH in ARR as my main class, and they were - and from what I've heard til now, are - not as "mana-choked" as AST, if you are healing and dpsing.
Furthermore, I brought Asp. Helios into this because it applies a barrier, of course, if only the tank takes damage it is not taken into account.

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Originally Posted by RiisWolf

24 seconds off your Luminiferous Aether and 8 seconds off your Essential Diginity can be a lifesaver. Royal Road will make the subsequent card 30 seconds later half as effective on a single person and additionally useless for a few, I.E. Expanded Ewer card when you're the only one who uses MP. Letting the card sit is a wasted opportunity.

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I agree with you, that Spear, if used on yourself (and if necessary of course^^), can be a life-saver. But as I wrote in MOST cases it's one of the worst you can get.
Not to mention that RR Spear/Arrow in Light Parties is most of the time somewhat wasted. At least with PUGs, until now I almost always had a DD, whose damage or rather aggro (yes I do consider aggro reduces), was overall twice as high as the other ones. For what reason that might ever be - may it be caused by short fights or not yet "full-geared". Therefore isn't it supposed to be better to only give that "better" (geared) DD full cards? But, I guess I'm getting off topic here^^

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Originally Posted by RiisWolf

You can have one of your damage dealers, other than a black mage, be able to use their cooldown attacks more often. Tank could use it. 30 seconds of no buffs can be killer. But if you feel like burning a away 30 seconds on a gamble then that's your problem, which makes it the party's problem cause your actions and inactions affect the party. Every little bit helps. ;)

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The problem with Spear is, that it ONLY affects CDs that are used while that card is active and coordination in PUGs is rather...well.. no need to talk about it. If it's coordinated then yes Spear is one of the better cards (or at least better than Spire/Ewer^^).

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Originally Posted by RiisWolf

Can you be less condescending about it just because I don't explicitly mention every little thing I do? Only if he's the only one other than myself alive and/or I got the expanded upgrade, which while in said situation only if I already have the Balance card, otherwise I always slap it on a DPS, usually a DRG or BLM over anyone else. There is three other possibilities but it's so rare I don't want to give you anymore silly assumptions to base your replies on.

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I'm sorry if my reply might've sounded insulting, or sth. it's just that I've seen my share of ASTs that buff the tank with everything they get, may it be Ewer, Balance, Arrow... You know what they say... Once bitten, twice shy ;)

Let him die.
His next pull should be smaller.

All you can do pre-lvl 60 is HoTs plus dps (provided your tank popped cds and can survive a bit) really.. then Essential Dignity afterwards. For lvl 60 big pulls Celestial Opposition makes things a whole lot safer. Also don't forget if you need to regenerate mp or save mp, Collective Unconscious on top of HoTs is a nice way to keep the tank topped off and regen mana for a while.

They hate us cuz they ain't us XD

I usually use benefict 2 then dignity right after as my oh shi- heal bomb then drop a hot and spam bene 2.

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Originally Posted by Fricca

All you can do pre-lvl 60 is HoTs plus dps (provided your tank popped cds and can survive a bit) really.. then Essential Dignity afterwards. For lvl 60 big pulls Celestial Opposition makes things a whole lot safer. Also don't forget if you need to regenerate mp or save mp, Collective Unconscious on top of HoTs is a nice way to keep the tank topped off and regen mana for a while.

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Luminferous Aether + Celestial Opposition as well.

A lot of HL tank, warriors and dark knights mainly, have a lot of problem regarding the use of their defensiv cooldown.
And when you talk to them about it, if they don't negate, they start using all of their CD at the same time.

SOme of them dont look that bad but they think they have to save some defensiv CD for Boss.
But we don't really have problem to heal in boff fight since there isn't 10 mobs that hit together the same target.

So, seriously, just use your cd as often as you can.

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Originally Posted by Hydrium

I usually use benefict 2 then dignity right after as my oh shi- heal bomb then drop a hot and spam bene 2.

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Given Dignity's potency scales inversely with the target's HP, you should really consider using Dignity before Benefic II.

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Originally Posted by vratnam88

Given Dignity's potency scales inversely with the target's HP, you should really consider using Dignity before Benefic II.

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I've seen a lot of people say that if you pop Dignity quickly after a cast, Dignity will register first so you'll get the benefit of the lower HP. Probably lag related but definitely a tactic I've heard of before.

Im lvl 56 and have this issues too lately, some tanks pull too much, there is not that much I can do especially that i don't have a lot of burst heal except ED.
it is a slight problem of AST, with scholar i would never run in those problems, with AST i manage to outheal damage too by spamming benefic II, but after a fight i see significant difference in how much mana i spent and how much harder in general it was than for example with SCH in such situations.

All in all healing with AST is hardcore, in tough fights its really really hardcore compared to other healers.