Yoshi-P's Interview with Famitsu includes a few comments about AST

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SuzakuCMX

It doesn't need a total overhaul. If we had a way to buff our own healing temporarily or a way to shove our missing healing to the other healer, our healing would be fine. If cards were more reliable or more effective, they would be fine, too. Neither of those need a total reworking of the class.

---

You still are missing the problem: The Astrologian is a healer that, by design, is intended to replace the White Mage or the Scholar in the standard WHM/SCH duo. As long as this is true, the class cannot stand on its own. The healers need to be made interchangeable to the point where any 2 healers would work all the time without directly out-competing each other.

I'd change quite a few things, but still keep a couple core tenants. The major changes, however, would be summed up as this:

1. Remove the stances, replace them with mutually-exclusive buffs, one Diurnal, one Nocturnal, with different benefits and downsides unique to the AST.
2. Redesign Synastry to be a permanent buff that does what it currently does, boosts healing directly on that target (by a smaller amount), and also heals the target for damage done, roughly around the rate a fairy does, for one target only (sanity cap so it doesn't turn into mega-heals).
3. Make it so Royal Roads are given at random every time you draw, let spread save the Royal Road, Shuffle swaps the card, RR swaps the royal road, cannot pull what you just had, and cannot change both the card and RR effect.
4. Adjust A.Benefic and A.Helios so that they are unique to the AST, but that the AST has at least 1 strong enough barrier, where "enough" is defined as 10% of an equivalent ilevel tank's total health (stoneskin).
5. Combine Collective Unconsciouses 2 effects into 1 and increase its radius to be identical to Sacred Earth, but keep the Channeling effect. If it requires channeling, it better be the best thing you can cast for the entire duration.
6. Redesign Celestial Opposition. As an idea, make it so that it gives the entire party the benefits of Synastry, perhaps even at 100%, for 10 or 15 seconds on a very long cooldown. Whether it boosts buffs and stuns enemies is irrelevant past this, but the idea is that it should be incredibly powerful for having an incredibly long cooldown.

Obviously, adjust all numbers (including base healing levels) as required to achieve balance. But for instance, for Diurnal/Nocturnal, Dirunal could make all base (Benefic, Benefic II, Helios) heals heal for an additional 25% potency every tic for 6 seconds (2 tics), stacking HoT, while Nocturnal could increase the mana cost of all base heals by 20-25% but also increase the potency by 50%. They both force the opposite onto a 1 minute cooldown and are personally on a 2 minute cooldown (or something like that).

The idea is to define the healer around Synastry as a mechanic instead of a cooldown, and make the cards random but powerful and a bit easier to use and, in doing so, make them a hair more consistent.

Remember, the class is a healer first and foremost, and it must be as good as the other 2 at it. This nonsense that people will just bring 2 ASTs can be designed out of the system such that it isn't a problem, so making the class actually competent should be the forefront of any changes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khalithar

I thought about this as well and I happen to agree with you that the class needs an overhaul. What are your thoughts on them making AST a HoT based healer with a few direct heals that are buffed depending on how many HoTs you have rolling on someone? That would certainly make it different than the other two healers, as for the cards, I've been really having trouble thinking of a fix, but I do like the idea of the card fitting in with the HoT idea above, but not sure how.

---

I just noticed this, and I wouldn't be opposed to any of 3 different styles: First, a HoT-based style (such as Druids from WoW), second, the Synastry-based design which I detailed in the above post, and 3 is a reactive healer type where you buff someone who, when struck, gets healed for an amount, otherwise relying on barriers. Synastry is already on the class, so it seems better to align it towards that first, and it would change the class the least overall without breaking the story in any significant way.

Working the cards into the healing mechanic is also an ideal circumstance, as the cards should define the class as a healer as well, but I'm really not sure what can be done other than tweaking what already exists.

I don't think mechanics should get too complex (such as heals that scale based on the HoTs rolling), but a HoT-based healer is just fine.

But, with the cards in play, the style of the class, they'd need to change the class around a bit more to work it all in. As such, I feel keeping with a limited but potent healing kit to be the best option to complement the cards themselves.

Make expanded buff as an ability and remove it from RNG card. CD 90seconds. The RNG should be only for extended duration or potency buff but AoE buff must be put off the RNG system.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Taranok

...

---

I wish SE had more people with your creativity, honestly.
AST needs its own identity.
But i'm afraid that SE will just buff them, do something about the RNG and....DONE.
*sigh*

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Muahbec

I wish SE had more people with your creativity, honestly.
AST needs its own identity.
But i'm afraid that SE will just buff them, do something about the RNG and....DONE.
*sigh*

---

And that is what some of us want. I dont want the job to change.I hope they just do a few tweaks.

To be the devil's advocate, it's easy for us to play backseat developer.

I suspect that SE's chief competing priority when designing AST was preserving overall game balance. SCH and WHM are rather exceptionally balanced with each other and with the design of encounters, to the point where designing a truly unique healing style without making it either horribly underpowered or ridiculously overpowered will be quite difficult and time-consuming.

That's not to say that there isn't room for such innovation to be done well, but my guess is that they deliberately sacrificed a bit (or a lot, in the case of AST) of originality with new Jobs in this expansion in their effort to ensure that nothing would fly off the rails. I do hope that the next expansion is more of a focus on original systems, though, even if we don't get as many pretty maps.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vlady

And that is what some of us want. I dont want the job to change.I hope they just do a few tweaks.

---

I agree, the class is fun and thematic and I hope it doesn't change into something unfun. All they need to do is make the multitude of worthless abilities (cu, co, spear, noct sect) into something worth using, and either add a healing cooldown or have lightspeed lower the gcd.

I think the majority of the fun of the class comes from how thematic it is. Flat-out removing the RNG would kill that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Taranok

You still are missing the problem: The Astrologian is a healer that, by design, is intended to replace the White Mage or the Scholar in the standard WHM/SCH duo. As long as this is true, the class cannot stand on its own. The healers need to be made interchangeable to the point where any 2 healers would work all the time without directly out-competing each other.

---

I am not missing the point. I am saying you do not need to majorly redesign the entire class to differentiate it from WHM/SCH. Redesigning a few key abilities (Aspected Benefic, Synastry, CU, CO mainly) would go a long way in making them unique.

Additionally, all of their cards besides Bole (and sometimes Ewer/Spear) can currently be boiled down to: how much does it increase DPS? If it doesn't increase DPS by a substantial amount then it is effectively useless. The cards need more diverse effects.

EDIT: I think the source of the misunderstanding here is that we consider "major redesign of the class" to be different. It seems we are in agreement in which abilities need to be changed and to what extent.

What if the cards themselves had a small healing potency attached to them? Like "here's an attack boost and a mini cure" all in one move. That way if you drew a card you didnt need, you could still throw it on someone who needs a (mp free) hp boost. That could also make up for the lower potency of all the other heals.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nexas506

What if the cards themselves had a small healing potency attached to them? Like "here's an attack boost and a mini cure" all in one move. That way if you drew a card you didnt need, you could still throw it on someone who needs a (mp free) hp boost. That could also make up for the lower potency of all the other heals.

---

The problem here is that this isn't the kind of help AST needs; it needs cooldowns, not greater healing potency in general.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nexas506

What if the cards themselves had a small healing potency attached to them? Like "here's an attack boost and a mini cure" all in one move. That way if you drew a card you didnt need, you could still throw it on someone who needs a (mp free) hp boost. That could also make up for the lower potency of all the other heals.

---

That's been discussed, but it still doesn't change the fact that 3 of the cards are useless, and you'd still be always praying for balance.

We have 3 cards that benefit DPS (two of which aren't nearly as good as balance), two cards that benefit the tank (bole and spire), and one card that benefits the healer. The three DPS cards aren't situational; all three simply increase DPS. Therefore the best thing to do would be to completely remake spear and arrow into a unique effect that doesn't just increase DPS less than balance would. I also think that, should a secondary healing potency increase be implemented, it should last much longer than the main buff. Being on par with other healers 50% of the time sounds really frustrating.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vlady

And that is what some of us want. I dont want the job to change.I hope they just do a few tweaks.

---

What the?
Taranok just changed some of the AST aspects to bring more originality to the job his idea wouldn't change the whole job concept.
Also, why do you want a whm/sch jr? what's the point of that? Every healing job should be unique.
Seriously, i can't understand your mind.
AST doesn't need just a "few tweaks" it needs balancing if not some SERIOUS balancing, but as i said before, since SE decided to "brilliantly" make a hybrid job instead of a new and fresh one balancing this mess will be a problem.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SuzakuCMX

It doesn't need a total overhaul. If we had a way to buff our own healing temporarily or a way to shove our missing healing to the other healer, our healing would be fine. If cards were more reliable or more effective, they would be fine, too. Neither of those need a total reworking of the class.

---

They really do though.
The whole problem with astro right now is it's stances are very nearly a direct copy of WHM and SCH, even their dps kit is a lesser version of aero, aero 2, stone 3, and holy
They are so close to the classes they mimic that as it stands now with nothing but number tweaking AST will either be inferior to the classes it mimics giving it no real place or it will be superior and replace both of them. Both outcomes are terrible for the game as a whole

If they made it a unique healer with similar output capabilities to the other healers instead of a mimic it would be more balance-able

I have played it on all levels and outside of being an oddly amazing pvp healer it really falls short of the other healers by a mile. It's kind of funny how it's weaknesses get highlighted when you play the same content with it and other healers. Like oppressor in savage when i'm on scholar i absolutely love being targeted by the prey, it's like he's trying to make it easy on me. When i'm on astro it feels like a worst case scenario to be the prey target

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cynfael

To be the devil's advocate, it's easy for us to play backseat developer..

---

This is definitely correct, and your followup on their chief design is the source of the Astrologian's woes. They need to design the class to its role assuming that it will work with either without being a "replacement" for it, which they did the opposite, that it is a replacement.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SuzakuCMX

EDIT: I think the source of the misunderstanding here is that we consider "major redesign of the class" to be different. It seems we are in agreement in which abilities need to be changed and to what extent.

---

It's likely stemmed from something semmantical. Regardless, it was a misunderstanding and I apologize if I misconstrued your intent one way or the other.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nihility

I have played it on all levels and outside of being an oddly amazing pvp healer it really falls short of the other healers by a mile. It's kind of funny how it's weaknesses get highlighted when you play the same content with it and other healers. Like oppressor in savage when i'm on scholar i absolutely love being targeted by the prey, it's like he's trying to make it easy on me. When i'm on astro it feels like a worst case scenario to be the prey target

---

After leveling summoner up to 60, I went to Scholar not having played it in near-literally a year. I was utterly baffled at how much easier it was to heal even the expert dungeons when I had no clue how to efficiently play the class. Now I'm raising White Mage, presently at level 53, and it's so much easier than Astrologian to play that I wonder why Astrologian is even given "healer" as a role at this point. I can keep groups alive in content that the AST would definitely wipe in simply because I have actual options when everything starts going south. Primarily, the option is literally just Divine Seal by itself.

The AST desperately needs cooldowns.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Muahbec

What the?
Taranok just changed some of the AST aspects to bring more originality to the job his idea wouldn't change the whole job concept.
Also, why do you want a whm/sch jr? what's the point of that? Every healing job should be unique.
Seriously, i can't understand your mind.
AST doesn't need just a "few tweaks" it needs balancing if not some SERIOUS balancing, but as i said before, since SE decided to "brilliantly" make a hybrid job instead of a new and fresh one balancing this mess will be a problem.

---

It is Vlady, the one man "i boost dragoon dps by 400, transfer to my server for proof" crusade.
Everyone should just throw him on ignore since he never has anything useful to say.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Assirra

It is Vlady, the one man "i boost dragoon dps by 400, transfer to my server for proof" crusade.
Everyone should just throw him on ignore since he never has anything useful to say.

---

You mean boost dragoon DPS by 1000 right?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nyttyn

You mean boost dragoon DPS by 1000 right?

---

if you're making reference to the "bard 1000 DPS per second" meme, sadly he isn't.

Vlady has actually claimed to be able to boost a dragoon's DPS by 400.

(of course when anyone asks him to back the claim up, he tells them to transfer to his server rather than just posting a parse, and on the one occasion someone WAS on his server and arranged a time to meet him, he was mysteriously "unavailable")

If they really want the AST to be a unique support healer they have to do something like the BRD in XI and have them juggle buffs. Get rid of shield stance and make it literally buff stance and allow the AST to switch during combat.

Nocturnal Sect
-swapps MND and INT like Cleric, same cd as well
-Card Draw cd is 10 seconds
-adds 5 seconds on card buff duration
-gets rid of the -50% on spread
-Disable lasts now 10 seconds
-boosts AST acc
-10% shield on Collective

There, AST now has a stance where they can DPS and dish out buffs. Yes the random would still hurt them, but being able to have 2 card effects run for most of the time should do well. Works well with WHM and SCH.

You all are putting forth fantastic suggestions, and I've benched my lvl 50 AST on the simple fact that weaker heals means I literally have no time to do any card drawing or dps. This is compared to my SCH main, which never feels underpowered.

It's so frustrating to never feel like I can heal fast enough. The heals are so tiny, and aspected heals, despite mitigating the main heal's lack of potentcy, cost so much mana you can't rely on them.

The stances either need to make a larger impact, or need to be entirely rehauled. Perhaps make one reduce MP costs, and one reduce CDs/increase spell speed, and allow us to swap freely.

Essential Dignity needs a shorter CD.

Synastry doesn't last long enough.

I'm in the camp that finds the cards to be fine as they are. I don't mind the RNG or potency, but, as I said earlier, I don't get to full with them as much as I feel I should since I can rarely pause from actually healing @_@

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Waterdeep

If they really want the AST to be a unique support healer they have to do something like the BRD in XI and have them juggle buffs. Get rid of shield stance and make it literally buff stance and allow the AST to switch during combat.

Nocturnal Sect
-swapps MND and INT like Cleric, same cd as well
-Card Draw cd is 10 seconds
-adds 5 seconds on card buff duration
-gets rid of the -50% on spread
-Disable lasts now 10 seconds
-boosts AST acc
-10% shield on Collective

There, AST now has a stance where they can DPS and dish out buffs. Yes the random would still hurt them, but being able to have 2 card effects run for most of the time should do well. Works well with WHM and SCH.

---

I fucking love this idea.

Ok so how did a bunch of u derail this thread with ast vs whm/ sch and what you want changed with ast.
Isn't this thread ABOUT YOSHI'S INTERVIEW WITH FAMITSU.

Also half of these ppl r jokes at playing ast and just theory craft.
Maybe the devs should listen to ur ideas cuz u clearly know how to balance classes.

The problem is that that idea cannot happen. With perfect luck, you could have a permanent 10% damage boost to the entire party (not quite permanent, but pretty close.)

Furthermore, it does nothing to making Diurnal actually good when you are healing, and prevents the class from having a barrier ability on a single GCD. Yes, they have stoneskin, but all 3 healers need a reliable barrier that they can cast, and that half second is already unreasonable.

In order for that to be viable, they'd have to nerf the cards into the ground, and the cards are already clunky to use on a 30 second rotation due to GCD clipping with casting and how horrid the healing of the class is presently, so it'd only make it worse.

They may as well make a 4th class type called "support" at that point, as well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lastelli

As I thought, they were afraid that a buffer could make things too easy and ended up releasing an underpowered job. Let's just hope for the best.

---

Yeah, I was saying this about all three new jobs since the expansion launched.

Better to release nerfed classes and slowly buff them later so people don't over-roll them and use exploits to wreck new content.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RichardButte

Yeah, I was saying this about all three new jobs since the expansion launched.

Better to release nerfed classes and slowly buff them later so people don't over-roll them and use exploits to wreck new content.

---

While i agree the ast aint bad because it gives bad numbers.
Design wise it is honestly just a mash of ideas that don't work together.
Let's hope that they make the healing and cards actually work together instead of being an half support class in a game that doesn't allow it.

After I get SCH to 60, AST will be the next class that I level so hopefully they will have the kinks worked out by then. I'm pleased that they have been working on this and I figured it would take them a bit. I played the class a little when I first got to Ishgard and found it to be really fun and its probably the most visually pleasing of the jobs, imo. I look forward to playing it again.

I think we can all agree a class we like needs some help in two major areas:

Giving the class it's own identity, and making us feel like our cards are worth having us around.

Aside from potency tweaks, which while needed won't solve everything, I think they should give Astro the signature of being the HoT / Synastry healer. Make it a near permanent buff in the way that has already been suggested so that it is our defining feature (instead of burst healing or shields.) Maybe even make it so you can cast it only once in combat, you scri the heavens and forsee the dangerous fate ahead for one party member. Our signature would then be that we would be the stand out sustainer. Whm excels at burst and Sch is a hybrid.

Secondly, playing a card extends all current heal over time effects created by the Astro by 15 seconds (or maybe the duration of the card). This will also help on our mama issues while making our aspected heals actually worth casting.

Really all that they need to do is buff card potencies, change shuffle so that you can't get the card you're discarding, give lightspeed a recast reduction element, Slightly lower LA's cooldown, do SOMETHING about CU and CO, as one is completely worthless and the other is never optimal.

Nocturnal needs some tweaking as well, but in what way is largely entirely up to how SE intended it to be used.

But people lobbying for these massive dynamic changes.... I can't get on board with that. It's ridiculous. The job is decidedly bad off, but at the level of WAR 2.0, not XIV 1.0. They can fix this with tweaks, it does not require an overhaul.

You are missing the point of people wanting huge changes.

Once again this has nothing to do with the numbers but with the design of the class itself.

Fairy feels a part of the scholar, hot's/about a million healing cd's feel part of whm/a wonky card system that is clearly intended for a dps and not a healer feels like just that, a wonky system tagged along.

Cards should be part of our healing, it is our only thing that we got different. Except that we are a carbon copy of a scholar or white mage with some potency nerfs. Yet what does our thing that (supposed) makes us stand out? some random rng 10% buffs that take away 4 whole spell slots that should have been using to build our lacking healing base.

You know what just buffing potency will do?

Turn us into the farm healer you bring together with a "real healer" when stuff is on farm and everyone is out for gear. You can buff people and heal a bit while the other healer does the real healing work.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Assirra

While i agree the ast aint bad because it gives bad numbers.
Design wise it is honestly just a mash of ideas that don't work together.
Let's hope that they make the healing and cards actually work together instead of being an half support class in a game that doesn't allow it.

---

It really feels like all 3 of the new classes fall into this category. They all feel like they're a hodge-podge of poorly thought out ideas that don't quite fit together. It's most obvious on the AST, but the DRK also has a rotation that is cumbersome at best due to the nature of how the class plays, as an example. It's almost as if, in an effort to make them all different, they tried new ideas that don't quite work out. Hell, even the Ninja has a bit of this problem that was made a bit worse in HW (namely, how Armor Crush essentially kills your ability to use Aeolian Edge in the rotation if a WAR isn't present).

But I digress.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Taranok

It really feels like all 3 of the new classes fall into this category. They all feel like they're a hodge-podge of poorly thought out ideas that don't quite fit together.

---

I'd agree on AST and DRK, though MCH feels coherent to me. I imagine they started working on it earlier (since it seemed like we were originally going to get NIN and MCH at the same time, judging from Yoshi's prior statements on new classes during ARR), so it's got more polish.

DRK is in a good place as a main tank. Despite some of clunkiness like Parry RNG based mitigation *sigh*, and mitigation-combo higher potency than aggro combo. It does reliably replace PLD in savage floors, while offering more DPS as MT. Of course with a two-handed tank w/o a shield it's going to have less potent physical cooldowns aside from shadowskin, But instead have magic-based cooldowns and raid-wide mitigation if you don't have a MNK in your party, you still have the INT debuff.

Now as an OT, you are missing out on WARsized DPS, and if you have MNK Dragon Kick, then there is really no added utility.

AST is supposed to have less healing potency at the cost of offering buffs that other healers don't have. Despite full of RNG, we have hefty cooldowns on things like Shuffle and Synastry. You can sometimes spend more time thinking of where is my utility if i'm waiting around to get something useful. When the stars align and you get RR balance on the party during a burn phase, or even just on the SMN during trance it can be fulfilling at-times. The job isn't bad in the hands of a good healer though, hence it's successes in savage. Just it can surely offer more reliable utility.

Thing is "in the hands of a good heler" sch nc whm bring more to the table than astro. That's the whole point. Anyone good enough to take Astro through savage would contribute more to a progression group as sch or whm.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PiedPiper

Thing is "in the hands of a good heler" sch nc whm bring more to the table than astro. That's the whole point. Anyone good enough to take Astro through savage would contribute more to a progression group as sch or whm.

---

It's not necessarily a problem though.

We don't ask to get 2 Dragoons + 2 Black mage as a damage dealer team. We just do it with what we get. As long as "it's possible to win"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mclyde

It's not necessarily a problem though.

We don't ask to get 2 Dragoons + 2 Black mage as a damage dealer team. We just do it with what we get. As long as "it's possible to win"

---

Not only is that a terrible team and terrible for LB meter, but there's 4 spots for DPS in the first place.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mclyde

It's not necessarily a problem though.

We don't ask to get 2 Dragoons + 2 Black mage as a damage dealer team. We just do it with what we get. As long as "it's possible to win"

---

A couple key differences

- only 2 healers in a group which means that having a "worse" one is going to hurt a lot more.
-you can have a dps that is a bit lower unless the fight is a heavy dps check, however a fight will always be a healer check
- when there is less damage, stuff dies slower, when less healing, people die.

But as every other players, healers want that their class be really different from his homologues (it lead to some unbalance problem). And you can't blame the Astro for aggro problems or unavoided aoe. In HL content you can't make a mistake on mechanics and then just tell : "Astro is not strong enough to repair the mistakes of others in addition of his base job : healing the focused players (the tank most of the time)"
There are dd who can make much more dps than other in certain circumstances, and there are healers too who can make more hps than others.

If it appears than there is just no way to finish As4 in ilvl180 with an Astro in the team while a whm+sch did it, then it'll be appropriate to buff this job. Until then, who wants to be an optimized healer can just continue to play whm.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mclyde

But as every other players, healers want that their class be really different from his homologues (it lead to some unbalance problem). And you can't blame the Astro for aggro problems or unavoided aoe. In HL content you can't make a mistake on mechanics and then just tell : "Astro is not strong enough to repair the mistakes of others in addition of his base job : healing the focused players (the tank most of the time)"
There are dd who can make much more dps than other in certain circumstances, and there are healers too who can make more hps than others.

If it appears than there is just no way to finish As4 in ilvl180 with an Astro in the team while a whm+sch did it, then it'll be appropriate to buff this job. Until then, who wants to be an optimized healer can just continue to play whm.

---

This whole logic train just took me to bizarroland. I don't get how it's possible to assert that AST being inferior to the other two healing Jobs is okay.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cynfael

This whole logic train just took me to bizarroland. I don't get how it's possible to assert that AST being inferior to the other two healing Jobs is okay.

---

It comes from this idea of astrologian being a support healer except there is 1 very critical flaw in that way of thinking.
The game does not allow/support it.

For this very idea to work, you need an extra support role and groups of 5/10.

I'm convinced that people who believe that AST is not an underpowered healer have never stepped foot in Savage. Here's an idea: level WHM or SCH, go into Alex Savage with an AST. Now do it again, but with a WHM/SCH combo. Those raids require you to heal. A lot. Not just Regen the tank and spam dps on trash. Replacing either healer with an AST brings absolutely nothing of value to the table, in fact you lose a lot when doing so.

When replacing the WHM with an AST:

• No PoM.
• No Div Seal.
• No Benediction.
• Weaker AoE HoTs with a smaller radius.
• No off-gcd raid Heal (Assize).
• No Asylum outside of CO which is severely limited.
• No MND party buff.
• No E4E/Virus.
• No Cure III.
• Weaker DPS.

When replacing a SCH with an AST:

• Weaker shields, and you'll most likely be in Diurnal sect anyway because it's far more mana efficient.
• Much weaker DPS than a SCH, particularly AoE.
• Cards are a less consistent DPS boost than Fey Wind.
• No off-gcd raid Heal (Indom).
• No fairy to spot heal.
• No Fey Caress/Illumination/Whispering.
• No Lustrate spam.
• CO in Noct is far more limited than Sacred Soil.
• Poorer MP management.
• No Supervirus.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mclyde

It's not necessarily a problem though.

We don't ask to get 2 Dragoons + 2 Black mage as a damage dealer team. We just do it with what we get. As long as "it's possible to win"

---

In addition to what the others have said, many dps bring things that the others don't. Currently, AST brings nothing to the table that the other two healers can't do and do better, with the exception of mana/tp regen. If AST brought something unique, or could perform better in any aspect then it might be a different story.