What does everyone think about those AST buffs?

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Originally Posted by Rawrz

Synastry buffs healing by 20%, Marks a party member to receive 40% of all your heals and therefore is healed an additional 40% when you single target heal them and has a cool down of 90 seconds.
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Dissipation gives you 3 Aetherflow stacks, sacks your fairy, and increases your healing by 20% to compensate with an anti-fairy resummon timer of 30 seconds and a recast of 180.
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What are both of these skills meant to do? Increase your healing output to stop what could have been a wipe. Which skill seems to have gotten all the love and none of the trade-off?
O.o
They really should look into the 60 SCH skill. It's a neat idea poor execution.

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Diss needs a buff, yes. The entire SCH community has been begging for it to be changed for a while now, as it's friggin' awful.

But that's separate from AST's best healing CD, really.

AST NEEDED a big emergency CD...

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One day, Astroella’s father met a woman. The woman had two daughters, the same age as Astroella. In time, her father was married, and little Astroella got a new stepmother and two stepsisters. Their names were Cura and Physicka.

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Originally Posted by Nektulos-Tuor

Dissipation lowers your healing actually. It also costs a "TON" of mana.

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I don't follow this statement. It doesn't cost any MP if it's an instant that gives you 3 Aetherflow stacks. If you were going to switch fairies mid-fight, there could be some strategic use of Dissipation and with the healing potency buff the SCH can make-up the lack of Embrace in that time. It can be a good progression tool in raiding. It's not perfect, but it's the SCH's emergency resources.

Potency buffs -> Bandage Patch.

CU -> Interesting--finally a non-situational CD in Nocturnal since it now has both Diurnal & Nocturnal Effects. Prior to the buff it was only used for a 3 second bole/rampart effect on my end, lol.

Disable -> Best buff for Disable. Not sure why people thought it being consumed by an auto-attack was "great" but now there's one less thing to complain about.

CO -> Aligns with Luminferous thus allowing you to extend more than 1 buff at a time, assuming you have a Card Buff out or a Regen at the same time.

Balance/Arrow/Bole Durations -> Interesting.

Synastry -> Need to experience it rather than read it.

In summary I'd say it's a nice step forward but there is still an underlying issue of Astrologian. Their core kit (GCDs) do not offer any difference in healing in comparison to SCH or WHM, thus making the amount of emergency healing & utility compare off WHM and SCH's already strong kits. They need their own identity, but it's tricky; however, including resources, time and player content on how it is now, buffing potencies and figuring out card things is the simplest and fastest way to patching Astrologians; however, it only fixes performance and not class vs. class issues.

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Originally Posted by Rawrz

Since Astrologians got 90% (and some exciting unexpected ones) of their issues fixed

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I'd actually say 90% of their problems are left unresolved. They boosted our hps, which is nice, but rng, dps, boosting overall group dps, mana, etc are all still the same issues as they were before.

The RNG isn't a problem - go play another class if you don't like it.

The healing wars have begun. Do the tanks act this way? Is three a crowed for them?

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Originally Posted by Cupcakesu

Does Nocturnal's 5% boost still work now? If so, (forgive my math if it's wrong don't hurt me please)

Aspected Benefic in Nocturnal Stance still has a potency of 250. Noct's 5% potency buff increases AB's potency to 262.5 (I think?). The shield portion is now 130% of the heal, leaving us with a 341.25 potency shield. Total effective potency comes up to 603.75, just slightly more than Adlo's 600. Note, however, that AST also has Benefic II with 650 potency healing (682.5 after sect bonus), so Bene II is still your go-to burst heal. AB however has higher BASE shields than SCH's Adlo (341 vs 300).

Otherwise, Noct's healing potencies now look like this:
Benefic - 420
Benefic II - 682.5
Helios - 315

And then can be enhanced further with Synastry's 20% boost. I guess this... sort of makes up for the lack of a fairy?

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Better and instant than adlo. Now SCH have to crit for better adlo than AST shield, it's ridiculous.

I'm glad they buffed AST though.

Oh man, I didn't know with Synastry I could double heal the main tank... This is... very very nice.

New patch made AST feels "dangerous": some of AST's skills now start to become more powerful than SCH/WHM in certain situations. Mana issue was a big reason AST were stopped from serious progression content. This patch didn't do anything related to AST's Mana management skills, but the problem was alleviated by giving several important healing skills potency boost, and bubble becoming useful. Regardless the quality of changes (lacks of originality :(), I think AST is usable in serious raid contents now.

1. the AST's Adlo now shields for 130% of the healing amount, paired with being able to instant cast, this is even more powerful than a real SCH with 30% crit chance (AST: 130%, instant cast > SCH: 100%*70%+200%*30%=130%average, 2.5cast time)

2. AST literally has a Virus (Disable) now, and it has less cooldown (60sec vs. 90sec), and stackable with the real Virus. If you bring an AST to the party, you would be able to disable once every Cascade in A3S, and disable+virus once every 2 Cascades.. this just blows my mind lol

3. AST's regen got a huge potency boost, this is going to help with AST's tight mana management issue.

4. Synastry: I think this skill went from "best CD for AST" to "one of the best CDs among all 3 healers" if it wasn't already there b4 the patch. The meaning of these numbers (20% potency buff, 40% spread onto the synastry target) is you still heal the same amount on your synastry target (50% pre-patch / 120%*40% = 48% post-patch), but all your other heals including single target/aoe will be boosted by 20%. And if you Benefic the synastry target, it automatically turns into a Benefic II (400*120% * 140% = 672).

5. Bubble: Bubble used to be a joke, it now works like a Regen-type Cure III. (Bubble: 150*5ticks= 750potency,6y radius/ CureIII: 550potency, 6y radius)

6. Cards: Balance/Arrow duration extended. This is pretty straight forward, AST's cards used to boost raid DPS by 50ish in a 8-10mins fight,,, they can do 100ish now lol. Bole duration extended. Imo Bole and Ewer are the best 2 cards in AST's deck, so I love the buff to Bole, if you spread it instead of the fancy (not) Balances/Arrows, it could be very useful. (Bole: 10% mitigation, 30secs duration, 30sec CD/ Rampart: 20% mitigation, 20secs duration, 90sec CD)

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Originally Posted by Zaj_Quilos

The RNG isn't a problem - go play another class if you don't like it.

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Oh it's okay with me , but watch we are still going to hear Shuffle needs a lower CD and it should not draw the same card. Despite they buffed the desirable cards, and patched in some potency in the heals to make the venture more worth it. It won't be enough for some.

I like the changes, though I never had any major issue with the job. This was more than I expected.

CU is clearly only ever going to be a situational damage mitigation skill. I still think CO needs a rework.... especially now after card baseline durations have been increased. Changing it to lower skills currently on CD by 5sec would been cool.... and a slightly different effect than spear.

I have more issues with WHM mana than AST.... Ewer + Spear/LA. Typically I give WHM Ewer over myself too :S I don't understand the MP management issues others complain about.

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Originally Posted by Ayer2015

I have more issues with WHM mana than AST.... Ewer + Spear/LA. Typically I give WHM Ewer over myself too :S I don't understand the MP management issues others complain about.

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These are the people that have trouble healing in level 50-60 dungeons.

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Originally Posted by Zaj_Quilos

These are the people that have trouble healing in level 50-60 dungeons.

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It's no different than tanks that don't use cooldowns appropriately to mitigate heavy damage, there are bad healers that don't use theirs at the right time to ensure they will regen enough MP at appropriate times.

So would macroing LA and CO be viable or is it better to leave them seperate?

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Originally Posted by nexas506

So would macroing LA and CO be viable or is it better to leave them seperate?

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I don't think you should macro them personally.

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Originally Posted by technole

Oh it's okay with me , but watch we are still going to hear Shuffle needs a lower CD and it should not draw the same card. Despite they buffed the desirable cards, and patched in some potency in the heals to make the venture more worth it. It won't be enough for some.

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Honestly, shuffle doesn't even bother me now, if i draw the same card, i just force my self to accept it and use it when deemed needed, i shuffle in hopes of simply getting a better card for the current situation. and now, especially since the major boosting cards last longer. just toss them out.

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Originally Posted by Mog77

I don't understand why other healer mains don't think that this benefits them... we can be friends with benefics ya know what I'm sayin

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No thanks. Whm and sch were fine. Three's a crowd. A hybrid healer was a bad idea in the first place.

Visible TP bars will allow us to use Spire effectively now too. Shouldn't feel like such a useless card anymore.

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Originally Posted by ckc22

No thanks. Whm and sch were fine. Three's a crowd. A hybrid healer was a bad idea in the first place.

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I don't hear tanks complaining?

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Originally Posted by ckc22

No thanks. Whm and sch were fine. Three's a crowd. A hybrid healer was a bad idea in the first place.

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Yeah from what you were saying sounds like you think WHM are dead so i guess there's 2 left.

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Originally Posted by Zaj_Quilos

The RNG isn't a problem - go play another class if you don't like it.

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Really? So going an entire raid fight w/o ever pulling a balance/arrow isn't a problem? (something I've actually had happen to me many times before) Pulling 4 spears in a row isn't a problem? Burning a 60 sec CD to get literally nothing accomplished isn't a problem? Knowing a tank buster is coming up but being unable to regularly cast your 10% dmg reduction isn't a problem?

Our whole schtick is our card system, and it's a mess atm.

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Originally Posted by Eudyptes

Really? So going an entire raid fight w/o ever pulling a balance/arrow isn't a problem? (something I've actually had happen to me many times before) Pulling 4 spears in a row isn't a problem? Burning a 60 sec CD to get literally nothing accomplished isn't a problem? Knowing a tank buster is coming up but being unable to regularly cast your 10% dmg reduction isn't a problem?

Our whole schtick is our card system, and it's a mess atm.

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Yes. Every card has a use.

And I thought Vlady's blind fanboyism was bad...

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Originally Posted by technole

I don't follow this statement. It doesn't cost any MP if it's an instant that gives you 3 Aetherflow stacks. If you were going to switch fairies mid-fight, there could be some strategic use of Dissipation and with the healing potency buff the SCH can make-up the lack of Embrace in that time. It can be a good progression tool in raiding. It's not perfect, but it's the SCH's emergency resources.

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Because it costs you 2k to resummon.
Dissipation is only useful for Dps. The buff doesn't even make up for loss of fairy and doesn't apply to aetherflow heals.
It's bad. Excessively situational at best.

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Originally Posted by AlaulaTheGreat

Oh man, I didn't know with Synastry I could double heal the main tank... This is... very very nice.

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Is this the case? The way I read it is that healing any other party member gave the Synastry'd person 40% heal. Does it in fact give the tank the bonus as well if you heal the tank?

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Originally Posted by Ananolf

The healing wars have begun. Do the tanks act this way? Is three a crowed for them?

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The tanks have fewer instances of straight copied abilities.

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Originally Posted by jojober

Is this the case? The way I read it is that healing any other party member gave the Synastry'd person 40% heal. Does it in fact give the tank the bonus as well if you heal the tank?

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yes...

but if you use it once, you don't have to use it one more time!
'cause you will have the space to heal others in the same time you heal your synastry-partner.....

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Originally Posted by RoseM

New patch made AST feels "dangerous": some of AST's skills now start to become more powerful than SCH/WHM in certain situations. Mana issue was a big reason AST were stopped from serious progression content. This patch didn't do anything related to AST's Mana management skills, but the problem was alleviated by giving several important healing skills potency boost, and bubble becoming useful. Regardless the quality of changes (lacks of originality :(), I think AST is usable in serious raid contents now.

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Not at all. Also your first point makes little sense since adlo and aspected benefic have different potencies and there you're only aribitrarily comparing their shields as % of the base potency for whatever reason. Adlo is 600 potency 70% of the time (if we go with 30% crit rate and assume that a crit enhances your skill by 50% of its base potency) and 1350 potency 30% of time = 825 avg potency. Aspected Benefic is 262.5 + 341.25 shield = 603.75 potency 70% of the time and 906 30% of the time when it crits = 694 avg potency. True, it's instant, but that's doesn't really change anything since it's on GCD. AST's regen now is on par with WHM's regen, it should've been this way from the start. Disable has 6 seconds duration but a lower cd than virus. It's in no way better or worse, it's just different and may be more or less efficient depending on mechanics.
Synastry is OP. It has to be. It's the only healing CD that increases an AST healing output and if we consider that AST has no oGCD abilities that can be conveniently used on CD like asylum/assize and all the fancy Aetherflow skills a SCH has (indomitability and assize are stupidly powerful emergency skills, deployment is the most powerful tool for damage mitigation ecc.), it's just fair. CU is now finally useful but it still poses restrictions that asylum/sacred soil don't, so you can't use it as freely. Again, fair trade-off.
Astrologian is now a real healer. It's not as good as whm or sch in their respective fields, which is fine since it brings more utility thanks to cards...unless rng really hates you. Each healer will be able to shine in particular encounters and I can see different healers combinations being optimal for different fights which was ultimately the dev's objective. Now only one issue remains: is AST capable of increasing the raid dps enough, be it via own's dps or party buffs, to be at least as desirable as sch for raid progression? I honestly have no idea and rng can be a real issue here. We'll know when the next raid is released I guess.

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Originally Posted by Zaj_Quilos

Yes. Every card has a use.

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If I keep drawing spires when my dps don't need it, it's no use. If I keep drawing spears, I'm just wasting my time. Let me tell you that dps don't love when we use cards on them that will mess their cd alignment. RNG is an issue and this is proved by the fact that SE gave as tools to control it. Sadly, these tools are not enough.

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Originally Posted by ckc22

The fact that astro now has an instant cast version of adlo that is significantly better 90% of the time makes me want to quit.

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Except they don't have Virus, or E4E, or Aetherflow, or a fairy.
So, I think we're still good. :V

What's up with this mentality of "ast isn't supposed to be good at anything plz nerf!" This is awesome, and its not like there is anything holding any other healer back from running content? This is a reason to celebrate, take your jealousy elsewhere you mongrels!

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Originally Posted by jojober

Is this the case? The way I read it is that healing any other party member gave the Synastry'd person 40% heal. Does it in fact give the tank the bonus as well if you heal the tank?

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Yes it is. Meaning you can choose to use a 573 potency shield on cd. Roughly ~critlo with 0 rng.

ckc22 wants to quit????? really?????

sorry.....that's just LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!


I just have to say it once again!
this is just resentment!!!!!
Where is your proudness?
Your Class is still very good!

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Originally Posted by Eudyptes

Or, and hear me out, you don't need certain cards at that moment and other specific cards are significantly more useful.

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Why would you pick an Astrologian if that was such a huge concern when not only has its always been advertised this way but even the lore of the job quests expects you to deal with the cards that you get. Won't let me post anymore - I meant why would you choose to play one, you, personally? It's never been advertised as being able to pick a card and I wouldn't want to be able to.

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Originally Posted by Kumori_Kumo

Except they don't have Virus, or E4E, or Aetherflow, or a fairy.
So, I think we're still good. :V

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Other people have e4e and virus. Fairy is nerfed.

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Originally Posted by jojober

Is this the case? The way I read it is that healing any other party member gave the Synastry'd person 40% heal. Does it in fact give the tank the bonus as well if you heal the tank?

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Yep it is exactly that.
Say I put Synastry on the tank, I heal the tank for 4000, then he gets healed again for 40%. Not entirely sure if this is a bug, cause the tooltip does not indicate that you should be able to do this. However people are saying the German and French tooltip is corrected for this.

ckc22 I dont really see your problem as SCH I feel not in the least bit threatened by AST or even jealous. AST recieved some of the buffs they needed and I wouldn't even be mad or anything if they recieved some additional work in 3.1.

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Originally Posted by Mog77

What's up with this mentality of "ast isn't supposed to be good at anything plz nerf!" This is awesome, and its not like there is anything holding any other healer back from running content? This is a reason to celebrate, take your jealousy elsewhere you mongrels!

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This is what happens when you design a class as "use other classes abilities".

Well this makes me pleased, I can finally play my AST for savage without major complaints.

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Originally Posted by ckc22

This is what happens when you design a class as "use other classes abilities".

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Shields and hots aren't final fantasy exclusives my friend