Every time I decide to play Ast, I find a thread that destroys my enthusiasm.

Unless you're healing savage, it really doesn't matter.

(And even in savage, an AST is okay as long as it's partnered with a scholar. Scholar just op that way.)

Ast can be a lot of fun to play, and seems fairly interchangable with whm. I am personally not a big fan of the rng cards, but the rest of the class seems really smooth.

I feel kind of weak in 50 cap dungeons, but it can do the job.

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Originally Posted by basketofseals

Stun is only up every two minutes, while WHM gets theirs every pull, but balance is nice when you get it. My problem is that AST has to blow lots of cooldowns to do what the other healers can just do with the normal abilities. Again, it's not bad, it's just a lot of trouble for not really any pay off.

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Lets not forget healer balance here. AST draws the short straw (a little) when it comes to DPS as they can buff other DPS classes to do more damage. If they were to give ASTs DPS on par with WHM, what does WHM get to compensate that change? There's a reason why all jobs differ slightly, if you give AST the ability to do everything a WHM can AND have card buffs you practically render one of the most iconic jobs in this game useless.

I've played all healers in Savage and I can quite easily say AST requires nothing after the buffs they got. They are possibly the most difficult to play of the three healers, but that doesn't validate a need for buffs, it simply requires a skilled player behind the screen.

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Originally Posted by Kabzy

They are possibly the most difficult to play of the three healers, but that doesn't validate a need for buffs, it simply requires a skilled player behind the screen.

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I don't mean to play devil's advocate here, but isn't that a contradiction in terms when it comes to balance?
The very fact one healer class requires more skill to play for the same reward essentially tells you that it is not balanced...

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Originally Posted by Kabzy

I've played all healers in Savage and I can quite easily say AST requires nothing after the buffs they got. They are possibly the most difficult to play of the three healers, but that doesn't validate a need for buffs, it simply requires a skilled player behind the screen.

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The emnity management on AST needs some work. Whoever thought that putting quelling strikes effect on LA obviously never has played a healer. But apparently this is being looked into.

Other than that AST is fine at what it does. What needs work is now the mind set of the WHM+SCH meta as there are slight changes that need to be made on SCH playstyle when paired up with AST (i.e. How the SCH uses their moves when paired with an AST is slightly different to when paired with WHM).

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Originally Posted by Xienzato

I don't mean to play devil's advocate here, but isn't that a contradiction in terms when it comes to balance?
The very fact one healer class requires more skill to play for the same reward essentially tells you that it is not balanced...

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More skill doesn't always need to equate to more output. Believe it or not, there are some players out there who actually want to seek a challenge. It's more evident in DPS roles, some have a much higher learing curve, e.g. MCH, yet this doesn't mean they get to be top DPS. It's just another form of variety within the roles, I don't think any jobs have ever been top just because they're a little harder to play.

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Originally Posted by Kinseykinz

Do what makes YOU happy. F- the others. word.

Also, I have a 3 healers, and I like each for different things.

(...)

But it is a fun and dynamic role to play... but of the 3 healers,
it's the one that requires the most precision overall.
But if that fits your playstyle, then you will love it.

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Yeah right on :)

Im on my way to max out my AST as last healer of the 3. I started with Sch cause Smn was my main for a long time around. After getting used to be a healer right on 60 with no lowlevel experince i was kinda overwhelmed by the Sch skillmechanics. My first run as healer ever was ex roulette right after the 60 dngs were implemeted - that was really..."awesome" xD

But after a while i started to miss burst healing in "oh shit situations" so i switched to Whm which was kinda easy... cause in my personal opinion Whm is so much easier to play (even other say Sch cause of the feary but hmm not rly sure about that...) after maxing Whm i get a bit bored again... remembering my Sch time which was way more complex than running around with Reg and Holy spam... i thought "give Ast a chance without doubts" and guess what it was really worth it.

Everybody in here is just talking whats best for Savage... but there is so much more content all around, content casual players will spend much more time with as in raids. Im totally on Kinseys side - all of them are fun to play and all of us see different advantages for every cls depending of what your playstyle and goals in game look like. I play them all like Kinsey just for different matters.

im just glad that i gave a shit about those "endgame blablub" giving Ast a chance to line up with my other healers - cause otherwise i would have missed a complex cls, with different faces, so much possibilities and lovely skillmechanics - and just a sidenote: Ast animations beat all the others out of the park! ;)

Play what you like and in the end it doesnt really matter - cause all player i know so far which decided to take a healer as main... maxed the other two as well - trust me you wont be different ;) so its more a question with which of the three u will beginn :P

so long
Yuni