biggest thing is while your waiting for the minor buff.. You have sub par healing.
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I adore AST. It's everything I hoped for. It's obviously an advanced class which will take a while to learn. Some will pick it up faster than others. I hope the population will be patient with new Astrologian's.
The spell effects are beautiful. The only downside for me is the card deck holder, I don't really like it but it's a minor gripe. Overall I'm happy!
This^^
Some people do not understand it and think I am complaining just for the sake of complaining - but I do think there is a very real problem here.
Saying that an astrologian should be weaker because of their rng buffs and versatility is just not a satisfying answer imo. A whm gets more healing out per mp than any other healer - their utility is now further enhanced through more dps potential. A sch is an mp fountain, their pet (which I assume is now also affected by food buffs) is a free heal over and above their mp regen abilities.
Astro seems to be perfectly smack dab in the middle of the three healers, yet brings their own unique trick into the pool to add to the benefit of playing. Plus, they can hold their own if solo healing if played the right way.
Their card buffs are invaluable as well; they might not seem like much as first but combine them with the right Royal Road at the right moment and you got one heck of a saver.
Example: The Ewer + Extended Royal Road on healer or caster = Less mana cost which adds to more time to dish out spells before your pool runs low. Combine with with a mana regen ability coming off CD and you can turn a bad situation around real quick.
Lvl 54 AST. I have been thinking about the exact same thing:
AST: 5% party attack speed boost, 15sec duration, small radius, 60secs cooldown, High skill required (think on the fly, quick finger, lots of buttons to press)
Selene: 3% party attack speed boost, 30sec duration, medium radius, 60secs cooldown, Low skill required (1 button to press, u can even set her on auto mode)
Okay, based on the above observation, please show me why AST isn't complete trash??
People have been saying AST is a fancy class with high skill level required for high reward. But so far I could only see the skill level part, and I highly doubt the reward part...
You get 20% mana reduction.
You can cast 8 spells in 20 seconds, 7 to be more realistic.
say the spell costs 300mp you save 60mp per cast x7 = 420 MP savings....
You only get around 1-2 extra spell cast
Not to mention, you have to cast more heals to get as much output as the other 2 healers.
That's efficient ?
WHM < SCH < AST
In terms of what's fun to play with. WHM has heals, SCH has heals and Eos/Selene and AST has heals and cards. Introduce the Lu Bu of healing jobs and I'll still roll the one I find more enjoyable to play with regardless if it's "harder"to play with endgame.
Honestly what AST to me needs, the buffs all need to last 30 seconds.
100% uptime on at least some type of buff. Would go farther in making up for lack of healing.
There is a difference between harder to play and being viable, back when game first came out... I argued the exact same thing between the tanks as here in healers..
Is AST raid viable ?
PLD.. was the only tank 95% of the guilds would touch for coil till SE finally changed WAR.
AST isn't bottom of barrel like WAR once was, not even close, but is it as viable as having a WHM/SCH in new content ?