AST help you guys?

Mained SCH until 3.0, immediately went to AST because I love the idea of the class. I've read a few other threads and realize the immediate shortcomings that will hopefully be worked through like the Buff power vs reliability problem and the lack of emergency heals. And Celestial Opposition seems REALLY underwhelming. I was just looking for advice on how to maximize effectiveness with this fun and busy job until SE gives it some TLC. I feel like I burn too many cards waiting for the "Good combo/right time". Alongside Mana issues and just having trouble keeping up sometimes. Any pointers from fully lvld experienced Astros?

Just my personal exp

Don't burn too many cards, only the ones that you think are absolutely not necessary (like tp/mp on early pull), save spear card on spread & use it on yourself with Luminous Aether to shorten its CD.
Always heal in Diural sect. Nocturnal is a bit over-heal & waste more MP in long fights than you think. Also stick with Benefic I, only use Benefic II to catch up if tank HP is below 30%.

I also had problems with AST at first, but now I can freely DPS while healing in lv60 dungeons, & even BisEX (with a good team) without running out of MP before the fights end.

I've noticed similar things.

First, always try to draw between pulls for Royal Road. Don't toss too many cards, most can be used for something, and many can be used by themselves. As a general tip, if you get a useful card but don't have a Royal Road buff and don't need to Spread it for something like a burn phase, toss it on somebody. It's better to be getting constant buffs than it is to be throwing them away waiting for the perfect setup.

Spire - Generally I'll throw this away for Royal Road, unless we're in a fairly long fight. Don't both wasting any RR buff to use with this, other than maybe extended duration if you have literally no other option. The extra duration might actually make this one somewhat useful.

Ewer - Good to burn near the start of a fight as well for extra duration. But it can be great to keep if you know there's going to be a healing intensive part coming up. Also pretty decent to toss on a WHM or BLM if you don't need it at all. If you get this, don't toss it waiting for Spear. Pretty good by itself, great with extra duration, pretty damn good with extra potency as well if you time the use right. Don't use the AoE on this.

Spear - Mostly just use this on myself. I'll usually save it if I get it, so I can shorten my MP restoring ability's cooldown. If I've already used it and Spread is on cooldown, feel free to burn it for AoE bonus on your cards. You can use the AoE version of this either when the tank pulls because you know people will be using cooldowns, or during a burn phase. Other than that, don't waste any RR buffs on it.

Arrow - One of our best cards. Not really worth throwing away ever, unless you get it between pulls or at the very end of a trash fight and can't manage to save it with Spread. If this happens, sure burn it for AoE. If not, either toss it on somebody or Spread it for a more useful time or in the hopes you'll get the AoE effect. If not, it is never wasted even used single target. Good by itself, with extra duration, extra potency, but best with AoE.

Balance - Probably our best card. I usually toss this on which ever DPS has the highest health, because I don't have a parser and HP is an easy way of telling who is geared the most. Either toss it on somebody or save it for later. All buffs are fantastic with this card - Extended duration, extra potency, and AoE. Worst case like Arrow, you get it between pulls and can't save it, so then and only then do you RR it. Best used with AoE, but still great by itself, with extra duration or potency.

Bole - It's fairly decent. Can be worth saving if you know the tank is gonna be pulling a lot of enemies, or possible for a tank buster. But generally I burn this for the extra potency. 10% damage reduction isn't huge compared to the possibility of 25% bonus damage or attack speed/GCD/Cast speed. Best used with extra potency or extra duration, possible AoE if there's a lot of raid wide unavoidable damage, but generally your AoE effect is best saved for more useful things if you can.

Other than that, I'd say use Luminous Aether relatively early on (like 3/4 MP) and with Spear if you can. Keep your regen on the tank as much as you can, it's the best bang for your buck. Use your 40s CD instant heal (forget the name atm) fairly often, don't save it like Benediction. Although if you know there is spike damage during the fight, it can be worth saving for those times. Try to always draw right after a cast if you don't need to instantly cast another heal.

The others above me give mostly solid information. Here is some info I posted in another thread. The following are some of the things people complain about and think AST is a bad healer because they don't know how to play it right. Keep in mind this stuff is copied and pasted from another post of mine, so I'm not calling you a bad AST. I just kept the wording as is. AST has the highest skill requirement of any job to play efficiently.

1. A bad AST tends to think they have mana trouble, like I use to, until I learned how to play the job properly. Now I don't ever find myself out of mana even in a bad group for a long fight. This includes using Luminiferous too late rather than earlier, and using Benefic II too much after big damage when Benefic I will get them back up just fine before the next big damage comes, etc. Also, even after big party wide damage, if you have Aspected Helios up, you do not need to even use Helios. Just let the regen do it's thing and focus on tank. A bad AST panics too much and uses Benefic II and Helios more than what is needed.

2. A bad AST tends to believe the cards are too random and situational because they don't realize that about 80% of the time anything you draw is beneficial to the fight, or they are using the wrong buffs at the wrong time, or burning more than than they are using just to try and find a specific card, and they don't have proper use of spread and what to burn when. Around 70 to 80% of the time I can get and use something I want. A bad AST tends to not do pre-fight spread.

3. A bad AST does not make proper use of Time Dilation, Collective Unconscious, Synastry, Celestial Opposition, Disable, and/or Lightspeed. They may even neglect some of these altogether as though the don't exist, or think they are useless like Collective Unconscious. Let's take that last one as an example, which I find myself using multiple times every dungeon run. Here is a situation related to those large trash mobs. Aspected Helios the party, throw up Aspected Benefic on the tank, and a Bole if you have it (Bole optional), then Time Dilation on tank. Top tank up if needed. Now make sure you are in a spot where you won't be hit by AOEs. Pop Collective Unconscious and the regen on the tank is absolutely insane since they stack. It is a big contribution. Celestial Opposition + Gravity is a good combo. As one example take the large trash swarms in the Aetherochemical Research Facility. Disable should be used near the end of a cast, rather than earlier in the cast to reduce the chances of it being wasted on an auto-attack or timing out after an unexpected stun or other interference.

Also, read this for more info: http://guidescroll.com/2015/06/ffxiv-astrologian-guide/

He does not point out all of the stuff that I pointed out, but has really good info on use of cards, plus mana, and other little tidbits. There is a couple inaccurate things he points out, like when he says you should use Nocturnal if paired with a WHM. In reality, either Sect is good with WHM.

So when choosing a Sect, the following is what you should keep in mind:

If WHM go Diurnal or Nocturnal per fight basis.
If SCH go Diurnal.
If solo, Diurnal in most cases. Nocturnal is per fight basis.

I used to always put spear card into my spread and used it with lumin aether and another draw (24 sec draw cd).

However, I was a big noob and only realized recently that spreads do in fact work with royal roads. At first i thought that if i used RR then spread, my spread would forever be a royal roaded card. Then i thought royal road did not effect spread cards at all xD. I was wrong of course.

Currently, I always cast spread on either balance (10% damage buff) or arrow (10% atk speed increase), and then wait for the card i want. If i want aoe buffs i wait to get an arrow or spear, royal road it and then cast spread. Shuffle is also good to use at this point to seek the most useful card to royal road. If you are still unlucky and draw a different card, just throw it on someone and do not royal road it. You only want to royal road when it will be useful with the card in your spread.

So basically, when you have the royal road icon on you, it effects the next card you actually cast whether it be a card in your spread or a card you drew. Most people probably knew this but i leveled to 56 so far and didnt realize it till now haha. I find it much easier to maintain aoe atk speed buffs and damage buffs on the entire party now even with the rng.

Remember that Celestial Opposition extends the duration of Luminiferous Aether on yourself by 5 seconds as well. So I always try to time my usage of Celestial with LA so that I get maximum MP refresh.

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1. A bad AST tends to think they have mana trouble, like I use to, until I learned how to play the job properly. Now I don't ever find myself out of mana even in a bad group for a long fight. This includes using Luminiferous too late rather than earlier, and using Benefic II too much after big damage when Benefic I will get them back up just fine before the next big damage comes, etc. Also, even after big party wide damage, if you have Aspected Helios up, you do not need to even use Helios. Just let the regen do it's thing and focus on tank. A bad AST panics too much and uses Benefic II and Helios more than what is needed.

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Keeping the party topped off is extremely important in some fights, especially ones where someone could not dodge something and die if they were not topped off.

You can't always sit and wait for Aspected Helios to heal people. Also, where in the world are you getting these? You're just assuming other players do these things or something? Kind of rude, especially saying anyone who thinks ASTs have mana problems is "not playing the job properly."

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2. A bad AST tends to believe the cards are too random and situational because they don't realize that about 80% of the time anything you draw is beneficial to the fight, or they are using the wrong buffs at the wrong time, or burning more than than they are using just to try and find a specific card, and they don't have proper use of spread and what to burn when. Around 70 to 80% of the time I can get and use something I want. A bad AST tends to not do pre-fight spread.

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A bad AST can't properly judge the worth of cards and just uses them because they can't comprehend how they function, how best to use them or what tangible gains they actually provide.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-Needs-Changes

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3. A bad AST does not make proper use of Time Dilation, Collective Unconscious, Synastry, Celestial Opposition, Disable, and/or Lightspeed. They may even neglect some of these altogether as though the don't exist, or think they are useless like Collective Unconscious. Let's take that last one as an example, which I find myself using multiple times every dungeon run. Here is a situation related to those large trash mobs. Aspected Helios the party, throw up Aspected Benefic on the tank, and a Bole if you have it (Bole optional), then Time Dilation on tank. Top tank up if needed. Now make sure you are in a spot where you won't be hit by AOEs. Pop Collective Unconscious and the regen on the tank is absolutely insane since they stack, while at the same time you are damaging all of the enemies simultaneously each tick of CU's DoT. It is a big contribution. Celestial Opposition + Gravity is a good combo. As one example take the large trash swarms in the Aetherochemical Research Facility. Disable should be used near the end of a cast, rather than earlier in the cast to reduce the chances of it being wasted on an auto-attack or timing out after an unexpected stun or other interference.

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All this does is cripple your ability to contribute to the party's damage output.

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If WHM go Diurnal or Nocturnal per fight basis.

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Other Astrologians, and me, would almost always agree to never use Nocturnal right now. There is minimal to no value in it, due to how powerful Diurnal is over it. I completely prefer the shielding style of gameplay, especially Scholar, but it doesn't take long to realize Nocturnal is not up to par, at all. People (myself included) have already explained why this is the case, with actual math and numbers.

Just because people don't play the same way you do, does not mean they are "bad." Just because you *think* you're doing it the best way, doesn't mean you are. I would be less objective and negative on your statements. You can be helpful and give tips without calling every other AST who doesn't play the way you do, bad. At the very least, you can back up your statements with math or explanations rather than just "I do it this way cause it's the best", especially when it comes to cards. It's okay to have an opinion, like me, but don't go around calling everyone bad because they disagree with you.

Also:

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while at the same time you are damaging all of the enemies simultaneously each tick of CU's DoT.

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This ability doesn't even deal damage..............................

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Originally Posted by Crevox

Keeping the party topped off is extremely important in some fights, especially ones where someone could not dodge something and die if they were not topped off.

You can't always sit and wait for Aspected Helios to heal people.

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I'm pretty sure most people know this. I shouldn't of had to post a 'hand holding' baby post that points out these exceptions, because it should be obvious. After I posted it I actually thought about editing that in, but figured people would think I'm treating them like they're stupid. Obviously if you have someone in party that gets hit by every little thing then you need to top them off.

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Originally Posted by Crevox

A bad AST can't properly judge the worth of cards and just uses them because he can't comprehend how they function, or what tangible gains they actually provide.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-Needs-Changes

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I've already read your thread as well as every other AST thread on the forum. When I read it I facepalmed, especially the part where you say it is not the fault of the player and try to blame the job. It's the players' responsibility to learn the cards and RR buffs by heart. Most of your post undermines the job by comparing specific aspects to the other healers rather than looking at the job as a whole and its pros.

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Originally Posted by Crevox

All this does is cripple your ability to contribute to the party's damage output.

Just because people don't play the same way you do, does not mean they are "bad." Just because you *think* you're doing it the best way, doesn't mean you are. I would be less objective and negative on your statements.

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This is another one where you fail to read my post properly, and no it does not cripple anything in the right situations. As for reading the post correctly, you missed the words "example" and "situation". Nowhere did I say everyone has to use those abilities in those exact situations the same exact way or you're a bad AST. The bad AST part is this: "A bad AST does not make proper use of Time Dilation, Collective Unconscious, Synastry, Celestial Opposition, Disable, and/or Lightspeed. They may even neglect some of these altogether as though the don't exist, or think they are useless like Collective Unconscious." Everything after that I pointed out was an example/situation of use. You should of been able to grasp that before throwing insults.

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Originally Posted by Crevox

Other Astrologians, and me, would almost always agree to never use Nocturnal right now.

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There is no argument here. You're pretty much saying the same thing I said. Diurnal or Nocturnal points out that neither is detrimental when paired with a WHM's abilities, thus a player's use of either is at their discretion or what battles they might prefer Nocturnal if at all. It was pointing out that people that say you should go Nocturnal if paired with WHM is wrong as you can go either. I also usually always use Diurnal. I haven't used Nocturnal since level 54. This is another example of misreading part of my post.

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Originally Posted by Crevox

This ability doesn't even deal damage..............................

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After reading this and thinking you clearly don't know the spell very well, I determined either I have a beneficial bug or this was patched in one of the countless maintenances we've had since launch and I just never noticed. I went and checked the spell's tool tip and saw nothing about a dot, yet every time I have used it, all enemies within the field were taking dot damage from CU while any party members within were getting regen effect, and I even did control testing on it such as using it solo so I know the dot wasn't coming from someone else. This is really bizarre. The last time I used it, which was yesterday, the dot effect was still there. That, or it was someone else's dots and the dot from CU was patched, but not realizing it I thought I was still seeing my own.

CU does not apply a DoT effect. Unless the bug you're stating that is present with the skill is based off of race and/or gender, again, it does not apply a DoT effect. We haven't had a patch for about 4 days now.

Do you have status effects shown by others turned off?

CU has never applied a dot so I dunno where you're pulling that from.