AST Anima stat allocation

Hey everyone. :)

I'm about to start working on the latest stage of the AST anima but I'm a bit hesitant since I don't know which direction to go with it. Maybe I just suck at looking for information on this kinda stuff but I haven't found much on the net concerning AST specifically.

I'm primarily a diurnal ast. Right now I don't do savage as ast (not sure if I ever will) but I do a bit of the ex primals. I know there's always a question of how much dps'ing would I really be doing and if that really warrants adding acc to the weapon. From what little I've seen in healer stat discussions, det is apparently not a very good addition for any healer anima (due to terribad scaling)? Crit's reliability is a bit meh, but then SS apparently has a lesser effect than det? It can help with super fast healing and apparently makes dots pretty strong after a certain threshold or something, supposedly.

I'd love to see more opinions on this and if there's even an optimal-ish build for the ast weapon at all.

Anything but spell speed. Considering you're not doing savage right now, you probably won't need the accuracy melds either. So there's not much choice left:
Piety if you prefer the potency/GCD value over MP/GCD spend
Vitality if you like that extra bit of buffer
Critical hit rate/det both have their ups and downs. Difference is rather minimal

Despite the criticism of Determination due to poor scaling, I'm personally putting in the 115 in DET simply because with my current gear and melds, its at a measly 512, while my Crit, SS, and Piety are considerably higher. I'm splitting the rest between Crit and Spell Speed, simply because I want to try and keep all my stats balanced. But as Lyrica said, Spell Speed probably won't need much attention for you, as we tend to get a lot of it.

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Originally Posted by Valmaxian

But as Lyrica said, Spell Speed probably won't need much attention for you, as we tend to get a lot of it.

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Well, no. Even with the availability of spell speed from armor in general, I'd advise to avoid it like the plague. Spell speed provides primarily subjective benefits, hardly any objective merits.

Consult the following topics where stat differences has been discussed several times:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...3-AST-Gear-BiS
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...T-Stat-Weights

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...r-stat-weights

This thread has actual testing done on stat weights posted around page 9 or 10, I believe.

Oh man, a stat thread. ._.

I'm not sure why people are saying SS is a no-go when some of the linked threads have evidence to the contrary?

Anyway. Here's what I'm thinking of doing: Det/SS. The five points I have left will go into crit or something. Crit is extremely RNG-based, and unless you're stacking it, you're not going to get a significant return out of it. (You should not stack crit as an AST. Some suggest it is useful in Noct, but not nearly the same as a SCH and you will be in Diurnal more often than not. Not to say it's useless though: I use it as secondary melds on my gear since you do get considerable SS from your gear's base stats.) For piety, AST has the best MP management in the game at this point, so this is useless. Accuracy, unless you're melding it and it is required by your raid group, is also pretty iffy. (You will also likely be the main healer alongside a SCH in most serious raid scenarios anyhow.)

Det directly boosts how hard your heals hit. This is the primary stat I stack, both in melds and when looking at base stats. I have somewhere around 780-790 det, and I am able to mostly solo heal many parts of Savage raids while our SCH pushes DPS. I have also out-healed my share if WHMs. SS not only affects cast timers (AST is the fastest healer in the game in Diurnal, so exploit that), but also has some effect on DoT/HoT potency; a huge amount of the healing you do will be dependent on your HoTs.

Ultimately it comes down to personal preference. Det is basically indispensable. If you don't like SS, Crit will give you a higher chance to proc mega heals (crit Essential Dignity ftw). If your raid really requires it (which it SHOULD NOT unless it's a world/server first group), accuracy is the best DPS stat in the game and healers hurt hard for it. Piety is just... kind of a waste no matter how you look at it.

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Originally Posted by Miyha

You should not stack crit as an AST. Some suggest it is useful in Noct, but not nearly the same as a SCH and you will be in Diurnal more often than not.

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Isn't crit really good for Diurnal AST as well because so much of the healing comes from regens and each regen tick can hit?

I don't play AST, but I've been thinking and talking about this with my healing partner who is AST and working on his relic. Seems like most information out there is controversial and I haven't been able to find the value of DET anywhere.

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Originally Posted by Taika

Isn't crit really good for Diurnal AST as well because so much of the healing comes from regens and each regen tick can hit?

I don't play AST, but I've been thinking and talking about this with my healing partner who is AST and working on his relic. Seems like most information out there is controversial and I haven't been able to find the value of DET anywhere.

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Det's pretty well known to be the primary stat of WHMs and ASTs. Comparing my healing power with my 225 AST friend, it's a pretty remarkable difference.

Crit is useful in that respect, yes. But as I said, it's still rng. You would have to sacrifice your Det, a 100% reliable boost to your healing (and a significant one at that), for crit to really make a difference, and even then I'd question if it can hold up to the constant boost det will give you. SS is also a guaranteed decrease to casting timers and a guaranteed increase to your HoT ticks. Like I said though, it may come down to preference. Det to me seems like a must; crit vs spell speed is a controversy still today, and both have their positives and negatives. If you want a slightly higher crit chance, go crit. If you want to be faster and have some extra potency on top of it, go SS. As a det/ss (with det/crit melds) AST healing A8S, I find that stat configuration pretty effective.

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Originally Posted by SleepyBee

if there's even an optimal-ish build for the ast weapon at all.

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There is, it's full Acc/PIE (same for WHM), but that's only if you raid Savage or do Extreme trials.

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Originally Posted by Miyha

For piety, AST has the best MP management in the game at this point, so this is useless.

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If you DPS in Extreme or Savage content like you should as a good healer, you will need the extra PIE, otherwise it's pretty useless, yes. Also, SCH MP management is still leagues ahead of both AST and WHM, and AST isn't actually that far ahead of WHM (even if you get the extra tick from LA consistently by aligning it shortly before server ticks happen), not enough for it to matter, anyway.

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Accuracy, unless you're melding it and it is required by your raid group, is also pretty iffy.

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Accuracy has by far the best stat returns per point (until cap) than any other substat in the game, and that is generally true for every job. There is absolutely no reason not to put it on your relic and meld it if you do Savage or Extreme content, especially since all the other substats are very meh in terms of return per point. Also, putting Accuracy on your relic allows you to meet hit caps without using pentamelded 220s while still melding your right side with Vitality V (which is still important in A8s and absurdly increases your survivability on all other floors).

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(You will also likely be the main healer alongside a SCH in most serious raid scenarios anyhow.)

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Being the main healer is no excuse not to DPS. I solo heal large parts of most fights as WHM and still push DPS as much as possible. A good healer duo can easily put out almost as much damage as a fifth DPS player would add, which is huge.

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Originally Posted by Miyha

Det's pretty well known to be the primary stat of WHMs and ASTs. Comparing my healing power with my 225 AST friend, it's a pretty remarkable difference.

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You're talking about constant DET boost and it being well known, but do you have actual numbers for the stat? Many sources I've read lately (such as this thread) say it scales pretty badly for healers since Heavensward.