Your thoughts on Astrolgian so far?

I've gotta say, from what little I have seen thus far of Astrologian, it looks to be a really good middleman between White Mage and Scholar.

The job class intro was very interesting and I love how they introduced each card buff one by one instead of thrusting all six them at you at once. I admit, it was a little confusing at first but Im sure that's nothing a few dungeon runs and a few fiddlings of Draw won't fix in the future. :)

Can't wait to see more of the class as I climb through the levels!

Some of the card names aren't very intuitive imo...

Though after using them a billion times you will learn each effect

AST is very good and they have two accuracy ignoring DOTS :).

I actually memorised the cards before realising I'd only done one of the two level 30 quests. Was quite pleased to see they teach you the cards in the second quest, will definitely help some.

As for the gameplay- I was mildly interested until 35. Then Royal Road came into play and I just fell in love. I absolutely love the RNG of it all- taking gambles and seeing them pay off excites me to no end. Now I have Shuffle, and seeing how damn well it interacts with Royal Road is just... the entire job seems so well crafted.

Kudos, SqEnix. All I ever wanted was Dancer.... but this will do just fine til you decide to throw that in game ;P

In good hands, it seems to be slightly OP, but I think the moderately high learning curve will put all but the most dedicated off of it. I was concerned at first that it wouldn't be challenging enough for me, but having to make decisions on the fly about how and when to use your card abilities has given me more entertainment than I thought.

Started this morning just like everybody else. This healing on the fly is great. The rng for the draw/Royal Road is amazing. I didn't start to fully understand the capacity of the job until I really started paying attention to the fact that you can do aoe with cycleing through royal road. Once I figured that out the gates opened up, and the healing and buffs just got interesting. Great Job, and I am sticking with this.

I'm in love with the class. I mained SCH because of the utility it brings to the group. However, I've never felt like it brought enough support. With AST, I get the perfect middle point between juggling healing and supporting my team. I feel like the cards add an extra dimension to the gameplay and I actually have to think about what I'm doing instead of just mindlessly mashing buttons. Thank you so much SE for AST.

I am super duper in love with this class but the higher level I get the worse it seems to handle things, I am getting to the point where the lowered potency is simply not cutting it-bene2 spam with aspect bene and ED and they still die. Perhaps it wouldn't be as bad if I didn't also run out of MP so fast. If you're gonna give me weak heals at least make them cheap T^T Maybe it's just overconfident tanks pulling too much and I am unlucky, idk.

That being said everything else I am in love with. Cards are fantastic! Everything is gorgeous! It's just about exactly what I hoped it would be. There is depth and complexity with the cards and using then is very engaging to me. I can't wait till I have shuffle! (lvl 43 atm)

The potency thing is really killing me though...when I first heard about it I assumed that only the spells affected by sect would be weaker but even the baseline benefic is weaker than cure. The bene2 proc and lightspeed just scream 'oom coming' and the loss of potency on lightspeed can be a pain (though it has great uses, marvelous concept really). I have decided to at least get AST to 50 to compare to my whm and sch though, a leveling comparison seems unfair. Also Ascend isn't working in macro for some reason? I umpteen checked the spelling...

Tried healing some harder things like ifrit ex and fcob.
Got to 50 already so atm it feels like there's something missing tht should be there at level 50.
Feels a little lackluster but imo i'll have to see it thru till 60.

i have only one trouble, it's disable, i feel this skill is a junk, even with the later trait, the fact to have a skill with a 60 sec Cooldown, that only reduce the damage of the next attack of 5-10%.... it's way too weak!

for the potency, i wait to see around 50 for see... but i admit the balance of the jobs seems kinda strange, the aspect are too weak for be really helpfull. with the other jobs it was kinda fast possible to alternate dps and healing, here.... it's harder to have time for this. the jobs need to be improved maybe on this aspect.

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Originally Posted by silentwindfr

i have only one trouble, it's disable, i feel this skill is a junk, even with the later trait, the fact to have a skill with a 60 sec Cooldown, that only reduce the damage of the next attack of 5-10%.... it's way too weak!

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It's a unique debuff that stacks with DK storms and all the other mitigation. It's invaluable.

I have a question, I saw on another site that they can't use cleric stance is this true

They cross-class skills from THM and CNJ, so yes, they can use Cleric Stance.

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Originally Posted by loreleidiangelo

They cross-class skills from THM and CNJ, so yes, they can use Cleric Stance.

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Thats good, guess that site just missed adding the ability

Absolutely loving this class. I managed to level 30 to 44 yesterday before bed and work today called and not once have I been bored. I love cycling through my cards to get a balance and make sure it hits all the party members thanks to royal roading that spear or arrow previously.

I just want to go home now and get to 50 and start enjoying the rest of the content. I've got the other healing classes to 50 prior to the expac and such but this one is definitely going to be my main from now on.

Most white mages are rerolling astrologians. Speaks well of how popular this job will be. And most likely one scholar lol.

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Originally Posted by MagnificentOxen

It's a unique debuff that stacks with DK storms and all the other mitigation. It's invaluable.

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sadly with how work the game that don't work at all. indeed if everything was fine and all it can be nice. however, 3 point that make it a perfect garbage:

1) with how work the game, if you cast it on a target that have already begin him cast for him attack, the skill will not affect it. but affect the next attack
2)you must target the monster while healing for be able to use it, making hard to use it for when it's needed.
3) it not only affect special attack but auto attack too.

with this sole 3 point it make the skill a pure garbage, especially with a low -10% of reduction of damage. we don't even know if it stack with eyes for an eyes or the warrior debuff. even if that the case, with the fact it affect only one attack (auto attack inclued) make it near to impossible to really use it. with this long CD, plus the mechanic behind -10% of damage is far too low for explain all.

look at the number is nice, look at how the skill work is better. if the skill was only affecting the special attack, maybe it will have a redeeming point, but that not the case.

the skill simply can't compare storm's path (no cd + 20 sec duration for a flat reduction of damage of 10%) or an eyes for an eyes (180 cd + duration of 20 second + the fact it can affect multiple target for more of 40 second for one more time a flat reduction of damage of 10%).
Disable is a 60 CD, for 1 attack affected on one enemy with a duration of 20 second for a reduction of 10% is far too low or.... i can't find the better word for describe it than garbage.

I'm liking it so far, at level 32 now but I think I'll like it more at 50 once I have everything as I miss Regen and so on. Played awhile last night and liked it a lot. Are there any cards that should generally always be used on a certain class over others? Like I've played Bard, Black Mage and then WHM is my primary but I've never played a tank or have any idea if they use MP or TP or if Machinest uses TP (I assume?). So just wondering are there certain cards that typically should go to one job or class over another? I did Haukke Manor a couple times so generally the balance card to up attack power I'd rotate among the 2 DPSs, but wasn't sure if the tank or DPS benefits more from the attack speed increase cards and so on? My favourite thing though with AST is the animations!

Not sure if I like it enough to switch from my beloved WHM but will get it to 50 at least and see how it is. I did Titan HM before bed as WHM and party was awful, all would go over the side and the healer somehow had only level 45 gear and was in it, no idea how so had 2300 HP and would die instantly, so solo healed it with 2 tanks and 1 DPS and we managed to do it. That was definitely one of my proudest moments :) So I sort of feel like I'm cheating on it now haha. Torn between bringing it to 60 or doing AST. At least I'll be busy for a LONG time now :D

Can anyone share how are they using Royal Road? Im still not sure if im using it in the right way. Do u use it only with certain cards? or always you can? thx

The cards really make this class. I love buffing my DPS friends.

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Originally Posted by Arcana

Can anyone share how are they using Royal Road? Im still not sure if im using it in the right way. Do u use it only with certain cards? or always you can? thx

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Fire and Earth are enhancement (potency), Water and Lightening are extension (duration), Ice and Wind are expansion (party aoe). I usually Road, Spear (Ice) and Arrow (Wind) for expansion on Bole (earth) and Balance (Fire). If I'm having bad draws (I seem to draw Spire; Lightening alot) then I'll just road it and extend Water or Earth. I seem to draw Balance the least lol which is the best one.

AST plays similar to WHM but it can also buff the crap out its allies,. So i don't see why im going to stay WHM. The only major abilities AST lacks over WHM is cure 3 and Divine Seal.

My take on Ast so far is that they bring quite a bit of utility, but their throughput as a healer is lacking compared to WHM/SCH. This is not only due to all spells simply having lower potency, but not having the abilities needed to increase potency when needed.

- Not having a Divine seal type or any buff to potency is a 30% potency loss
- All heals potency is lower than whm/sch (especially regen/shield spells)
- AST burst healing ability is a -25% potency spell to make spells instant (MP issues)
- Regenerates MP just like/same amount as WHM (but uses significantly more MP)
- Free Cure is replaced with 15% chance for an instant (Situational and high MP cost)
- AOE is lack luster (Holy duplicate but without stun)

Throughput of healing needs to be buffed in line with other healers. Both WHM/SCH have other abilities to offer to offset the utility of AST.
AST will perpetually be a back-up healer that pairs better with a WHM. (Since shields will not stack w/ scholar.)

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Both WHM/SCH have other abilities to offer to offset the utility of AST

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What exactly does WHM have over AST if AST can completely match WHM's healing output.

BTW when it comes to Regens AST's regen effects are strong, almost equal to WHM
They have a 30 sec 50 potency regen, a heal with a 100 potency regen attached. Collective unconscious is 150 potency regen over 18 seconds.
Dinural Aspect benefic is just better compared to Regen. Because Aspect benefic immediately heals .

When it comes to potency of immediate heals, AST has medica, but no Divine seal or Cure 3.

Regen Stance AST healing output is close to SCH (because SCH don't have a spammable Medica, they have like 2 medica a minute) but they lack the shield strength of SCH.

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Originally Posted by sharazisspecial

What exactly does WHM have over AST if AST can completely match WHM's healing output.

BTW when it comes to Regens AST's regen effects are strong. But when it comes to potency of heals, AST has medica, but no Divine seal .
Regen Stance AST healing output is close to SCH (because SCH don't have a spammable Medica)

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AST can't meet the healing output of SCH or of WHM on paper, simply because their heals have lower potency. SCH also now has an insta-cast Medica (Indomitability) and the ability to make Succor into a pure HPS ability with no shield component.

AST offers a lot, but I don't think healing output will be/is equivalent to WHMs or SCHs.

Indomitably and shield>HP both have 30 second cooldowns.
So SCH can burst a little (700) but then are left with succor (150). Whereas Diurnal AST get 2 aoe regen(150+50) and a spammable (290) potency medica.

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Originally Posted by sharazisspecial

Indomitably and shield into HP both have 30 second cooldowns.

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That doesn't matter. They still factor directly into HPS when needed.

Sure, AST can spam Helios, but HPS =! eHPS.

The spammability of a skill doesn't make it effective, necessarily. I've never been part of a fight where I've needed to spam Medica (outside of cheesing that one turn in coil) or needed more output than Succor+WD combined with a WHM Medica 2.

Point for point, AST has lower healing capability than both WHM or SCH; however, they make up for this with versatility and buffing capacity.

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Originally Posted by sharazisspecial

AST plays similar to WHM but it can also buff the crap out its allies,. So i don't see why im going to stay WHM. The only major abilities AST lacks over WHM is cure 3 and Divine Seal.

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White mage is still better at pure healing and always will be. If you wanna be a pure healer white mage will always be the best for that.

Well in 2.0 healing output needed was kind of forgiving, most fights were just DPS checks.

It may off changed in Heavensward extreme Raids. We will see.

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Originally Posted by Ambivalence

My take on Ast so far is that they bring quite a bit of utility, but their throughput as a healer is lacking compared to WHM/SCH.

Throughput of healing needs to be buffed in line with other healers. Both WHM/SCH have other abilities to offer to offset the utility of AST.

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This is the design, so sorry dawg. They're the ultimate wingman, and when they have to stand on their own it's done through the buffs they do. If they matched potency with the other healers they'd straight beat 'em, so they can't get an output buff.

I healed some more trials and damnn, ur kinda screwed/ cant carry like a whm or sch if ur co healer dies on u. Solo healing atm is pretty hard as ur not a bursty party healer, more of a single target healer. You go oom if u spam helios / aspected helios & spamming it with lightspeed isn't tht effective.
Like healing thru t12 flames cast ( during adds phase ) is hard lol
Ik its new etc but to struggle a little like this in old content is kinda hmmmm level 60 stuff will be interesting

When I heal on AST, it feels like I'm healing as WHM with Cleric Stance on. I like the job, but the healing sucks. Gotta keep spamming heals. It's a fun job.. but WHM is definitely the best healing job. I think SE should buff AST.

Looks like Piety might be one of their prime stats for itemization in that case.

SCH: Barrier.
WHM: Burst.
AST: Support.

EDIT: Nevermind this, I'm seeing some concerns now.

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Originally Posted by Arcana

Can anyone share how are they using Royal Road? Im still not sure if im using it in the right way. Do u use it only with certain cards? or always you can? thx

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Reroll cards you don't want, or during downtime when you aren't fighting/a fights about to end so that you have a fresh rr card at the start of the next fight. Don't reroll just for the sake of rerolling. I guess my own thoughts would be....

Bole: Reroll if the tanks not really taking any damage.

Ewer: Cast on self on bosses, reroll on trash. UNLESS there's a black mage. That's more damage for him.(Do drks want this? Not up on their mechanics)

Spear: If you roll at the start of a fight it's great for any tank or dps with lots of cds like bard or machinist. Because they're going to open with cooldowns pretty reliably. Mid fight I don't know what's been used so I reroll.

Spire: Getting rerolled a lot(A common trend at low levels it seems...), but will be great at higher levels. Once people start aoeing it'll be amazing. Probably also a safe bet with any warrior. I hear they like their tp.

Arrow/Balance: Never reroll if the fights going to last the full 15 seconds.

If I get a less than ideal card while I already have the rr buff I've decided I should just use it. Unless it's ewer. Because this afternoon I drew bole, rerolled bole again. Then rerolled and got bole AGAIN. Ok game, I get the message, I'm fishing too hard for arrow/balance, I'll cast bole.

Then the game gave me bole for my next two draws after that, just to make sure I learned my lesson.

What do you think about Diurnal Sect? Nocturnal Sect seems better even for soloing i think.. I've never seen the regen from the Diurnal..

Astrologian should not have the potency of the spells they cast boosted. They unfortunately made an astrologian be sort of a jack of trades in the healing biz and already outshine white mages as it is. If you give them same potency healing as a white mage then just delete the white mage.

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Originally Posted by Vlady

Astrologian should not have the potency of the spells they cast boosted. They unfortunately made an astrologian be sort of a jack of trades in the healing biz and already outshine white mages as it is. If you give them same potency healing as a white mage then just delete the white mage.

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Go. Away.


Anyway I love AST so far. I like the healing spells they have and stuff and junk. The only thing I don't love is Stella. I like the animation I just haven't found much use out of it besides soloing. Which I guess is the point of it but it just seems... Blah. Only level 43 though.

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Originally Posted by Superlol

What do you think about Diurnal Sect? Nocturnal Sect seems better even for soloing i think.. I've never seen the regen from the Diurnal..

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???

How can you miss it? Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios apply them, and they are impossible to miss.

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Originally Posted by VanilleFang

Go. Away.


Anyway I love AST so far. I like the healing spells they have and stuff and junk. The only thing I don't love is Stella. I like the animation I just haven't found much use out of it besides soloing. Which I guess is the point of it but it just seems... Blah. Only level 43 though.


???

How can you miss it? Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios apply them, and they are impossible to miss.

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But yet if you have your way you would have astrologian outheal white mages and outperform scholars in utility and damage. Sorry but you cannot have your cake and eat it to. Why should astrologian be better then the other two healers at everything?

Absolutely had to stop at 49 tonight unfortunately :/ got things to do. That being said.... I love this class. I feel like it was made for me. but it is certainly not without trouble,,,,,

If the higher level pre-50 dungeons are any indication then AST will have huge issues later on and in a raid setting. They leak MP like a sieve trying to keep anyone up for extended periods of time (this isn't easily apparent at lower level dungeons unless things go horribly wrong, but noticeable in DD and AV) Their mp recovery is as whm's shroud- doesn't increase efficiency with mp pool like aetherflow does. It has a quelling strikes ability attached to it as well, instead of the half-current-enmity on shroud. When I have to pop this and spam heals the quelling is sometimes not enough to keep agro off of me at all.

'But you have ewer to help with mp!' I hear you cry. Well that card is random, and you can't guarantee it. I try to spread an ewer whenever I can to have it for nasty trash/bosses but sometimes I won't get one in all the trash before a boss. More upsetting is when you die your spreaded card is wiped, if you wipe on a boss you can't have any spread card at the start of a retry since you have to be in combat to cast it. I love the buffs AST has, the cards and all the spells that interact with them are great. But if ewer is being used as a reason why their small heals cost the same truckload of mp for less efficiency then we have a problem- this amount of rng isn't good to base something as essential as your own mp sustainability. (someone mentioned they weren't sure if this was good for drk? its amazing for drk btw)

I don't necessarily mind the heals being less potent per se. It's the cost that upsets me. The class is designed around pumping out a large number of weak spells- lightpseed, benefic2 proc, and 2 instant heals. It simply is unsustainable. Would you pay a dollar for a quarter pound burger when the guy next door offers a third pound burger for a dollar too? I wouldn't, but I might pay 85 cents.The mp costs need to be looked at. I will make a better analysis when I hit 50 and can do some easier comparisons to my other 50 healers in the same gear. And compare nocturnal sect.

The skillcap on AST is very high. Keeping people up with your weak heals, managing the four spells with your cards efficiently, and tossing out dps when you can is a great deal to balance and manage. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone who hadn't played a healer before, it would be overwhelming especially if they didn't have any experience with mp management from whm. I do, and it's still tough (in a way that I like though I find it engaging and busy). I hope to reserve final judgement till I can test out some lvl 50 8-man stuff to compare with what I know of whm and sch but this was my impression sofar.

Mantra + war hp + coven = op noct shield thts insta cast.
Heals like a cure 1
Cheaper than benefic 2
342 mp vs 304 mp
Shield = to hp restored.
Remember that