Astrologian Issues??

So, I just got my Ast to level 50. Geared it a tad. i114. I didn't have ANY issues with it at all leveling to 50, but now...

I went into a Tam Tara hm earlier, the tank did the normal speed pull. We died in that first pull because I simply could NOT keep up with the damage. This is insanely frustrating as I'm i114 in level 50 base content. Am I simply playing this class wrong? I know how to use cards, Royal Road, etc etc.

Will stacking Spell speed help off set the time needed for Essential Dignity? I can't imagine it would help that much, but I just don't know yet. Or should I resign myself to telling tanks not to speed pull in hm runs simply because I can't keep up with it? :/ At least til I hit level 58 for the shield..

Has anyone else had a similar issue? Or is this just me being bad? Any help is appreciated!

Well, for starters:
Which sect were you in?
How were you using aspected benefic? Practical use of this will vary according to the sect you are using
How were you using Essential Dignity? The lower the health on the target, the more potent it gets. I've only eye-balled it so far, but if the target is near death ups the potency to 900-1050 (speculated number)
Do you have a bole card spread out in case you need it? Or perhaps an arrow/spear card for yourself?
Are you healing in lightspeed? If you were, don't. The GCD remains the same, but your healing output is reduced. If you HAVE to resort to this: Benefic II -> Aspected Benefic -> Lightspeed -> benefic II/stoneskin -> click off Lightspeed (single use only)

Hope this helps

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Originally Posted by Lyrica_Ashtine

How were you using Essential Dignity? The lower the health on the target, the more potent it gets. I've only eye-balled it so far, but if the target is near death ups the potency to 900-1050 (speculated number)

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It apparently scales linearly up to 1'000 Potency!

...and now I'm out again. :p

Definitely not the jobs fault, as I did plenty when I first hit 50. Your tank could of very well been the problem, gotta buff properly for large pulls. Also was it a drk? Alot of them have been ignoring they even have a defensive stance and letting the healers suffer.

As main whm I was never required to pop divine seal for a large pull, I would cause I could but it isn't needed. So astro is basically the same as a whm with slightly lower potency in diurnal. If you look at it that way maybe it makes more sense.

I would also ask the same thing as Lyrica up there. I've found that for the big pulls in that way, diurnal works better for me than nocturnal as it's 5% faster to cast and I can get the heals out quicker than in the other stance. Throw out a regen, then spam the heal, use the emergency heal when needed and it's never been an issue so far. Touch wood.

I feel like most people in this thread are posting before they've hit 60. The class is insanely weak once you hit that due to it's lack of any healing cooldowns what so ever. You're left to sit and spam benefic 2 for almost all content where the tank is taking a lot of damage and due to your very limited mana sustain you run oom very very quickly. Bismarck EX is very doable but now that I'm working on Ravana EX i'm really starting to see how weak the class is. Sure I'll be able to clear it but I honestly feel like a lot of our skills need changes to make them at least worth using. Lightspeed would be great if it didn't have a potency decrease (Why does this even exist when PoM is easily a better skill anyway?). Collective unconscious is another skill that REALLY needs some changes we lose our ability to cast and to move to do things that whm/sch can do without losing anything and even after sacrificing the ability to cast/move the skill is still weaker than whm/sch versions..?

cont from above ^

Then there's celestial opposition that is insanely situational I don't even understand the skill at all. It is only useful when you've royal roaded a card to be aoe and even once you've done that you need to at least hit everyone with it which is impossible because the range is so small and on top of all of this the skill is STILL bugged that it removes your food buff should you use it. I think that until AST gets some kind of change to our skills that give us more mana sustain we really won't be able to shine. There's all sorts of issues with the cards too that I just won't go into but it feels like SE overvalued the cards and toned the class too far behind the others. Without any sort of healing cooldown outside of essential dignity we're ridiculously weak in end game content and even this one that we have is on too long of a cooldown compared to tetragrammaton and lustrate (I know tetra is longer but WHM also have benediction, divine seal and PoM).

You're really much much better off taking a scholar and white mage right now. The cards just aren't worth the seriously lack luster healing the AST provides. I'm very open to see how everyone else feels. But this is how I feel about it coming into 3.0 as a healer main who has solo healed every piece of 2.x content on both whm and sch. Apologies for the multiple posts. I wrote a whole chunk without realizing there was a character limit on posts as I don't post often.

You're forgetting the OP is level 50 :P Celestial opposition isn't till 60.

As for noct/diur sects. I'm a bigger fan of Nocturnal Sect as it allows me to play a tad more aggressively, although it's more MP consuming.

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Originally Posted by Lyrica_Ashtine

You're forgetting the OP is level 50 :P Celestial opposition isn't till 60.

As for noct/diur sects. I'm a bigger fan of Nocturnal Sect as it allows me to play a tad more aggressively, although it's more MP consuming.

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This is one reason why I love the astrologian. I prefer the Diurnal sect, I like my regens and faster casting speeds. The class may not feel balanced yet at 60, but it's more the playstyle that makes it unique instead of how much it can heal in comparison to other classes.

Have you healed Bismark ex and ravana ex as whm or sch yet blitz? And what is your current ilvl?

Here is my take on AST.

The Job has potential, and there are moments when I am healing I feel fully in control of the situation, however this is providing damage intake is not massive. When I heal with WHM or SCH it just feels like I am always in control. What I notice is what others are stating. AST feels weak for some reason. I do find myself struggling at times. However when paired with a WHM I feel just like a WHM/SCH team. One compliments the other. In 4 person content it really depends on the group. If dps is fast I can sustain the healing. If dps is lacking then I find myself licking and choosing who and when to heal due to mana conservation. I am still intent on sticking with the job as I think it is heading down the right road, but honestly at this point I do think the job needs some help.

Here's my usual strategy for healing multi-pulls in 50 dungeons. I tend to run Diurnal Sect, though this is preference more than anything. Hit as many enemies with Combust II as I can before the tank's HP starts to dip. Then I toss a Combust or two, so I can switch off Cleric Stance oGCD. As the tank's HP starts to get pretty low, I'll hit them with Aspected Benefic followed by Essential Dignity, then Benefic II/ Benefic spam to keep them near full. This point is tricky, because if the tank or DPS take avoidable damage, you don't have resources to catch up until Essential Dignity comes back. Make sure to keep the tank healthy, and don't forget Synastry if you need spot healing but can't take your focus off the tank. If you're falling behind even with Aspected Benefic up and Benefic II spam, your tank may very well not be mitigating enough, but you might be able to turn the tides with Bole on the tank or Arrow on yourself.

Don't get discouraged, AST isn't as easy as WHM or SCH for healing/carrying reckless tanks. I've encountered several headstrong level 60 tanks of late seem to forget about level sync, pull hard, and neglect CD's entirely. If a tank is properly doing their job, you ought to have no problem being able to keep them up.

So I was doing the Sohm Al dungeon as ast with an FC friend (drk) and we had a summoner and dragoon with us. About a third into the last boss fight I disconnected and the party was still able to beat the boss (although with a little more pressure). So it would seem the new content is actually not so heal intensive -Healing the new content with ast has been fine so far. However doing some of the level 50 content (when level sync'd) can sometimes be problematic (especially if the tank wants to speed run) even some of the 8 man trials can be a nightmare for ast when the other healer dies. So my point is that ast has maybe been built for the new content.

edit: If the healing in new content is not so intensive, then it this may also serve to benefit whm and sch.

I prefer the nocturnal sect (and diurnal for certain more heal intensive fights) because the innate 5% potency is really good across all your heals (on par with whm potency) aspected benefic potency is 267.5 - which serves as a weaker emergency heal when needed. If you cross class cure (not that I do) the potency would be 420.

I actually really like the card mechanics. However I can understand how some cards are less useful than others. I actually wish they would incorporate some sort of "stance" with the cards to make them more useful. If you spead a card you receive a benefit as an ast while it is spread (whether a potency increase or another such benefit). So the party might not benefit from the card, but the ast will receive some sort of passive benefit/ skill from holding on to it. OR allow us to burn cards that would benefit the ast. If you draw a card that the party does not need, perhaps allow the ast to burn it to receive a benefit i.e. burn ewer so that the ast receives a 20% heal potency for 10s. This could make the cards more dynamic instead of just rng based.

There's gotta be more synergy with healing spells and Cards first of all. All the Cards, except BOLE are pretty much DPS based and No, I dont agree with healing faster/more just to go OOM faster. Instead give Ewer, give it a flat increase in healing potency, not mp reduction. It would be a lot more useful to "spread" it, saving it for a boss AOE/critical situation.

Or yes, even change shuffle to a useful skill, instead of just returning it to the deck, give you a buff for doing so. Why would I want to waste a skill just to send a Card back to the deck when the Cards are supposed to be useful??! just thinking about how poorly done some skills are is annoying.

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Originally Posted by Krixus

Have you healed Bismark ex and ravana ex as whm or sch yet blitz? And what is your current ilvl?

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I was i179 at the time and no I haven't i'm in the process of leveling them both now I have only been going off of what other healer mains have told me.