Still Having Issues in A1s

Im ilvl193 and I am partner with a whm on our savage runs. I am having mp issues befor the first proton beam. I have tried Both stances and conserving mp and using all my cds. Light speed for the rappid aoe heals and synastry after add phase.

The major issue im having is keeping my tank up while healing bomb targets. With only 1 instant heal every 40sec makes this really rough. Might get lucky and get a insta bene2 but cant rely on it.

Any astros doing A1 that can give me some pointers?

Also last week be for the buffs I didn't have this issue and we got to 15% pretty reg (dps was not enough) but this week we didnt get close even with all the potency buffs we got. :confused:

Hey!

Unfortunately I have a SCH partner so the play it is a bit different - just a quick question before I respond - are you running a BRD/MCH in your composition? And what tanks are in your comp?

I'm paired with a SCH and I'm solo healing the phase pre-split in Diurnal, and I do the following:
Aspected Benefic on the MT and I'm healing him normally with Benefic until the first AoE blast goes off. I do an Aspected Helios after the blast and I use Synastry on my MT for the first prey. For the second prey, I use Lightspeed to conserve MP. After the split, I'm healing my tank normally and doing Aspected Helios after the AoE blasts. For preys, I use Synastry on my tank and I heal my assigned prey target; if my tank gets prey, I use Synastry on the other tank. I pop Luminiferous Aether whenever it's up and I extend it with Celestial Opposition. On phase 1, I use it around the time the Oppressor casts his Resin Bombs and I'm usually around 9K on the split. Our Bard sings the MP song during jumps and I use Collective Unconscious when we get to the corner.

There's a Royal Fount directly after the Resin Cast bar, please make sure you top up the tank right after that attack before the Oppressors perform their Lasers + Gunnery Pods + Preys.

If you do not top the tank back up from that particular Royal Fount, you'll always be 1 GCD behind, and that can be extremely difficult to work with due to the tight timings of Prey + Royal Fount + Hyper Compression.

Also Synastry.

When I was paired with a WHM, I did the same thing after the split and the only change is that I was DPSing on phase 1. What I did to conserve MP while DPSing is using Aero as a cross class. Adding Aero to your rotation will save a lot of MP since it's the same damage as one Malefic II for about half the cost.

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Originally Posted by silverhope

The major issue im having is keeping my tank up while healing bomb targets.

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You use synastry? If not, try this ;)

I've done A1S with both an AST and a SCH.

You should be using Synastry on your tank and healing your prey target (so 2 people per healer). I have my static SCH/AST call out which prey target he is taking and I do the other. A prey target typically does not need more than 2 heals (unless their add is still alive) before you switch back to your tank, it's about 2 GCDs before the cleave comes out.

I generally save my instant heal (Tetra) for my tank to use after I have healed my prey target twice, then I generally throw another Cure onto my prey target if they are not above 75% 'cause I don't want the AoE to kill them.

Your tanks should both be popping out cooldowns for this phase, as your attention is focused primarily on your prey target. They should also be rotating who takes the bigger hit for the tank buster. WAR should Holmgang 1st and 3rd, and the PLD/DRK uses Hallowed/Living Dead on the 2nd.

When we first started clearing, we would actually see the enrage. Since the enrage happens after another set of adds after (I believe) their 3rd or 4th landing. We would ignore the adds completely and have the WHM (myself) basically pick them up, run around, and die, lol. By keeping the buggers distracted, we managed to beat it by the skin of our teeth.

...

And we have seen nothing but Bard loot since that day. (Seriously, our Bard is already i200 and everyone else has just passed i195 this week. ._.)

Use Sinastry.
Once double prey pops up, don't panic and throw one or even two heals to your tank, 6 seconds is a lot before prey starts happening. Then switch to your pray mark and unleash all your healing fury there. Go back to the tank, cast disable on the opressor and you should have time for at least landing one heal. The tank will topped due to sinastry.

If you are having mana issues with AST, it's because you are panicking and making use of benefic II or aspected benefic more than you should. The regular benefic mana cost is totally laughable (costs far less mana than Cure and physick from the other healers) so even if you spam it you are never going have mana issues.

Gallus might be on to something at least I was having the same problems on my first few rounds in A1S as AST. I was out of mp really fast and the lack of ewer cards wasn't helping (damn you spire :P). We did it with SCH and AST. The most likely conclusion is that you are panicking and throwing unnecessary high cost heals. But as general tips as the other have said.

1. Use Synastry during double prey.
2. Don't forget disable!
3. Lightspeed when you know you have to heal alot to save mp.
4. Don't save LA until you're really low on MP. You can start using at around 8-9k mp.
5. Use Collective Unconscious after resin bombs during jump phase.
6. Don't forget you can use Celestial Opposition to extend regen effects too.

If you're already doing this you might need to ask your healing partner to heal a bit more if that is a possibility.

I never had MP issues as AST in both Nocturnal and Diurnal. Knowing the exact phases helps a lot when it comes to cooldowns.

From what you said you seem to have issues in P1 (most likely you are healing solo), here's a little breakdown :

Assuming Diurnal Sect :
Spam ONLY Benefic 1, i'm ilvl193 too and it's enough, even if sometimes a little Benefic 2 instant proc can be useful, don't use it too much.

Big AoE -> Aspected Helios
Hydrothermal missile (Prey) Start casting Benefic 1 on Prey target before the 1st missiles comes down, Lightspeed, 2 Benefic 2 on prey Target, Essential Dignity on the Tank, start healing the tank again
Big AoE -> the first A.Helios is still running, don't heal the raid
Photon Spaser -> No one takes damage, top off people too low on health with Benefic 1 while placing yourself for...
Resin Bomb -> Keep A.Benefic up on the tank while running
Photon Spaser -> Light a smoke or if people are too low on health, start casting Aspected Helios before the...
Big AoE -> Aspected Helios OR Helios if you precasted A.Helios
Emergency Deployment (ADDS) -> Take care, don't get Mini. You can throw an additionnal Helios here if things are going a little south.
Hydrothermal Missile (Prey) -> Synastry the tank, start casting Benefic 1 before the first missile hit, then 2 Benefic 2, Essential Dignity on your tank if he's taking too much damage, he REALLY needs to be topped of for...
Big AoE-> Helios
Big AoE -> Helios
Photon Spaser -> Aspected Helios, start casting Helios again for
Double Big AoE, P1 done, 0.5 comes say hello.

Ofcourse pop LA when you're around 9k MP. Alternatively, you can pop Synastry on the FIRST prey, and Lightspeed on the second to be allowed to replace yourself easily for the double big aoes followed by the Photon Spaser. Might even be better to reduce the cost of that nasty Helios spamming but in return Synastry increases the potency of your Helioses so... i don't know, both are good.

(sorry for "Big AoE" i can't remember the name of this ability, the cannon barrage like thingy)

It's the same, every fight. Note that i've not done this fight a lot POST-ASTbuff, hence the late use of Synastry and some ED that might not be necessary i don't know. But overall, it shouldn't be too different.
Also note that I pretty much always engage with AoE Spear+CO, and pop LA in the last seconds of the buff, allowing it to come back a little sooner.

If you didn't overreact you should be well over 50% mana and LA coming soon after the beggining of P2.

P2 is pretty much the same idea, except that there's now two people healing the big AoEs and only one Prey phase per Jump. Synastry the tank, Benefic1 2x Benefic2 on prey target, Essential dignity the tank before the Hypercompressed Plasma (tankbuster), rinse and repeat.

Disclaimer : Might not be the best way to do it, might even be a TERRIBLE way to do it, but it worked for me so... meh.

thank you all for the ideas. I will try out synatsy for double prey and try not to panic so much and see how it works out!

Questions before answers.

Are you in Diurnal or Nocturnal? Do you pop Luminferous Aether & Celestial Opposition at the start with your expanded Balance/Arrow? Do you always use Luminferous & Celestial Opposition in tandem with each other? Aside from that, what is your WHM doing?

I have no issues with MP in AS1 and I've healed as the primary healer (like a WHM) with a SCH prior to the buffs, and now I'm healing with a new WHM. For Double Preys the easiest way to heal it is like everyone said, Synastry on the tank you're responsible for, then double Benefic II on prey target and switch to tank. Precasting Benefic II so that it lands after two Prey missiles will help btw, since this will put you a second or two ahead in healing, which gives you a GCD or two to top off the priority tank as one of them should be using Holmgang/Hallowed/Living Dead.

For our latest attempts we tried noct stance since I was doing a bit to much over heal ( from precasting aspet heli) From waht everyone is saying I should wait and cast till after the aoe went off. When I did use dirunal I would pop aoe balance (in a perfect world) with Celest. I will have to start using lumni with celestial from now on. My whm partner is haing some issue as well with mp so I think were still figureing out how to work together and not waste so much mp. The synasty idea everyone has is a great one that never dawned on me. I always used it after add phase to top both tanks befor the beam but they would get hit hard than bombs and I was oom. >.<

Remember that the prey target comes out right after a large AoE, you don't have to top the group off right away, get your tank and prey target up safely with synnastry, then top the group off.

As for mana, make sure your BRD or MCH has mana regen playing during the jump phases, no reason not to since there's nothing to hit.

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Originally Posted by silverhope

For our latest attempts we tried noct stance since I was doing a bit to much over heal ( from precasting aspet heli) From waht everyone is saying I should wait and cast till after the aoe went off. When I did use dirunal I would pop aoe balance (in a perfect world) with Celest. I will have to start using lumni with celestial from now on. My whm partner is haing some issue as well with mp so I think were still figureing out how to work together and not waste so much mp. The synasty idea everyone has is a great one that never dawned on me. I always used it after add phase to top both tanks befor the beam but they would get hit hard than bombs and I was oom. >.<

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I come from Aion, so the terminology of pre-casting is not getting the HoT effect before damage goes out so I'll speak in long winded terms.

If you are starting the cast so that your heal hits a few milliseconds after damage is applied to HP bars, then go ahead and pre-cast Aspected Helios and whatnot, but if you're not, shift the way you heal so you're healing right as AoE damage hits as this enable you to benefit from the initial 200 potency; however, since you are with a WHM I'd highly advise your White Mage to actually do the AoE healing portion as Divine Seal + Medica II is more than sufficient to top everyone off to around 80% ~ 100% (excluding tanks) before the next Gunnery Pod.

But anyways for some general healing tips and synergy, in your opener you can neglect healing the first Gunnery Pod (Raid AoE) by swapping to Nocturnal and casting Aspected Helios for the shield (this is like a Succor). If your group has a pull macro (which I highly recommend as this helps openers and DPS tremendously), you can put your group ahead in both DPS and healing. But I digress, before the pull swap to Nocturnal, get the shield effect (you need at least 15+ seconds after the initial pull so that the shields are up for first Gunnery Pod), swap back to Diurnal and resume what you do--expanded buffs, etc. You can even throw in a Disable within your first two GCDs so that you have Disable reduce Royal Fount (cleave) damage, which lets your WHM DPS or save mana.

After this, healing is trivial and the only trick part is the Resin -> Laser -> Gunnery Pod & Prey -> 3/4 Prey hits then Royal Fount -> Laser -> Auto (Disable here!) -> Gunnery Pod x2. Since you have a WHM, they should realistically be healing the first phase into split, but best times to AoE heal and support your WHM is by support AoE healing during Emergency Deployment and/or right after the second laser into double Gunnery Pod. You can also swap out of Clerics (if you are DPSing) and assign single prey or tank healing to either yourself or the WHM. Once you two get more comfortable, you can slowly transition to solo-healing first phase.

Second phase, stacking Diurnal Aspected Helios & Medica II may sound like a good idea, but it's not. If you both use 1.3k ~ 1.5k mana and only receive less than half the benefit (HoTs "healing" when everyone is at full), you could have saved 1.3k ~ 1.5k mana between the two of you each time its up. I know it's a bit scary having people under 50% for more than 3 seconds, but you must get used to letting regens heal everyone up. If you two are still scared, make the WHM save Divine Seal after the Gunnery Pod after the Resin, and make you use one Helios for a potent healer rather than a weaker heal with a regen. If there are issues with hitting everyone with the regen, then use Benefics to top off DPS and healers to 85% so that preys don't eat them for dinner.

As an Astrologian, you can actually pop Synastry right after Laser into Gunnery Pod since Synastry will last until 1 or 2 GCDs (depending on when you use it) after Hypercompressor (tank buster). That way you'll be healing the tank while topping other people off, and still have it during double preys into tank buster. Try and save Essential Dignity for double prey and tank busters though, since you may need to use it on either DPS or a tank who dips too low.

For Double Preys, use Aspected Benefic on the tank you're responsible when Synastry'd, top them off with either Benefic or Benefic II (depends on HP levels), and the use 2x Benefic II so that you heal a majority of prey damage to let your DPS be alive--they'll be around 10% to 50% HP depending on crits/debuffs and buffs that are on them (Blood for Blood, crit heals, crit damage, etc.). If you're uncomfortable with them being that low, throw in an Aspected Benefic before prey damage on the prey target or throw it on after your double Benefic II and throw an Essential Dignity on the tank that's below the HP threshold (tanks need to be around 75% HP to be relatively safe). If your tanks are rotating Holmgang/Hallowed Ground/Living Dead, just throw in another Aspected Benefit on the tank who isn't using those respective skills and Disable the Oppressor they are tanking. Drop Essential Dignity on Holmgang/Living Dead tanks after they tank the buster so you can get them up to healthy hp levels.

There will be another AoE coming out after this, so make sure everyone is above 75% HP and figure out who is going to do Medica II or Aspected Helios. Following after than, there will be several autos and I believe one or two Royal Founts in the tank, so just stick to Benefics and only use Benefic II when they really need the HP.

As for mana conservation, do not use lightspeed as an emergency cooldown. Use it for whenever you need to use any form of AoE healing. If you use it for single target heals, you save less mana versus an AoE heal since percentile skills scale better the higher the value. Always align Luminiferous Aether & Celestial Opposition together. Use Collective Unconscious when the boss is landing after jump so you have a HoT ticking to top people off for the next Gunnery Pod. If you draw a Spear and you see Luminferous Aether & Celestial Opposition coming up for use within 18 seconds, buff yourself with the Spear; however, if you're saving for AoE Balance as you have Expanded RR & Spreaded Balance, figure out if you're going to benefit from DPS increase or not. Also, if you have a BRD or MCH they should definitely be using MP songs/turrets because TP users shouldn't be having TP issues in that fight at all...

Best time for AoE Balance is after landing so they have all their boss-DPS up time buffed. Bad times are duing Resin/Lasers & handling adds because there is so much movement that you will most likely not gain too much from it. You can also save it during Resin -> Laser -> Gunnery -> Double Prey or after tank busters.

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Originally Posted by silverhope

snippy

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http://www.twitch.tv/ladyrewind/v/12884744

This is my PoV in Diurnal stance though I play with a SCH rather than WHM. I also solo heal P1 and most of P2. Though I didn't do much commentary as I was healing sorry.

It's very important for your bard/mch to use MP restoring abilities (I have no idea what the MCH one is called!) during the run phase.

If you're doing this as AST/WHM and quickly running low on MP, you might not be using the power of regen effects properly. In A1S the raid regularly takes bursts of heavy damage, but then has lots of time to recover from it. Rolling a Medica II is generally enough to keep everyone but the tanks vertical, outside some specific mechanics like prey and some light spot heals.

Put another way, it's not your job to keep the raid topped off at all times, only to patch them up enough to survive the next hit. Trust in regen.

You can let the whm doing medica II, it's enough for the party. If you know the fight and with good use of ogcd, you can do it without brd/mch. I've done it multiple times with my Whm Ilvl 190 (My partner was a sch). The whm can also dps if he mh the first part (20k damage before the split) and keep everyone alive. Just a bit help for prey. Your whm can use Benediction 2times, the fight is like 8min XX sec.

AST's CDs revolve around conserving and restoring MP. Their spells are cheaper than most of their counterparts. Do NOT conserve or you will go OOM.

Hi there! My first time cleared A1S was as AST, and we didn't have a BRD or MCH.

Get used to popping LA on yourself the moment it is off cooldown. Always put an Ewer on yourself. My LA cooldown was timed so that during every jump, I could pop it which got me up to about 3-5k Mana. If you are on Dinural, Aspecteds are your friend. Can't give you advice on Noct, except let your WHM's regens tick.

Somebody mentioned Synasty, just be sure you're in range of your tank or whoever you put it on.

Personally I tried to not use Lightspeed except for slow healing times, otherwise you'll end up spending the same amount of mana because if you're like me, you'll go trigger happy.

Also remember to communicate with your heal partner. "I need help with my tank" and such. And yeah. I'm half awake but if you need any more help feel free to contact me. <3