Starting healing with AST... Did I bite off too much?

Having WAR as my main for two years, thousands upon thousands of duties, etc., I decided to give healing a try with AST. I liked the look and animations, and I figured I wouldn't notice how much harder/different the Job is than WHM and SCH because I'd never seriously played any healing job.

I'm in 50-60 process now and thinking of switching to SCH. I still like the abilities and aesthetic of AST, but I'm feeling the razor-thin margin of error in dungeons. I fully understand that I still stink at healing in general, so AST's difficulty isn't entirely to blame, but I've read how AST simply doesn't have the same healing toolkit or potency as the other two jobs. So, I'm wondering if switching to SCH, with a more established healing job with a diverse toolkit and the potential for great DPS, might be better for me as I continue learning those healing instincts. With AST, I feel that any error could be a party wipe in these Heavensward dungeons, and maybe those aren't the best or most motivating conditions for learning.

Thanks for your thoughts! Is it recommended I learn healing with a different job, and come back to AST with more experience and healing wisdom? Or am I going to have to a rough beginner's time regardless, and just need to get over the steep learning curve?

Some of your information about Astrologian being a much harder/worse healer than the other two is likely a bit outdated. It definitely was in the past but after plenty of buffs it is generally fine.

Though with how it works it is definitely a tough one to start off with. White Mage is the easiest one to learn healing with.

What Zari said. WHM is a great starter healer if you're looking to ease into it, but if you like AST I'd just stick with AST. SCH isn't easier, IMO, it's very different from the other two healers. What is it you're finding difficult about AST? Healing large pulls? That can be rough on any healer if the DPS is really slow, but AST has a solid toolkit for keeping the party alive.

Run dungeons in Diurnal and keep up Aspeced Benefic as much as you can (as long as it falls off before the next pull), and if it's stil tough on you, you can throw up a Aspected Helios for additional regen on the tank, and lastly to make things temporarily easier, Synestry before Aspected Benefic/Helios to increase their potency as well as the potency of your single target heal. (I'll often refresh Aspected Benefic as Synestry reaches it's last second). If your tanks struggles and your party's taking damage use LightSpeed to keep on top of everyone quickly while saving you some MP, and if you're not too worried about your tanks aggro management, use it early on as you spam Benefic/Benefic II just to save you some MP. Also on larger pulls (or any situation where I'm confident I'll be draining a lot of MP) I'll use Luminiferous Aether the second there's a visible gap in my MP bar that I know won't fix itself naturally (So after about 2-3 Benefic IIs or Gravities I think?). At 60 you gain the ability to instantly stun everything which you can use to buy yourself some time in a pinch.

Lastly, don't DPS unless you're confident your tank will live.

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Originally Posted by BrielleBeaudonet

I still like the abilities and aesthetic of AST, but I'm feeling the razor-thin margin of error in dungeons. I fully understand that I still stink at healing in general, so AST's difficulty isn't entirely to blame,

[...]

Or am I going to have to a rough beginner's time regardless, and just need to get over the steep learning curve?

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This "razor-thin margin" that you experience might not be as thin as you think, nor is it necessarily your fault; I suspect that if you see this through to 60 you will find you have more room than you think.

From 30 to 50, you were likely playing with tanks who were neglecting their accessories, and feeling the pain of having to heal a Lv40 tank still in Lv20 gear. In the 50s, some people will be geared great and some won't, but you'll not only be dealing with gear but with people who are getting used to the adjustments in their job expectations, as a lot of things change for a lot of jobs at 52.

If you like the ability animations and the AST abilities in general, I suggest going all the way to 60. You'll get some even prettier abilities, and hopefully get a feel for when you actually need to worry and when you don't. See what it feels like at 60 to be a modestly geared (or better geared, as you have WAR60 to help with that) AST with a better understanding of how to AST, healing more appropriately geared tanks who have a better understanding of how to tank.

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Originally Posted by BrielleBeaudonet

but I've read how AST simply doesn't have the same healing toolkit or potency as the other two jobs. So, I'm wondering if switching to SCH, with a more established healing job with a diverse toolkit and the potential for great DPS, might be better for me as I continue learning those healing instincts. With AST, I feel that any error could be a party wipe in these Heavensward dungeons, and maybe those aren't the best or most motivating conditions for learning.

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The AST ability set is not the same, no, but they aren't lesser healers by any means. While their numbers won't be as high as the WHMs with Divine Seal, you can triple regen if the situation calls for it, or throw out a sequence of instant heals that the other two jobs can't; and while their damage output isn't as high as SCH, you have to remember that you get to decide who gets uptime on the delicious buffs. PLD gets an extra Sentinel because you put Spear on him at the right time? That's damage that you prevented. DDs put out enough damage to push a phase because of your Expanded Balance? That's damage that you dished out.

And if none of that sounds sinfully glorious, then, yeah, maybe you picked the wrong job. Because AST is about being fabulosity incarnate.

I think people should start out with CNJ / WHM to get a feel for the rythm of healing before starting an AST.

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Originally Posted by Zaj_Quilos

I think people should start out with CNJ / WHM to get a feel for the rythm of healing before starting an AST.

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I would definitely recommend that a new healer begins with CNJ; however, by this time Brielle is already AST54. Starting over as CNJ won't teach her much that she couldn't learn by doing DR:Leveling and DR:Guildhests as a syncked AST; and as an AST in syncked gear, she'll have a much better time than a WHM in not-necessarily-the-highest-for-the-current-dungeon gear.

It would be worth revisiting CNJ to get to 34 for Stoneskin, but if we're talking about purely for the learning experience, at this point sticking with AST would be fine.

I won't lie, leveling AST felt a lot more difficult than leveling WHM for me. I always kinda felt I had to heal more with AST. However, I know about the job in paper, and I think it has some of the best healing tools in the game, even moreso than Scholar. The only reason I haven't leveled AST to 60 is because I don't really have much time to play lately, and I just really, really love how Scholar plays. Being a fan of solo healing things, though, I think AST has the coolest tools for the job.

My advice is to not be discouraged! AST has received TONS of buffs with every patch. To the point that I think they might have overdone it a bit, haha, so I think the information you have about its potencies, etc was either misinformed or just plain outdated. It always takes a while to learn how to play a class properly, and Astrologian is a very complex job because on top of healing you have to do card micromanaging. I bet you'll get better at it eventually.

Well, I'm a main AST now and I had pretty much the same issues while leveling my WAR.

One thing to notice: If you didn't level your WHM, it's extremely recommended that you get at least to Lv34 for Stoneskin. It will be a great help.
I'd also recommend Cleric Stance, Protect, Swiftcast and Aero.

As for the feeling you're not up to the task, maybe it's because of gear. After leveling my 3 healers I didn't have lots of tank gear, so I had to go through dungeons undergeared. Because of it, I pulled less enemies and the dungeons took longer, but safe. But in your case, the tank may or may not feel comfortable while leveling and do large pulls and you have to deal with it.

Don't be afraid to use Synastry, ED and Asp Bene. Save your Boles to the beginning of the pulls. And if you feel like your tank is pulling too much, let him die and he will realize it heheheheh

Are you trying to play AST in Nocturnal or Diurnal? Diurnal is considerably more powerful since it provides higher Potency/GCD (and by extension better MP efficiency) through HoTs and provide more synergy with the AST toolkit than Nocturnal would. If you're trying to run AST primarily in Nocturnal, that would explain some of the difficulties you're having.

Overall, the Diurnal AST kit is very similar the WHM kit. There are nuanced differences between the two jobs but both can achieve similar potencies / HPS in different ways. The Nocturnal kit is weaker but still decent at the job it tries to achieve. Anyone telling you the current iteration of Diurnal AST healing is weaker than a WHM hasn't done enough healing / theorycraft on how the two compare yet. Both kits have their strengths and weaknesses and you need to play around with those strengths and weaknesses.

Also, just like tanking, you won't know exactly how you're going to use your cooldowns until you've gone through the content a few times and gotten used to what to expect so if you feel your cooldown management is bad, just give it time.

SCH is its own can of worms as its very well tuned and considered mandatory in any high-tier content and generally has more strengths than weaknesses. It therefore isn't a bad switch but I would say at least give AST a shot at 60 before deciding on that. And it doesn't hurt to have multiple healers at 60 just because that'll give you more variety to choose from when you do decide to heal.

Are there specific things you seem to feel you have trouble with? The AST kit has a lot of nuances to it that you can generally only learn through experience and play (IE, what cards work well with what jobs, when to Spread / Redraw / Royal Road / randomly discard your latest draw, when to use Time Dilation / Celestial Opposition, when to stack HoTs for maximum effect, etc etc) that seem quite overwhelming initially, so if there's anything specific we can help with, let us know.

Thanks for all these responses, everyone. I'm glad to hear that the 50-60 dungeons aren't necessarily representative of the 60 AST experience, so I'm going to stick with it.

Lots of you recommended staying in Diurnal Sect most of the time. Full disclosure: I haven't been doing that. So my own inexperience is a big part of it :)

I hadn't been using Aspected Benefic much. I didn't realize that Regen effects can make such a big difference on the ease of moment-to-moment healing. I'll definitely start incorporating that.

Reading these responses has been inspiring, especially since it sounds like the learning experience isn't dramatically different with WHM and SCH. I'll stick with it!

Almost the same story with my nephew. Both his WAR and PLD are 60 and 50 respectively. He wanted to give healing a try so he unlocked ast. He might have more XIV experience than I, but he does not have more MMO and healing experience. So I advised him that he level cnj first. I also advised that he level sync down and repeat the first three dungeons when mistakes are much more forgiving. He has little interest in the pet micro management from acn/sch.

He did not take my advice. He had a couple of wipes before deciding to get protect from cnj, and got his ast to about 44-ish before giving it up. He wants to try cnj now, and I warned him that he will have to level acn as well if he plans on being a whm.

If you want to be a good healer, don't take shortcuts. Start from the beginning. Especially if you've never healed in an mmo before. If you decide to level acn as well, you'll be queued as DPS, but don't let that stop you from casting physick. Get used to looking at those HP gauges.

I'd just like to say as a healer, seeing ACN/THM/BLM/SMN use physic or pld use Clemency when I have things under control is mildly insulting and mildly annoying. I'm not someone that needs to go fast, if DPS/tanks aren't too great at their jobs yet or are struggling with mechanics, or if someone needs a potty break then I don't mind waiting in the slightest. But when time is being wasted because you're trying to do something you shouldn't be, instead of doing what you should be, it's really frustrating to have my time wasted.

So if people have died and your healer has proven that they can't keep up, or if your healers dead then by all means physic/clemency away, but each role has its responsibilities and if the others are carrying their weight then please make the effort to carry yours. Also, low HP does not mean the healer isn't on top of things, DEATH means the healer's not on it.

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Originally Posted by GeekMatt

So if people have died and your healer has proven that they can't keep up, or if your healers dead then by all means physic/clemency away, but each role has its responsibilities and if the others are carrying their weight then please make the effort to carry yours. Also, low HP does not mean the healer isn't on top of things, DEATH means the healers not on it.

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I totally understand where you're coming from, but also wanted to offer a perspective that just because another member of the group tosses out a healing spell doesn't mean they think you're not on top of things. You have to choose your battles and this is one I am passive about unless dps or tanking is seriously suffering as a result of someone trying to do my job.

I think AST is only marginally more difficult. I was very daunted by it at first because of the difficulty hype. I also felt the razor thin margin of error thing at first, some mp issues, and some not fully understanding the class issues. Now with Luminiferous Aether giving a longer refresh, just spam that Benefic II whenever you need it, you aren't going to run out of mp. Don't be afraid to use your abilities during trash pulls, LA, Lightspeed, Synastry, most of it has a short enough CD that in another 2 minutes when you get to the boss you can use it again. Use your buffs on trash pulls, I try to royal road either an ewer or spire (for AOE) for as many trash pulls as possible. I was playing my AST like it had a razor thin margin of error, and so it did. However now I main AST and I think it has more utility, and more ability to save a hairy situation than the other 2.

Stick with it, and go get Swiftcast it will save your life ALL the time.

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Originally Posted by GeekMatt

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As a note, when I use those abilities, it's not that I don't think the healer can't do their job. There are times where, as PLD, I notice the DPS taking more damage than they should and forcing the healer to compensate more than they should. If I can cover myself for those moments to give the healer that time, I will. If I fudge in an early dungeon(Halatali and those thrice damned Lightning Sprites) as smn, I will cover my ass because I don't think the healer should have to cover my own mistake(was yelled at for that exact reason). It's rarely EVER that I feel a healer is incompetent... actually only twice have I ever felt that. once in tam-tara and once in Thordan's Reign(where a PuG screwed us over)

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Originally Posted by Oohlalaheals

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All great tips. Thanks! I've been using my cooldowns more often and that has relieved a lot of the burden of healing during tougher trash pulls. Right now, I'm trying to get better at card management. Like you mentioned, I should be burning an Ewer or Spire to get the AOE benefit of my next card, but it's easy to forget the functions in the middle of action.

Thanks to this thread, I've got a lot more information and confidence. I've healed the Aery a couple times with hardly a single issue and earned some more commendations. It seems it was just the simple things about the job that were eluding me before!

Synastry > Aspected Benefic > Swiftcast > Aspected Helios > Collective Unconscious > Time Dilation = Three boosted regens. If you have a Bole or better yet an enhanced Bole to smack onto your tank before Time Dilation, then your tank will never die. Of course, only use this when your tank is pulling an army. Else you'd be better off using Swiftcast on a double Gravity to wreck face.

I don't main healer however -- in fact, I'm bad at it -- but this triple regen cheeses through all dungeons like they're nothing.

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Originally Posted by DestroyerOfLargePlanets

Synastry > Aspected Benefic > Swiftcast > Aspected Helios > Collective Unconscious > Time Dilation = Three boosted regens. If you have a Bole or better yet an enhanced Bole to smack onto your tank before Time Dilation, then your tank will never die. Of course, only use this when your tank is pulling an army. Else you'd be better off using Swiftcast on a double Gravity to wreck face.

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You could use Lightspeed instead of swiftcast to get the instant cast on spells and save mp. And then you use Swift to doublecast Gravity.
This big amount of regen power I just used in dungeons in one situation, in the arboretum, before the queen bee boss when the tank pulled all the bees... Usually it's not necessary in dungeons. I don't do savage content.

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Originally Posted by Roxas_Andrade

You could use Lightspeed instead of swiftcast to get the instant cast on spells and save mp. And then you use Swift to doublecast Gravity.
This big amount of regen power I just used in dungeons in one situation, in the arboretum, before the queen bee boss when the tank pulled all the bees... Usually it's not necessary in dungeons. I don't do savage content.

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Lightspeed would still be up for 2-3 casts of gravity, which means its not worth it. No point cutting your dps by 25% :).

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Originally Posted by DarkmoonVael

Lightspeed would still be up for 2-3 casts of gravity, which means its not worth it. No point cutting your dps by 25% :).

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Considering OGDC abilities as 1sec cast because you would use OGCD after OGCD and they have their own animation, you would have Synastry > Lightspeed (10sec effect) > Asp.Bene (2,5sec CD) > Asp.Helios (2,5 sec CD) > CU (1~3sec depending on server tick) > Time Dilation (1sec) > CO (1sec) > Cleric Stance (1sec) > Gravity (3sec) > SwiftCast > Gravity > Gravity

If you're "lucky" to get CU granting it's buff in 1 sec, you would only have the Lightspeed debuff for your first Gravity. Considering the massive healing power you're using, I wouldn't mind waiting 3sec with CU active to start casting Gravity with full power.

And considering I don't do savage content, I don' ever felt the need to do such a rehearsed combo, but I guess it would generate so much hate that you should use LA just after Lightspeed, giving you an extra second to cast your Gravities...

Collective Unconsciousness while lightspeed is up? Really?

Disregarding the credibility or plausibility whether that whole order of yours is good or not, you can at least squeeze in the oGCD abilities better with, for example: Gravity -> Time Dilation -> Gravity -> Celestial Opposition -> Gravity -> Swiftcast -> Gravity
No point wasting 0.5-1.0 second with each oGCD while Lightspeed is up

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Originally Posted by Roxas_Andrade

Considering OGDC abilities as 1sec cast because you would use OGCD after OGCD and they have their own animation, you would have Synastry > Lightspeed (10sec effect) > Asp.Bene (2,5sec CD) > Asp.Helios (2,5 sec CD) > CU (1~3sec depending on server tick) > Time Dilation (1sec) > CO (1sec) > Cleric Stance (1sec) > Gravity (3sec) > SwiftCast > Gravity > Gravity

If you're "lucky" to get CU granting it's buff in 1 sec, you would only have the Lightspeed debuff for your first Gravity. Considering the massive healing power you're using, I wouldn't mind waiting 3sec with CU active to start casting Gravity with full power.

And considering I don't do savage content, I don' ever felt the need to do such a rehearsed combo, but I guess it would generate so much hate that you should use LA just after Lightspeed, giving you an extra second to cast your Gravities...

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Just to point out you suggested replacing lightspeed for swiftcast in the example of Synestry>A.Benefic>Swiftcast>A.Helios>Collective Unconsciousness>Cleric Stance>Gravity spam.

A.Helios goes straight into CU. Say full 3 secs to get Wheel of Fate up, still leaves 5-6 secs of Lightspeed being up when you start to dps.

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Originally Posted by Lyrica_Ashtine

Collective Unconsciousness while lightspeed is up? Really?
No point wasting 0.5-1.0 second with each oGCD while Lightspeed is up

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Not the best to do, I know, but my point was to max healing output before spamming Gravity. Putting the CDs along with Gravity is valid, but you will have more Lightspeed active while DPSing, which is not optimal. In this combo we should use whatever we can to heal/support while Lightséed is up to ensure 100% potency while DPSing. (And for a controller player like me, switching targets from Enemy/Gravity to Party/CDs would consume more time)

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Originally Posted by DarkmoonVael

A.Helios goes straight into CU. Say full 3 secs to get Wheel of Fate up, still leaves 5-6 secs of Lightspeed being up when you start to dps.

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Lightspeed doesn't reduce your GCD, it just upfront your spells in 2.5sec. So Asp Helios would have 0.5sec cast time and would still have the Global Cooldown, wich is 2.5sec. If you'll have to deal with GCD anyway, might as well cast Asp.Bene while Lightspeed is active (not before) to save mp, then you'd spend 5 sec only to cast Both Asp spells while lightspeed is on...

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Originally Posted by Roxas_Andrade

Not the best to do, I know, but my point was to max healing output before spamming Gravity. Putting the CDs along with Gravity is valid, but you will have more Lightspeed active while DPSing, which is not optimal. In this combo we should use whatever we can to heal/support while Lightséed is up to ensure 100% potency while DPSing. (And for a controller player like me, switching targets from Enemy/Gravity to Party/CDs would consume more time)

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That still doesn't really elaborate why you'd spend 1-3 seconds on CU with light speed up. Or blowing/saving every single CD you have for a period of 15 seconds for that matter. Even so, if we were to take the original idea in mind to throw everything including the kitchen sink:

Original:
Synastry > Lightspeed (10sec effect) > Asp.Bene (2,5sec CD) > Asp.Helios (2,5 sec CD) > CU (1~3sec depending on server tick) > Time Dilation (1sec) > CO (1sec) > Cleric Stance (1sec) > Gravity (3sec) > SwiftCast > Gravity > Gravity

What I suggest:
Collective Unconsciousness -> Synastry > Aspected Benefic -> Light Speed -> Aspected Helios -> Celestial Opposition + Cleric's stance -> Gravity -> Time dilation -> Gravity x4 -> Swiftcast -> Gravity
I might be off by 1 gravity, no idea. It's nonsense to spam Gravity with Light Speed in the first place

Like this you extend Synastry, aspected benefic, Light speed and Wheel of Fortune by 5 seconds with Celestial opposition AND you get more gravity out of it. And no, Synastry does not affect Wheel of Fortune. Effectively the total time for each of your buffs, with Time dilation, is:
Light speed 15s
Synastry 25s
Wheel of Fortune 35s
Aspected Benefic (regen effect) 38s with 20% increased healing
Aspected Helios (regen effect) 35s with 20% increased healing
Any card you happen to have on the tank +20s

I just wanted to point out that we've started arguing optimal action sequences in a thread that began as a pep talk for a new AST. How bout we not scare off any new ASTs who get curious and click on this one, as there are already plenty of scary mathsy optimization threads to be found if people are interested in that side of things.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

I just wanted to point out that we've started arguing optimal action sequences in a thread that began as a pep talk for a new AST. How bout we not scare off any new ASTs who get curious and click on this one, as there are already plenty of scary mathsy optimization threads to be found if people are interested in that side of things.

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Call it prevention over curing. Would you rather have a new player/healer learn bad habits?

Edit:
Actually, thinking back to first post we're not even talking about a new player in it's purest form. Just a player shifting roles. Optimisation shouldn't be alien to him/her

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Originally Posted by Roxas_Andrade

Lightspeed doesn't reduce your GCD, it just upfront your spells in 2.5sec. So Asp Helios would have 0.5sec cast time and would still have the Global Cooldown, wich is 2.5sec. If you'll have to deal with GCD anyway, might as well cast Asp.Bene while Lightspeed is active (not before) to save mp, then you'd spend 5 sec only to cast Both Asp spells while lightspeed is on...

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Um, well going to have to be blunt here.

My response was to your suggestion of flat out replacing swiftcast with lightspeed in DestroyerofLargePlanets post. This catagorically leaves lightspeed up for at least 2 gravities. Its is a simple fact that this happens. The only way this does not happen with that placement of lightspeed is if you then wait for it to drop off before using gravity.

What i responded to was the suggestion of Synestry>A.Ben>lightspeed>AHelios>CU>Clerics>Gravity spam. This leave approx 3.5-4 between Lightspeed, A.Helios (triggers GCD), CU for wheel of fate, going into cleric stance, then hitting your first gravity. Note the only thing that triggers the GCD is A.Helios. So say 0.5 secs for A.Helios, 3 for Wheel of fate, 0.5 for Cleric Stance, then you have all the time left on Lightspeed.

What i was not commenting on, and never have commented on is the post you made after placing Lightspeed before A.Ben, which is a different usage of Lightspeed compared to the post i responded to.

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Originally Posted by Lyrica_Ashtine

That still doesn't really elaborate why you'd spend 1-3 seconds on CU with light speed up. Or blowing/saving every single CD you have for a period of 15 seconds for that matter. Even so, if we were to take the original idea in mind to throw everything including the kitchen sink

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Well, after I slept over it, I see all of your points. I was trying to find a way to put LS in the combo because I think it's a wast of CD to use Swiftcast for Asp.Helios. That's it. For that matter, I admit I was being sttuborn and apologize<(._.)>

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Originally Posted by Rongway

I just wanted to point out that we've started arguing optimal action sequences in a thread that began as a pep talk for a new AST. How bout we not scare off any new ASTs who get curious and click on this one, as there are already plenty of scary mathsy optimization threads to be found if people are interested in that side of things.

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Also noted, but it served to a purpose. It will help a new player to see what not to do. And it helped me to improve a possible healing combo. But thanks for your concern. : )

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Originally Posted by DarkmoonVael

Um, well going to have to be blunt here.

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I deserved it, lol.

Asp. Helios does go straight into CU if you want. It would remove 2.5sec off my math.

Thing is, I really don't see the need for such an elaborate healing combo in the content I play (usually one CD is enough). Does anyone running Savage/Extreme content have to rely on a big combo like that? What do you guys usually do?

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Originally Posted by Roxas_Andrade

I deserved it, lol.

Asp. Helios does go straight into CU if you want. It would remove 2.5sec off my math.

Thing is, I really don't see the need for such an elaborate healing combo in the content I play (usually one CD is enough). Does anyone running Savage/Extreme content have to rely on a big combo like that? What do you guys usually do?

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This is what i use for dungeon running. It allows you to put up the HoTs (time dilate them if you want, allows more dps from you) and then just gravity spam for trash pulls. Once you have the HoTs up, and you have a good group, you basically dont need to heal until the next pull.

In extreme/savage, i dont tend to mix all the regens at once like this, as there are specific times to use certain things like CU, lightspeed, synestry etc. Also (not sure how anyone else does this) but i tend to only use time dilation in conjunction with card buffs to maximise their potential.

Same as darkmoon i would say
(And that worked well before :P)

For exemple i do combine synastrie+LA+lightspeed + CO during the tornado phase on sephirot EX
It become so easy to heal everyone for all the massive damage.
Plus depending of my tank it allow a quick and huge healing after the tower

Having a spear right before this combo is really helpful XD

NEVER tried midas savage because my group don't if they do not have they sephirot weapon...

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Originally Posted by Lyrica_Ashtine

What I suggest:
Collective Unconsciousness -> Synastry > Aspected Benefic -> Light Speed -> Aspected Helios -> Celestial Opposition + Cleric's stance -> Gravity -> Time dilation -> Gravity x4 -> Swiftcast -> Gravity
I might be off by 1 gravity, no idea. It's nonsense to spam Gravity with Light Speed in the first place

Effectively the total time for each of your buffs, with Time dilation, is:
Light speed 15s
Synastry 25s
Wheel of Fortune 35s
Aspected Benefic (regen effect) 38s with 20% increased healing
Aspected Helios (regen effect) 35s with 20% increased healing
Any card you happen to have on the tank +20s

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It's been fascinating reading about this regen rotation and optimization. I just tried this out in the Vault (minus Celestial Opposition) and it's CRAZY effective. I was able to spam Gravity to my heart's content, and it also made the last boss (typically a difficult fight and an MP nightmare for me) WAY easier.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

I just wanted to point out that we've started arguing optimal action sequences in a thread that began as a pep talk for a new AST. How bout we not scare off any new ASTs who get curious and click on this one, as there are already plenty of scary mathsy optimization threads to be found if people are interested in that side of things.

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I definitely appreciate that thought. It was initially pretty intimidating reading some of these later posts, but I'm going to have to learn these things anyway, so it's all good!