I don't think I'm cut out to be a healer. x_x

Hey guys, so I finally managed to get my Ast up to doing SB dungeons and am now up to the level 65 one (Bardam's Mettle) and I'm starting to think that I may not be healer material. So far in my runs of this dungeon, 99% of my time is spent healing the tank or the dps that are oddly getting damaged left and right, even outside of boss fights. Any damage I do now is only coming from either the Lord card to discard it or a byproduct of using Earthly Star for healing. I might get lucky and be able to throw a Combust 2 or Malefic 3 on the rare occasion, but it is very few and far between.

I know healers are supposed to heal and dps, but I'm having to spend so much time and MP on healing that I don't get any real chance to dps and I'm feeling like a failure of a healer. :(

I'm sure your fine. Just remember not to regen while tank is doing pulls. Also if the dps are getting damaged, that's because they're stealing aggro from the tank. If you managed to heal all the way to now, you're doing fine. It's the other people you have to worry about really.

Adding DPS to your healer rotation, especially in Lv60+ dungeons, is really something for advanced Healers - especially if the tank is pulling anything more than 3 mobs. In order to DPS on large pulls you need to know exactly what you have the time to do and how you will recover from it. If you want to cast a DPS spell while the tank requires constant Benefic II casts just to survive, you're going to need to somehow create that time. For AST, you don't have many options in this regard. One thing you could do is use Largesse, put an enhanced regen on the tank, and that might let you cast a single DPS spell occasionally. Alternatively, if you're in Nocturnal Sect, you might try using Aspected Benefic for the shield, the using a DPS spell. But overall, AST is not the best class to DPS with on healer. Its actual DPS potential is low, even if you have time to be DPSing. The current top DPS healer is WHM. What WHM can do is top off the tank, use DB, then Holy spam to stun the enemies a couple times, letting you fit in a few casts. You can also use oGCD heals between these casts after the stuns wear off. You can do this on AST too, but it's important to be aware of whether you will need those oGCDs to save the tank later. If the tank is actually taking more damage than can be sustained just with Benefic II/Cure II spam, then you'll need to use oGCD heals/shields to match the incoming damage. If you used all of those oGCDs to enable healer DPS earlier, then the tank is going to die.

So ultimately, it really comes down to a lot of judgment calls from the healer on how much damage the tank is going to take.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Renryuu

I know healers are supposed to heal and dps, but I'm having to spend so much time and MP on healing that I don't get any real chance to dps and I'm feeling like a failure of a healer. :(

---

Healers are supposed to heal... That's why we call them healers. If they can DPS too, that's great but their number one job is to heal. You can't play the other persons' class so sometimes that means you spend the entire dungeon spam healing. It comes with the territory.

Bardam's Mettle is tough to DPS in if the tank wants to do big pulls. I've done it as AST and WHM and even with the 110394 healing abilities + Holy stun that WHM has available I had to be cautious in attempting to DPS. On AST I definitely have to spend more time healing than DPSing. I also almost never have a full bar of MP from start to finish as AST if I DPS.

As long as no one's dying because of lack of effort on your part, you're not a failure. The new dungeons are just more brutal than what we've been used to previously.

I see, I'll keep on trying. I'd say I'd give another healer job a go, but honestly Ast is the only one of the 3 I can enjoy since I love the cards and throwing out buffs left and right (also love how beautiful their spells can be) and I'm already having a hard enough time in forcing myself to stay healer since I was originally planning to main Red Mage, but my current situation demands I be a healer if I want to do content with friends. I do make sure I keep people alive (unless for some reason they just absolutely refuse to get out of aoes or cleaves) and I at least have gotten to a point where I can throw out card buffs often unless I end up with an Aoe Balance combo, then I save that until we get to the boss and turn all card draws into Lords or Ladies until the boss and I case the Aoe Balance.

Not to say I don't enjoy healing at all, I do and healing is oddly fun in it's own way, it's just I've gotten so accustomed to being dps and I don't play many games that would involve me being a dedicated healer so being a healer in an mmo always feels a bit odd to me. I dunno, I just keep seeing talk on other forums how healers are expected and have to dps to not be kicked that I worry that I'm not up to snuff when I'm going through a dungeon doing nothing but casting heals with dps coming in the form of a byproduct of other abilities. I just want to be able to at least go one expansion being able to do raid content instead of being the 3rd in a row that I've not been able to do raid content for one reason or another.

Remember also in Bardam and up, tanks take a fair bit more damage because of the large jump in defence in gear from that point forward, in which most tanks wont even upgrade to and so you'll be healing 270 tanks when the defence buff in 273+ is pretty substantial.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NinjaDecoy

Remember also in Bardam and up, tanks take a fair bit more damage because of the large jump in defence in gear from that point forward, in which most tanks wont even upgrade to and so you'll be healing 270 tanks when the defence buff in 273+ is pretty substantial.

---

Ah, I did not know this. Will things get a bit better once I'm 70 and end game tanks are in full 300+ gear or do the damage monsters do scale so that the jump in defense is only enough to ensure tanks are still taking the same relative amount of damage they were taking in the previous dungeons?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Renryuu

I dunno, I just keep seeing talk on other forums how healers are expected and have to dps to not be kicked that I worry that I'm not up to snuff when I'm going through a dungeon doing nothing but casting heals with dps coming in the form of a byproduct of other abilities.

---

Well, the forums represent less than 5% of players. And the "healers should/shouldn't DPS" debate is kind of a sore subject here. The way I see it is, DPS if you can. You shouldn't be kicked for not DPSing during down-time (and many groups don't care what you do, as long as they aren't dying). I prefer to DPS as much as possible but everyone plays differently. So don't be worried about getting kicked for not playing in the way that some people want you to.

Also, as AST, you should fish for Balance but don't be afraid to toss Boles on tanks or Arrows on mages. DPS will also appreciate a Spire when they're running low during big pulls too! Lord and Lady are nice to use but the other cards are powerful too, even if they aren't a Balance. Except Spear. Feel free to RR/convert Spears. :P

Healing is all about experience and confidence.

When I was starting with CNJ, I remember forcing myself to watch the tank HP bar in low level dungeons from enemy autos and try to delay my heal as much as possible to dps.
Back then, there was a component of muscle memory I was trying to train too (to CS in and out to dps).

Many healers see HP bars slowly dropping and are instilled with a sense of dread- someone might die, you might all die and that's it, you just made a fool out of yourself.
Eventually, you'll be able to quickly appraise the situation. You'll keep track of your cds and the tank's cds and think "he can handle it for a bit longer" or "time for Essential Dignity".
Trust me, the first time I healed Titan EX I was terrified.
Months later and I was on Sephirot EX and I'd think "heh, the party can handle one or two gcds more until the next Tiferet.

Also, you must understand that healing is a duet most of the time- a good tank will provide ample time for you to dps. A bad one will have you burning through your mana in seconds.
Same for silly dps (though we all have oopsies).
I really think you should keep at it a while longer- and if you're feeling like that, feel free to tell your party that you're in training and ask the tank to use his heavier cds in a pull where you want to dps.

(This is a useless post, but I wanted to give you motivation qq)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Renryuu

Ah, I did not know this. Will things get a bit better once I'm 70 and end game tanks are in full 300+ gear or do the damage monsters do scale so that the jump in defense is only enough to ensure tanks are still taking the same relative amount of damage they were taking in the previous dungeons?

---

Yes. That's the benefit of gearing at endgame, though some of the dungeons will have an ilvl cap. But the ilvl caps are usually really generous, like I think the final storyline dungeon is 310. The first few times I did the EX primals undergeared it was a non-stop healfest but now that I'm geared it's easy to weave DPSing in between critical healing periods.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Galvuu

Healing is all about experience and confidence.

---

Oh, I appreciate the motivation. My confidence in healing was shattered back in 2.0 or so when I was maining as a Whm/Sch and my whole FC essentially fell apart after my 65 or so attempts at Titan HM to get my relic weapon at the time. Well to be precise, I was trying to do it via Duty Finder and had went through 60 or so groups that all failed to down him and when some members of the FC stepped in to help and things got heated between my real life friends and the other members of the FC cause I kept blaming our failures on myself and my friends defended me and the other members were mad at my friends for constantly dying. After that the FC basically fell apart aside from it now just being me and my real life friends and I swapped to dps and stayed as such ever since. Now I'm easing back into healing and trying to restore my confidence that I had lost those years ago.

DPS as much as you can, you're there to kill everything first and foremost. If you aren't dpsing as hard as you can, you're a liability and will promptly be kicked for afking. /meta

Real talk, don't stress too much about dpsing or not dpsing. Clearing content with no/1 wipe is always preferable to wiping constantly. Play according to your group.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Renryuu

I dunno, I just keep seeing talk on other forums how healers are expected and have to dps to not be kicked that I worry that I'm not up to snuff when I'm going through a dungeon doing nothing but casting heals with dps coming in the form of a byproduct of other abilities.

---

As many big talkers as the forums and social media have, this is a great example of why they're terrible as a gauge of what the actual playerbase thinks. This talk about kicking is all the rage in the forums. It's extremely rare in reality, in that I've never seen it. I've seen a healer kicked for DPSing too much and letting people die, though.

If it does happen? It will probably annoy you for a while, but its best to try to shrug it off and try again. Some people in game (and lots on the forums) love to think everyone has been playing for four years straight in savage content and is a master at everything. Most of us are not.

Your primary job is to keep everyone alive as much as possible. If you're succeeding at that, you're fine. As you gain experience & confidence (and people around start taking less damage due to gear/knowing the fights), you'll find it gets easier to weave in more DPS. Every healer goes through this phase, you're not alone in it. :)

You can also help yourself to add more DPS by using your other cards. Bole is a nice draw on trash, as less incoming damage = less time required healing. Arrow will give you more casts (and thus more chances to add some DPS spells). Keeping a pocket balance is great, but use the others too. :)

Really, the only question you need to ask is if you're having fun healing? If you are, then keep having fun and your skill level will naturally go up. Don't worry about being an expert today.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NocturniaUzuki

The current top DPS healer is WHM. What WHM can do is top off the tank, use DB, then Holy spam to stun the enemies a couple times, letting you fit in a few casts. You can also use oGCD heals between these casts after the stuns wear off.

---

I've started to find holy spam to be too risky with this new generation of tanks that don't know how to use damage mitigation buffs and are acc.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hestzhyen

Bardam's Mettle is tough to DPS in if the tank wants to do big pulls.

---

When leveling WHM, I'd usually only pre-pop Regen and maybe do one C2+DB for the first pull up to the bear. The rest was DPS and just a few of the oGCDs. It's much less the dungeon than your group. Heck, I've no-healed the trash between the 1st and 2nd boss on PLD.

In the end, you're stuck being a crutch for poor DPS and their tank if it comes down to it. But there's nothing about the dungeons themselves, given at-level gear, that would noticeably decrease your percent of casts spent on DPS.

Side-note: The meta-talk is real talk, but idiocy is unpredictable, and marginally more healing may save a need for a rez, which in kind saves 25% output for (albeit a likely already underperforming) tank or DPS. If you know their class seemingly better than they, and no two people who are likely to be sore are paired together for a guaranteed kick against you, feel free to offer advice. (Heavy Thrust is good. Cooldowns are good. AoE is good.)

Don't bother trying to dps if you're a beginner to the healing job.
This is something you think about once you have a really good knowledge of your healing toolkit.

If you're still not confident with what you're doing, read again your healing skills description and make some test, watch some guides, pov...
And then later after that, you can think about dpsing.

But indeed, if you see that no one is taking damages for 10s, if you want to minimize risk but still do something : use your dots.
It'll be a small contribution at low risk, its instant and have a 30s timer.

Don't worry.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KDSilver

But indeed, if you see that no one is taking damages for 10s, if you want to minimize risk but still do something : use your dots.
It'll be a small contribution at low risk, its instant and have a 30s timer.

Don't worry.

---

Oh, when it's that long of a duration, I can manage healing and dpsing easily. I start to fret when a tank takes chunks of damage every couple seconds or so. I'll cast Aspected Benefic for regen and cast Benefic 2 and I instantly have to cast another Benefic 2 because they just took a chunk of damage. This is how most pulls go, me playing catch up with my heals just to ensure the tank is at least staying in the 50-60% range as the damage slowly overpowers how fast I can heal. When that isn't the case, it's dps standing in any and every aoe possible so I'm spending time healing them instead. Every gcd is spent on a heal and leaving me no downtime to even rest, much less dps.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tridus

As many big talkers as the forums and social media have, this is a great example of why they're terrible as a gauge of what the actual playerbase thinks. This talk about kicking is all the rage in the forums. It's extremely rare in reality, in that I've never seen it. I've seen a healer kicked for DPSing too much and letting people die, though.

---

This is exactly it. If you believe reddit or forums you'd think everyone in this game expects healers to be doing DPS role level damage in fights, and that's why you tend to see a lot of people in full parties that are just spamming stone or whatever and not actually group healing which puts undue pressure on the other healer. DPSing in between healing is fun, but first and foremost we're healers. That's our main priority. And TBH I don't care if I'm in a trial or whatever with another healer just focusing on healing. It means there's more of a buffer for me to do my own DPS when there's time for it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Renryuu

I know healers are supposed to heal and dps, but I'm having to spend so much time and MP on healing that I don't get any real chance to dps and I'm feeling like a failure of a healer. :(

---

errrr that is incorrect. your job is to heal, once your comfortable with that and think u can handle all that dungeons/trials/other team members etc throw at u, then have a go at casting a few dps spells here n there. u do not have to dps and don't let anyone tell u otherwise

if u enjoy healing, keep at it :)

As long as you keep your party alive you're not a failure of a healer as you are doing what your real is meant to do. As someone else said, dpsing is something advance, and I still think it's not something you're supposed to do. It's just something extra that you can do if you want to further push yourself and just make a dungeon go somewhat faster. Unless you're doing raids and ex fights, then that's entirely different story. I'm just hoping this doesn't turn into another one of those topics.

Care because there is a lot of ex dps/new tanks (because of the wait time) out there that don´t use defensive cooldowns, pull 3 mob stacks, use bullcrap 270 trinkets without even know the reason...With these kind of tanks you rly don´t have much room for dps...So relax AND ENJOY the game, have fun with the role you are playing otherwise why even bother ^^

From what you've said it seems like you're doing all you can to keep the party alive, leaving you no time to dps. This is perfectly fine and does not reflect badly on your part whatsoever. As many others have said, our primary job is to heal. If healing is all we have time to do then we're doing our job. DPS only when there's time open to do so. Just follow the ABC rule: always be casting. If you're always casting, even if it's only heals (and not overhealing) then keep doing what you need to do.

If you're too nervous to dps, don't be afraid to hold the damage for a while. I usually find time to dps if I have time in instances, but I still refrain from dpsing at all in Royal Menagerie for example simply because I'm afraid that people will need constant healing due to horrible past experiences. Should I be? Honestly recent runs have been smooth, but I still don't dps as much as I can and no one has complained and enrage hasn't been hit either.

Ease into the healing part first before easing into dpsing. If you want to boost your confidence queue into low level instances where you're almost certain to have time to dps for learning purposes.

Healing at the beginning of an expansion is always stressful since ilvls are low, especially during big pulls with bad/mediocre party members. It will only get easier so hang in there!

I'm having a bit of a similar problem myself. Only, I'm not a new healer by any means. Been maining healer for about a year now, and thought that I had gotten quite experienced at it. During HW, although I never touched the 8 man raids or even ex primals, there was nothing in the way of normal content I wasn't confident about healing. But with SB launch.... holy crap, it's been rough.

Got AST and WHM both to 70, and while I haven't wiped any groups, my confidence in my astro skills is very much shaken. It's this horrible, stressful struggle, and while some of it is certainly gear and not everyone knowing all these dungeons in and out yet, eh, it makes me seriously doubt whether I was ever as good at this job as I thought. WHM on the other hand, woooo, pretty much zero issues, no matter how bad the tank or dps are.

Basically, OP, I just wanted to share that even more experienced healers have issues too. Take your time, get used to the healing part of things. Then start adding in some dps when you feel safe to do so. Start with dots, and then move on to Gravity spam. It's a lot of fun when you have the breathing room to do it. :). But ofc, always keep on an eye on your mp! Not good to go OOM when heals are still gonna be needed. ;)

Firstly, don't need to feel bad if you can't dps while having to heal people. Healing takes priority. Beside the whole "healers should dps" in my opinion should really be read as "healers should dps when possible". And whenever i see people saying non-dps healers are bad they meant the healers who do absolutely nothing when the party doesn't get hit with anything, or the one spamming heal when everyone is full HP.

Secondly, SB mobs hit hard. Especially start from lvl 65 you will see a major jump in difficulty to keep tank alive if the tank keeps mass pulling as they did in lower level dungeons. Sometimes when tank mass pull i don't have time to dps either. However, if that happens with every tanks, or every runs, or even when they pull moderately, then you might want to improve your way of using/planning cool-down :D Don't hesitate using a cool down for trash pull, you don't need that heal power at boss anyway.

Edit: Just re-read your post and you said that you have trouble dpsing even in boss fight? I checked out your character. If you keep using the i270 weapon at that level you will struggle a bit. Suggest getting a crafted HQ one if you can't get it from dungeon. That will help easing it a little bit :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DxS7eT_ky4

just gonna drop this off here

Hey :)
If you're still leveling, I'd keep my focus on learning your healing tools first and getting to really know them and how they work - as a healer your primary role is to HEAL, and this in leveling dungeons is important to keep in mind for the following reasons

-just as you're leveling other people most likely are as well, meaning they probably are also still getting to know their role, and WILL mess up, and your job as a healer is to try to heal people through any unavoidable or unnecessary damage taken to ensure a clear with as few wipes/deaths as you can avoid
-gear matters. Not only yours - if the tank is also leveling, s/he's probably using leveling gear, meaning s/he'll be squishier than if s/he was synced
-as I mentioned people are leveling - they might not know their rotation, or when to aoe or when to use cooldowns; all these things could make your life as healer harder. The longer things take to die the more pressed you'll be for MP, for example

imho right now what you could focus on is building muscle memory in regards to your basic healing spells and panic buttons. In the same manner DPS classes build this memory for their damage rotation, with time you'll get used to mashing a massive heal button when necessary without even having to look at your hotbar :P

Healer DPS is a thing that is nice to have, but is in no way mandatory and should be grown into, IF you're interested in it. If you are, ease into it slowly, you don't need to measure your damage output to the DPS'.

ENDnote: you should know that when it comes to DPS uptime AST is actually a weird little job, really. You have so many OGCD things to do, insta heals insta shields insta mega buff cards insta regen bubble!... keep in mind that having DPS windows, come on more easily on WHM, for example, as they can triple stun mobs as damage dealing and mitigation (if they can't hit you you can hit them), and SCHs waste like 6 seconds to spread dots. :P

Not sure if this post makes sense. It's saturday morning and I'm sleepy. Just wanna make you feel not as bad about this because really healer DPS is so situational it should not be mandatory, specially for people LEARNING the classes

Healer takes a ton of practice to get good at too. Ive mained healer since i started way back when and i still occasionally miss a spell then oops tank is dead. May not be popular opinion, but healer is the hardest job in my opinion we have to keep track of mechanics, our mana, and up to 23 crazy other players dropping things on each other. My advice is to get a little more comfortable with your job and the dps will come with practice. For instance one dps trick with astro i use is to prep for a stellar detonation then lightspeed gravity x3 pop stellar then rotate right back into healing.

Don't worry too much about DPS while leveling, it will come with time when you get more comfortable with healing first. :)

That said, what's your healing strategy for normal pulls? Which abilities are you using and when? Which sect are you using?

What I've done on AST (Diurnal) is (when the pull is finished, can Benefic I/II during pull between groups if needed so that tank will end the pull with as close to full HP as possible) start with Aspected Helios on tank (with Largesse if up) and placing Earthly Star where the tank is and use AoE Balance or Arrow if available. Also Eye for an Eye on tank if it's up. I also use Celestial Opposition if it's up to increase buff times and stun all monsters so that the tank won't take damage for a bit. Then I spam Gravity (might cast a Benefic II on tank before starting Gravity spam) while being prepared to Essential Dignity the tank when needed (I also keep an eye on ES and detonate it or let it detonate at a good time), also Benefic II if needed in addition to that. If the tank seems to be going down fast, I lightspeed Benefic II spam.

I'm not very experienced AST (only really played it in SB), but this has worked well for me in both leveling and expert dungeons with tanks who speed pull.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Taika

That said, what's your healing strategy for normal pulls? Which abilities are you using and when? Which sect are you using?

---

Basically at the moment I wait for the tank to pull everything they want to pull, but if they start taking a lot of damage fast, I throw Regen AB on them, otherwise I wait until they stop pulling to put Regen on them. I'll start with Benefic 1 to keep them over 80%, but if he takes more damage than I can heal, I'll use Benefic 2 instead. If they take an especially large chunk of damage I'll use Essential Dignity. I throw in Earthly Star to supplement healing as well as do damage and I use any Lady of the Crowns I get as a back up Essential Dignity to use when ED is on cooldown.

For AOE I'll use Helios unless the team is taking consistent damage or they took a big hit and are safe for a while before another hit comes, for those times I use the regen Helio. I use Nocturnal Sect for older dungeons as it seems more effective and usually the shield lasts for a whole pull or a good bit of time on a boss fight.

Currently I'm up to Doma Castle and my first attempt at this went fairly smoothly (even had more moments where I could fit in dps, though the dps kept rushing off ahead of the tank). Currently I'm swapping between leveling up and doing the Anima quest for Ast cause that final weapon looks really cool. I'm feeling a lot better about Ast now, even went and turned him into a sexy pirate Ast, which perked me up some lol.

Dont give up. Its just a thing which needs experience. Youre a healer, is your group alive? Yes? Good you did your job. With more experience you can guess incoming damage and have a sense how low you can let drop a tank,to make some dps. But,as i said, your job is mainly to heal, only second to make some damage. If at all.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ADVSS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DxS7eT_ky4

just gonna drop this off here

---

THIS is pure gold and should be pinned as a life guide! XD

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ADVSS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DxS7eT_ky4

just gonna drop this off here

---

My god this is funny.

On SCH I'm able to DPS but my tank is not a new tank he is advanced and knows how to weave cool downs to give me the opportunity. Pug's are rough when you don't know the tank. They feel the same way about their healers. Communication is Key.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NocturniaUzuki

But overall, AST is not the best class to DPS with on healer. Its actual DPS potential is low, even if you have time to be DPSing.

---

Haven't leveled Astro very high but I can already tell that Astrologian is unique in that most of their DPS comes from bettering your teammate's DPS through cards. If I have time I'll DOT a few mobs, but otherwise I find it better to just focus on Healing/Card Management.

Am I right in my thinking?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Maxilor

Haven't leveled Astro very high but I can already tell that Astrologian is unique in that most of their DPS comes from bettering your teammate's DPS through cards. If I have time I'll DOT a few mobs, but otherwise I find it better to just focus on Healing/Card Management.

Am I right in my thinking?

---

Yep even on a dummy feeding itself cards, AST is bottom of the barrel DPS. After Star Bomb and trying to spread Combusts, honestly your average pull might only give you time for 2-3 gravities in lvling content before mobs start dying. Bosses we can buy ourselves quite a bit of time tho.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Renryuu

Basically at the moment I wait for the tank to pull everything they want to pull, but if they start taking a lot of damage fast, I throw Regen AB on them, otherwise I wait until they stop pulling to put Regen on them. I'll start with Benefic 1 to keep them over 80%, but if he takes more damage than I can heal, I'll use Benefic 2 instead. If they take an especially large chunk of damage I'll use Essential Dignity. I throw in Earthly Star to supplement healing as well as do damage and I use any Lady of the Crowns I get as a back up Essential Dignity to use when ED is on cooldown.

For AOE I'll use Helios unless the team is taking consistent damage or they took a big hit and are safe for a while before another hit comes, for those times I use the regen Helio. I use Nocturnal Sect for older dungeons as it seems more effective and usually the shield lasts for a whole pull or a good bit of time on a boss fight.

---

Get in the habit of watching your average heal numbers and your Benefic 2 crit numbers (for procs). Then you can change to bigger gaps of health, i.e. I Bene 2 crit between 24-30k atm, so if its procced ill let a tank slide down to 20-25k missing before I cast, and hold off the bene 1 for a bit to allow it. When you know its going to crit because of the proc, Bene 2s MP and GCD efficiency skyrockets, also if your using lightspeed a lot, it cuts CD time for that off.

Also learn where your Earthly Star's non-crit is at and try to maintain the tanks health right where ES will cap em out, or they will be down that far when it naturally explodes. If your willing to wait it out its effectively a free Bene 2 with a perk of topping off derpy DPS.

Big habit I'm having trouble with myself is using lightspeed more often, but its quite nice for spam AOE heal phases with its 25% cost reduction and super short half sec Helios, AHelios casts. Not just a spam Bene2 button. Also nice as a booster to Lucid Dreaming/Celestial Opposition Combo, less mp used, more mp regened. Downside tho, might as well not DPS while its up, given that it makes it even worse.

I've been playing Ast a long time. Few things I do that help, and might help you. In Nocturnal. When running newer dngs, once the tanks pull mobs, I hit them with Aspected benefic (AB) which gives them a shield and cast is quick. I hit as many mobs as possible with combust. Whenever I see AB wear off, I cast again, heal usually once to full. Then malefic mobs. While I keep AB up on tank and heal as needed. Once mine dwindle down some, AB will last longer. Which allows me to cast gravity, or other dps spells. If your casting and AB wears off and tanks start taking good dmg, cast AB as soon as your cast is over. Which gives you enough time to cast heals to bring tank to full mp. As time goes on, ive ran dngs pretty much casting AB exclusively without really having much which in turns allows me to dps more. But in all its whatever your comfortable with.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Maxilor

Haven't leveled Astro very high but I can already tell that Astrologian is unique in that most of their DPS comes from bettering your teammate's DPS through cards. If I have time I'll DOT a few mobs, but otherwise I find it better to just focus on Healing/Card Management.


Am I right in my thinking?

---

Haven't played SCH and my WHM isn't 70 yet so can't compare numbers, but in expert dungeons my low item level AST has been able to do over 1k average DPS throughout the dungeons in addition to using cards to boost party DPS, so it's definitely worth it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OcieKo

Get in the habit of watching your average heal numbers and your Benefic 2 crit numbers (for procs). Then you can change to bigger gaps of health, i.e. I Bene 2 crit between 24-30k atm, so if its procced ill let a tank slide down to 20-25k missing before I cast, and hold off the bene 1 for a bit to allow it. When you know its going to crit because of the proc, Bene 2s MP and GCD efficiency skyrockets, also if your using lightspeed a lot, it cuts CD time for that off.

Also learn where your Earthly Star's non-crit is at and try to maintain the tanks health right where ES will cap em out, or they will be down that far when it naturally explodes. If your willing to wait it out its effectively a free Bene 2 with a perk of topping off derpy DPS.

---

Good advice here! :)

Along the same lines as my previous advice. Take time to focus on acquiring a feel for when a pull will END, seems pointless at first, but hear me out. For regen jobs you want to be able to guess the end about 15-25sec before, and shield jobs about 3-5s before. This helps you prevent having your regens mess up pulls or allows you to hit your tank with a fresh shield before they inevitable dash offto the next pull.

Also you seriously dont need regen up til the last second, honestly if you can finish the current encounter with 2 basic heals, just do it that way, more for content with a pull after tho, kindof moot if its a trial/8 man boss. Goes hand in hand with learning to sorta calculate when fights will end.

On a side note, acquiring said abilities eventually leads to an understanding of group DPS for said content and can eventually help you plan you CD usage for an entire encounter since eventually you just get the hang of how long a fight will last in the first 10% or so.

A healer is supposed to DPS when they feel comfortable to do so.

Yes, we have offensive abilities, but the new Dungeons are like watching Tanks and DPS get run over by Ghost Train/Doomtrain. you sit there, watch it, sigh and heal, hoping they take a moment to realize mechanics. There is no actual requirement in Dungeons for a healer to DPS. it's nice to have the added DPS, but it's not needed.

The whole Healer DPS issue is one that you will ease into as you get comfortable with the dungeons. Not something you should be required to do even when the tanks are pulling Big and (possibly) not using Cooldowns. when SB first started, most of my DPS came from Assize and the occasional Holy Bomb because i didn't know the dungeons, i didn't know the tank and everything hurt like getting hit by a truck.

you will find your comfort, that's what you need to strive for at the moment not "OMG! i'm a bad Healer because i don't DPS".

Healers "heal", hence the name. DPS is optional, nice but OPTIONAL.