Astrologian Speculations! How will it fit in?

[Ghishlain]

As one firmly in the camp of "only lazy/bad healers completely eschew DPS" I truly hope so.

Something tells me those people allergic to work will find something else to complain about, though. Today it's "But I shouldn't have to DPS, and you can't make me!" Tomorrow it will be "Don't make me use my barrier stance or advanced card buffs, I'm a HEALER."

Unfortunately, that will always be here to deal with regardless of class/job (such as the now infamous "Foe Requiem reduces my DPS by 50%") or when you notice DRGs not using Heavy Thrust / NINs not using Huton / Tanks not using CDs, etc. There will people who are just "lazy" and do the bear minimal without regard. I just find it's more noticeable on Healers since Healers who ONLY DPS are absolutely terrible and there are more "things that can go wrong" if a healer messes up.

That and/or AST who macro everything with a Yu-Gi-Oh announcement macro. I had a tank in satash HM who did this one, to EVERY SINGLE MOVE. I couldnt really heal very well due to my eyes bleeding so much..............

Reminds me of a picture I saw about how a BLM and WHM were explaining exactly what they were doing with their skills in macros so they could explain to the people how to do a proper rotation / what their abilities do in a "weird attempt to teach people how to play", I guess.

[Faelandaea]

Not all healers that just heal are bad. I only DPS during the DPS check of a boss fight. I have never had a complaint. In fact I get complimented a LOT because I focus on my job. Most tanks, even undergeared ones, can speed pull with me in their party and be confident they will survive. If a party wipes while I am in the party it's because a large portion of the party missed a mechanic and got one-shot (myself included, sometimes - dodging mechanics is a different story altogether). NEVER has a party wiped because of how I do my job, and I get many commendations as a result. I have been healing MMO games since 1999, and I take great pride in keeping a party alive and kicking.

With that said, on the other end of the stick, barrier stance and mitigation IS healing, and if I choose to play AST, I WILL be VERY happy to use those stances, because mitigation IS a form of healing. ANY good healer knows this, so if I see an AST who will not bend to the party needs as a mitigation expert or healer expert, I will definitely be one of the ones voting to kick and replace. People just do not seem to get the extreme power of good mitigation. As a healer I DEFINITELY notice when the tank is using their CDs and mitigating . . . it makes it SO much easier for me to keep him alive. Good mitigation makes healing MUCH easier, and it makes the chances of surviving a HUGE lot better. On the healer end of things, I would be very happy to have a barrier AST by my side.

People are also so worried that an AST will be in barrier stance in an 8-man party and thus only 1 healer would be healing? Incorrect. Like I said above, mitigation IS healing! It's just PREVENTIVE healing as opposed to CORRECTIVE healing. You are essentially healing BEFORE the hit! I guarantee I would be able to solo heal any fight that has a barrier class mitigating the damage.

I have discussed this with my FC, and during Alex raids, we definitely plan to take advantage of as much mitigation as possible. It's making me excited to roll an AST once the class releases. And it makes me even more happy to know that any good healer out there will know and appreciate good mitigation, and know that I am doing my best to make their job REALLY easy.

I just find it's more noticeable on Healers since Healers who ONLY DPS are absolutely terrible and there are more "things that can go wrong" if a healer messes up.

Oh gods I have noticed this one a LOT. Usually it is in ST or one of the other CT raids that I see this - some healer goes into Cleric Stance and DPS's the entire fight. I end up solo healing the raid. Fortunately for the team I know my bloody job, so I keep them alive, but it WOULD be nice to have some assistance during all those raid-wide hit mechanics, instead of me running all over the circle trying to heal everyone one by one - especially since at NO time EVER will a party be entirely in range for Succor.

I always think that these are the idiots who decided in their minds, "I play a DPS class, but I don;t want to wait for the queue, so I will create a crappy healer which I have no clue how to play just so I can queue faster". The result was nothing more than healers having insane queue times on my server, and a lot of parties getting stuck with healers who absolutely can NOT do their job - ever.

People should only roll jobs they love to do, but MMO games are about patience, and so many players, at least on my server, completely FAIL at patience. If I loved playing Bard, I would not roll a healer just to speed up the queue. I'd stick to my bard, and do crafting or something else while waiting for a slightly longer queue. But hey, that;s just me I guess.

[Spoekes]

Not all healers that just heal are bad. I only DPS during the DPS check of a boss fight. I have never had a complaint. In fact I get complimented a LOT because I focus on my job. Most tanks, even undergeared ones, can speed pull with me in their party and be confident they will survive. If a party wipes while I am in the party it's because a large portion of the party missed a mechanic and got one-shot (myself included, sometimes - dodging mechanics is a different story altogether). NEVER has a party wiped because of how I do my job, and I get many commendations as a result. I have been healing MMO games since 1999, and I take great pride in keeping a party alive and kicking.

Much has been said about this already so in short:
If we are to take the part I bolded out literally you are mediocre for being lazy, especially SCH can do all what you state above while doing more than help on DPS checks.

And I wish people would stop bringing CT Raids into discussions about those topics.

[Asheilin]

Just because a Job can dps, doesn't mean it should. I'll dps when I have time on sch, sure. However, I rarely ever do because I'm too busy SOLO healing CT or keeping the tank alive in large pulls to take 2-4 GCD to dot everything up. This includes ALL my abilities can cast to <tt>. Hell, 1/2 the time I'm assisting the other two alliances keeping their parties alive because they're too busy dpsing to heal.

Healers are healers first; stop telling them to DPS if they wanted to dps they'd roll one. ;p

That aside, it does seem like AST will have little in way of damage and that would make me happy. Think of it this way. if its blocked by level 30 to pick up you'll have your chocobo that can attack crap. additionally, it could be blocked by 3.0 storyline start. So if they start at 15 (doubtful) they can fate/heist/dungeon and the same if they start 30 (more likely).

[Spoekes]

Again a CT situation........ because thats where the serious playing happens and where you really measure playerskill right? right??
Im just saying while you of course priorize healing, you do damage while there is downtime in healing.

Not doing so is lazy - thats assuming you know the fight are are not undergeared - of course.

[Kuwagami]

Just because a Job can dps, doesn't mean it should.

No. It means that they're lazy if they have the opportunity to do it and just stand idle. Because everyone know standing afk/dancing is better for the group than throwing extra damage.

That aside, it does seem like AST will have little in way of damage and that would make me happy.

People who think that AST will have no damage moves are either naive or idiots. All the classes are intended to be able to play solo in the open fields. If they restrict roles, you won't be able to do so. or GL soloing anything with auto attacks only.

AST will have damage spells
AST will have cleric or an equivalent of their own

AST will be able to dps and expected to do so instead of counting butterflies when they have nothing to heal/shield.

[Cynfael]

This trend of people who find that they have no "time" to DPS even as SCH referencing CT content is really strange. Again, they must have either the worst parties ever on a regular basis or are watching the HP bars of the entire raid, which usually means massive overhealing and wasted time. If another alliance is obviously struggling, sure, throw them a hand here and there, but otherwise you have to trust that their own healers will do their jobs. If the other healers (or their party members) are so terrible,let them sort it out so that the show can go on. Regardless, no other content in the game works this way, so it's not really a good benchmark for any role's performance.

Anyway, yes, obviously AST will have some way to DPS. My guess is that their DPS spells will be tied into their barrier stance unless the new Jobs are allowed cross-class skills from the existing system (i.e. they get access to Cleric Stance).

If the former turns out to be the case, it will be interesting since it would mean that AST could possibly DPS quite effectively while throwing out great mitigation, but they wouldn't be able to rapidly stance dance with healing like SCH and WHM can now (given that Yoshi hinted that there will be a long-ish cooldown on changing between tsukiyomi and hoshiyomi). I guess we'll find out in the near future how this really works.

[Tranquil]

Some of you guys in here should broaden your perspectives a little bit and liberate yourselves of the trinity thinking. I am a healer, therefore I do nothing but heal. You are primarily a healer, but you should do everything in your power to accomodate the success of the duty. As a healer, you should be aware of your surroundings, what certain things do, how much do they hit for (mitigation-adjusted or without any mitigation), what intervals do certain scripted attacks come at, what certain tank cooldowns do and so forth. If you are aware of all this, you can synergize and minmax dexterously.

On the actual topic of AST: I hope there's more to Hoshiyomi/Tsukiyomi than just being either WHM-esque or SCH-esque with a given stance up and that AST will have their own distinctive "niche things" apart from just some of the cards. (Which might also have mild overlap with the SCH in terms of mild raid buffing). Time will tell.

[Ranzan]

Heal first dps second that's how I roll but I'm sick and tired of scholars that stays in cleric the entire fight. That burns me to no end. Just roll a damn dps if that's all you do.

[Kuwagami]

Heal first dps second that's how I roll but I'm sick and tired of scholars that stays in cleric the entire fight. That burns me to no end. Just roll a damn dps if that's all you do.

assuming 4 man, if the fairy is enough to heal, why not ?

Troll tower doesn't count once again. And trials (HM ones, I've yet to see a healer 100% in cleric in Ex) are such a fucking joke it doesn't matter if there is a guy solo healing