Your thoughts on Astrolgian so far?

[Kiaris]

I'm a career healer in game and love what I do. I'm very good in raids, I learn quickly and can play WHM and SCH equally well. I was very excited to level AST during early access. As I grinded my way way to 50 I kept thinking "It will get better.. just keep going." It never got better. At lvl50 I was 130 and bis (augmented ironworks wpn though) and doing hard mode dungeons (nearly impossible to speed run btw). Between DRKs that didn't spec properly and the weak heals of AST, it was a bloodbath. AST needs help. There is no raw healing power there. There is nothing that impresses. All content in this game should be accessible to any job/party make up so long as it falls within the pre-established SE parameters for the content.

You shoulda been fine in hard modes. AST is almost like healing as a WHM without the healing buff cooldowns at 50.

[OpheliaHeartilly]

Creating a healing class with "support" abilities is a great idea-- as long as the raw healing is comparable to the other jobs (it's not) and the support abilities can be used on demand (they can't). This is where the problem is. I find the cards gimmicky. The fact that you can "shuffle" and draw the same card that you just put back because you didn't want it is not cool. Can you imagine if some of your abilities as a DRG, BRD, or MNK could only be used randomly? Or could never be used unless they proc'd? "Oh I can't use blood for blood now because the button isn't there...maybe it will appear a bit later..." "The party is going to need mantra soon for big aoe damage... I hope it procs at the right time!" Benefic II proc for insta cast but with same MP cost? What is the point of that? lol. I feel that SE underpowered AST so it wouldn't outshine WHM or SCH out of the box-- but it really needs some buffing.

[SaintK]

You mean AST is like SCH without a pet and without the ability to dignity three times. Also lower healing potencies, and a much crappier shield (if you use that useless sect.).

[OpheliaHeartilly]

You shoulda been fine in hard modes. AST is almost like healing as a WHM without the healing buff cooldowns at 50.

Not at all with DRKs that PIE specc'd (is that really a thing??) and pull 8 mobs like they are running on their PLD. Losing hate to the DPS all over the place-- on WHM or SCH I could have kept up. AST just didn't have the juice.

[Estheim]

So right now it sounds almost like we're being judged on how terrible the tanks are. I will admit I haven't done end game content, I've been healing Sohm Al recently and for the most part it's been fine. I had a level 60 paladin in tanking it and it was perfect, everyone did what they were supposed to do and it was the smoothest run I've had in a long time. I think that the astrologian will have a place in future content to be a viable end game healer, it's just getting used to this, that and the new things before we hit the same point that WHM and SCH are at.

[RichardButte]

I almost never see selene being used in serious content until it becomes farmable. So pleeeease stfu about Selene's haste, as in the content we are talking about, you would have eos out. It is very obvious this discussion is lacked full of casuals. Also all the people that arnt even 50 yet just stop talking, it means nothing under 50 with you i40 gear.

You'll be using Selene if you have 2 SCHs, actually, and that has happened to me numerous times in raids.

So basically a lot of ppl are to lazy and not up for the challenge ast provides. I've seen mayn AST's in Heavensward and they where all really good. You should talk about it when you hit 60.

1. We've been hearing from some people who have it to 60.

2. We can't just say "Wait until 60" because the class needs to be a solid healer before 60 as well.

The problem is that AST's buffs aren't worth it's lack of healing potency. Being able to have one extra tank cooldown 17% of the time isn't worth it, especially when you have healing classes that have reliable cooldowns they can use WAY more than 17% of the time (eye for an eye, for example).

The card buffs need to be stronger and better overall. MP/TP REGEN would be decent, but MP/TP usage reduction hinges on an AST knowing that the buff target is A) going to be using a lot of TP or MP shortly and B) isn't a competent enough player to manage their own TP/MP in the first place, and if B is true, why are they there to start with?

[Krixus]

Wow a career healer struggling in easy content with BiS, thanks for the good laugh. I could heal HM speed runs as a blm.... Go practice.

I am certainly not against buffs for astro, but I've yet to feel the need for them. Currently 56, looking forward to the vault, as people are saying its the true astro test I guess. Though if those saying this is hard, are already 60 astro, I find it hard to believe they already hit 60 on sch or whm. So they probably haven't healed it as one of those jobs, maybe it is just a difficult fight for any healer? What are you comparing to?

[Lilita]

I just feel like i want to point out, its not that we struggle or cant heal, or wipe in content as the guy above me keeps pointing out. It's the fact, that SCH and WHM are safer and better bet, and in progression, people want reliable healers and reliable buffs. I dont wanna hurt my statics progression if i know, we could get further faster with me playing sch and not astro.

[RichardButte]

Wow a career healer struggling in easy content with BiS, thanks for the good laugh. I could heal HM speed runs as a blm.... Go practice.

Who are you referring to?

I'm assuming it's not me because I never said anything along the lines of being a "career healer", nor did I say anything about healing easy content in BiS gear.

I am certainly not against buffs for astro, but I've yet to feel the need for them. Currently 56, looking forward to the vault, as people are saying its the true astro test I guess. Though if those saying this is hard, are already 60 astro, I find it hard to believe they already hit 60 on sch or whm. So they probably haven't healed it as one of those jobs, maybe it is just a difficult fight for any healer? What are you comparing to?

I'm not saying anything subjective. Only that OBJECTIVELY speaking, raid leaders aren't going to want to bring ASTs in their current state because their heals are weaker and the card buffs don't bring enough to compensate.

And I LOVE the AST playstyle. It's got some neat tools, but at the end of the day, it's a crappier WHM with unreliable buffs that wouldn't shift the tide of a battle anyway.

[OpheliaHeartilly]

Wow a career healer struggling in easy content with BiS, thanks for the good laugh. I could heal HM speed runs as a blm.... Go practice.

The struggle is real, and it has nothing to do with me or any other healer being a bad player. Your rudeness and baseless supposition seemingly indicates a desire to flame rather then draw attention to the facts: Speed run = big pulls. AST has lower potency heals. You often need to heal fast and big especially if you are toggling cleric stance and helping to dps mobs. The tools that AST has to work with do not as easily permit that. Those are facts. Please link a video of you healing an HM speed run on your BLM for reference please. This sounds very interesting. Also, telling ppl to "stfu" has no place on the public forums.

Edit-- Just looked up your info on the Lodestone. You don't even have BLM levelled up. lol