Your thoughts on Astrolgian so far?

[Kyln]

I find its tanks who are too used to being carried by their healer that have issues with AST. Tanks that do their job by using cooldowns to mitigate damage are absolutely fine with AST. I find when i get a tank who can not press the buttons to reduce the damage they take are a huge issue, as are the ones who still think we can speed run all the new content undergeared and with party compositions that is far from optimal to kill mass pulls quickly. Flip side to every coin.

This is 100% true. Any healer will struggle with a tank that does not rotate CDs.

[Dynalon]

I have got mine at 52. I love it, but at the same time I am disappointed with it, because anything what I can do can be done by other healing classes better. Cards just don't compensate it. It's missing healing cds and it's healing output is lowest of all healers. I remember I wiped 2 times on first boss in AV at level 47, my hots were just not healing enough, aoe heal was not an option so had to spam ST heals. On third try we killed it with everyone being at 30% hp and me at 200 mana. Little too close I would say. I do not recall having such trouble with WHM or SCH when I did AV with these classes at 47.

[lordparanoia]

I think AST is a good job but it feels like something is lacking.
I'm not sure that there are good reasons to take an AST instead of a SCH or a WHM.
Why should I bring AST in a group when SCH has enough support (with Selene+the High DPS that SCH can do) but very higher healing abilities?
So as someone else said, in Alexander we will see.
The PROs and CONs of AST are, imho:

I think AST is a good job but it feels like something is lacking.
I'm not sure that there are good reasons to take an AST instead of a SCH or a WHM.
Why should I bring AST in a group when SCH has enough support (with Selene+the High DPS that SCH can do) but very higher healing abilities?
So as someone else said, in Alexander we will see.
The PROs and CONs of AST are, imho:

PROS
instant heals: instant adloquium|instant proc Benefic II
cards are funny and really powerful: if you have Balance/Arrow... it's simply power
I really like the "utilities" like Sinastry and Time Dilation: they are very useful in some situations

CONS
MP management is a bit unfair: why do WHM have Shrouds of Saints and Assize, SCH have Aetherflow+Energy Drain and AST have only Luminiferous Aether? Should we be forced to use the Ewer on ourselves?
There is a lack in AOE heals: SCH have Succor+Emergency Tactcis Succor+Indomitability. WHM have Medica+Medica2+Cure3. AST have only Helios and Aspected Helios.
Aspected Helios has a very long cast expecially if you're in nocturnal sect.
Essential Dignity should have a lower recast time. 40 seconds are too much, 30 would be better.
Collective Unconscious is ... simply wrong. Sacred Soil and Asylum are better. :/
Lightspeed could be considered a great ability but the truth is that you have to sacrifice healing potency: AST heals are weaker then SCH/WHM and become much weaker when you use Lightspeed. 25% is a bit too much. I think it should be -10% with a 10% MP refresh.


I main SCH and I'm very curious to see how AST will work in a raid group for Alexander.
Honestly, I don't see the reason to go AST instead of SCH. I fear I couldn't help in emergency situations.

[ViscountofSeven]

Still 50, but struggling to heal atm, idk if its just because of me or I'm feeling the reduced potency we have especially since I always pair up with my bro (SCH) in 8 mans and I main WHM before.

Nevertheless a fun job to play, but hard to master.

[Remilia_Nightfall]

SCH have Aetherflow+Energy Drain and AST have only Luminiferous Aether?

Again, the usual fallacy when talking about SCH.

Most of SCH good tools are mutually exclusive. If you consider Aetherflow + Energy Drain, you have to imagine a SCH without Indomitability, Lustrate and Sacred Soil.

[Violet_Magenta]

Still 50, but struggling to heal atm

I feel the level 50 content is not really designed for ast (or that ast is not designed for the level 50 content). Honestly the new content 51+ is easily doable with ast, I have not really had a hard time healing the new content unless your party does not really co-operate with you i.e. when you have two ranged dps at the opposite ends of the room and your trying to aoe heal - the 15 yalm radius is definitely noticeable (There is less room for error when healing as ast - for you and for your party). This would benefit the other healers too.

I think we will always have two schools of thought - those saying ast is fine as is and those that feel a change is needed. imho, I think SE deliberately made the new classes a little underwhelming to begin with so they will be buffed later instead of nerfing.

[Arcana]

I think SE deliberately made the new classes a little underwhelming to begin with so they will be buffed later instead of nerfing.

Yeah, i think the same about this. SE got a lot of people crying after the nin "nerf" because of that. So this time its better to release a underpowered healer (in buffs at least. In healer is not that bad atm), wait a few weeks and then enpower the job to get all the people happy :3

[Sanguisio]

I really like it, had a go on my friends lvl 60 and yeah the healing is what it is no major boosts for the oh shit moments but I think it forces more controlled healing.

I also feel there is a mana problem, whether or not that is due to tanks not rotating CDs appropriately, WHM/SCH can handle these tanks I think an AST should be able to in their own way.

I noticed in fights like the last boss of the vault and ravana I was able to handle the AOE damage easier on my SCH than AST so can only imagine how much the WHM laughs at AST in those moments.

Maybe extending card durations would help make it seem more balanced.

[Lastelli]

I feel the level 50 content is not really designed for ast (or that ast is not designed for the level 50 content). Honestly the new content 51+ is easily doable with ast [...]

This is what I think as well. However, as I'm now a Lv 57 SCH (and Lv 60 AST) I can say pretty surely that there's nothing a Noct AST can do that a SCH can't do much better and selene's buff is probably enough to provide a comparable DPS boost to AST's cards, which are not a big deal anyway atm. So yeah, I can't believe this job is working as intended, they're probably observing us all and will buff AST soon enough, right now it simply isn't competitive compared to the other two healers. I'd even say that a fairyless SCH is better than a Noct AST which is ridiculous. Also, if the new content is designed taking into account the AST, it will be much easier to deal with with a SCH anyway.

[Lastelli]

continues...

AST looks ok until you try the new skills for the other healers. SCH's Deployment Tactics for example is potentially a damage mitigation an AST can never hope to achieve, even with an expanded bole. Indomitability is a more powerful insta medica (no MP cost and oGCD). WHM's Asylum is slightly less powerful than Diurnal Collective Unconscious (tho it lasts longer), but you can move and act meanwhile. Luminiferous Aether is a nerfed version of Shroud of Saints (much more useful to have your enmity halved) and WHM's Assize is basically a free medica every 90 seconds and even restores own's MP! On top of that the only CD we can use to somewhat change the way we heal is freaking Lightspeed which reduces healing potency and this just means more mana problems. This is just freaking ridiculous! I'm not going to enter Alexander Savage with AST if it is not buffed considerably.