I've leveled Astro to 60, and completed the last current dungeon. My Thoughts.

[Lycinder]

I'm going to bump this because more people are talking about this still, and I'd like more people to see my points. Astro is really mostly fine. It has merits, there just needs to be some changes and I strongly feel this is the way to go about it.

+1 to Astro being mostly fine, after actually causing some clutch victories for my team which would be impossible for scholar/white mage since they can't keep constant movement with instant cast heals with nocturnal but that was with me picking up Spear when I needed it for Luminiferous and Ewer and Bole inbetween when I was burning my mana, I can't imagine RNG being that nice to me again.

Our tools and skills are all pretty much in proper order they just need a little bit of rebalancing and tweaks to be able to be properly be weighed up to the other two healers.

But with all that being said Astrologian has quite a lot of self survivability compared to other healers when everyone starts dying and we have the boss on us, nocturnal aspected benefic then lightspeed stoneskin while kiting the boss/mobs ress the tank stoneskin + essential dignity the tank to enough that he can provoke without dying and pray you got some mana to bring others back into the field.
The only issue is probably Alexander bosses will be hitting so hard that it doesn't matter if we have nocturnal shield and stoneskin on ourselves :I

[Rajeme]

The only issue is probably Alexander bosses will be hitting so hard that it doesn't matter if we have nocturnal shield and stoneskin on ourselves :I

True. I think the most needed tweak right now is how to counter burst dmg from heavy hitters. Some sort of one hit emergency button beside essential dignity which can bring back the whole party. I sometimes find myself stuck in the situation when most of my party are lower than 30% and I have no other way to bring them back fast enough without wasting some extra steps for lightspeed- and lots of time it would be far too late, the recast time doesn't help either

[Lycinder]

True. I think the most needed tweak right now is how to counter burst dmg from heavy hitters. Some sort of one hit emergency button beside essential dignity which can bring back the whole party. I sometimes find myself stuck in the situation when most of my party are lower than 30% and I have no other way to bring them back fast enough without wasting some extra steps for lightspeed- and lots of time it would be far too late, the recast time doesn't help either

On the note of lightspeed I would be fine with them lowering the effect time to 10 seconds and making it remove GCD while active (though there will be some people who will use celestial stasis to increase its effect length like what I do for luminiferous >.>; )

[Superlol]

I was healing Bismark EX with SCHs and i had more HPS than them (and in total), our HoTs are very strong compared to the shields.

[Rajeme]

On the note of lightspeed I would be fine with them lowering the effect time to 10 seconds and making it remove GCD while active (though there will be some people who will use celestial stasis to increase its effect length like what I do for luminiferous >.>; )

I was thinking along your line. I feel that GCD is a huge block for a supposedly emergency life-saving skill with big cool down like that. No point in removing cast time if there is still cd anyways.

[EchuKayu]

So how would you say the nocturnal stance is and does that need help?

[Lycinder]

So how would you say the nocturnal stance is and does that need help?

Well I used to complain about how paper the shield felt, but as you get better geared it seems to be a lot more useful even though the problem is you lack the sustained HPS which Diurnal gives you and in the end is less mana efficient than Diurnal but in my opinion it is a lot more fun than Diurnal and if you keep a good eye on your mana and know a few techniques to not burn all your mana away you can effectively do big pulls.
Unfortunately a lot of our cooldown skills are really useful in Diurnal but don't have that power in Nocturnal (Time dilation and Celestial stasis increases regen length and collective unconsciousness in Nocturnal is equal mitigation to sacred soil but with huge downsides compared to sacred soil.)

I am stubbornly a Nocturnal Astrologian and will probably stick to it since I used to be a scholar and nocturnal can do bigger heals than Diurnal (Benefic II + Aspected Benefic in I can get a 4k heal from benefic II and a 1.5 to 2k heal with a 1.5 to 2k shield in quick succession, once again the problem is mana)
I think what Nocturnal needs a special effect with an aspected benefic crit much like Scholar double shield, maybe a defense boost while the shield is up or even just for x amount of seconds as that will fit with the support role which astrologian has.

[Snails]

I was thinking along your line. I feel that GCD is a huge block for a supposedly emergency life-saving skill with big cool down like that. No point in removing cast time if there is still cd anyways.

When you say remove the GCD what do you mean exactly? Make it so as fast as you press the button it heals?
Removing the cast time is still a very important buff since the spell is instant and doesn't take time to cast first.
I think what should happen is the GCD should be lowered to 1.5 secs for the duration of the buff, alongside instant cast. That makes it feel more powerful, because currently it's only real use is for movement from what I can see.
I would prefer if the 25% reduction to heals was lowered, say to 10%.

[Cynfael]

Lightspeed will remain a really poor excuse for a healing CD until something is done about the GCD.

Hell, look at the Enhanced Benefic proc: it doesn't reduce your potency, but it invokes the GCD and doesn't cost any less MP than casting the spell normally, so it's still bad for the same reasons Lightspeed is bad.

A handful of "this one time at band camp, Lightspeed let me cast Helios while running for my life" stories don't make it an okay skill by any means.

[Lycinder]

Snip

Removing the GCD won't be overpowered since instead of being about moving and healing it will be about burst healing (which we don't have) and making sure not to burn all our mana so we will still pace ourselves.
TBH Lightspeed is more or less effectively near useless in Nocturnal due to the fact we would be much better just using aspected benefic for the 250 potency + 250 potency shield while needing to move around, in nocturnal the only thing I can think is when we need to spam aoes but you are better off using Helios then a swiftcast helios for those moments.