Why people says AST is bad?

[Reivur]

There is no increase in throughput with instant cast. The GCD is the same. :|

All it does is slightly alter the rhythm of the heals you are spamming if you're not using it for its mobility. In the rare case the burst is desired, Swiftcast exists.

You're trying much too hard to be unsatisfied. Not everyone is delusional enough to think the class is flawless, but what this person is describing is something I personally enjoy about the class too. Instant cast, front-forwarded healing is different and is enjoyable. And there are uses to being able to cast it on the move, as well as have the 'chant' portion skipped even if you ultimately are locked by the recast timer.

Altering the rhythm is a good thing. This rhythm is called gameplay. And mentioning Swiftcast at no point makes me want to suddenly make Benefic's passive have hidden and effective-- yet boring-- power/efficiency like White Mage. If I wanted it to be more like White Mage, I could simply play a White Mage.

By using this mechanic, I'm free to use Swiftcast for something else. Like say, Aspected Helios; a spell with a legitimately longer cast time with a positional requirement to where I feel more impact/satisfaction for using Swiftcast.

You can't just reach for power and ignore play patterns completely. Give the class throughput or power, especially in Nocturnal; clean up cards to make up for their lack of personal dps opportunity-- clean up Spire ESPECIALLY since it feels often like an impactless card. "We won this encounter because the Astrologian used Spire on me", said no one ever-- this can be said about almost every card, but at least you can feasibly make claims that a Royal AoE Balance/Arrow helped on a 'meh' geared Bismarck EX Core, or throwing Ewer on the WHM during AoE phases, or coordinating Spears on Spread with a Ninja friend got more oGCDs/Ninjutsu/Trick Attacks out for the raid. There's potential, even if they're not tuned right. The gameplay is there.

Clean up usability for Spears in non-premades, give a few number tweaks on the other cards certainly but don't screw with elements that work for the class. Its an awesome stutterstep for a healer.

[Cynfael]

Sorry, but I have to agree that Enhanced Benefic II is quite bad. Insta-cast proc at random is not particularly useful and is more likely to trip you up than to be truly beneficial.

I'd take the boring Freecure proc any day since it is benign even if you don't really need it, whereas Enhanced Benefic II makes you watch for an active proc to ensure that you don't attempt to precast with it on.

[chumsy]

Hello!
My ast is only 53 but that is enough for see his potential. In my opinion AST dont need a buff/nerf, is fine right now...

Healed as both AST and SCH, could tell you immediately that AST felt weak, at almost the same iLvl gear. MP ran out quicker, and recovering from large AOE damage was more difficult, the main issues i see.

[Oriens]

I've all done all content available as both SCH and AST and the job needs reworking. Yes, you can accomplish your HEALER role successfully as AST currently is-- but that's pretty much it. I also find that AST is very dependent on how skilled the other healer is. I even prefer SCH/SCH to SCH/AST because 60SCH can pump crazy amounts of heals and mitigation fast now, where as I was having to spam 3-4 GCDs -trying- to pick people up on phases like RavEX back to back stomps.

TLDR: Can you HEAL current content as AST? Yes. Can you bring SUPPORT as the role is intended? Maybe (RNG). Can you be more effective and bring more to the table as WHM or SCH instead? Definitely.

[Cynfael]

Healed as both AST and SCH, could tell you immediately that AST felt weak, at almost the same iLvl gear. MP ran out quicker, and recovering from large AOE damage was more difficult, the main issues i see.

This I will agree with. AST is adequate for most healing, but the gap is apparent when you compare its performance in situations requiring high healing output for any sustained period of time to that of WHM or SCH.

The lack of powerful healing CDs and oGCD heals is very real, and heaven help you if you're trying this in Nocturnal with its very low healing output.

[Reivur]

Sorry, but I have to agree that Enhanced Benefic II is quite bad. Insta-cast proc at random is not particularly useful and is more likely to trip you up than to be truly beneficial.

I'd take the boring Freecure proc any day since it is benign even if you don't really need it, whereas Enhanced Benefic II makes you watch for an active proc to ensure that you don't attempt to precast with it on.

See I don't get this as an argument because it isn't even remotely true. You don't have to 'watch' for an active proc to avoid to precast with it because its very much the same 'situation' as the old Fire 3 munching. If you're precasting/queuing your next action/spell, and almost anyone is except during a cooling phase be it SCH popping a really strong Adlo and going back to cleric, or doing a Cure II and queue/going back to Cure I, you won't use Benefic II's proc. It'll just be there and shiny because you already started chanting.

You would have to intentionally interrupt it, then cast it, losing at most 0.5's seconds worth of benefit if you wanted that proc to launch right now.

Call for buffs all you like. It needs them. Creating fake problems with the parts of the kit that works and makes it distinct is silly though. Its almost getting comical about how many complaints these boards have about homogenization, and then their suggestions for fixing the classes is making spells literally identical 1:1. The class probably could use a form of efficiency, since using Ewer on itself is a waste of its utility that it brings to the table, but copy/pasting Benefic to be exactly like Cure isn't the answer. We don't need a second White Mage with a Star Motif.

[Cynfael]

Except that you don't automatically chain heals together like you do DPS spells, and not knowing when to expect an instant Benefic II can indeed be an annoyance. In any case it's almost never of actual use.

[GideonHighmourn]

I won't go so far to say that insta-cast procs of Benefic II are useless, but they aren't nearly as useful as their free-cure proc counterparts. It's nice, but not really useful to MP efficiency or throughput; I often forget it's even there. At least with free-cure, it's always useful because it increases MP efficiency.

[Cynfael]

I won't go so far to say that insta-cast procs of Benefic II are useless, but they aren't nearly as useful as their free-cure proc counterparts. It's nice, but not really useful to MP efficiency or throughput; I often forget it's even there. At least with free-cure, it's always useful because it increases MP efficiency.

The one good thing I will say about Enhanced Benefic II is that it's handy if you suddenly have a DPS to heal immediately and just so happen to have a proc ready. The randomness and highly situational benefit just make it very underwhelming.

[Reivur]

I won't go so far to say that insta-cast procs of Benefic II are useless, but they aren't nearly as useful as their free-cure proc counterparts. It's nice, but not really useful to MP efficiency or throughput; I often forget it's even there. At least with free-cure, it's always useful because it increases MP efficiency.

As a footnote, I do agree with this completely. I just don't see it as a 'problem' that needs to be fixed. Its a strength/utility that's different from someone else's. They probably need help with being more efficient (ESPECIALLY Nocturnal, among other things Nocturnal would need) but I don't see the point of stripping out functioning flavor/play.