Healing 'big' pulls on Astro

[Mirakell]

I'm only at lv57 (almost) and I am enjoying playing the class but there is just a few little nit picks here and there that are making me nervous while healing. I used to main Scholar and that will be leveled up soon after this class, and the healing ease difference just feels too much? Not on smaller/single pulls just on large group pulls?

I was running high level roulette and the tank pulled the entire corridor of AK HM - which I normally would feel able to heal no bother but instead I messed up and got everyone killed - second time it went alright but I can't help but feel as if there is a trick that I may be missing when it comes to healing larger pulls?

Any help would be good! I read these threads a lot for healing advice so hope you can help

[YuiSasaki]

Normally I'd advise to heal in Diurnal Double Hot Tank and see how much damage needs to be healed. In case the tanks takes too much damage dont forget your cards! The Bole is a nice increase of defense on tanks, and cards like Balance, Arrow and TP/MP Reduce on DDs are good - remember the faster the fight ends the better.
Otherwise spam Bene2 if you cant "counter-heal" it with Bene1.

Also Essential Dignity is a nice "oh shit"-Button for that it heals more the lower the targets hp is.

Don't forget it's not always the fault of the heal if the tank dies. Seen to many tanks who pull to much and then don't even bother to use their CDs... Or if they lose aggro to heal/dd :X

[Risvertasashi]

HoTs, yes, besides that...

Pray. And pray that the AoE makes them die quick, and/or that you have a BRD/MCH to help you with your benefic 2 spam.

[416to305]

Yeah a lot of tanks are just stupid. I've had HM ones where they pull pull pull and when they finally stop, they literally are like 100% HP, boom 70%, boom, 40%, you get your Benefic II in bring them maybe to like 70%, book down to 30%, you're casting Benefic II again type thing and boom they are dead before it even finishes. In those cases I don't see how it could possibly be the healers fault when you can't physically cure them faster than they are taking damage.

[Risvertasashi]

Yeah a lot of tanks are just stupid. I've had HM ones where they pull pull pull and when they finally stop, they literally are like 100% HP, boom 70%, boom, 40%, you get your Benefic II in bring them maybe to like 70%, book down to 30%, you're casting Benefic II again type thing and boom they are dead before it even finishes. In those cases I don't see how it could possibly be the healers fault when you can't physically cure them faster than they are taking damage.

TBH... this can be an issue on any healer. Just the others have a bit more burst they can bring to bear.

[Leiloni]

Yeah a lot of tanks are just stupid. I've had HM ones where they pull pull pull and when they finally stop, they literally are like 100% HP, boom 70%, boom, 40%, you get your Benefic II in bring them maybe to like 70%, book down to 30%, you're casting Benefic II again type thing and boom they are dead before it even finishes. In those cases I don't see how it could possibly be the healers fault when you can't physically cure them faster than they are taking damage.

I saw that recently on my AST and the tank just blamed it on me being an AST instead of another healer. It's that sort of attitude that made me want to only use my WHM for group content for a bit instead of my AST. Whether or not my SCH/WHM would have had that issue, it's just not fun when everyone picks the new class as their scapegoat for all problems.

[Mirakell]

Hmm - So HoT's are still better than shields? Okays :3
I just feel like i'm having more trouble than when on Scholar and I know part of it is a new class and all - but I do find myself willing the dps to kill faster more often these days xDD

[Leiloni]

Hmm - So HoT's are still better than shields? Okays :3
I just feel like i'm having more trouble than when on Scholar and I know part of it is a new class and all - but I do find myself willing the dps to kill faster more often these days xDD

There are some runs with AST that I feel like I have to work harder than on my WHM/SCH and end up with less healing, less mana, and buffs that don't always feel as amazing as they should. Assuming your group is pulling their weight, then yes play in Diurnal like you would a WHM and it should be "fine" (if you're group isn't that great then you will have problems since it's not as easy to make up for that as on SCH/WHM). Not great, but definitely doable. Class does feel like it needs some improvements though because it just feels lacking in comparison to the others.

People keep saying the class is ok because it can complete the content, but honestly if SE released any class that couldn't complete content, they'd lose credibility as game devs because that's the very basic requirement of a game! The question is how well they can complete things and how do they stack up against the other classes. That's why there's a problem.

[Kelya]

As long as you have a tank that is poping CD on the packs of mobs, you should be alright. You have time to dps with Gravity, coming back full HP with Essential dignity and then coming back to dps again, then repeat. If you need to heal between 2 Essential dignity cooldown either the tank is not correct or the pull is too big, but in general that's how it goes.

[Eisenhower]

Healing big pulls can vary a lot between groups. That has been my experience of it at least.

When I'm healing my static's tank in big pulls as AST I rarely have any problems, even less so if we bring along our regular DPS players. It's entirely different when I'm healing in PUG groups, even when the content and pull size is the same. If the tank isn't using defensive cooldowns properly they'll eat a lot more damage than they should. Same goes for the HW content when party members are undergeared or used to being overgeared. If the DPS isn't up to par for whatever reason the enemies won't die fast enough and somewhere someone buckles under the pressure.

At 57 I tend to heal large pulls in Diurnal. Asp. Benefic + Asp. Helios + Time Dilation and then move on to spamming Benefic/Benefic II. I also tend to use Luminiferous Aether pretty early, around 85 or even 90%. The Essential Dignity is saved for when the tank goes low. I'll card if it's applicable, but it's not as reliable as using Eye for an Eye, Shadowflare or Divine Seal. If the mobs are weak or for some other reason doesn't deal that much damage I help out with Gravity.

Compared to healing big pulls on WHM or SCH, it definitely feels more stressful and it seems I burn through mana quicker since Benefic is a bit weaker than Cure/Physick. Though it might have something to do with gear right now. I'll probably try it out and experiment a little once I reach 60 and get the full toolset and better gear.