Was anyone else surprised to see the patch notes and not see any buffs for astro?

[Elendia]

Once we can shift in battle our strength will rival the other 2.

I'm afraid that won't fix it since in-battle flexibility is not our main problem. What needs to be adjusted:

1. Cooldowns. Synastry and Essential Dignity are nice in the given situation, but they are far from enough to handle progression content. Lightspeed is also more like self-punishment than genuine help.
2. MP sustain. Our only reliable tool is Luminiferous Aether; WHM get 2 (Assize and Shroud of Saints), SCH have 2 as well (Aetherflow, Energy Drain). On top of that we have a situational proc for Benefic instead of the WHM's Freecure.
3. Nocturnal Sect is highly inefficient in regards to HPM. The potencies may be the same as SCH, but we don't get the crit bonus and we also don't have a fairy to fall back on.
4. Cards need some QoL adjustments to reduce the RNG somewhat.

[Lycinder]

2. MP sustain. Our only reliable tool is Luminiferous Aether; WHM get 2 (Assize and Shroud of Saints), SCH have 2 as well (Aetherflow, Energy Drain). On top of that we have a situational proc for Benefic instead of the WHM's Freecure.

Why do people keep saying this?
Our mana sustaining is actually quite okay, if you have troubles with mana then remember to pop a celestial opposition to extend the aether length and even save a spear card (which in my experience as long as draw is kept on cooldown always pops up at least once in a fight with enough length to kill your mana.) and use it to shorten Luminiferous's cooldown.

The only time an Astrologian would have problems is when you are learning content and people are dying a lot and need resses, this has always been a thing for all classes when their Ilvl is close to the levels base ilevel due to mana cost scaling, its why bards/mch exist as support and I swear if I hear someone saying "We shouldn't rely on Bards/MCH" then they also have to answer the question "Why have a support with a mana regen skill if we shouldn't need to use it?" at least for content you are learning.

[Vlady]

The only issue with astro is a few cooldowns. People post that astro has healed every fight in the game and you bash the astro going back to white mage and scholar. No one is turning away Astros in all content in the game but since you are closed minded you scream bloody murder. Can Astros heal all content in the game. Yes. Does white mage do it better... Yes. Does scholar provide stronger dps. Sometimes yes. But astro can out heal scholar and can out dps if you include dps buffs you provide. Look at it from that prospective then astro is fine.

[Elendia]

Well, the MP sustain is indeed "ok". Astro is also a viable healer, but the job is falling behind the other two right now in more than one aspect. Thankfully it's not flat out broken - can't imagine to switch away from AST.

[Zephyr-Umbra]

I'm afraid that won't fix it since in-battle flexibility is not our main problem. What needs to be adjusted:

1. Cooldowns. Synastry and Essential Dignity are nice in the given situation, but they are far from enough to handle progression content. Lightspeed is also more like self-punishment than genuine help.
2. MP sustain. Our only reliable tool is Luminiferous Aether; WHM get 2 (Assize and Shroud of Saints), SCH have 2 as well (Aetherflow, Energy Drain). On top of that we have a situational proc for Benefic instead of the WHM's Freecure.
3. Nocturnal Sect is highly inefficient in regards to HPM. The potencies may be the same as SCH, but we don't get the crit bonus and we also don't have a fairy to fall back on.
4. Cards need some QoL adjustments to reduce the RNG somewhat.

I disagree with some of these statements, Lightspeed is nowhere near punishment if used correctly, i've taken the time to test it and noticed in a situation for example you might not normally be able to keep up on heals with your tank, light speed will push you over and allow you heal beyond the damage the tank is taking. However that is not even the intended use, it's main use is for dodging mechanics while still keeping up on heals and buffs, which is a very useful skill allowing you to heal on the move and due to the lack of casting time is actually a HPM boost rather than a draw back despite the potency you lose.

While true AST only get one MP regaining ability, instead of a 3 minute cool down like shroud of saints its only a 2 minute cool down, which at least allows you to refresh quicker. While still falling a bit short compared to the 10% mp regen from Assize it's more than reliable, i've had no issues and nor should anyone else if using their skills correctly. As for the benefic proc i do agree that is somewhat terrible compared to a free cure, the insta cast doesn't really make up for it, if it cost half as much as normal while retaining the insta cast i would prefer it a lot more. I don't want to compare them to SCH's either since their whole shtick is infinite mp.

I don't see nocturnal sect as inefficient either, i mean if you're comparing it directly to SCH, then yes it is, but you're missing the point of it, AST's are intended to be able to switch sects to fill what the party needs, it's not meant to do it better than a SCH but to fill the role of it should a SCH be absent from the party, and the 5% increased healing puts benefic 1&2 on par with cure 1&2. If AST could output the healing a WHM could or the shielding a SCH could there would be no point in it, it can do both to a lesser degree but even though its slightly less optimal the fact it can do both makes it very useful, if they could switch on the fly it would make them very useful in a situation where one healer dies and the AST needs to fill said role until the other healer is back up or if the other healer is reviving or dealing with a mechanic etc.

[Blitzball]

But astro can out heal scholar

Made my day. You must seriously play with some bad scholars.

[Ghishlain]

That's the job... You have cards, it random. Just like corsair in ffxi. Why are you playing an rng job when you don't like rng?

In FFXI, Corsairs had the ability to pick the buffs they wanted. The potency of the buff was left to RNG elements. This is not the case with AST. While AST and COR share a similar theme the execution of their actions are dramatically different.

[Lycinder]

Well, the MP sustain is indeed "ok". Astro is also a viable healer, but the job is falling behind the other two right now in more than one aspect. Thankfully it's not flat out broken - can't imagine to switch away from AST.

Aye exactly I wouldn't say our mana management is anything better than ok since it gets the job done and only that.
The thing keeping me to Astro is indeed how fun it is to play compared to other healers, it is more involved and needs a load of situational awareness, what I really hope is the sects is given a mechanic like Paladins stance change where you can do it in battle but it costs an amount of mana (of course that might need to be offset with slightly better mana regeneration, to that I say - LET ME USE TIME DILATION ON MYSELF! :C) being able to switch to diurnal to pop a regen and then shift into nocturnal to keep up a shield because shield + regen is super effective and that will be a good + for our lacking heals.

Of course we need to have our support given a leg up since it doesn't cut it right now, but we also have to remember that our buffs is based off of percentages and this will eventually have a greater effect than it does now (things like spear won't change but a balance will be worth so much more) our cooldowns need more support as well because I did expect it would be more than just our cards giving us support I do not know how they will do that with current skills and skill limits but I kinda want to see more awesome support combos coming from Astro...Like lightspeed for example, after they change it to also effect GCD and change that potency debuff because right now it is near useless but being able to cast it on other classes like summoner or BLM can be an awesome utility.

It's main use is for dodging mechanics while still keeping up on heals and buffs, which is very useful skill which allows you to heal on the move and due to the lack of casting time is actually a HPM boost rather than a draw back despite the potency you lose.

As a nocturnal stance user this is made useless due to the fact aspected can be cast during movement and doesn't get any decrease as well as being able to shield, though in nocturnal the power of most of our cooldowns is lower anyway, so yeah.

I don't see nocturnal sect as inefficient either, i mean if you're comparing it directly to SCH, then yes it is, but you're missing the point of it, AST's are intended to be able to switch sects to fill what the party needs, it's not meant to do it better than a SCH but to fill the role of it should a SCH be absent from the party, and the 5% increased healing puts benefic 1&2 on par with cure 1&2. If AST could output the healing a WHM could or the shielding a SCH could there would be no point in it, it can do both to a lesser degree but even though its slightly less optimal the fact it can do both makes it very useful, if they could switch on the fly it would make them very useful in a situation where one healer dies and the AST needs to fill said role until the other healer is back up or if the other healer is reviving or dealing with a mechanic etc.

Its a lot more mana inefficient, diurnal is so much better due to our regens being effected by time dilation this kind of make diurnal make up for the less healing potency + you get more cast speed from diurnal.

Also earlier point - A lot of cooldowns are less of a bang in Nocturnal with synastry as an exception also we can stack regens with WHM but can't stack shields.

Diurnal >>> Nocturnal by a large amount, what is the point of nocturnal if our damage mitigation isn't very up to par and its better to just stack regens with a WHM.

Side note - That being said Nocturnal is my go to for stances because how I see it is, as a "sleeper agent" stance and later on because of the bonus of a percentage of healing increased as stats go higher its going to make a bigger effect on the healing.

[NorthernLadMSP]

Eh if it's not balanced then I'll probably just stick to SCH as well. ASTs blatant weaknesses without any pay off has diminished the value of this expansion for me. My largest reason for wanting to play HW was seeing AST announced for the first time. I was ready to main it the day it came out and I did. It was my first 60 and when I did hit 60 I thought to myself "this is it?"

This is pretty much exactly how I feel as well. The job just isn't amazing (though spell abilities look amazing). It's really lacking in multiple areas, and the buffs definitely don't make up for the shortcomings it presents.

[Zephyr-Umbra]

You make some valid points, i never really thought how useful time dilation was in comparison, i wouldn't go as far to say that it beats nocturnal by a large amount but i understand why it would be preferable over it. I would like to see an mp reduction on AST abilities to make up for the overall weaker effects, it would blend well with the feeling of diurnal sect as well, playing more fast and cheap.