Astrologian Healing

[File2ish]

The main thing i've had issue with on astrologian is MP (note i'm 58 ast, 60 whm), we have to burn MP on cures more than the other healers due to our slightly lesser cures and overall lack of reliable cooldowns to aid our healing woes in drawn out or heal intesive fights.

On WHM i can divine seal regen and pop out an occasinal cure or cure 2 when needed while DPSing for non straining fights like the vault's bosses, but on AST i consistently find myself strapped for MP because of various factors (dps taking unnecessary damage or dieing, tank not using cooldowns, huge pulls, tank not waiting for any MP between pulls, etc.).

[Thela]

3.0 WHM/SCH probably feel stronger because they have more oh-shit abilities to heal through stupid, and their SHPS (Stupid heals per second) will be higher than AST. In my opinion, 3.0 AST is no different to 2.0 WHM - little time to DPS, difficulties managing mana and could really only afford one res.

Over time, the trend of stupid will decrease, as people become more familiar with their classes and AST will seem less restrictive/unattractive.

That being said - I still push for changes to Nocturnal stance and collective unconscious These are pretty weak and situational atm.

While i generally agree, I don't agree with your assessment that we should consider it fine for AST to not be able to handle oh shit situations very well when the 2 other healers CAN in fact recover from party stupidity to a certain degree. Why should we consider it fine that AST only really works when party is playing properly and are unable to cope when things go south?

[DreamWeaver]

AST is "similar" to Bard/MCH IMHO,

These 2's maximum DPS potential is mathematically lesser than other DPS classes.
These 2 bring precious utility to the group in form of Mana Regen/TP Regen.
You got 3 other DPS to cover up a bard/MCH's lower DPS.

Now ASTs:
AST Healing Throughput is lower than other Healer classes.
AST brings........not that great utility to the group as of Patch 3.01.
You better hope your Co-Healer's great, cause he/she's the only 1 that'll be covering you.

I think the mentality when SE was designing AST is they wanna make a support type like Bard/MCH, but didn't take into account that Bard/MCH has 3 other players to back up its short-comings, unfortunately AST only has one.

[Rewind]

Why should we consider it fine that AST only really works when party is playing properly and are unable to cope when things go south?

Hm, I mainly think it can't heal through stupid in pugs because you can't easily communicate what's happening. AST has enough utility when you are raiding in a static to heal through stupid, as long as the stupid isn't yourself ofc. As long as you can alert others to what is happening should be able to recover (i.e tell tanks to pop some cooldowns whilst you res someone or heal stupid).

Also depends on what type of stupid -
For example, WHM died in A4 last phase, was able to heal fine as AST until WHM was ressed and ready to go again - success
Tanks weren't stacked correctly in ravana, was able to have heal ready & disable so MT didn't die (whm was in cleric too early) - success
DPS stacked too close whilst popping orbs in A4- fail, even with a WHM in the party. - i think a scholar MAY have had some instant heals to assist the WHM but it would be a very close call.

[Lorielle]

Snip

I wasn't quite sure what word to use, but it's the best to describe what I thought.

They're not incapable of healing through raid damage. It's a struggle sometimes. That's the problem. Aspected Helios is just a Medica II with a weaker Cure Potency. But the thing is, base Medica II is fairly weak by itself if the damage is consistent across the raid. WHM skates away because they have abilities to increase the healing output. ( I can't speak for SCH due to not knowing what changed from 3.0 introduction )

If you try and let Aspected Helios to top up, it may not work properly(solely dependent on the fight itself though). Such as a transition from Forelegs > Manipulator > AoE Damage. Aspected Helios should be running, and you could even CU while waiting, but the problem comes in line that you can't sustain that when damage is already coming back out faster than your still HoT is ticking(though CU is being tweaked, so liable to change). This is excluding heals from your Co-Healer.

Also a Co-Healer death being recoverable depends on the phase of A4. Phase 1 for example, is highly recoverable because nothing is really happening. Phase 3 is a bigger struggle because there's much more raid damage and mechanics going out. Phase 2 is a toss up.

[SDaemon]

While i generally agree, I don't agree with your assessment that we should consider it fine for AST to not be able to handle oh shit situations very well when the 2 other healers CAN in fact recover from party stupidity to a certain degree. Why should we consider it fine that AST only really works when party is playing properly and are unable to cope when things go south?

I've handled "stupid-omg-wtf" moments plenty. A WHM and SCH could have coped with them easier given their toolkit, but an AST can handle it nonetheless.

[Thela]

I've handled "stupid-omg-wtf" moments plenty. A WHM and SCH could have coped with them easier given their toolkit, but an AST can handle it nonetheless.

Sure, i've handled it plenty as well, but i usually end up with an empty MP pool in the process

[SDaemon]

Sure, i've handled it plenty as well, but i usually end up with an empty MP pool in the process

Same, though my co-healer (typically WHM, though this applies to SCH as well) is, more often than not, in the exact same situation mp wise. The problem is that they can get their mp back more reliably/easier. Making use of ewer and spear+aether has helped considerably, but its just a band-aid, so to speak.

[Parawill]

I'm not going to say too much until the Astologian changes come out, but currently they're alright but not the greatest. They get the job done, but other combinations can do it better. This mostly has to do with how our healing is tied to the GCD system like White Mages were and still are (but with more off-GCD heals, Assize and Tetragrammaton), but has no reliable ability to make each GCD worth more in situations where damage spikes more than your non-crit GCD & off-GCD can handle.

White Mages and Scholars both have that and more, which I believe would make them more favourable in progression type raiding. In other content? Pick whatever.

[Kaizersan]

Yes AST and WHM are the best pairing for AST as they compliment each other well with being able to stack regens If Aldo stacked with Noct stance shields they would work well together too but at this moment in time they don't.