Astrologian buffs confirmed

[Vlady]

I agree with everything else you said, and I WISH I could agree with this, but the ugly truth is that ASTs are going to get placed in parties with generally crap players, the same as any other healer will.

When that happens, the cards aren't going to do a thing to save them in situations when serious emergency healing is needed and the AST just won't have the tools to do that.

ASTs can heal anything pre-savage without issue, but so can any of the healers and I've been able to do some pretty beefy DPS as a SCH in Alex, thanks to SCH's amazing mana regen and the fact that you can spec to have six friggin' dots (both miasmas, both bios, Aero and Shadowflare). There's no way I could pump out damage like that as an AST, and especially not without going OOM like crazy...

Astrologian heals are fine. Beyond fine they are on par with scholar and white mage. white mage and scholar has stronger efficiency overall which imo suggests that the mana strength of scholar and white mage might be a bit too much. Astro mana efficiency is fine as well unless you think you need to top everyone off 1 second after they take damage then yes you will have mana issues. If they want to raise astro efficiency to the other two healers then enhance Ben 2 buff needs to be 50% mana reduction or better on proc cast.

Scholars being able to assist and supply dps is fine. I enjoy astro's as is and the buffs to spread/shuffle and tweaks to our cooldowns is most we need.

[Cynfael]

Astrologian heals are fine. Beyond fine they are on par with scholar and white mage.

After this point you go on to describe how AST healing potential isn't on par with that of SCH and WHM. I don't understand; which is it?

Or are you trying to suggest that AST represents the ideal healing strength and that SCH and WHM should be toned down for the greater good?

[RichardButte]

Astrologian heals are fine. Beyond fine they are on par with scholar and white mage. white mage and scholar has stronger efficiency overall which imo suggests that the mana strength of scholar and white mage might be a bit too much. Astro mana efficiency is fine as well unless you think you need to top everyone off 1 second after they take damage then yes you will have mana issues. If they want to raise astro efficiency to the other two healers then enhance Ben 2 buff needs to be 50% mana reduction or better on proc cast.

Scholars being able to assist and supply dps is fine. I enjoy astro's as is and the buffs to spread/shuffle and tweaks to our cooldowns is most we need.

I'm willing to wait and see what they do for the cards, but I still think it's emergency power that needs to be brought up a bit.

Right now, it's HORRIBLE compared to the other two. I think just removing the debuff from Lightspeed would be a good start because I hesitate to hit it because I'm nerfing myself by doing so...

Also, adding a 50% reduced mana cost to spells while in LS wouldn't hurt, either...

Keep in mind that the emergency healing of SCH and WHM will either be put to the test in Savage or Savage will be a joke, meaning that ASTs are going to feel the pinch VERY hard...

[Volsung]

I've been thinking for a while what I'd like different for ast. As far as cards go. Give a straight +10 seconds and i dont need effects or card potency changed. Refresh some ast mp each draw. (Very small ), aoe royal road -25% instead of 50. and let spread be used outside battle. I believe that last one was stated already. That's all I need from cards.

My other real issues are that nocturnal stance Is lame. And that's because of several issues such as effects not stacking which diurnal has less of an issue with.

Lastly our channeling shield..... either raise the percents if we have to channel or let us move around inside and do other stuff. This is a bad down step on both sides. Hell if we have to channel give it a cool effect like hp bubble for pt members that step in or place random card effects on everyone.

[EchuKayu]

Doesn't exactly help that we can't even use cross-class abilities the other two healers have as well. With the exception of one spell, we have no emergency heals, be it ST or AOE. We have no healing increasing CDs, with the exception of Lightspeed which DECREASES potency, not only by far too much, but will drop your mana to nothingness. Which brings me to another point, there is no justification for SCH/WHM having such an easier time with MP than an AST, given what they offer compared to us. The only reason would be the capability to spear/ewer yourself, something that shouldn't be necessary, given you would then not be supporting your party, but struggling to support yourself and your mana. Yes, maybe your mana isn't horrible, and maybe you've learned not to throw it all away needlessly like the other two healers can, but that doesn't mean that it's fine the way it is.

And as it's been said, I'll wait to see what changes they make, as I because I honestly thing AST's will be seeing a lot of small buffs from here until the end of this expansion.

[Vlady]

After this point you go on to describe how AST healing potential isn't on par with that of SCH and WHM. I don't understand; which is it?

Or are you trying to suggest that AST represents the ideal healing strength and that SCH and WHM should be toned down for the greater good?

Hard to talk your point when you take the statement out of context. I stated I feel that maybe white mage and scholar mana replenishing abilities are a bit strong. Then I state that astrologian mana regen is fine as it is but if they want to buff the mana efficiency of astro's to be on par with the other two healers then altering benefic II instant cast buff to let it cost 50% less mana is a decent start. My true beef with the job is giving astro the ability to mimic the scholar and white mage when the current game design lets you swap between white mage and scholar seemlessly anyhow which throws a curveball at what made the Astrologian unique.

I wish they would seperate the ability to gear up both white mage and scholar at the same time. That would make astrologian itleast appear viable as a go between for both roles as if you wanted the same versatility as the astro you would be forced to gear up one job then use a weaker tier of gear for your alt healer job. Being able to gear up both white mage and scholar with shared gear minus a weapon needs to be removed. Jobs should not share gear.

[amihavingfunyet]

If you call using Spear and Ewer on yourself constantly MP efficent. You probably don't DPS in any encounters because AST are running dry pretty fast.

[Cynfael]

Hard to talk your point when you take the statement out of context. I stated I feel that maybe white mage and scholar mana replenishing abilities are a bit strong. Then I state that astrologian mana regen is fine as it is but if they want to buff the mana efficiency of astro's to be on par with the other two healers then altering benefic II instant cast buff to let it cost 50% less mana is a decent start. My true beef with the job is giving astro the ability to mimic the scholar and white mage when the current game design lets you swap between white mage and scholar seemlessly anyhow which throws a curveball at what made the Astrologian unique.

I wish they would seperate the ability to gear up both white mage and scholar at the same time. That would make astrologian itleast appear viable as a go between for both roles as if you wanted the same versatility as the astro you would be forced to gear up one job then use a weaker tier of gear for your alt healer job. Being able to gear up both white mage and scholar with shared gear minus a weapon needs to be removed. Jobs should not share gear.

I didn't take your statement very far out of context (if at all) considering that the entirety of your post is directly above mine and you do indeed call AST healing "on par" with that of WHM and SCH and follow up with reasons why the latter are stronger. You can't claim that AST is "more than fine" or "on par" when you yourself cite deficiencies.

Besides, mana regeneration is just one aspect of healing and not even the biggest beef with AST. I don't see what AST has that makes up for its obvious lack of healing cooldowns, and it's pretty impossible to argue that AST is on par with the other Jobs in its role as far as healing goes when it falls short in direct comparison.

[RichardButte]

I used to suggest that, if the cards were made more potent, AST could get by on its ability to end phases faster.

Now, however, I've changed my tune and I feel like AST needs to be at 90% of SCH/WHM's 100% emergency healing power.

In the end, we're HEALERS. Our job is to keep the group alive, and no amount of card buffs that moderately help with DPS are going to fix that.

[ArcheDragon]

RichardButte, I agree. I've been saying that for a bit lately. It might be fair to argue that what it lacks in healing it makes up in buffs but in the end we are a HEALING class and if we can't keep up with the heals in hard content then what's the point? Dead DPS do no DPS.

Also, it is weird that Bole is more of a mana card for you than anything else. You can't rely on it for big hits unless you hold it and otherwise it is less damage taken and thus less healing needed. It's sad that that might be its biggest draw badumtsss