Astro in savage

[Leiloni]

Again? You never could.

I've heard people say that in development you could stance dance and it was a very last minute change before the class was released to prevent that.

[Ghishlain]

I was starting to wonder this, myself. I didn't jump into the AST train on day one after playing around with it for a bit, but I was almost certain their stances were always mutually exclusive once you were in combat. Heard him saying this a lot around the forums as being the "answer" for AST's issues. Guess it really was just more non-sense. I remember people speculating that you could Sect-Dance, as that was the impression many people had, but it was never an actuality, as far as I recall.

I've heard people say that in development you could stance dance and it was a very last minute change before the class was released to prevent that.

I can't find it ATM but one of the initial interviews with Yoshi-P mentioned that AST would be able to "change their stance with a long cooldown" or something to that effect . This is probably where most of the information regarding "stance change would be cool!" comes from. Whether it's a last minute decision or not to change it, we'll never know.

Here are a couple of tidbits from random sources here or there.

Famitsu PAXEast translated interview (source 1)

Astrologists can switch between a heal stance or a barrier stance. It's actually a bit too strong so there'll be restrictions on how often you can switch stances, a delay of some kind. Spells remain the same, their affects just change dependong on stance so it's not like you'll need to juggle 2x more skills than other classes.

Famitsu PAXEast translated interview (source 2)

Tell us a bit more about the two styles of astrologian.

Y: The best way to put it simply is that you'll be able to switch between stances of a pure healer type and a barrier type. One way to think of it is that the healer type would be kind of like white mage, while the shield type would be closer to scholar. However, it would be too strong if you could switch frequently during combat, so there will be restrictions on how often you can change.

Official Translated Live Letter XXI

There are two stances, Diurnal Sect and Nocturnal Sect, which you can switch between. One of them is simply a healing stance much like white mage, while the other uses barriers much like scholar.

Depending on which stance you are in the effects of each ability and spell will largely vary, so first it would be best to get used to one stance and then try and master the next.

So, there was a lot of implied comments about being able to Sect dance.

[GideonHighmourn]

snip

I wonder if that's why they implied that CO might change to include a way to switch between sects? Maybe that was the "long cool down" he mentioned originally. I still don't see that changing the much in terms of how the class performs in healing, since you still wouldn't really swap with a SCH in the group (shield stacking), or be able to do it often enough to really matter.

[Ghishlain]

I wonder if that's why they implied that CO might change to include a way to switch between sects? Maybe that was the "long cool down" he mentioned originally. I still don't see that changing the much in terms of how the class performs in healing, since you still wouldn't really swap with a SCH in the group (shield stacking), or be able to do it often enough to really matter.

Indeed, I agree with this sentiment too. Cynfael made a nice comment to this effect in a different thread:

Although Sect-swapping on the fly wouldn't address AST's issue of mostly blah card buffs and missing healing cooldowns, it would certainly be a blast to have that kind of flexibility.

And I agree with this.

I guess you could make the argument that Sect dancing would allow for more use of Nocturnal. Nocturnal is the more MP efficient sect if you're just hitting Benefic all day everyday and if a spike hits, you Aspect Benefic for the front loaded heal + oGCD and swap to Diurnal on the oGCD time, pop Aspected Benefic again for the front loaded Regen then keep hitting that Benefic / Benefic II button until all is better then go back to Nocturnal for more efficient Benefics. It would be a minor but neat change to have that kinda thought process in your healing.

[GideonHighmourn]

snip

I do think it would be cool, don't get me wrong! At the very least, would add some complexity to the class and raise the skill cap for the job, but I don't see it solving any of the problems AST faces at the moment.

[Ghishlain]

I do think it would be cool, don't get me wrong! At the very least, would add some complexity to the class and raise the skill cap for the job, but I don't see it solving any of the problems AST faces at the moment.

Indeed, I would like it too. I find AST a fascinating class now that I've gotten it up to 58 and it's fun theorycrafting all the different card uses and efficiencies one can get outta it. My thoughts behind cards and the different permutations you can get are changing every second day because of some different thought I had. Out of the three healers at this point, I would argue AST has the highest skill ceiling of the three as it's the only healer that requires you to have some knowledge of every other class/job in the game. It's a shame that the skill ceiling doesn't actually translate into overcoming the barriers that are in front of the job.

Just on the topic of Sect Dancing and CO, I have made a suggestion in the past that activating CO should also turn on both Sects for a period of time and that should alleviate some of the healing cooldown concerns.

Aspected Benefic
262 Base Potency
105 Potency HoT for 18s
262 Base Potency Shield
Total of 1,154 over the course of 18 seconds is pretty sickening and I like that thought.

Also, with both Sects online, you've effectively increased your healing output by 5% for the duration of the buff. Not the most fancy buffed compared to 30% from Divine Seal but chances are you'll be trying to make use of your Aspected spells a bit more when both Sects are going.