Just buff Astrologians

[Seryl199]

I haven't had problems in Stone Vigil since I was a baby tank pre-50. I had four mobs, a fifth joined and I grabbed it while repositioning, I was holding onto all five and popping cooldowns to handle the damage and I died. I didn't lose aggro. Mobs were facing away from the party. I died. Then the AST died when I went down. Perhaps it was their specific skill level. But it was a relatively routine pull; the wipe should not have happened.

Sounds like your Astrologian was either undergeared or unskilled. Aspected Benefic, (Luminiferous Aether or Lightspeed early would be ideal) and Benefic/Benefic II spam with an Essential Dignity weaved in to keep the tank stable should have been sufficient. Five mobs is a lot in SV, not impossible, but it's a lot of incoming damage, especially if there are multiple aevis or ziz. It's more likely your healer was unprepared for significant damage (or didn't know how to handle high damage well, SV is a big step for healers both in trash damage and bosses) or their leveling gear was just ok, not that they were an AST.

[ckc22]

I'm a dragoon, and seeing what ASTs are dealing with disgusts me. Buff them. Just buff their potencies by like 20%. Who gives a shit. Deal with class mechanics later, when you figure it out. There are players who have invested in this class, and literally cannot play the game because of it.

Just buff them. Make them overpowered. Nobody gives a shit at this point.

Your suggestion is to make their potencies higher than whm and sch for the majority of their spells? Good balancing.

[DkDerek]

Your suggestion is to make their potencies higher than whm and sch for the majority of their spells? Good balancing.

Yup. They have no tools. Cooldowns. Yes the potencies should be higher than a scholar who has a fairy that can solo heal dungeons, while providing more raid DPS than any card an ast can provide. That's how bad ast is. It's sick.

[TatoRazzino]

I've never had healing problems as AST. Tanks only started dying when I reached level 60 and they thought they could pull all the mobs in Neverreap without any law gear and no cooldowns. If you're healing as you would as WHM or SCH, you're playing AST completely wrong. The spells don't work the same, they only seem to. Someone said something really nice in here about AST having its core mechanic around off-GCD, and that's completely true. The whole point of the job is being fast and proactive, even in Diurnal. You can't be reactive, like a WHM. I'm doing A1S just fine as Diurnal AST with a WHM partner. The main goal was never to replace SCH and play the things in Nocturnal; you can go in Nocturnal if shields are absolutely needed (which is not the case for A1S). Your main healing stance should be Diurnal.

[Litner]

I've never had healing problems as AST. Tanks only started dying when I reached level 60 and they thought they could pull all the mobs in Neverreap without any law gear and no cooldowns. If you're healing as you would as WHM or SCH, you're playing AST completely wrong. The spells don't work the same, they only seem to. Someone said something really nice in here about AST having its core mechanic around off-GCD, and that's completely true. The whole point of the job is being fast and proactive, even in Diurnal. You can't be reactive, like a WHM. I'm doing A1S just fine as Diurnal AST with a WHM partner. The main goal was never to replace SCH and play the things in Nocturnal; you can go in Nocturnal if shields are absolutely needed (which is not the case for A1S). Your main healing stance should be Diurnal.

The argument for AST is that they aren't as strong as WHM or SCH, not that they're unable to do the job fine.

[Assirra]

I'll be honest. As I see it now AST needs a rework like Warrior got.

No idea what warriors got back then, but simply from a design standpoint, AST is a mess.
We are basically 2 classes thrown into 1 (healer and buffer) that have no synergy whatsoever.

[Kayleen]

The OP runs in the same static as I do.. and after what we went through last night in AS1 I'm not surprised he made this thread.
I just finished posting a thread about my experiences as an AST last night. http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...strologian-IMO.

[Muahbec]

I still think that AST buffs should work like a green mage or the synergist role from FFXIII
We should be able to choose which buff we want to apply and when we want to apply it.
I wouldn't care if all cards were actually CDs learned at different levels for example-
Skill: The bole > draw the bole card and apply it to the target providing a X% defense buff to it.
Duration- Y seconds.
CD- Z seconds .... and the same for the other cards.
Change some of the potencies or effects or make Sects affect the cards.
With that draw, shuffle and spread would not be needed and so we could replace those by some Healing/emergency CDs (our version of Fey illumination/divine seal maybe?)
I wouldn't care about my hot bar, i play as a SCH i can pretty much manage where to put everything.
AST should be a buffer and that's why we don't have much emergency healing cooldowns (such as indomitability or assize or divine seal or rouse, etc.) but our main objective and what makes us unique is being bashed by a horrible RNG system.
I loved using synergist and green mage because their buffs were actually really useful, and that's not what i feel when i buff someone using AST.

[TatoRazzino]

AST doesn't need to be as strong as WHM/SCH. If it was as strong as WHM or as SCH, it would replace both jobs. Also, don't forget that the so called healing cooldowns SCH has are only ways to fill the gap between SCH and WHM/AST. Emergency Tactics transforms Succor in a 300 potency spell, like Medica/Helios, and Adlo in a 600 potency spell, weaker than Cure II/Benefic II. The stats are not the same when applied to the fairy, so the 300 potency heal they do is only 200, similar to Regen and Aspected Benefic (190 potency + 100 regen ticks); with rouse, that fills the gap and allows the fairy to do the same as two regen ticks or one use of Aspected Benefic. Indomitability also uses an Aetherflow stack, which means one less Lustrate or Sacred Soil.

[Litner]

AST doesn't need to be as strong as WHM/SCH.

It doesn't, but when there's a better, easier alternative, why would you ever choose the weaker one, and for the people who prefer the weaker one, why would they remain satisfied with their significantly harder experience?

Also I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say here with your examples. Yes, the new SCH abilities give it enhanced AOE healing, but are you actually trying to imply that AST healing is better, even in the AOE field? I don't know who you're trying to kid here.