Astrologian IMO

[BMattAttack]

I've been following the AST discussion here and elsewhere since the beginning, but haven't chimed in yet here. I find that my experience closely mirrors Kayleen's, so this seems the best place to add my two cents. I wouldn't consider myself hardcore, but I have been healing in MMOs for over 10 years now. Our somewhat laid back raid got our first A1S clear last night.

I, too, was pretty excited about AST when it was coming out. I love the style and concept and after almost 2 years on SCH, I was ready for something new. For me, the first sign of trouble was actually before the release of Heavensward, when they announced the two aspects. I wasn't surprised, but I knew that meant that instead of creating a new unique healer, they had taken the easy way out for keeping things balanced.

My healer partner plays WHM, so when we started A1S, we were running WHM/AST. For whatever reason, my healer partner is never comfortable solo healing advanced content, so it ended up falling to me to solo heal phase 1 on AST. I have to say, solo healing phase 1 is quite tight on AST. I tried it on both Diurnal and Nocturnal. No surprise, it's probably easier on Diurnal than Nocturnal. I feel like solo healing on AST in phase 1, there is very little room for error, you need to get those heals out during the prey just right. I definitely think it's possible, but it felt inconsistent. As for the phases after that, I don't think I had quite enough practice to fully get a feel for the best way to approach healing during double prey's. I think it's about the same as solo healing phase 1, possible, but with very little room for error. More importantly, as many have pointed out, running AST can shift a lot of the burden to your co-healer. I think this means that it takes a little longer overall to learn and adjust to the healing for the fight.

Anyways, my static, and critically, my co-healer, wanted me to run scholar after that. The difference was clear. First, Faust was much easier. It wasn't that AST DPS was bad, but I could DPS longer with SCH because the fairy was helping to heal the tank, and that made the DPS check far less of a problem. I shudder to think how many of our 1-2% wipes could have been clears if I had run SCH that first week. That also had an adverse effect on use learning the Oppressor fight because we wasted large amounts of time with Faust.

On SCH solo healing the first phase was not an issue. I had to adjust to prey a little bit, but once I got that down it was fairly straightforward. Essential Dignity is nice, but having the Lustrates for the rest of the fight was even nicer. Also, things like Eye for an Eye and just healing from the fairy were quite welcome. I also felt it was safer to hop into cleric stance and do some DPS on SCH, though I'm not sure if the DPS I did amounted to more than the cards would give through boosting DPS.

Bottom line, SCH was more secure, and it allowed us to spend more time learning the fight and less time dying in frustration (we still did plenty of that). Yes, AST can clear the content, but the window of error is much smaller and your co-healer has to be on board as well. I can also understand why some savage groups in PF might want to exclude AST. When the healers are strangers, you probably want to take the safest pair into the instance. Now that I've gotten the clear and have a higher comfort level with the fight, I think I could get through it on AST, but I'm not sure if my healing partner would be on board.

There have been many suggestions on how to adjust/fix AST, and I, of course, have some of my own, but it seems to me that WHM/SCH is generally a safer option, and I think that's going to make it the go to choice for people doing progression and people in PF groups. AST doesn't have to bring a huge advantage compared to the other healers, but it can't be a liability, and for many groups right now, I feel that's exactly what it is.

[echoica]

I run whm and the first week running with an ast healing partner in savage was horrible. I had to work twice as hard to make up for what ast lacks. My co healer switched to sch and what a huge difference. Until some changes are made to ast I'm not raiding opposite one again. Just because you can run it in savage doesn't make it optimal. Right now whm and sch are the best option if you are serious about progression.

[SuzakuCMX]

IMO either cards and card-related CDs need to be buffed (looking at you, Celestial Opposition) or a lot of their CDs need to be changed to help with their healing (Still looking at you, Celestial Opposition).

Currently, way too many skills are devoted almost entirely to cards, which are lackluster except under very rare, optimal circumstances (AKA Expanded Balance + Celestial Opposition) but that requires luck and everyone to stand really close together.

Look at how many skills center around the cards!:
Draw (30)
Royal Road (35)
Spread (40)
Shuffle (45)
Time Dilation (56)
Celestial Opposition (60)

Six...SIX abilities centered around a badly tuned mechanic (though time dilation can also be used to give 5 more ticks to a regen). They either need to buff cards to be a whoooole lot better or change it so that the skills devoted to them make the cards worth using more. Right now anything less than Expanded Balance or Enhanced Ewer feel sub-optimal.

Their healing is flat-out worse than either SCH and WHM either in potency (Diurnal) or in tools that boost thoroughput (both stances). They also lack a lot of the nice utility that SCH/WHM get (E4E + Virus notably, as Disable is just crap in comparison) and have worse mana management options since Ewer is random and WHM got Assize.

They have 2 CDs that actually help with healing (Essential Dignity and and Synastry) and one that helps with healing while moving/mana conservation (Lightspeed). Collective Unconscious could be counted there except for the fact that you can't actually do anything but channel it while it's active so GG if an AoE lands under you or everyone isn't grouped up right under you. Really only useful for phase transitions and even then....not all that useful because Medica II + Aspected Helios won't require everyone to stand around you for 18s just to get healed up/10% damage reduction

Compare that to WHM who get:
Presence of Mind
Divine Seal
Assize
Asylum
Benediction
Tetragrammation

and also a MND party buff AKA your healing is going to be even worse than just potency-based if you go AST/SCH.

SCH gets:
Lustrate x3
Emergency Tactics
Dissipation (while lackluster allows for 3 more Aetherflow which can be helpful)
Rouse
Deployment Tactics (for raid-wide mitigation on an Adlo)
Whispering Dawn
Whatever that Eos skill is that increases healing

Nocturnal Sect is SO BAD compared to Diurnal because the regens in Diurnal far outweigh the 5% potency buff, while Aspected Benefic is almost never useful as an AST since you can't crit it for extra mitigation. TBH seems like you don't even need it in raids so far since people have been clearing A1S and A2S with WHM/AST.

Basically AST traded 7 CDs (Cards + Nocturnal Sect) for some gimmicks that don't affect much 80% of the time. It's really sad. I love AST, I really really do, but coming from WHM/SCH (55 on my alt, Cirro Asklepion), AST is noticeably worse, even in dungeons. There are so many times when someone dies or mechanics cause me to panic that I know would have been better as a WHM or SCH simply because I have more to fall back on and can actually contribute meaningful DPS to runs without worry of going OOM.

Every maintenance that goes by without buffs to AST feels like another slap in the face.

[Vlady]

Some people just don't get it.astrologian is not suppose to have the pure healing strength of the whit mage using its healing cooldown.

It's a slap in the face of astrologian s each thread I have to read.we defeated Faust just fine with around 6700 dps. The scholar was able to fully dps till Faust got the 6th buff then he swapped to healing.

I don't get how so many come to the conclusion that astrologian drags the raid down and others speak they are not having issues.

We can get both oppressors down to around 50% but the tanks keep dying to tank buster at around 50% and this is with both tanks pre shielded so savage one is fun too heal.

Maybe the talk that some people just sick as an astrologian is not far off because I am sure not seeing these issues. If the scholar versus astrologian debate can only be summed up it can stay in cleric stance longer then that is not a valid issue with the astrologian.

[Deigewolf]

Great post, OP.

AST is fun, and I really like it a lot aesthetically and play style wise. I think its great to be so active as a healer.

I do agree that if they are going to buff anything it should be the effects of the tarot cards. As a "jack of all trades" class it will never have the pure healing power of a WHM or the same barriers as a SCH, but its unique asset is buffing. I would love to see the cards powered up to be a more essential part of the healing process, because I even find myself defaulting to a WHM style of spamming burst heals when things get sticky. It would be nice to have some more security in investing in card pulls, rather than treating it like a fun little extra cirricular activity when I'm not being overwhelmed "actually" healing.

[Kayleen]

We can get both oppressors down to around 50% but the tanks keep dying to tank buster at around 50% and this is with both tanks pre shielded so savage one is fun too heal.

So if I understood you correctly... you have yet to clear AS1 on AST due to failure at a healing mechanic.

[DkDerek]

I do agree that if they are going to buff anything it should be the effects of the tarot cards. As a "jack of all trades" class it will never have the pure healing power of a WHM or the same barriers as a SCH, but its unique asset is buffing. I would love to see the cards powered up to be a more essential part of the healing process, because I even find myself defaulting to a WHM style of spamming burst heals when things get sticky. It would be nice to have some more security in investing in card pulls, rather than treating it like a fun little extra cirricular activity when I\\'m not being overwhelmed "actually" healing.

So even with said buffs, if fights are tuned for a buffing ast and an actual healer, than the content is trivial with two actual healers.


Moving on. Ast is a healing class. It needs to compete in healing.

[FoxyAreku]

It's already too late for most of us. I've just resigned and only play AST for funzies in primals now.

Even if they do buff it, most of us will already have our esoteric gear for a different healer (myself included with scholar), so we still won't get to play it.

Just so disappointed. Wanted to main this class, but I can't justify playing what is easily the worst job in the game right now.

I was like you, I actually didn't have much problem solo healing the first phase of A1S (though someone would die occassionally), but I'd be oom pretty quick in the second phase and keeping people topped felt impossible...just so sad.

[DkDerek]

It's already too late for most of us. I've just resigned and only play AST for funzies in primals now.

Even if they do buff it, most of us will already have our esoteric gear for a different healer (myself included with scholar), so we still won't get to play it.

Just so disappointed. Wanted to main this class, but I can't justify playing what is easily the worst job in the game right now.

I was like you, I actually didn't have much problem solo healing the first phase of A1S (though someone would die occassionally), but I'd be oom pretty quick in the second phase and keeping people topped felt impossible...just so sad.

This. Not to mention savage will be on farm by 3.1. It needs to be buffed yesterday.

[Leiloni]

As a "jack of all trades" class it will never have the pure healing power of a WHM or the same barriers as a SCH, but its unique asset is buffing.

To be honest I have seen this argument and I can't understand it. SCH has many of the same buffing capabilities that we do on top of having great shielding and healing capabilities with the ability to buff their own heals. And they also have a lot of dps skills (an unintended design decision stemming from having two jobs on one base class, and one SE has said they regret, but the fact remains it's still there). Yet nobody says SCH needs to have some sort of hybrid tax, because nobody says they're a hybrid. Yes AST needs better buffs and better healing cooldowns, but we are most definitely not a jack of all trades and do not need to be dealing with the cons of one.