Astro healing: What to expect?

[Sanguisio]

personally I prefer if tanks kinda ignore their HP pools and just focus on emnity and rotating CDs.

When I heal I dps alot, so you HP pool will drop at times but I wont ever let you die.

AST healing style is more similar to WHM.

[Roxas_Andrade]

As AST, I'm still in a point where I'm not comfortable to heal and DPS, even at lower levels. So I'm usually a full healer for the fight, maybe casting a Dot on a boss. I use Asp.Benefic early on and I use Essential Dignity as if it was 400pot, I use it to save mp when a Benefic II would apply. In that case, with me, you shouldn't drop to low levels of HP unless I'm lagging, or you've done a pull too big, or I'm not familiarized with the content.

[Mclyde]

personally I prefer if tanks kinda ignore their HP pools and just focus on emnity and rotating CDs.

When I heal I dps alot, so you HP pool will drop at times but I wont ever let you die.

AST healing style is more similar to WHM.

That's it.
Use your defensive Cds as soons as you get more than 2 ennemies, it will allow us, Astro, to dps and don't be afraid of your hp pool. It's under control.

[TatoRazzino]

The healing style seems similar to that of a WHM, but it's not that similar. WHM is more like a reactive healer, waiting for incoming damage to heal, but AST needs to be more proactive. That's because WHM has Regen, which can keep things going at about the same rate as a fairy, but AST doesn't have anything that works like that. There is, of course, a skills that resembles Regen (Aspected Benefic), but works in a very different way: it's a burst heal that leaves a 100 potency regen, which is not enough to keep you alive while the AST waits for things. I mainly use Aspected Benefic when I want an instant heal and a GCD lock to use my card commands. Saying that, ASTs have less room to DPS than the other healers, and that's basically their weak spot; their strength lies in the utility they provide with their cards. That can't be felt a lot in 4-person content, because combat goes faster. This means that ASTs can't afford, at least at low ilvl, to wait for the HP pools do drop under 60% to start healing; they need to be more proactive. So, if you see your HP dropping to 1-2K, don't be afraid to pop your Holmgang; it means the AST is not in control of his game or is depending too much on Essential Dignity.

[Leiloni]

personally I prefer if tanks kinda ignore their HP pools and just focus on emnity and rotating CDs.

Except for the part where a number of those cooldowns make them take less damage as well as heal up damage so that HP you want them to ignore doesn't go down as much. Tanks need to watch their HP as much as we do. Keeping tanks alive is a job we do together with them, not by ourselves.