AST, Underpowered?, Potential changes, and you.

[Tide]

Here is my opinion on the matter. I feel as though Devs just went overboard on keeping AST's power under control. They did this most likely because having AST being an almighty god healer that can do everything a whm or sch can will mean that everyone will bring double AST...which I think would be false anyway even w.o all the differences, each job still has it's own niche way of healing.

Here is why I think they went overboard on nerfing AST/some issues I find could be alleviated and make the job a little more useful.

1. Healing potencys being lower. Yes the base healing potency for their heals are lower, and yes spspd and healing increase from the stances technically works out to be roughly the same. However you know what? who cares, give them a base 400 potency and a 5% speed buff in Diurnal, it will help negate the fact they have next to no throughput cds. I would think that 5% healing increase on top of a base 400 benefic is appropriate, again for the same reason.

2. Cards. From my understanding, they have given card buffs to help negate the fact that they do less healing...which is fine and not fine. To me, Cards are the AST's niche job mechanic just like aetherflow and pet management are the sch's and CD/MP management are the whm's. Dont take away ability to keep up in healing for a job mechanic that gives out personal/raid buffs. fundamentally, AST's are healers not supports, they need to be able to heal first and foremost. I dont think the cards are in a great place right now, I think the effects and durations are fine, but RNG is an issue, If I need a def CD to pop on tank right now and draw an arrow too bad make due with it. Sure I can save a bole in my shuffle but what if i'm saving an ewer to recover after a healing intensive section of a fight? So what I would have like to have seen is take those card skills and make them useable at will, pair them with each other or maybe all together on cds. (I.e use either Ewer or Spire directly and it will set them both on a cooldown, use Bole or Balance and they get sent on CD, same with the remainder, so three sets of cds.) Rid ourselves of Draw, shuffle, and spread and keep royal road and have it work in reverse, Use RR gain RR buff next card you use will gain its effect( RR used -> Ewer used -> Ewer and Spire CD-> Next card used gains an AoE effect.) These paired with Lightspeed(which is in a good place and I love it) I think would make up for not having any real healing CDs(that are useful, lets be honest with ourselves here)(more comparable to PoM and DS from whm).

3. Collective Unconscious. Great skill, great idea, poor implementation. I like the idea of the ast needing to focus and channel the spell, I do not think however they should be locked from doing anything else at the same time. I think it could be improved by just limiting the ast to standing still to channel and be able to cast other abilities while the bubble is running. Makes the ast think about where/when to cast the skill but still allow for casting other heals to top the group off.

4. Synastry. Dam I love and hate this. Love the healing it adds, healing both tanks is awesome or healing a tank while dealing with a prey(A1S) but I was VERY disappointed when Synastry couldn't be extended by time dilation as there are buffs on the target AND you, you can extend the targets buff but both fall off when the casters drops...Simple fixes here, either remove the synastry buff from the caster and just have one buff on target. or have a more perm. buff that takes 10-20% healing from all heals onto the target. I think the earlier would suffice however.

5. Celestial opposition. Kind of meh, maybe if we added a heal to it, it may be more useful? 5 seconds to buffs and an aoe stun has its place but I still find it kind of meh. Personally and I think it would be a little more OP than anything, if it added a straight up raid buff to the group instead of the duration increases. I.E ( global mp/tp regen for short duration(10-15seconds?), crit buff, haste buff, damage buff, damage reduction buff, HoT, take your pick, maybe something different depending on stance? )

6. Essential dignity. Good place, dont change.

7. Stances. HoT's/speed in Diurnal is in a good place, IF they make changes elsewhere to help make up for lacking throughput healing. Noct. is well not so good. I would suggest have a stacking damage reduction buff applied on your aspected benefic along with the shield(Buff= damage taken reduced by 2%, stacks 5 times lasts 30 seconds) OR have your heals on target give a stacking buff, on reaching 5 stacks, aspected noctbenefic's shield will double in healed amount(crit adlo)[Is this beter than adlo mechanic as you can time when you create the large shield?]

8. Mp regen. Luminiferious aether basically equals Shroud on whm. I think if the throughput of AST healing was increased some, then MP management would be less of an issue, that and if you do get low, you could have a ewer ready to go(with my proposed card system).

Some may say these changes are OP and people will take ASTs over the other healers....I dont see that happening. Whms still have that disgustingly good raw healing power, with asylum, assize, cure 3, freecures, PoM, DS. And Scholars still have a more mobile sacred soil, infiniMP, fairy buffs/healing(potential for healing two targets at once), adlo that heals for more then asp.noct.bene.(I think adlo potency is higher?), as well as that on demand healing with lustrate/indom. So no, I still feel with some of the changes I proposed/suggested that Whms and Sch still has a very good place in raid content, this just gives our AST friends MORE of a fighting chance.

Do I think these will be added? not really mainly because SE I think usually just tweaks jobs with numbers and minor adjustments and not overhauling the jobs mechanics like some of the things I'm suggesting. Just wanted to portray what I think could make this potentially fun and awesome class MORE viable.

Maybe more added in over time as I think of them.

[FoxyAreku]

One thing I wanna say, aspected benefic is perfectly fine in noct. Instant cast shield is amazing and if they made it any better it'd probably have to get a cast time, and that's not something I want.

The problem with noct, I feel, is that aspected helios is nothing short of a waste of mana when in this stance. Aspected benefic gets a potency increase when you're in noct, I feel helios should as well.

[SuzakuCMX]

The problem with noct, I feel, is that aspected helios is nothing short of a waste of mana when in this stance. Aspected benefic gets a potency increase when you're in noct, I feel helios should as well.

Aspected Helios in Noct is the exact same as Succor for SCH. All of AST's abilities get the +5% potency while in Noct, including Helios/Benefic II/Benefic/Aspected Helios/Aspect Benefic.

The problem with Noct is that they lack a significant amount of healing due to the missing regens and their CU is awful.

Also Aspected Benefic isn't awful but it certainly isn't good.

[FoxyAreku]

Actually no. Succor is 200 potency, aspected helios is 140 potency.

60 potency is pretty huge. a 140 potency shield isn't even one hit in most cases.

I have no problem with noct aspected benefic, I think it's fine. Even when I attempted savage A1 as an AST there wasn't a problem with it. It was actually pretty good for preys.

[SuzakuCMX]

Actually no. Succor is 200 potency, aspected helios is 140 potency.

Succor is 150. Aspected Helios is 147 in Nocturnal. They even have the exact same mana cost at 60 and the same range. The difference is 3 potency and Aspected Helios takes .5 sec longer to cast.

I have no problem with noct aspected benefic, I think it's fine. Even when I attempted savage A1 as an AST there wasn't a problem with it. It was actually pretty good for preys.

Benefic II is .82 Potency per Mana. Aspected Benefic is .74 potency per mana. The only situation to use Aspected Benefic is if your tank is going to get one-shot before Benefic II will finish casting or from full HP.

[Tide]

Actually no. Succor is 200 potency, aspected helios is 140 potency.

60 potency is pretty huge. a 140 potency shield isn't even one hit in most cases.

I have no problem with noct aspected benefic, I think it's fine. Even when I attempted savage A1 as an AST there wasn't a problem with it. It was actually pretty good for preys.

Have to agree here. Even with the 5% noct. buff, 140 aspected helios x 1.05 = 147, MAYBE worth using for incoming raid damage but even with my gear succor heals for about 1k give or take to think spending all that MP on a shield that would probably shield for about 750ish? is pretty meh. better to spend that MP on a 304pot Helios and time it to heal the damage as it is dealt. would be curious if the lower mp costs are worth the lower potency. If someone was better with numbers perhaps finding the potency/mp spent for succor vs Asp. Helios.

EDIT: Took someones quote of succor being 200pot as fact w.o looking myself. They should both be pretty much on par with each other(Sch and ast aoe shielding)

[Rawrz]

Actually no. Succor is 200 potency, aspected helios is 140 potency.

60 potency is pretty huge. a 140 potency shield isn't even one hit in most cases.

I have no problem with noct aspected benefic, I think it's fine. Even when I attempted savage A1 as an AST there wasn't a problem with it. It was actually pretty good for preys.

Succor is 150. 300 with shield. o-o

[Houston009]

1. Healing potencys being lower. Yes the base healing potency for their heals are lower, and yes spspd and healing increase from the stances technically works out to be roughly the same. However you know what? who cares, give them a base 400 potency and a 5% speed buff in Diurnal, it will help negate the fact they have next to no throughput cds. I would think that 5% healing increase on top of a base 400 benefic is appropriate, again for the same reason.

If 20 potency is that big of deal, AST does have the option to cross-class Cure from WHM.

[Eudyptes]

Noct's problem isn't the potencies, it's the fact they don't get the SCH crit modifier. Even as SCH it's horribly inefficient to just sit there and cast a bunch of adlos, but when you get it to crit it becomes extremely effective. Noct has all the mana inefficiency with none of the payout from crits.

[SuzakuCMX]

Noct's problem isn't the potencies, it's the fact they don't get the SCH crit modifier. Even as SCH it's horribly inefficient to just sit there and cast a bunch of adlos, but when you get it to crit it becomes extremely effective. Noct has all the mana inefficiency with none of the payout from crits.

Well, this is on top of the fact that they don't have the healing potency to match up with even Diurnal Sect.

On the contrary, I'd posit that if the shield was slightly more mana efficient and their healing was otherwise more or less equal with SCH/WHM, Nocturnal Stance would be fine. Alas, neither are true currently.