Yoshi-P's Interview with Famitsu includes a few comments about AST

[technole]

DRK is in a good place as a main tank. Despite some of clunkiness like Parry RNG based mitigation *sigh*, and mitigation-combo higher potency than aggro combo. It does reliably replace PLD in savage floors, while offering more DPS as MT. Of course with a two-handed tank w/o a shield it's going to have less potent physical cooldowns aside from shadowskin, But instead have magic-based cooldowns and raid-wide mitigation if you don't have a MNK in your party, you still have the INT debuff.

Now as an OT, you are missing out on WARsized DPS, and if you have MNK Dragon Kick, then there is really no added utility.

AST is supposed to have less healing potency at the cost of offering buffs that other healers don't have. Despite full of RNG, we have hefty cooldowns on things like Shuffle and Synastry. You can sometimes spend more time thinking of where is my utility if i'm waiting around to get something useful. When the stars align and you get RR balance on the party during a burn phase, or even just on the SMN during trance it can be fulfilling at-times. The job isn't bad in the hands of a good healer though, hence it's successes in savage. Just it can surely offer more reliable utility.

[PiedPiper]

Thing is "in the hands of a good heler" sch nc whm bring more to the table than astro. That's the whole point. Anyone good enough to take Astro through savage would contribute more to a progression group as sch or whm.

[Mclyde]

Thing is "in the hands of a good heler" sch nc whm bring more to the table than astro. That's the whole point. Anyone good enough to take Astro through savage would contribute more to a progression group as sch or whm.

It's not necessarily a problem though.

We don't ask to get 2 Dragoons + 2 Black mage as a damage dealer team. We just do it with what we get. As long as "it's possible to win"

[Pentt]

It's not necessarily a problem though.

We don't ask to get 2 Dragoons + 2 Black mage as a damage dealer team. We just do it with what we get. As long as "it's possible to win"

Not only is that a terrible team and terrible for LB meter, but there's 4 spots for DPS in the first place.

[Assirra]

It's not necessarily a problem though.

We don't ask to get 2 Dragoons + 2 Black mage as a damage dealer team. We just do it with what we get. As long as "it's possible to win"

A couple key differences

- only 2 healers in a group which means that having a "worse" one is going to hurt a lot more.
-you can have a dps that is a bit lower unless the fight is a heavy dps check, however a fight will always be a healer check
- when there is less damage, stuff dies slower, when less healing, people die.

[Mclyde]

But as every other players, healers want that their class be really different from his homologues (it lead to some unbalance problem). And you can't blame the Astro for aggro problems or unavoided aoe. In HL content you can't make a mistake on mechanics and then just tell : "Astro is not strong enough to repair the mistakes of others in addition of his base job : healing the focused players (the tank most of the time)"
There are dd who can make much more dps than other in certain circumstances, and there are healers too who can make more hps than others.

If it appears than there is just no way to finish As4 in ilvl180 with an Astro in the team while a whm+sch did it, then it'll be appropriate to buff this job. Until then, who wants to be an optimized healer can just continue to play whm.

[Cynfael]

But as every other players, healers want that their class be really different from his homologues (it lead to some unbalance problem). And you can't blame the Astro for aggro problems or unavoided aoe. In HL content you can't make a mistake on mechanics and then just tell : "Astro is not strong enough to repair the mistakes of others in addition of his base job : healing the focused players (the tank most of the time)"
There are dd who can make much more dps than other in certain circumstances, and there are healers too who can make more hps than others.

If it appears than there is just no way to finish As4 in ilvl180 with an Astro in the team while a whm+sch did it, then it'll be appropriate to buff this job. Until then, who wants to be an optimized healer can just continue to play whm.

This whole logic train just took me to bizarroland. I don't get how it's possible to assert that AST being inferior to the other two healing Jobs is okay.

[Assirra]

This whole logic train just took me to bizarroland. I don't get how it's possible to assert that AST being inferior to the other two healing Jobs is okay.

It comes from this idea of astrologian being a support healer except there is 1 very critical flaw in that way of thinking.
The game does not allow/support it.

For this very idea to work, you need an extra support role and groups of 5/10.

[FaizeD]

I'm convinced that people who believe that AST is not an underpowered healer have never stepped foot in Savage. Here's an idea: level WHM or SCH, go into Alex Savage with an AST. Now do it again, but with a WHM/SCH combo. Those raids require you to heal. A lot. Not just Regen the tank and spam dps on trash. Replacing either healer with an AST brings absolutely nothing of value to the table, in fact you lose a lot when doing so.

When replacing the WHM with an AST:

• No PoM.
• No Div Seal.
• No Benediction.
• Weaker AoE HoTs with a smaller radius.
• No off-gcd raid Heal (Assize).
• No Asylum outside of CO which is severely limited.
• No MND party buff.
• No E4E/Virus.
• No Cure III.
• Weaker DPS.

When replacing a SCH with an AST:

• Weaker shields, and you'll most likely be in Diurnal sect anyway because it's far more mana efficient.
• Much weaker DPS than a SCH, particularly AoE.
• Cards are a less consistent DPS boost than Fey Wind.
• No off-gcd raid Heal (Indom).
• No fairy to spot heal.
• No Fey Caress/Illumination/Whispering.
• No Lustrate spam.
• CO in Noct is far more limited than Sacred Soil.
• Poorer MP management.
• No Supervirus.

[Eudyptes]

It's not necessarily a problem though.

We don't ask to get 2 Dragoons + 2 Black mage as a damage dealer team. We just do it with what we get. As long as "it's possible to win"

In addition to what the others have said, many dps bring things that the others don't. Currently, AST brings nothing to the table that the other two healers can't do and do better, with the exception of mana/tp regen. If AST brought something unique, or could perform better in any aspect then it might be a different story.