Is AST recognized as a viable healer yet?

[Miiu]

The last patch did help with the viability of AST but it certainly does need 2-3 more tweaks/changes to be really on par with the other two healing jobs.

[Nihility]

so having access to all 3 at 60 and fairly equally geared

it is a fair statement to say astrologian is completely competent and usable at 60
but

first hand experience with both will quickly make it apparent that white mage healing capability is way beyond what astro can do. Astro honestly feels like white mage-lite to me. The new Collective unconcious and synastry are quite nice and useful but by no means cover the gap.

and compared to a scholar, there just really is no comparison. A nocturnal astro isn't even scholar-lite it's not even close to an acceptable replacement in a raid

also astro dps is just terrible to the point that the card buffs don't even cover the gap between a white mage or especially scholar simply dps'ing
In 4-man content especially a scholar can very nearly just be a full time dps while the fairy covers healing speeding up runs significaly

the cards can be really cool but at the same time 4 of the 6 are undesirable most of the time
especially the refresh ones, in 4-man content i have never seen a situation where i needed one and in 8-man content the bard or machinist does so much more, so much more reliably and party-wide negating any usefulness random little single target ones might have provided

[adn]

first hand experience with both will quickly make it apparent that white mage healing capability is way beyond what astro can do. Astro honestly feels like white mage-lite to me. The new Collective unconcious and synastry are quite nice and useful but by no means cover the gap.

That is exactly what it is. Take away the card buffs and AST is just a second-rate WHM. They need to re-evaluate the core of the class, which probably will not happen until 4.0 since they seem to like doing drastic class changes during expansions rather than during the patch cycle. Still, they've brought it up to the level where AST can do A4S so it should be OK for now.

[FoxyAreku]

And... My point was that rather than reapplying Nocturnal Aspected, I'm just continuing to nuking... Not only am I nuking faster, I'm nuking for longer... Why would I opt to reapply something frequently when I can provide some additional DPS instead?

Because a higher potency heal with 130% shield will do a lot more than 5 extra ticks of a regen.

I honestly don't see this as a problem when the over healing is coming from Regen effects... It's not like I'm going out of my way to stop nuking to over heal and waste MP by casting Benefic II when Benefic isn't even necessary, it's Regen. If it's causing over healing I don't really care, I'll just continue nuking while you're reapplying Nocturnal. I might be over healing, but I'm casting less heals. Regen based over healing is the ideal situation IMO, the only reason it'll cause MP issues is from the vast number of nukes I'll be casting...

The only drawback with Regen is terrible tanks and pulls.

Not having any mitigation so you can opt to have regens that effectively do nothing because white mage regens are more than enough is a rather weird priority choice.

[Nalien]

Because a higher potency heal with 130% shield will do a lot more than 5 extra ticks of a regen.

The example given to me was a 1.8k shield.

My Regens do 1.2k/tic, forget 5 extra tics, 2 are enough for me to completely laugh at this statement... Bottom line, it's 15 extra seconds of me staying in Clerics Stance and nuking (that's 6 extra casts of Gravity/Malefic/Combust), where as you'd be dropping Clerics to reapply Nocturnal Aspected... Am I really having to argue this?

Not having any mitigation so you can opt to have regens that effectively do nothing because white mage regens are more than enough is a rather weird priority choice.

If White Mages Regens alone are over healing to the point where applying mine does nothing, then me applying mitigation doesn't really do anything either, all that would do is waste the White Mages Regen tics, which are apparently potent enough to keep someone capped on HP... In any situation like that, you know what I'd do? Go in with a premade with only one healer, because two clearly aren't needed. If that's not possible, I'll nuke, and I'd sooner nuke in Diurnal Sect than Nocturnal.

Mitigation has its place, T10 for example, but for the most part... If I'm casting less and spending less MP on heals and over healing, the difference between mitigation and over healing is completely arbitrary. Over healing is only an issue in the example I gave; Casting something expensive like Benefic II, when your target doesn't need a 350 potency heal, let alone a 650 potency one. That is a waste of MP and a waste of a GCD. The only example you can give for me wasting either with Regen is an example in which a second healer is apparently simply not needed in the first place...

[Daralii]

The last patch did help with the viability of AST but it certainly does need 2-3 more tweaks/changes to be really on par with the other two healing jobs.

My assumption is that it was mainly a band aid fix to make sure it's at least not terrible. Hopefully there'll be some larger reworks before the end of HW.

Yoshida mentioned a CO change before Alex came out, but I dunno if that's still in the pipeline or if it got scrapped.

[Ksenia]

The only skill in the Astro group I see as interesting is the Synastry skill. I could picture an 8 man, the 2 healers linking each other, then designating to their tanks. Healing each other 40% as they heal tanks. If someone is a healer through and through, they will level it as a precaution but people who simply want to farm dungeons on any role, Whm is still first choice.

[Pomelo]

Stuff

Good on you for quelling the most stupid argument ever :P The amount of times you'd have to come out of CS while using Nocturnal...perhaps they are using small pulls rofl? If so their argument makes sense, but what kind of crappy healer/tanks want small pulls?

Ast Hot's > Ast Shield's

(And they stack with WHM's so you can totally dps and stuff with the MP you are both saving...)

[Twilite]

Maybe it's me, but I think all the healer classes are viable.

[Eul]

I'm currently leveling my AST and the problem so far is, using Nocturnal at dungeon is really hard for healing than Diurnal. I don't know, the healing ticks is more important to survive than mitigate shield even they buff it to 130% IMO.