Suggested changes to AST Design to bring it in line with WHM/SCH

[AzureFlare]

Honestly, the only reason I did that comparison so rigorously is that there are myths like those where people assume AST spells are weaker than the SCH/WHM equivalent. Plus, I was bored anyway and felt like doing some math.

AST is a crazy good dual and spothealer, just a shame those mechanics tend to either be near non-existent, or watered down to the point AoE is better. It just shows context really matters which has been echoed over and over.

[AlphaSonic]

Honestly, the only reason I did that comparison so rigorously is that there are myths like those where people assume AST spells are weaker than the SCH/WHM equivalent. Plus, I was bored anyway and felt like doing some math.

AST is a crazy good dual and spothealer, just a shame those mechanics tend to either be near non-existent, or watered down to the point AoE is better. It just shows context really matters which has been echoed over and over.

That's my problem with Astrologian. Who cares about a heavy single/dual target or a healer that can move while casting? Fights like Thordan Extreme are designed so that there are some calm periods where healers can top people before the next AoE fest and in case you need to throw a spell while moving SCH (indomitability, lustrate, swiftcast) and WHM(assize, tetragrammaton, benediction, swiftcast) have tools to deal with that. There's nearly no content where Astrologian can shine a bring better tools than the other healers. And i'm not talking about AS1 because even if you can deal with double prey as only 1 Astrologian, the fact that WHM have more range with Medica II and can top all people with 1 Cure III when double jump, evens out the advantage it had. (I'm not talking about SCH as is much better than nocturnal Astrologian)

[NamoNanamo]

stuff

In fact, you don't even need cure III as whm in a1s (you waste your mana if you don't take enough damage) and MedicaII>Cure III except if you already got Medica and you need burst Heal for the next attack (like in Thordan EX). As Astro, you have CU that really work well. Free regen, reduc damage, you can use your aether, aoe card and co in the same time.
I would say that the range of medica II is great but if you down it with cl/static, you can heal nearly everyone except the tanks. A1s is still better as whm. But, If I would chose between Ast or whm for solo healing the entire fight, I would go as Astro with a Pld.

A2s, I really think that Astr is better than whm in term of healing. You only heal tanks and Synastry does his staff. I wouldn't compare the dps. Buff card but he does less damage than Whm but he can do more healing so the co-healer can do more damage.

And for Thordan, I really like Noc Astr and I've down it many times with it. I prefer to down it as Astro. Instant shield are really usefull/lightspeed.
Still pretty fine for Ast Diurn, you don't worry about the range of your spell.
Cure III is better in thordan than in A1s, especially if your co-healer is a slowpoke.

[Venjamin]

You know, they could just do the deck like Twisted Fate's from League of Legends. =x You press draw, the cards shuffle themselves for 15 seconds, it's up to you to stop the 'shuffle' on the card you want. Then you can choose to royal road / spread it, and Shuffle can be changed into a secondary mechanic, like reversing the order of your currently shuffling draw if you miss something, or maybe a way to shuffle a currently 'held' Royal Road effect back into your deck and re-draw an automatically RR'd card.

Dunno.

I have no experience in real endgame content. But I'm finding that any time I run into a seemingly insurmountable obstacle as a healer, generally shifting my own play will get the job done. Several people on here have mentioned how to mend MP issues that I've used before. Sure, it probably may not equate in the current endgame stuff, but all the tools I have can save so much time / energy. If I get all 3 regens on a tank and TD them, I might as well not even glance at their HP bar unless a particularly vicious attack is being thrown out and they need a burst.

It seems like no one is okay with blurring the already fuzzy lines between WHM / AST / SCH.

[AzureFlare]

True stuff

Aye. Nail, meet hammer and get dunked on by AlphaSonic.
I can work around Medica 2's range advantage since it isn't that hard to tell DPS aside from a BLM in Fire 4 rotation to take a step to the middle and get ready to tag Helios, you should be doing that with Succor/Indomitability anyway. But I'm worried any buffs to make it meet WHM/SCH standards in the current relevant context will make it broken in the future, and then we'd either end up with nerfs, powercreep or we'll be the new SCH and no one who cares for balance wants that.

I'll still dispel any false math fact that gets shouted here though. The last thing we need are ASTs shouting Doomsday is coming while the job is in a fine position to clearany content. It's up to SE to make fights that force a WHM to not be able to DS+M2 without massive overhealing every time though. If you don't cater to AST's strengths, you shouldn't cater to WHM's or SCH's either. However, I imagine that's still hard since that is what they've been doing before AST came in the picture.