A3S (AST Solo Heal)

[DarkmoonVael]

It does mean it's on par. The class is fine. Deal with it.

3.2 will be the first real test on AST. with its changes in 3.07 it will be the first time it can be used at full potential in progression based raids due to that and the fact that people will have had more time with the class to understand its nuances. Also, if 3.2 savage alexander does away with the severly strict dps checks and focuses more on mechanical perfection, we may see a raid when any combination of healers is very viable, instead of the current tier which really does focus on the need for SCH+ WHM or AST.

[Kerrigen]

Trying to have people understand the fundamental differences between progression raiding and challenge runs when the content is well-known and overgeared is a lost cause on these forums. Twintania was being healed by Conjurers back when it was on the tail end of its shelf life, this must mean CNJ is a fine progression healer and on par with WHM by that logic. Job Crystals are overrated.

Yeah, if the content is easy-ish in 3.2 it won't matter. Balance never matters at the lower end of the spectrum.

Healing was never Diurnal AST's major flaw anyway, especially after 3.07 but on the other hand we're on a board when people are still arguing for/against DPSing as a healer so this is lost to them.

Still an amazing performance by an AST who wasn't even utilizing their whole kit.

[Ghishlain]

As others have stated, I agree that the real test for AST debate will be when the new tier of Alex (Savage) comes out in 3.2 (or perhaps 3.23 if they continue with the same trend of "normal first") and see which groups take which compositions.

At the moment, AST has the capacity to replace WHM in a WHM/SCH composition and both bring specific niches to the group. Whether the end game groups find they need the 3% mind boost and heavier AoE heals versus the party augmentation and single target bursts will probably decide which one is more preferred - and that will depend on how S-E designs their fights.

[AzureFlare]

Just because there are some interesting kills in an already overgeared status, it doesn't mean the AST is on par with the other two.

The next time we can look how the AST performs will be at the release of Patch 3.2, when the HC teams start to run for their world first kills.

I'm all up for looking how they perform where it matters most, but it always seems to be black or white when it comes to some, especially Reddit, even in a time and content it doesn't matter. Like, there's still a middle ground where it can clear content just fine without penalizing the party, and then sillies still insist it will. The amount of people selling AST short without experimenting is insane.

[TatoRazzino]

People cleared A1S and A2S with AST on the first week. People said they were carried by their co-healers and that it hurt the party. Some people who switched from AST were astonished to see that you could use Synastry during the double prey mechanic, for example, or that you could use CO to extend LA. AST wasn't being played right, and people still cleared Savage when it was launched. After a few weeks, SE buffed it. But the crying and bashing still exists. now an AST solo healed one of the hardest fights in the game, one with heavy AoE healing (AST's weakness) and people start saying shit sbout overgearing and knowing mechanics. The thing is: if you can solo heal it over geared, it means you can do it with a healing partner undergeared. That's it, there's no excuse anymore. The next raid content will not see high end groups using AST in progression, because WHM/SCH is more balanced AND it is safer. Playing AST is gambling, and people should understand it if they ever want to play the job properly. No party in their right mind is going to make that bet if they're aiming for world/server first. We may see clears with AST, but that doesn't mean they'll take it for their mechanics learning runs, so please stop with this nonsense "we'll see how AST is on 3.2". We won't. The first turns in savage were cleared with AST and that wasn't enough for people to see it as viable. In fact, AST could get a buff that raises their AoE potency to 900 with no MP cost and 1s cooldown, and people will still bash it in the forums because the group hysteria is real in this game and AST is already branded as the crappy healer.

[technole]

I'm all up for looking how they perform where it matters most, but it always seems to be black or white when it comes to some, especially Reddit, even in a time and content it doesn't matter. Like, there's still a middle ground where it can clear content just fine without penalizing the party, and then sillies still insist it will. The amount of people selling AST short without experimenting is insane.

Yeah, it's true. Those people are likely the ones that never set foot in savage, probably only have casual leveling experiences at AST and not being good at the job, probably never cleared a savage floor as an AST or healer, and/or never decided to have an AST in the raid. Mainly those with less than ideal experiences with the job. So it's just black and white to them. Short of having AST at a world-first level, there really won't be much to change their mind.

Plus this whole "not on par" statement is getting old because it's pretty clear at this point if anyone is selling a job short at this point of the cycle because of a 3% MND buff, some more potent regens among other minor differences, it's not the job. It's either the party and/or player. Oh well, their loss.

[Ghishlain]

I'll just re-quote this since it seemed to have gotten lost in the thoughts of a few in the past few posts:

It's definitely an impressive video, but citing it as evidence for holistic class balance is a bit disingenuous.

This video does not showcase any validity to AST's viability. Instead, this video show cases a high level of skill and fight understanding. If this video was suppose to validate viability, everyone would be saying SCH would be unviable because there hasn't been a SCH-solo kill for A3S. But the vast majority of healers know that SCH currently sits on the highest rung of the healing totem pole and that the SCH kit isn't good to solo heal this particular fight.

Anyone with any healing sense will understand that AST is now a much more viable healer than it was on its inception. With those changes, the end game hardcore raiders will be evaluating every option available to them when making that World First race and decide their best course of action. It's why you see DRKs being so popular - because the World First raiders used it because the job maximized their chances at success. They will make the same judgements come 3.2X with the second tier of Alex (Savage) and we'll see if they judge AST worthy of World First praise. If not, well, at least we'll see more ASTs being used now thanks to the buffs it received.

A note to the pro-ASTs posting here - the amount of toxicity a few of you are spewing does much disservice to your argument. If you want to encourage healthy and forward thinking discussion to push healers towards your side, you'll need to do so with calm discussion and logic - not anger and wild emotions. You are showing you are no different from the toxic and baseless comments some anti-AST posters have shown in the past and thus should not be taken seriously. Just some food for thought.

[Sleigh]

On the subject of progression, particularly world progression, people may not realize that even world first groups still lack an extremely intimate, memorized flow of every cleave and AoE until once they've basically cleared the fight, if not until they've literally cleared the fight and start farming it in the following weeks. Especially when talking about learning a fight there is no video for and you are discovering it as you go.

You think groups aren't gonna take the healer with Assize, Asylum, Benediction, constant Divine Seal action, a nearly guaranteed hit Medica II compared to 15y AH, Cure III for when there are mechanic into mechanics, Presence of Mind to try and salvage hard healing areas? Of course they are, while learning. WHM is so flipping simple and easy and versatile compared to AST. It does its job, healing with some backup DPS during off-time, nearly as good the second time seeing a phase as it does the 100th time, only a more defined fight knowledge level lets you really hit the top.

Meanwhile AST needs more strict timelines to make use of all its skills. 90s Collective which you have to plan for the group to get hit, 90s Synastry which while definitely the stronger tank healer is easy to waste its potential, random cards, many less OH SHIT options especially in the AoE department. AST's fine once you know a fight to the T and can plan everything out, but learning a fight with it? Yeah you're wasting your time. It's like having a WAR MT in coil progression, most groups didn't do that either blind or in early progression because it gets far more punished for lack of fight knowledge, despite it possibly being better or worse than PLD MT once the fights are on farm and every cleave and tank buster are memorized exactly. You wanted the tank who almost always had a CD to spare, multiple excess OH SHIT buttons, a shield in case of a mess-up with a chance to live a Revelation or Death Sentence.

I've been playing AST a lot recently and I've come to appreciate its strengths. I don't think it's purely outclassed by WHM, I think they've both got ups and downs. That said, going into a fight blind, or even with knowing it but not having a CD rotation planned for AST? You're gonna have a bad time compared to WHM. Healing has to be a joke for a blind AST to succeed as well. Basically the only scenario I see world firsters using AST, as they are currently tuned, is if there is an A3S situation where eventually the world firsters know the fight well enough after 400+ pulls but the DPS checks are too tight in minimal gear, and honestly I don't think they're going that route in FFXIV anymore.

[TatoRazzino]

A note to the pro-ASTs posting here - the amount of toxicity a few of you are spewing does much disservice to your argument. If you want to encourage healthy and forward thinking discussion to push healers towards your side, you'll need to do so with calm discussion and logic - not anger and wild emotions. You are showing you are no different from the toxic and baseless comments some anti-AST posters have shown in the past and thus should not be taken seriously. Just some food for thought.

That's not true at all. I've been accused of hacking the game (just look at the forums and you'll find it) when I said I used Synastry to heal the prey mechanic in A1S pre-AST buff. Reason and logic only work to a certain extent, and group hysteria ignores all logic. I repeat: people cleared the fights with AST pre-buff, but it wasn't considered viable for Savage. I'm not even mentioning world first race, I'm saying that people considered a clear impossible with AST. Even with video proof of the clears. Logic has no place in any argument in here, and the multiple threads about the same thing show that. I'm sorry, but the "toxicity" pro-ASTs are showing is not toxicity at all, but irony. There's no way to convince anyone about anything. Yhisa, for exampl, said that it was impossible for an AST/AST combo to clear A3S. Now an AST solo healed it, and Yhisa came here saying "ofc they're overgeared". There's always going to be an excuse. People will see what they want to see, and irony is the only way to respond to that.

[WolfKid]

Wow i never new AST was disliked like this. I thought there heals were at a good point but they're not? I never noticed. Though i say this, i never even set foot in savage
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