Love raiding on Astro, but it really draws the short end of the stick for dungeons

[GeekMatt]

Meant the 10% from The Balance, which is all I go for in dungeons unless crap hits the fan (e.g if BRD stands in AoE and dies, I use Spire if it pops) with enhance being my preferred Royal Road for 4man content.

[FoxyAreku]

AST is terrible at AoE, but otherwise they are fine.

I actually prefer noct sect in dungeons, plenty of time to dps while the tank is shielded.

[Reinha]

Don't forget the 5% reduced cast times and global cooldown when in Diurnal Sect, which affects both your heals and your dps. You can also have either 10% damage reduction on tank (this will further add to your own dps) or 10% damage increase on a dps member (comparable to the increase from PoM) almost the whole time. If you get Spear, use it to Extend for a doubled effect of a good card. MP or TP card go to Spread most of the time. With spread it's a 4 * 5% dps increase, which is roughly the same effect as 2 unbuffed dps increasing cards. No card is a waste so you should count in the almost continuous 10% buff from them.

AST does miss out on Aero III (170 potency increase per target over Holy), Asylum Assize (typed the wrong name) and Bane, but we do have a "Holy" which is 20% cheaper than a WHM's Holy. There shouldn't be any MP issues if LA and Lightspeed are utilized properly.

I think you also severely underestimate the power of Time Dilation. Throw it on the tank after all hots (Diurnal) and it will give 330 potency per tick for 15 seconds AND increased duration on whichever card buff you gave the tank. That's more powerful than Assize and PoM combined! It will basically let you dps the whole duration of a mass pull with a few ED's here and there and only requires 3 global cooldowns to set up.

[AzureFlare]

I think you also severely underestimate the power of Time Dilation. Throw it on the tank after all hots (Diurnal) and it will give 330 potency per tick for 15 seconds AND increased duration on whichever card buff you gave the tank. That's more powerful than Assize and PoM combined! It will basically let you dps the whole duration of a mass pull with a few ED's here and there and only requires 3 global cooldowns to set up.

This post speaks truth. The difference between a great AST and an okay AST is the usage of CU and Time Dilation more than anything, really. Most people at least figure out Synastry/cards/LA+CO but then they forget the greatness that is TD. Only thing AST really suffers is having to pull cds together but, meh, just save Synastry and Lightspeed if you intend to save anything, they don't benefit that well from extension when it comes to dungeons.

[MidnightTundra]

While I totally agree with the use of Time Dilation, I think you overestimate the power of your cards and Gravity's MP Cost. Aero III is half the cost of Gravity and after 2~4 ticks, it becomes more powerful than Gravity or Holy depending on the pack size. You also discredit the sheer power of Assize.

It is a 300 AoE nuke that gives 1400~1500 MP back (essentially a free Holy) and it's oGCD. If a DPS is utilizing the full 30s of Balance on an AoE pull, that means the group sucks.

WHM also owns the Group MND buff so it's doing even more damage with its innate 30+ MND.

Also with the way Damage Reduction skills work in this game. If your PLD or DRK has Tank stance on, Bole's 10% isn't really 10%. It's more like 8% (0.8 ~Grit~ * 0.9 ~Bole~ == 0.72). If the tank throws up one of his own cooldowns, Bole gets worse.

Yeah AST works for dungeon runs but its nothing to get hype over. It's just more fun.

[Sleigh]

AST is garbage (relatively, of course) compared to WHM in dungeons but it's not like this should be news to anyone. If you have the gear and like efficiency, use WHM. If you would rather play AST and do less DPS, sure go for it, no one's gonna stone you for it.

I really don't think the devs care much for dungeon balance. MNK could have gotten plenty of dungeon love in 2.X without changing its raid balance, but nope, nothing. BLM was undeniably king, now SMN's king. NIN is still the worst for dungeons. PLD is for turtles. It's the way this game's designed, they just simply don't care.

[Dayala]

Time Dilation is your friend on big pulls.

I don't usually have an issue dpsing with Gravity in CS as long as the tank has allowed a little time to stance dance buffs on them before the pull and they're capable of using cool-downs properly. There seems to be an increase of tanks that don't use CDs on pulls and it's a bit daunting at times but any healer worth their salt can still manage.

I basically keep my Jem Synergy spell on cooldown to make sure I have MP to spam Gravity up to about 60% of my mp (about 4 or 5 gravities) before reapplying all hots / health and go right back to it. If dps is really terrible and the tank is anti-cool downs I don't dps at all besides just applying dots because I will need my mp to keep the tank up (and I cry a little inside).

I use Synastry / stun generally on big pulls when the tank hovers around 50% and I need the boost. Benefic 2 procs pretty regularly and it crits quite a bit so I will use that before I even think to do anything else and I don't usually pop the Benedictionlustrate unless I really can't keep the tank up above 70%.

Cards are so random that I have to calculate all my mp usage and judge on the party skill within the first few pulls as though I'm never going to get an Ewer and I rarely see an issue with juggling my responsibilities. I rarely use the ewer card on myself as a result since I manage my MP pretty strictly unless dps has died and I had to raise them during boss fights due to mechanics.

AST single target DPS is pretty good in my opinion but the AOE dps is a bit mp heavy and hard to manage if you're not paying close attention to your mp bar / you miscalculated your cool-downs. It's pretty easy to tear hate off the tank if you try hard enough with dps, I will proudly say .

[technole]

This post speaks truth. The difference between a great AST and an okay AST is the usage of CU and Time Dilation more than anything, really. Most people at least figure out Synastry/cards/LA+CO but then they forget the greatness that is TD. Only thing AST really suffers is having to pull cds together but, meh, just save Synastry and Lightspeed if you intend to save anything, they don't benefit that well from extension when it comes to dungeons.

Yep, for dungeon Time Dilation I tend to side for the healing HoT extensions since it leaves ample time for DPS. In Alex Savage I side on balance extension whenever possible.

Pulling cooldowns together isn't unique to AST in a sense. DRK is similar in that stacking regard. Post-50 skill buffs are behind having 100% Darkside stance and using Dark Mind to enhance key cooldowns. This is why when you see the subpar DRK in a dungeon that doesn't keep Darkside up all the time they are pretty much playing gimped and locking out their best skills that geneate aggro, damage, and more importantly to healers - self-heals.

[Sanghelios]

I do agree aswell with op. As main healer i would prefer whm over ast all the time in dungeons. Especially the fact that ast doesnt have any aoe damage spell in lvl50 dungeons (besides blizzard 2) is totally not understandable for me. They could have make gravity lvl50 instead of lvl52 and it wouldnt be that bad as it is now.

If you going for a super pull in pharos hard for example and pull all mobs between first and second boss into a single wonderful 25 mobs clusterfuck imagine how much additional damage you can do besides holy with aero 3 and assize. Now put two summoners on it and you have your 17 minutes expert run.