Astrologian misconceptions

[Hysterior]

Can someone tell me what exactly makes people hate on Astro?

WHM does the WHM job better
SCH does the SCH job better
AST stances are not as good as the jobs it tries to copy

and then for progression, a RNG job is not the best.
Yeah AST is pretty sweet when you get Fire buff a lot but you can also end up with useless cards and your healing is not as strong as the other one and you mana starve when you DPS.

Having said that, it's perfectly adequate for most content. It's just what AST can do, the others 2 healers do it better.
WHM/SCH still the dream combo.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

Having said that, it's perfectly adequate for most content. It's just what AST can do, the others 2 healers do it better.
WHM/SCH still the dream combo.

Interesting. Do share examples where the White Mage kit has an obvious advantage over Astrologian with current content. While you're at it, how much mitigation a whm/sch combo can provide together over ast/sch

[Sleigh]

Interesting. Do share examples where the White Mage kit has an obvious advantage over Astrologian with current content. While you're at it, how much mitigation a whm/sch combo can provide together over ast/sch

The main in-your-face advantages of WHM over AST are Benediction and Assize. Benediction is strong; especially if used with Living Dead, WHM can do a lot of DPS with Living Dead whereas it requires a legitimate amount of MP/resources/time to save a DRK on AST. It can be used for pure DPS or a big MP saver or just a big emergency heal, just a great skill overall that's unique to WHM and is one of the reasons WHM can DPS more often than AST. Assize is for instant MP occasionally, DPS on adds/AoE, or AoE burst healing, all strong attributes AST doesn't really get on demand. Most of the kit is otherwise sidegrade-ish, but notably Disable being undisputed better than regular Virus in current fights, with how Anti-Body works.

Asylum is better in some scenarios, Collective is better in some scenarios (usually Collective can be better for mega attacks but if it's used as just a tank regen it's usually better to plop down Asylum than run up, possibly in the way of mechanics/cleaves, and wait for 2-3s for Collective to tick), same with DS/Synastry (DS usually better but when Synastry is hot it's HOT) and Tetra/Essential and PoM/Lightspeed (although in general, in current content, PoM is more useful since content has so little mobility required). Arguably Shroud's aggro control over LA is a real advantage, and it is, but that's more an annoyance than a strong advantage because the two points aggro can be an issue, A3 and Thordan, the boss isn't threatening for a while past the phase shift.

I'm not much for saying AST is weaker, and that's not the point of this post, in fact I'm kind of an AST white knight these days. To answer your question, Assize and Benediction are just things AST doesn't have an active answer to besides making sure they're not needed. Usually with more time spent healing or making sure there are less mistakes to warrant them.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

Snip

Well... no point if you answer it when the person in question's selling it-

[AzureFlare]

Stuff

The fact that people are still stuck in 'The WHM job' and 'The SCH job' is a problem more than anything.

That and the fact the way SCH plays is just disgusting. Arguably highest comfort and highest potential in way too many areas. You don't need to be a great SCH to do content and a great SCH beats a great N.AST hands down (and you don't need a D.AST anyway). And I say disgusting comparing it to either AST or WHM.
I don't even know why Nocturnal Sect exists if they intend to leave SCH like it is: programmers need to make more exceptions, designers need to work around it, PvPers hate seeing an AST run around (unless on their side) and in PvE the amount of things you are outclassed with by a SCH I can't even count on two hands. If anything, N.AST feels like having side-wheels on your bike while learning to ride it and the moment and Diurnal is like taking them off and gaining some speed (literally) in the current scheme of things.

Now compare AST to WHM and they actually have proper weaknesses and strengths, and they will both see daylight in fairly equal ilvls. All SE needs to do is actually design fights so that one isn't consistently favored over the other. I don't even know why people are still debating WHM/SCH > AST/SCH when most are near ilvl 210 and we have no idea how encounters (or balance) in 3.2 will be anyway.

Edit: Though I bashed on N.AST, I do enjoy Nocturnal Sect in every way from a personal point of view and I much rather play AST and go WHM/N.AST than SCH and go WHM/SCH, if my partner can only play WHM. I just don't see Nocturnal Sect's worth from an advantage/disadvantage point of view and it could be so much more if either SCH was changed or Nocturnal Sect/AST as a whole was changed. However, WHM/N.AST is fine and perfectly viable for all content.