Astro underwhelming in endgame?

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

Quite often, actually. Out of the savage floors, only A2S doesn't require Cure III and that's because there's not much raid-wide AoE happening. The other three floors see quite a few uses out of Cure III, AS3 especially.

But Cure III doesn't make or break a healer in savage, really. If there's burst AoE healing required, AST does have lightspeed.

Well, for one: Cure III uses are niche at best with current content. And secondly: Lightspeed hardly matters when you actually need "burst" healing of any kind. Aside from A3S 6 splashes, name an instance where Cure III would be more MP efficient as well as GCD efficient over Medica II/Aspected Helios and has to be used to prevent a death because they weren't healed up enough. Even with the 6 splashes, Cure III saves 1 GCD (and the mp involved in it) at most.

[tjw]

It's different playstyles, maybe. I find myself using Cure III after the jumps in AS1 rather than Medica II, which I use before emergency deployment because the timespan in between the two, to me, doesn't seem long enough for the Medica II dot to top people off. Cure III is also quite good for some double preys (i.e. two ranged, or a healer and melee, or melee and ranged on same oppresor etc) if you can get it coordinated with the group over VOIP; the other healer can then focus on just the tanks. GCD efficiency depends on the situation; if the Cure III actually tops off most people, then it's more efficient than Medica II/A. Helios by virtue of its cast time being lower.

I'm not arguing that Cure III is niche. It's definitely not as useful as Medica II, but it's definitely a lot more burst/emergency useful, especially in A4S when AoEs get clipped by the same people (e.g. two people accidentally pick up the same orb...). If we talk MP management, of course it's not as sustainable than Cure II, but I find certain scenarios benefit more from the quick burst from Cure III rather than the HoT from Medica II. It really just depends on the situation, and I find that Cure III sometimes supersedes Medica II in bursty/recovery situations.

[technole]

I always prefer AST for A1S over WHM because of balance pull, using CO+TD for more DPS and whatever else you can do to put points on the board as possible before the split. (Plus the folks who like to do 0-jump runs will try to use AST to pad their numbers). The 15y 'issue' abolished with raid coordination because there is absolutely no reason to really be out of range for gunnery. AB a strangler if-needed. Plus the toolkit practically trivializes the double prey healing mechanics. I'm not sure about the "more aoe healing" comment. No Assize means I wait to AH again until the second for double gunnery which the previous AH ticks should be getting towards running out. Focus on the tank whom is probably in DPS stance for cleave, until after the follow-up gunnery comes out. Not having Assize after the tank buster it just means waiting to heal the last gunnery and using GCD for Helios before the jump. That is about it in-terms of kit differences, hardly much.

Well, for one: Cure III uses are niche at best with current content. And secondly: Lightspeed hardly matters when you actually need "burst" healing of any kind. Aside from A3S 6 splashes, name an instance where Cure III would be more MP efficient as well as GCD efficient over Medica II/Aspected Helios and has to be used to prevent a death because they weren't healed up enough. Even with the 6 splashes, Cure III saves 1 GCD (and the mp involved in it) at most.

Yep, A3S x6 Splashes is the only place where it's efficient over the other options. Well there are parts in Thordan too if we want to include full end-game where it's perfect for some mechanics. Accounting for today's gear level for that matter, Cure III is a bit overkill for most other things aside from those.