Help with melds for my Astrologian.

[Lunafreya]

I'm hearing recommendations for accuracy everywhere but then people say it isn't worth it because a Scholar will be my partner anyway. They also recommend determination or critical hit. I'm clueless on what to do. Help would be very much appreciated.

[DotsNnots]

Gonna say what I always say, go with what fills your playstyle!

What do you find yourself doing and wanting the most of? Do you wish you were casting a tad faster? SS. Want bigger heals? Then Det or Crit. Hate missing? ACC.

My stance:
I think the whole "oh the other healer is a scholar, so I can't DPS" mantra is total BS. (I'm coming from a WHM perspective, but I think it's still similar to AST + SCH). If I keep medica2 and regen on the tanks, that gives me plenty of time to DPS between. To me, regen skills are WHM versions of a fairy. I don't know the name of all the AST skills, but assuming you're using your aoe heals and shield skills, I don't see why you can't be just as effective at DPSing as your scholar.

But if you like the primary healer (AST) secondary healer/dps (SCH) setup, that's great too! But pick what you like, not what other players are telling you to like. You're only going to be the most effective healer if you're playing to your own playstyle.

[GeekMatt]

After going crazy thinking about it, I had a bit of a breakdown on ffxivRealm about this. Ultimately I decided to go Crit/PIE because it had been working really well for me in the past, but my full rant is here if you're interested;

I've been really torn on what to meld, and the deeper I explore into it, the more uncertain I become, so I'm hoping to get some insight from you guys.

Crit/DET/SS/PIE

First let's look at common healer secondary stats. When I first accepted the fact that AST plays mostly in Diurnal, I decided to build around Spell Speed due to the changes making it impact the potency of HoT tics, but after playing around with it I found that I just didn't like SS and I couldn't feel the impact of it when I healed. Since then I've been Crit/PIE and VERY happy with the build.

Now obviously PIE is always good, but with how fantastic MP management is on AST in 3.2, I'm wondering if I'd be better off not focusing on it as much. As for DET, I was a DET whm at 50 because it really just felt like stat build made little difference, so I might as well go for dependability. I've heard that DET measures up better to MND then any other stat, but based on experience I'm still favouring Crit. I've also heard that DET hasn't been scaling well on healers so I'm not sure what to believe.

I guess at the end of the day I feel that, with the exception of SCHs unique benefit from Crit, the aforementioned stats are all really a matter of player preference. But now we get into the more complicated territory

Accuracy

So first I'll start off by saying that I like that SE is pushing healers towards healing and away from DPSing, but at the same time I'm not thrilled with our loss of accuracy. I don't believe a healer should be obligated to DPS in casual group content, but in an endgame progressive raid I feel that each player should be encouraged to make the most out of every ability they have, and like it or not DPSing is built into the healers design out of necessity for us to progress through the game. So when I'm in a progressive endgame raid that's designed to push me, I want to be DPSing in some impactful way, even if it's just for a few seconds here and there.

So with that in mind you'd think I'd be all for stacking ACC. But on the other hand as an AST, I'm the primary healer with the sch (or even whm) being more valuable as the parties DPSer and often times I won't DPS at all after the pull until I'm more comfortable with the mechanics of a fight. ADDITIONALLY, idk much about melding, but the caster accuracy caps in Midas Savage are somewhere around 560—how close can I actually get to this via melding? If my hits/misses for DPSing are still going to be heavily RNG based, then how can I justify attributing stats to ACC which ONLY affects DPS when I can impact my DPS AND my healing using a stat like Crit, or DET? I want to hit my target, but I also don't want to funnel a bunch of stats into something that will only help my DPS, when I can pick a stat that'll have a much larger overall impact on what I do. This is a very frustrating predicament for me; I see the value in ACC. I want to be able to DPS and this is the best way to impact that and I know that my DPS matters, but the value of my DPS doesn't come into play very often and there's so much more value to be had from other stats overall.

HALP. WUT DU.

Edit:
Oh right, it was also recommended to me that I get some VIT due to the raid-wide damage from Sephirot ex. But sitting at 14100 outside of party, that seems a bit excessive.

[Ghishlain]

I'll repost what I posted on a different thread about melds:

1) Don't bother with Accuracy melds. For healers that just heal. Meld CRIT, PIE, DET, and SpS in comfortable levels that augment your healing. You'll probably feel it later if you're going to try to DPS, but it's something to consider for the pure-healer types.

2) You want to DPS consistently in casual content (EX dungeons / Midas normal). You'll probably want to meld approximately half your slots with Accuracy. No need for penta melded 220s, so don't break your bank over that. Midas / Lore 230-240s with 50% accuracy materia should be more than sufficient for current casual content.

3) You want to DPS consistently in hardcore content (Savage Midas / EX Trials). You'll probably want to meld EVERYTHING with T5 Accuracy and eat some HQ food to boot. Supposedly caster cap for A8S is in the 600+ range which is completely doable with full T5 Accuracy melds in i230/240 gear and food. Remember you get a free T5 outta Void Ark each week.

You should pick a meld paradigm that suitable for yourself as a player. Just because your healing partner will be a SCH doesn't mean AST won't have the means to add DPS to the encounter and potentially push a clear versus a 1% wipe. Accuracy is single handled the best DPS stat in the game until you cap accuracy.

If your Malefic IIs account for 75 DPS on a training dummy and you only have an 80% hit rate in say Sephi EX, your average Malefic II potential will be 60 DPS. If eating Accuracy food increases your hit rate to 85%, your Malefic II DPS will 63.74% (a 6.25% gain in average DPS). Crit, Det, or SpS will give you no where near this benefit in the same quantities until you start getting into the 90+% range.

I know it doesn't answer your question directly, but I'm hoping these bits of information will allow you to make a decision that is to your benefit.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

Eh, I'll just follow Ghishlain and quote myself here as well from another topic

Well, you did mention you like to dps and stance dance regardless of the job. So you should consider how much each point would affect you:
about 44 crit gives you a gain of 1% crit rate.
I have no idea about Determination, but shouldn't be too far off from crit if you compare gear with capped det or capped crit
About 25-26 spellspeed is a reduction of 0.4% casting speed or 62-65 for a reduction of 1%

You have 18 slots if you're in full 220+ gear (that isn't crafted). The ceiling of the secondary stats would be 216 accuracy, Crit rate, Det or Spell Speed. Obviously, you can't meld more on it if the stat is already capped, but let's forget about that for now for simplicity - Accuracy is probably the only stat that can reach the ceiling regardless of gear set, however.
If we'd assume the information provided earlier, the maximum gain would be:
570 accuracy. Estimated accuracy cap for Midas 1 to 4 is 557, 571, 585 and 600 respectively
4.9% crit hit rate increase
Let's just assume it's a 2.45% increase on average healing/damage dealt for determination
3.3% to 3.5% reduced casting time

[Kerrigen]

Lots of great posts already so I'm just going to piggyback on one of them with actual recent experience as a main healer:

Just because your healing partner will be a SCH doesn't mean AST won't have the means to add DPS to the encounter and potentially push a clear versus a 1% wipe. Accuracy is single handled the best DPS stat in the game until you cap accuracy.

My first Hummelfaust (the Gatekeeper for Alexander 5 Savage that is a harder DPS check than the actual boss) kill involved me delivering the killing blow with Stone III, right as the enrage came off. Had I been on AST instead of WHM that night, this could have been Malefic II. This is never something that I want to leave to RNG, and while one could argue that it's the DPS' job, I feel like this is a team effort and every bit helps.

Do what suits your playstyle the most. I fully agree with Ghislain's post and I think this is the best way to approach healer melds.

[randysquirrel]

I'm certainly no expert, but imo acc is not as important to AST as it is to the other healers as combust and combust II never miss anyway. obv our other offensive toolkit is still subject to acc

for similar reasons I don't value SS as highly on my AST, as it has a larger number of inst casts (Combust I/II, aero, dignity, asp benefic). bigger heals would be pre-cast anyway

i'll prob go for a mix of det/crit, maybe some PIE, tho our mp management just got much more lenient

[Zaj_Quilos]

I'm just doing Crit and Determination.

[NorthernLadMSP]

I'm doing mostly accuracy all around, with some crit and spell speed thrown in. I play all three healers extensively, so just because AST doesn't DPS as much as the others, doesn't mean Accuracy is wasted.

Missing on your DPS spells is infuriating. It's also a big waste of MP.

[Mitysolde]

I am going det/crit with a couple of accuracy overmelds on the 220 crafted pcs (which I am making myself for fun). I agree with Phoenix regarding the relative usefulness of accuracy and spell speed for AST.