Starting healing with AST... Did I bite off too much?

[DarkmoonVael]

You could use Lightspeed instead of swiftcast to get the instant cast on spells and save mp. And then you use Swift to doublecast Gravity.
This big amount of regen power I just used in dungeons in one situation, in the arboretum, before the queen bee boss when the tank pulled all the bees... Usually it's not necessary in dungeons. I don't do savage content.

Lightspeed would still be up for 2-3 casts of gravity, which means its not worth it. No point cutting your dps by 25% .

[Roxas_Andrade]

Lightspeed would still be up for 2-3 casts of gravity, which means its not worth it. No point cutting your dps by 25% .

Considering OGDC abilities as 1sec cast because you would use OGCD after OGCD and they have their own animation, you would have Synastry > Lightspeed (10sec effect) > Asp.Bene (2,5sec CD) > Asp.Helios (2,5 sec CD) > CU (1~3sec depending on server tick) > Time Dilation (1sec) > CO (1sec) > Cleric Stance (1sec) > Gravity (3sec) > SwiftCast > Gravity > Gravity

If you're "lucky" to get CU granting it's buff in 1 sec, you would only have the Lightspeed debuff for your first Gravity. Considering the massive healing power you're using, I wouldn't mind waiting 3sec with CU active to start casting Gravity with full power.

And considering I don't do savage content, I don' ever felt the need to do such a rehearsed combo, but I guess it would generate so much hate that you should use LA just after Lightspeed, giving you an extra second to cast your Gravities...

[DarkmoonVael]

Considering OGDC abilities as 1sec cast because you would use OGCD after OGCD and they have their own animation, you would have Synastry > Lightspeed (10sec effect) > Asp.Bene (2,5sec CD) > Asp.Helios (2,5 sec CD) > CU (1~3sec depending on server tick) > Time Dilation (1sec) > CO (1sec) > Cleric Stance (1sec) > Gravity (3sec) > SwiftCast > Gravity > Gravity

If you're "lucky" to get CU granting it's buff in 1 sec, you would only have the Lightspeed debuff for your first Gravity. Considering the massive healing power you're using, I wouldn't mind waiting 3sec with CU active to start casting Gravity with full power.

And considering I don't do savage content, I don' ever felt the need to do such a rehearsed combo, but I guess it would generate so much hate that you should use LA just after Lightspeed, giving you an extra second to cast your Gravities...

Just to point out you suggested replacing lightspeed for swiftcast in the example of Synestry>A.Benefic>Swiftcast>A.Helios>Collective Unconsciousness>Cleric Stance>Gravity spam.

A.Helios goes straight into CU. Say full 3 secs to get Wheel of Fate up, still leaves 5-6 secs of Lightspeed being up when you start to dps.

[Roxas_Andrade]

Collective Unconsciousness while lightspeed is up? Really?
No point wasting 0.5-1.0 second with each oGCD while Lightspeed is up

Not the best to do, I know, but my point was to max healing output before spamming Gravity. Putting the CDs along with Gravity is valid, but you will have more Lightspeed active while DPSing, which is not optimal. In this combo we should use whatever we can to heal/support while Lightséed is up to ensure 100% potency while DPSing. (And for a controller player like me, switching targets from Enemy/Gravity to Party/CDs would consume more time)

A.Helios goes straight into CU. Say full 3 secs to get Wheel of Fate up, still leaves 5-6 secs of Lightspeed being up when you start to dps.

Lightspeed doesn't reduce your GCD, it just upfront your spells in 2.5sec. So Asp Helios would have 0.5sec cast time and would still have the Global Cooldown, wich is 2.5sec. If you'll have to deal with GCD anyway, might as well cast Asp.Bene while Lightspeed is active (not before) to save mp, then you'd spend 5 sec only to cast Both Asp spells while lightspeed is on...

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

Not the best to do, I know, but my point was to max healing output before spamming Gravity. Putting the CDs along with Gravity is valid, but you will have more Lightspeed active while DPSing, which is not optimal. In this combo we should use whatever we can to heal/support while Lightséed is up to ensure 100% potency while DPSing. (And for a controller player like me, switching targets from Enemy/Gravity to Party/CDs would consume more time)

That still doesn't really elaborate why you'd spend 1-3 seconds on CU with light speed up. Or blowing/saving every single CD you have for a period of 15 seconds for that matter. Even so, if we were to take the original idea in mind to throw everything including the kitchen sink:

Original:
Synastry > Lightspeed (10sec effect) > Asp.Bene (2,5sec CD) > Asp.Helios (2,5 sec CD) > CU (1~3sec depending on server tick) > Time Dilation (1sec) > CO (1sec) > Cleric Stance (1sec) > Gravity (3sec) > SwiftCast > Gravity > Gravity

What I suggest:
Collective Unconsciousness -> Synastry > Aspected Benefic -> Light Speed -> Aspected Helios -> Celestial Opposition + Cleric's stance -> Gravity -> Time dilation -> Gravity x4 -> Swiftcast -> Gravity
I might be off by 1 gravity, no idea. It's nonsense to spam Gravity with Light Speed in the first place

Like this you extend Synastry, aspected benefic, Light speed and Wheel of Fortune by 5 seconds with Celestial opposition AND you get more gravity out of it. And no, Synastry does not affect Wheel of Fortune. Effectively the total time for each of your buffs, with Time dilation, is:
Light speed 15s
Synastry 25s
Wheel of Fortune 35s
Aspected Benefic (regen effect) 38s with 20% increased healing
Aspected Helios (regen effect) 35s with 20% increased healing
Any card you happen to have on the tank +20s

[BrielleBeaudonet]

What I suggest:
Collective Unconsciousness -> Synastry > Aspected Benefic -> Light Speed -> Aspected Helios -> Celestial Opposition + Cleric's stance -> Gravity -> Time dilation -> Gravity x4 -> Swiftcast -> Gravity
I might be off by 1 gravity, no idea. It's nonsense to spam Gravity with Light Speed in the first place

Effectively the total time for each of your buffs, with Time dilation, is:
Light speed 15s
Synastry 25s
Wheel of Fortune 35s
Aspected Benefic (regen effect) 38s with 20% increased healing
Aspected Helios (regen effect) 35s with 20% increased healing
Any card you happen to have on the tank +20s

It's been fascinating reading about this regen rotation and optimization. I just tried this out in the Vault (minus Celestial Opposition) and it's CRAZY effective. I was able to spam Gravity to my heart's content, and it also made the last boss (typically a difficult fight and an MP nightmare for me) WAY easier.

[DarkmoonVael]

Lightspeed doesn't reduce your GCD, it just upfront your spells in 2.5sec. So Asp Helios would have 0.5sec cast time and would still have the Global Cooldown, wich is 2.5sec. If you'll have to deal with GCD anyway, might as well cast Asp.Bene while Lightspeed is active (not before) to save mp, then you'd spend 5 sec only to cast Both Asp spells while lightspeed is on...

Um, well going to have to be blunt here.

My response was to your suggestion of flat out replacing swiftcast with lightspeed in DestroyerofLargePlanets post. This catagorically leaves lightspeed up for at least 2 gravities. Its is a simple fact that this happens. The only way this does not happen with that placement of lightspeed is if you then wait for it to drop off before using gravity.

What i responded to was the suggestion of Synestry>A.Ben>lightspeed>AHelios>CU>Clerics>Gravity spam. This leave approx 3.5-4 between Lightspeed, A.Helios (triggers GCD), CU for wheel of fate, going into cleric stance, then hitting your first gravity. Note the only thing that triggers the GCD is A.Helios. So say 0.5 secs for A.Helios, 3 for Wheel of fate, 0.5 for Cleric Stance, then you have all the time left on Lightspeed.

What i was not commenting on, and never have commented on is the post you made after placing Lightspeed before A.Ben, which is a different usage of Lightspeed compared to the post i responded to.

[Roxas_Andrade]

That still doesn't really elaborate why you'd spend 1-3 seconds on CU with light speed up. Or blowing/saving every single CD you have for a period of 15 seconds for that matter. Even so, if we were to take the original idea in mind to throw everything including the kitchen sink

Well, after I slept over it, I see all of your points. I was trying to find a way to put LS in the combo because I think it's a wast of CD to use Swiftcast for Asp.Helios. That's it. For that matter, I admit I was being sttuborn and apologize<(._.)>

I just wanted to point out that we've started arguing optimal action sequences in a thread that began as a pep talk for a new AST. How bout we not scare off any new ASTs who get curious and click on this one, as there are already plenty of scary mathsy optimization threads to be found if people are interested in that side of things.

Also noted, but it served to a purpose. It will help a new player to see what not to do. And it helped me to improve a possible healing combo. But thanks for your concern. : )

Um, well going to have to be blunt here.

I deserved it, lol.

Asp. Helios does go straight into CU if you want. It would remove 2.5sec off my math.

Thing is, I really don't see the need for such an elaborate healing combo in the content I play (usually one CD is enough). Does anyone running Savage/Extreme content have to rely on a big combo like that? What do you guys usually do?

[DarkmoonVael]

I deserved it, lol.

Asp. Helios does go straight into CU if you want. It would remove 2.5sec off my math.

Thing is, I really don't see the need for such an elaborate healing combo in the content I play (usually one CD is enough). Does anyone running Savage/Extreme content have to rely on a big combo like that? What do you guys usually do?

This is what i use for dungeon running. It allows you to put up the HoTs (time dilate them if you want, allows more dps from you) and then just gravity spam for trash pulls. Once you have the HoTs up, and you have a good group, you basically dont need to heal until the next pull.

In extreme/savage, i dont tend to mix all the regens at once like this, as there are specific times to use certain things like CU, lightspeed, synestry etc. Also (not sure how anyone else does this) but i tend to only use time dilation in conjunction with card buffs to maximise their potential.