On AST cards, AOE vs others

[Alistaire]

I would just be shocked if AST could stay in cleric longer than either SCH or WHM before needing to heal.

Triple regen on trash pulls with time extensions is no joke.

[JackFross]

Triple regen on trash pulls with time extensions is no joke.

Yis. And this is where my lack of experience on the Job actually impacts my ability to judge. Completely neglected/forgot all about Time Dilation, which dramatically extends that benefit.

[Korihu]

That said - I don't disagree with you. The things you're saying make sense. I suppose my only real issue is just that I can't fathom any other halfway decent use for Lightspeed. It seems to me like a second Swiftcast on a 2.5x cooldown that neuters the only thing it'd be halfway decent for. I would be delighted if you'd enlighten me to places where that skill is actually useful outside of Swiftcast substitution (like an Ascend cast).

Lightspeed is most useful for, besides like you mentioned a second Switcast, situations where you have to heal while moving. For example I find decent use out of it in Thordan Extreme and Sephirot Extreme as there are parts where I need to move to a spot quickly, but people need healing at the same time. Especially if I'm solo healing. It's also useful for rare situations to ignore interruptions through say AoE damage that interrupts. In PvP its a godly skill as you can run while casting everything with the enemy team wailing on you and like mentioned earlier don't have to worry about being interrupted due to damage taken or those 1 sec silences. Furthermore it allows you to weave OGCD skills in between your GCD skills without clipping a second or half off them, like your cards or Essential Dignity. Basically it won't see as much use in lower level content like dungeons but it is very useful in higher level content like Extreme and Savage fights, probably why you don't really see the usage of it.

[Nekotee]

When I really want to DPS it's aspected benefic + aspected helios + wheel of fortune + extended/enhanced bole + time dilatation
And if the tank die

It's his fault !

Maybe an essential dignity in between if the tank is pretty...
But only then !

[DarkmoonVael]

The experience I'm quoting is running on Scholar and needing to drop Cleric to heal a tank (with fairy healing with Rouse) around 10s into an encounter when they pull a pull that's large enough to warrant spamming Gravity. This happens more often than not due to tanks with bad cooldown usage or other such things. Failure to HG that huge pull or properly BP>DA+AD/DA+DD+DA+DP or bloodbath overpower spam causes a healer a lot of undue stress. Divine Seal HoTs are also far more potent than just as good as Synastry ones.

Combined, WHM has 360 potency of heals every 3s compared to a paltry 216 366 with Synastry. This couples with a lack of stuns on Gravity and a 3s shorter duration on said healing potency to make me incredibly dubious of these remarks, is all.

I would just be shocked if AST could stay in cleric longer than either SCH or WHM before needing to heal.


That said - I don't disagree with you. The things you're saying make sense. I suppose my only real issue is just that I can't fathom any other halfway decent use for Lightspeed. It seems to me like a second Swiftcast on a 2.5x cooldown that neuters the only thing it'd be halfway decent for. I would be delighted if you'd enlighten me to places where that skill is actually useful outside of Swiftcast substitution (like an Ascend cast).

So the best way to deal with pulls as a Diurnal AST in dungeons is as follows:

Synastry on tank > Aspect Benefic > Swiftcast > Aspected Helios > Collective unconscious > Time Dilation > clerics > gravity. You dont have to heal the tank at all in this pull. This pull will also include the use of LA and celestial opposition. Next pull will be A.Ben+A.Helios, the use of essential dignity and lightspeed, but only IF the mobs are not dying fast enough in DF.

The use of swiftcast in the above is also entirely Global Cooldown efficiency. As Collective unconscious regen can take up 2.9 secs to register, its best swiftcasting A.Helios and using collective unconscious during the GCD to hopefully have whell of fate up before the GCD has ended and into clerics we go.

Also not with time dilation, the AST hots are lasting far longer than WHM.

Lightspeed is a very very very powerful raid cooldown, but its usage in dungeons is diminished.

Lightspeed is most useful for, besides like you mentioned a second Switcast, situations where you have to heal while moving. For example I find decent use out of it in Thordan Extreme and Sephirot Extreme as there are parts where I need to move to a spot quickly, but people need healing at the same time. Especially if I'm solo healing. It's also useful for rare situations to ignore interruptions through say AoE damage that interrupts. In PvP its a godly skill as you can run while casting everything with the enemy team wailing on you and like mentioned earlier don't have to worry about being interrupted due to damage taken or those 1 sec silences. Furthermore it allows you to weave OGCD skills in between your GCD skills without clipping a second or half off them, like your cards or Essential Dignity. Basically it won't see as much use in lower level content like dungeons but it is very useful in higher level content like Extreme and Savage fights, probably why you don't really see the usage of it.

To add to this, its also used when you need to cure bomb tanks in raids, to make it cost less. Lvl 50 AST in t13, Lightspeed is a godsend for ahk morns.

[Nekotee]

Lightspeed + synastrie = bahamut go cry in a corner and all the whm are jealous as hell
And then you who is the true healer !

[Petori]

Synastry on tank > Aspect Benefic > Swiftcast > Aspected Helios > Collective unconscious > Time Dilation > clerics > gravity. You dont have to heal the tank at all in this pull. This pull will also include the use of LA and celestial opposition. Next pull will be A.Ben+A.Helios, the use of essential dignity and lightspeed, but only IF the mobs are not dying fast enough in DF.

I never do this myself. It takes long to setup, overheals a ton and generates ton of unnecessary enmity since all party members get regens. I find it way more efficient to DPS until tank has about 40-50% HP and then Essential Dignity + Aspected Benefic. Takes about one second to stance dance and heal since both are instaheals. A normal pull is usually dead when tank reaches 40-50% second time. If not, Swiftcast a Benefic II and finish them off

Tanks don't need to be topped all the time, they have their own self-sustain as well.

[Nekotee]

Well as AST you generate less enmity than other healer (well slightly more than SCH)

If you're afraid just pop luminiferous aether before HoT it will cancel all enmity and give you back à lot of mana during the gravity spam and it get extended as well

[DarkmoonVael]

I never do this myself. It takes long to setup, overheals a ton and generates ton of unnecessary enmity since all party members get regens. I find it way more efficient to DPS until tank has about 40-50% HP and then Essential Dignity + Aspected Benefic. Takes about one second to stance dance and heal since both are instaheals. A normal pull is usually dead when tank reaches 40-50% second time. If not, Swiftcast a Benefic II and finish them off

Tanks don't need to be topped all the time, they have their own self-sustain as well.

warriors have good self sustain for 4 man content. If a pld is expected to use clemency as self sustain something is going wrong from the healer. Drk is pretty much not as good as warrior for self sustain.

So you use no regen at all on the tank until they hit 40-50%?

How i use the regens requires 2 or slightly more than 2 GCD depending on how quick wheel of fate lands. I dont have to heal the tank at all during a pull like this after the regens are up. I get to dps to my hearts content.

The way you are describing it sounds like you are going to spend more time healing the tank rather than dpsing in a pull, as the big pulls that are expected in dungeons wont be covered by A.Benefic and essential dignity alone.

Also overhealing only matters in a certain way. In raids, it matters due to mp mismanagement and the potential to gain too much aggro (mainly on whm, its hard to generate too much aggro on an AST). In 4 man content, the regen from A.Helios on the other three party memeber is absolutely inconsequential. It seriously doesnt matter one bit at all in the grand scheme of things. What matters is the regens on the tank and how much dps that is allowing you to do. Too many healers are now looking at overhealing as catagorically wrong in any situation. If that slight overhealing in 4 man content allows you to push out more dps then so be it. If you were over healing by just standing there healing too much and nothing else, then that is an issue.

EDIT: oh my, nekotee has picked up the swiftcast benefic II that i missed. Yeah thats wrong and not needed. You're going to be healing more and dpsing less with how you are doing things compared to me. You are also using far more GCDs to heal than i am per pull.

[Nekotee]

An no matter what you do, you will never overheal more than those dumb whm that keep medica II and regen up all the time and cure bomb the tank like their life depend on it...

You know those kind of whm that are worse that sic EoS... you must have play with one at least once !
If it's not in your FC XD
(The reason i never let someone else heal in pre-made fc group)

..

Also swiftcast benefic II
Are you out of your mind ?
Do not Swift a less than 2sec cast, cast it and see if you tank is competent enough to survive 2 sec with 30% hp