Astrologian - do you really want to rely on RNG in your group healer?

[TankHunter678]

What part of an astrologian's healing kit relies on RNG?

There is 1 Proc for healing:

Casting Benefic has a 15% chance the next Benefic II will have no cast time.

[Miyha]

There is 1 Proc for healing:

Casting Benefic has a 15% chance the next Benefic II will have no cast time.

Lol, almost forgot about that one. :'P Insta-Benefic II has come in very handy in many a clutch-heal moment... just as Free Cure has for many WHMs.

Personally I prefer the insta-cast, but that's just because I have absolutely no MP management issues on my AST so long as I'm not perpetually ressing. (Never did, even before the AST adjustments in that department.)

[DevilsDontFly]

I main AST ever since it was released (yes, released AST... oh well, I love the job) and regardless of the card I pick there's always a use for it.

If, and a big if, you had no other options with cards than to directly use it on whoever you're targeting, then yeah the RNG on it would be a pain. But you can: +Use it +Royal Road it +Save it +Redraw it. There is something useful you can do with all your cards regardless of which one you pick. If you're one of those AST that can only work with AoE Balance then you're doing it wrong.

[FoxyAreku]

There is 1 Proc for healing:

Casting Benefic has a 15% chance the next Benefic II will have no cast time.

That isn't actually needed to accomplish anything. Lets not nitpick. :P

/sigh.....

[Dyvid]

For some games rng can have a place, I'm thinking ftp mmo lockboxes, where players bank on the 0.000001% chance of getting something more than the usual healing potion out of these.

But a vital role in a group should never be reliant on a lucky dip mechanic. To me, this just comes across as a gimmick for gimmicks sake. Any and all classes should rely purely on player skill, not I just happened to get the right card at the right moment in the middle of a hectic boss fight.

More needs to be done with the card draw mechanism. Keep the boon selections but remove the rng. It's an important role - not a lockbox.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Gambler_(job)

[Fynlar]

Wanna have a heal-off, OP? ;> Let's see who's better able to keep the party alive. Parse DPS too while you're at it, because WHM can't do shit to boost party DPS while AST can in several ways. A skilled AST is superior to a WHM by far, even with the "RNG" element. The trick is learning correct card/CD management. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have been the one to rescue a run over my WHM healing partner.

Now now, AST is fine and all, but let's not act like your job's shit doesn't stink or something.

A skilled *player* is almost always going to be superior than an unskilled one, let's leave it at that, shall we?

[Averax]

ASTs are in a good place.

They have great healing throughput, despite having a smaller toolkit than WHMs. The cards are really just icing on the cake.

[Eul]

AST is fine overall. Having Enhanced Spear will make it "kinda" powerful for AST (Which I always did this at frontline for infinite Lightspeed :3 )

[Teraluna]

Apparently, OP knows nothing about AST because RNG plays absolutely NO part in their healing ability.

Healer is a generic description - as you know full well.
If I was going to use the full description of the Astro - Healer/Resurrecter/Skill Buffer/Shield Applier/Target Reducer etc - then the text limit would be reached pretty quick.
It takes up a healing spot in groups. It's described as a healer by the game's own developers - who expect the player base to recognize that it's a generic term.
Most of them do.
And it's a healer (note - generic term) that has introduced an rng gimmick for 6 of the class abilities - for no apparent reason other than to bring 'roll the dice luck' into a class.
Class performance should be down to player skills, not rng for around 20% of the class skills list.

[TankHunter678]

If there was no RNG gimmick to the cards they would each have to have a 1-2 min cooldown.

At which point they would lose their flavor. It would be "press this button for more damage" "press this button for shorter ability cooldowns" "press this button to provide MP regen" "press this button for TP regen" "Press this button for attack speed" "press this button for more defense".*

What we have now is thematically built around how we manipulate the cards we have been dealt to alter the fate we have been dealt.

Which means a good chunk of the difference between a bad AST and a good AST is decision making in how they handle not only the situation around them but the cards they have been dealt.


*Not to mention the ability bloat on our bars.