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

[l---------------l]

Good v Bad AST player? With this mechanic the class starts to move into lucky v unlucky AST player for best performance.

I told you this already in my reply of the first page. But, here it goes again. A good AST is not the one that has "Good luck" in cards. For starter, what do you consider having good luck in cards at all? All of the cards are useful except The Spire. (Well, perhaps a melee will need it in A7S final phases, but still...) And if you get The Spire and you are a good AST, you will always have redraw ready for it. THE REST OF CARDS can be used in your favor and always give you advantage in any situation you want, tell me a single card you think it's not useful and I'll turn down your argument.


Nowadays, AST are the ones that have the BEST MP MANAGEMENT in good hands. It's no longer a SCH thing. Having a good MP pool allows you to do miracles in needed times and to spam higher tier cures when totally needed. Not everything is about to get a balance card.

[Miyha]

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?

...I never was acting like my "job's shit didn't stink"? I was simply using common sense to make a point. AST is, by all means, superior to a WHM (in the right hands): it boasts both the healing power potential AND provides party buffs that in some cases almost seem broken. (Seen a good BLM with Arrow or a MNK with Balance?)

Doesn't mean WHM is useless, it just means that AST has more party utility and offers more than just big heals. A WHM will always boast the highest raw healing power, but that doesn't mean an AST can't compete with proper timing and CD usage.

...I do have all three healers equally geared and play all relatively frequently. (Which is why I'm even able to make such an assertion in the first place.) If I thought AST was the end all be all or the "best" healing job, I wouldn't have bothered to touch the others. -_-

[Tripfriend]

-snip-

You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about and that's me being polite. The rng in the cards can be manipulated and if you still can't make use of a terrible draw(hell I'm sure the warrior main tank can make use of that enhanced spire) nothing prevent you from keeping consistent healings. AST as a healer is more than fine, it's very active and a whole lot of fun when you manage to get a good draw and weave it all into a flawless set of buff + healing. The fact you are so adamant in refusing to accept the rng speak of your incompetence.

The only thing AST fail at is placing a mitigation spot that still allow them to heal.

[Miyha]

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.

...Oh boy. ._____.

For "no other reason": how about to provide a healer that is capable of buffing the party unlike the other two? And providing a unique set of tools for doing so? And to demand GREATER PLAYER SKILL by requiring the player to think fast as to how they plan to use the cards they've drawn? (Because as previously mentioned, yes, EVERY card is useful.)

AST is almost entirely based on a person's skill, ability to adapt, and make use of the utilities offered by their class. Also... More skills =/= superior class? Especially when those "rng skills" are as useful as any of the others, regardless of which ends up popping?

I should just stop now though. If you're still spouting on about this, your head is too thick for the facts anyhow. I just pray that any potential ASTs don't read this thread and stop at the first post. And that YOU never pick up the job...

[loreleidiangelo]

Idk, I've been against card RNG from day one. I think the OP is a bit misguided on how MUCH card RNG hurts/impacts Astrologian play, but aside from the DPS boost cards I don't really feel any satisfaction from using them. Good group comps can't rely on them, which makes them just a "bonus". Not an awful thing, inherently, but certainly not what I thought I was getting when they showcased the job pre-HW.

Healing-wise it's fine, except that it's clear the devs designed the job with the Diurnal/main healer role in mind. Even in Noct it's probably still better as a main healer rather than an off one.

[Rawrz]

Healing-wise it's fine, except that it's clear the devs designed the job with the Diurnal/main healer role in mind. Even in Noct it's probably still better as a main healer rather than an off one.

I was thinking about that honestly. Noct AST has strict advantages over SCH in the sustained healing department (namely a Cure II and a Medica, but also a subsidized MP cost to all heals.) Combust II and Combust cannot miss and have high potency for only one gcd each(450,240). Cards can be used efficiently to barely clip the gcd after most heals or not clip at all after an instant aspected Beni.

This is the same sort of synergy for dps increase that SCH has as the off healer while micro managing Lily, but in the main slot. They also have a fair chance of obtaining an Ewer to help their WHM along their DPS course.

WHMs have amazing potential as the off healer. They have astonishing AOE and single target burst. Medica II and Regen let them prep during downtime to keep the raid healthier longer. MP and the fact that SCH happens to be weaker in sustained healing, but stronger healing while raising dps contribution, forces WHM into the main heal slot for efficiency.

Noct AST should be the healer that spends most of their time using Ben, Ben II, Helios (raw healing boosted by the sect) while their WHM supports with regens. They should be filling the role of SCH in mitigation only, not vying for the direct dps SCH provides. The off heal WHM and the ASTs cards are what would remove the DPS need of an SCH.

[Rai_Takara]

One thing to note is that AST cards are not all about DPS only. The cards offer utility to your party such as ewering the BRD to sing Foe's longer, Spiring the tank in a long fight that may need TP (saving things like goad to TP hungry DPS), Spearing the NIN/BRD so that their oGCDs are available quicker. These are all helpful tools that smoothen the run overall and something that is not provided by other healers.

[Rawrz]

One thing to note is that AST cards are not all about DPS only. The cards offer utility to your party such as ewering the BRD to sing Foe's longer, Spiring the tank in a long fight that may need TP (saving things like goad to TP hungry DPS), Spearing the NIN/BRD so that their oGCDs are available quicker. These are all helpful tools that smoothen the run overall and something that is not provided my other healers.

All of those are still DPS increases. xD Balance and Arrow just typically scale higher.

[AnaviAnael]

OP, I noticed you've yet to get a job to 60. Are you basing your opinion on AST with your personal experience with the job? If that's the case, you may wish to consult some of the guides available to see how the job is played before completely writing it off. Some of the best healers I've seen in content have been ASTs. When you learn how to utilize all the skills available, it's amazing what can happen. Like everyone's been saying, the cards are a bonus. They aren't the meat of the job.

[loreleidiangelo]

One thing to note is that AST cards are not all about DPS only. The cards offer utility to your party such as ewering the BRD to sing Foe's longer, Spiring the tank in a long fight that may need TP (saving things like goad to TP hungry DPS), Spearing the NIN/BRD so that their oGCDs are available quicker. These are all helpful tools that smoothen the run overall and something that is not provided my other healers.

I just don't think they're very impactful because they're not reliable, is all. They're nice, but not a single group would be able to structure around them at any given time (ie, a raid group dropping BRD/MCH because they have an AST). This is more what I mean when I say that the cards are disappointing on a strategic level. It's not a case of "gitting gud" or anything like that - it's that there's not really a safeguard against Spire > Royal Road > Spire > Redraw > Ewer when what would have really helped your group was an AOE Bole. "Good" Astrologians will adapt with what they get, but to call that skill is a bit disingenuous, IMO. A "good" AST can't really provide resource regeneration or DPS buffs precisely at the time your group needs it short of heavily sacrificing their other buff uptime by holding a specific Royal Road and a certain card in Spread for ages. A "good" AST will just look at an endless Spear chain as an opportunity to use their own cooldowns more aggressively, or encourage others to do the same, whereas a "bad" AST will just click off the card and grumble. Neither AST has true prevention of getting those frustrating chains to begin with, though (Spear > RR > Bole > Redraw > Spear, etc, just to highlight that I'm aware of the tools that AST DOES have - they're still not a guarantor of getting anything "good" from your draws).

I hope this makes sense. :x I'm just trying to highlight that not everyone who dislikes the RNG is some awful player who has no clue how to use the tools they're given - some of us just find that the RNG actually LIMITS strategic card usage.