Tips and advice for a new lv60 Astro?

[Thomastm]

Awesome advice here! Thanks guys

[ChiiSoSeriouz]

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that I find 1 macro helpful for Astro, especially playing on a PS4.

Discard Card Drawn
/statusoff "Bole Drawn"
/statusoff "Balance Drawn"
/statusoff "Arrow Drawn"
/statusoff "Spear Drawn"
/statusoff "Spire Drawn"
/statusoff "Ewer Drawn"

This is a really good macro to have, however i recommend removing the balance status off, as theres never a situation where you would want to discard it.To prevent any miss click simply remove that line from the macro.

[GeekMatt]

This is a really good macro to have, however i recommend removing the balance status off, as theres never a situation where you would want to discard it.To prevent any miss click simply remove that line from the macro.

Before pull, you have The Balance saved and Expand ready. You draw in the off chance that you can get another Balance before the pull, only you then find out the tank won't be pulling any time soon (someone says brb, etc.) Clicking off The Balance which you can't save or use will get the CD timer ticking sooner. This happens every now and again, it's like getting blue-balled.

Personally since playing AST I've become comfortable clicking off the buffs without delaying my casting, since cycling UI elements by clicking the touch pad and using your crossbars can be done simultaneously without interrupting each other.

[Lunaxia]

Buy a stress ball for those times when your AST co-healer overwrites your enhanced Balance with a Ewer or Spear.

[ChiiSoSeriouz]

Before pull, you have The Balance saved and Expand ready. You draw in the off chance that you can get another Balance before the pull, only you then find out the tank won't be pulling any time soon (someone says brb, etc.) Clicking off The Balance which you can't save or use will get the CD timer ticking sooner. This happens every now and again, it's like getting blue-balled.

No, since you should only draw as the tank starts his countdown. If you're drawing earlier then the pull countdown after a ready check then you're setting yourself up for that situation, that's probably why you say it happens now and again.

[Valmaxian]

Buy a stress ball for those times when your AST co-healer overwrites your enhanced Balance with a Ewer or Spear.

OMG I HATE that! And it happens WAY too often.

[GeekMatt]

No, since you should only draw as the tank starts his countdown. If you're drawing earlier then the pull countdown after a ready check then you're setting yourself up for that situation, that's probably why you say it happens now and again.

Assuming there's a countdown. In DF/RF if you assume that, you're at a loss as an AST or a DPS. Obviously a good tank will use a countdown, but unfortunately tanks also have to account for bad players and so a lot of them don't use one. PLD is my secondary and it's not unusual for DPS to pull as I activate the countdown. NIN is my third at ilvl 239 and I know from experience that depending on a DF/RF tank to do my 18s countdown is a DPS loss more often than not.

Edit: Can also have the pull delayed after the start of a countdown.

[AlexanderThorolund]

Use yourself as the catalyst to spread a group wide card buff. It's the best way to guarantee everyone gets buffed.

[Nekotee]

I beg to differ about the no macro
There is one I absolutly love because it make things go easier no matter the situation

Disable in focus target
so you apply the damage reduction on the boss or your focus target (if not the boss)
and it only require you to be in range for it, no target deselection or else
=> very useful when healing the tank and willing to mitigate damage in the same time without de-targeting

[Irohma]

I played as a SCH before Heavensward and since then I started my AST and never dropped it. I can't really say about Savage raid stuff, but when doing typical duties you can switch between Diurnal and Nocturnal as you wish, it's a good way to shake things up when you start getting bored with one type of healing.

As for macros, I stack Swiftcast with Ascend.
/ac "Swiftcast" <me>
/ac "Ascend" <t>
/ac "Ascend" <2>
...
/ac "Ascend" <8>

This way you either rez your target on the second click (the first casts Swiftcast) or you rez the first downed character on your list. As a fellow PS4/Controller user I find this quite useful in the middle of a chaotic combat.

Ah, also you can macro Diurnal and Nocturnal on a single button, quite simple and saves you a slot.