Cure v. Cure 2

[Silver-Strider]

So you waste the actual Heal it provides in favor of a 50 potency regen that heals nothing before any damage is taken. Waste.

You time Medica II for when you see party/raid-wide damage coming in 3 seconds, not before the damage lands.

You do realize that Hand of Beauty places an AoE puddle of foulness around the healer that got targeted and to avoid further damage, said healer would have to move in order to avoid it, at which time Lakshmi is already in the middle of casting Strolham, correct? At what point would I have enough time to move out of the AoE puddle and have Medica 2 up prior to Strolham going off and potentially killing the DPS that were also hit with Hand of Beauty? Apart from Swiftcasting, there is absolutely no way to get that heal out in time so I'd rather the regen be there ahead of time because at least the DPS WILL survive in that situation.

How long does it take to clear trash in Baelsar's Wall? Castrum Abania? Kugane Castle? Ala Mhigo?

In most cases, trash dies before there is time to cast Holy a second time, except the current level 70 content. So in most cases I don't even bother, either I cast Holy first before doing anything else, or I don't cast it at all. You're supposed to cast Holy for the stun time because it's the only AOE stun that can be spammed. Celestial Opposition is an instant cast but has a longer recast time. Gravity+Celestial Opposition = single Holy cast. But AST's are more likely going to use that after they've thrown other buffs on. Do you have time to setup buffs on trash? Not really.

Where the fun gets sucked out of this game is when people do things in the laziest fashion possible. You're supposed to use Cure 1 on tanks that have lost less than half their HP, and Cure 2 when they've lost more than half, but depending on their gear and your gear, your Cure 2 can either heal them for 60% or for 20%. If a tank is not using their cooldowns, you may spam as many Cure 2's as you want but they are taking larger hits than your cure 2 recovers.

It's bad practice to just do things because the button is there. A Healer is not a DPS, nothing is being wasted by not casting it until you need it or it's most efficient to use it. At level 52+ and later you may as well use Assize either when 10% of your MP is gone or 20% of the party's HP is gone (It's a free instant-cast Medica used once.) Using it for damage right at the pull is silly but the net damage is more powerful than hitting every mob with stone IV, so the larger pull, the more net damage. You never get a chance to use Assize twice on a trash pull, and rarely on a boss mob. Hence using Holy+Assize gives you more bang than Holy spam, every time.

So, what you're saying is that you won't even use Holy because trash dies too quickly to even bother, in which case the advice you gave that you should weave in Aero III or a Heal between Holy casts just further cements that Holy Spam would be more effective than either other option you yourself stated. If trash is dying fast enough that neither Aero III or a Heal matter, WHY ARE YOU SUGGESTING IT? You are contradicting yourself and the failed strawman argument about AST with Gravity+Celestial Oppression is just that, a failed strawman argument that just tries to distract from how wrong you are in your original statement. I'm not saying that you shouldn't use Aero III or a Heal when trash are dying slowly but if trash is dying as quickly as you are claiming than there is no need for either.

Next, you go on to say that 52+ using Assize for damage at the pull is silly (Assize is 56 btw) but in reality, you aren't using it at the start of a pull. You're using it after the tank has established hate and has thus taken SOME form of damage and you have just saved yourself some time by not having to use your GCD on a heal and can instantly start using Holy. Not only that but using it earlier ensures that Assize will be up again when you reach the next trash pull so that you may repeat the process, especially if you had Lillies for Assize. The damage from Assize has still occurred so it's not like using Holy before or after Assize makes any difference as damage is damage and the heal from Assize isn't going to waste as you still healed the tank.

For the sake of preventing this thread from devolving further from it's original point, I will not be commenting further and I suggest you do the same because it's not helpful.