Dear Healers who don't DPS

[Lynesse]

snip

I don't know anything about AST, but as a WHM, we have some healing and mitigation built into our damage rotation, with Assize being an AoE damage spell and heal, Holy having a four-second stun, and Regen/Asylum being strong HoTs.

I'm not shy with Largesse, Lucid Dreaming, or Swiftcast anymore, and I think that's the key to it all. These three CDs help you control a fight.

But sometimes things just get out of control, and you have to bite the bullet and heal.

[Elamys]

AST doesn't have a whole lot going for it in the damage department. If you want to DPS on AST, that GCD is entirely spent on damage since Earthly Star is the only spell we have that does both (and the damage on it isn't that great, so you should be using it mainly for healing instead of damaging). Not to say that you shouldn't DPS as AST ever because of that, it just makes finding a window of time harder. I don't like using Celestial Opposition's stun just to DPS more because I'd rather use it to extend card buffs on the people who can actually do real damage instead of just throwing some glitter at the mobs. Holy having a stun built into it is really strong.

[Tridus]

I'm still new to the game (and even newer to healing) but I actually got complimented today for "not being a dps hungry AST" from the tank. I find even casting one DPS spell on big pulls the tank drops to pretty dangerous levels if not dead.

Maybe not being in end game/ big boy dungeons might change things, but I find most tanks just pull massive packs and there isn't a moment to dps until the pack is down to only a few mobs left. Where is all the dps time coming in?

And im not trying to be snarky or anything, just horribly curious on how this thread is and what to expect as I continue on

Somewhat amusingly given the name, the current Expert dungeons are some of the easiest ones to do big pulls on in the game. People significantly outgear them for the most part now and none of the pulls are that complicated, so it's easier to heal and toss a bit of DPS in. It's of course much easier as WHM since Holy stuns everything, which effectively stops incoming damage while you spam it. But even without that, I've seen Paladins in expert pull 3 packs and just not take enough damage for me to need to use every cast for healing.

In lower level stuff it depends on things like gear and skill. A tank in tank stance that's using cooldowns frequently and outgears the instance will open up a lot more DPS time than one where some (or all) of those things aren't true. Your gear also helps, of course, by increasing how much healing you do per heal. But I find that in some stuff in levelling roulette, I may not be able to get in much if any DPS if big pulls are happening. When you don't have your oGCD instant heals and high level tools, it's more difficult to cope with big pulls and DPS drops by the wayside.

[MoroMurasaki]

I'm still new to the game (and even newer to healing) but I actually got complimented today for "not being a dps hungry AST" from the tank. I find even casting one DPS spell on big pulls the tank drops to pretty dangerous levels if not dead.

Maybe not being in end game/ big boy dungeons might change things, but I find most tanks just pull massive packs and there isn't a moment to dps until the pack is down to only a few mobs left. Where is all the dps time coming in?

And im not trying to be snarky or anything, just horribly curious on how this thread is and what to expect as I continue on

Each healer contributes damage differently and as an AST you will likely contribute the least personal damage but you can have a giant impact on the damage the party does with your cards. As everyone said WHM has that stun for Holy which is a game changer, SCH have the fairies which let them get off some damage but AST doesn't get either.


A few of my personal tips for AST personal DPS without really having to sacrifice much...

Essential Dignity. It gets stronger the lower health the target is at and this means it is worth more per cast when you let someone drop low. Some people will get mad at you even if this doesn't kill them but I have never had more than a tank being mildly bothered. Takes practice to get the most out of it. This is also true of Benefic II procs, the guaranteed crit tends to be about the same as a powered up ED.

Shields are your friend in Noct stance. They will drain your MP but at the very least they should open up a GCD for you to apply your DoT.

Cast Combust while moving to avoid AoE so that you're still "doing something" while running even if it hasn't fully timed out.

You tend to not spam Malefic as much as a WHM with Stone because you also have your cards to manage but you shouldn't feel bad about that because if you are playing your cards right (lol) despite RNG you are going to be adding about the same damage to the party overall even if it is somewhat reliant on having competent DPS who use the cards to their best effect.

[Ftail]

Each healer contributes damage differently and as an AST you will likely contribute the least personal damage but you can have a giant impact on the damage the party does with your cards.

I've given up on pug party members understanding this concept, just because I've seen AST's get so much grief in savage for not pulling as much DPS as the other healers. If an AST is pulling 0 DPS I won't defend them, although lots of the time it's "why aren't you pulling as much DPS as the SCH or WHM?"

[Deceptus]

Shields are your friend in Noct stance. They will drain your MP but at the very least they should open up a GCD for you to apply your DoT.

And so many people forget during pulls, if you stay out of combat, you can switch sects on the fly. Go shield sect, throw a shield, then switch to Regen sect

[Elamys]

And so many people forget during pulls, if you stay out of combat, you can switch sects on the fly. Go shield sect, throw a shield, then switch to Regen sect

Which is pretty much only right before a pull, so honestly, it's kind of a waste. That shield will be gone in a second pretty much. It's better to just stay in Diurnal for 4 mans and load up on HoTs if you want to DPS than count on that shield to throw out one dot through the pull.

[Green-Lantern]

*enters dungeon*
*Tank mashes sprint button and grabs 3 packs of mobs*
*I catch up to the almost dead tank and give him Benediction*
*I get locked into chain-casting Cure2, not having enough time or MP to do anything else*

How again was I supposed to DPS?

Can't count how many times tanks have done this.

[Deceptus]

Can't count how many times tanks have done this.

Can't count how many times this has been reposted and told that if the tank is dropping quick no one expects healers to DPS.

[KalinOrthos]

Can't count how many times this has been reposted and told that if the tank is dropping quick no one expects healers to DPS.

Can't count how many times I personally have seen this exact scenario happen, just to have the tank or damage dealers complain that the healer needs to DPS to get the mobs down faster. I've seen it in Bardam, Abania, and Ala Mhigo, to name a few.