Please give AST an instant cast damage spell

[Kabzy]

About Sch's Miasma II: MP drainage is kind of something that happens across the board for all healer AoE attack spells and therefore not exactly something to be thrown out as if it were something uniquely cumbersome to the job

Therein lies the issue though. Yes it is our AoE attack but due to its overall potency and instant cast, it's a direct upgrade to Ruin II (Single Target weaving / movement) at the cost of range and MP. In most scenarios, SCH can get away with using Miasma II for weaving, but depending on the length of the fight as well as other factors, you can often times find yourself having to make active decisions on whether or not you can afford to use more Miasma II for weaving. That as well as positioning sometimes preventing you from being in melee range all the time.

The move is great, but it has its drawbacks. If AST were to get an instant GCD to weave, there would need to be a similar penalty as no other healers have this linked to their DPS. Simply making Malefic III instant would be a little overkill to an already well performing job.

[Risvertasashi]

It's good to see that the "tone" of my post wasn't misplaced.

Well, so let's revisit that.

Most arguments which compel for the addition of DPS abilities for AST would be angrily flared upon by the forums due to ASTs ability to chaotically buff the DPS potential of the party.

Yes. And if you suggested a substantial buff to Samurai's DPS (even with reasoning like 'to make it flow better'), you also probably wouldn't find much support. That doesn't mean the masses are conspiring against you to keep the job down. Maybe, just maybe, you do have to factor in a job's current strength before you can find support for strong buffs to it.

To be clear, you're not trying to imply that all of the healer jobs only have 1 GCD DoT available to them, right?

Instant GCD DoT, thus allowing oGCD weaving. SCH has two, as noted, but one of them is highly situational. In a regular, single target rotation -- this is exactly right. Each healer has one GCD instant-cast DoT.

But on the healing side, WHM and AST also have an instant GCD heal that sees regular use, so there's also that opportunity to weave. Nonetheless, the ultimate point is this: All healers GCD clip. It's not a problem that is somehow unique to AST. OP is asking for this problem to be solved for AST only, in a way that would also substantially buff its overall performance.

SCH is a good example because of the sheer number of oGCDs. 6 in the first minute, 3 every minute after that. Aetherflow is also an oGCD instant, so make that 4 per minute instead. And that's just stuff from 2.0. Then add in all the oGCDs from HW/SB ability additions... Yeah, there's a lot.

[IllyaPrisma]

Well, so let's revisit that.
OP is asking for this problem to be solved for AST only, in a way that would also substantially buff its overall performance.

Miasma II is very much apart of SCH single target rotation. You are losing 30 potency for the space to use ED/150 Potency. I'm not sure how you choose to play SCH, but if you are not minimizing your Ruin II count, you are probably doing subpar DPS. SCH also has the best MP sustainability of the 3 healers by miles, and as long as you coordinate with your BRD/MCH, Miasma II is not that harmful to your MP. AST also has the most cooldowns to weave (yes, more than SCH) with the least amount of space. I'd be perfectly fine with WHM getting something for weaving as well, but the issue is most prevalent with AST. SCH is already dominating the other 2 in terms of total DPS contribution (yes it averages more than AST), so this type of addition for weaving really wouldn't be that ridiculous.

[Rawrz]

Miasma II is very much apart of SCH single target rotation. You are losing 30 potency for the space to use ED/150 Potency. I'm not sure how you choose to play SCH, but if you are not minimizing your Ruin II count, you are probably doing subpar DPS. SCH also has the best MP sustainability of the 3 healers by miles, and as long as you coordinate with your BRD/MCH, Miasma II is not that harmful to your MP. AST also has the most cooldowns to weave (yes, more than SCH) with the least amount of space. I'd be perfectly fine with WHM getting something for weaving as well, but the issue is most prevalent with AST. SCH is already dominating the other 2 in terms of total DPS contribution (yes it averages more than AST), so this type of addition for weaving really wouldn't be that ridiculous.

Miasma II should be compared to Aero III, except that the MP cost just isn't fair in a single target fight. The MP cost of Aero III is the same as Broil II, which costs 20% more than Malefic III and Stone IV. Miasma II costs 233% more than Aero III, but must be applied TWICE as often to be completely DPS optimal, assuming you have relevant OGCDS to weave. SCH is naturally at a disadvantage for MP. The "free" Mp from aetherflow with Energy Drain/healing is just an invisible part of their MP pool, which is still VERY costly. Healing spells cost more. DPS spells cost more. The inadvertent buff to dissipation last patch, from reducing MP cost of Summon/Summon III, is finally giving SCH some breathing room again.

AST is the support healer of this game. The shift from AST being the 2nd highest nuke, to the weakest, indicates that plainly. Their dps contribution is their cards above all, and should be viewed as their personal DPS towards the group. I hate the clunkiness of AST's cards too, but Makani is right, it would really increase the DPS of AST and warp the balance, unless AST wanted to a weaker Malefic III out of the deal.

[IllyaPrisma]

Their dps contribution is their cards above all, and should be viewed as their personal DPS towards the group.

Alright, apparently I need hard numbers.
https://www.fflogs.com/reports/ZvRXJ...ebuffs=1000829
I contributed (roughly) an additional 632 DPS on top of 2244. 12,656 DPS was done under Balance, so we can attribute 5% of that to me. My total would be 2876.

SCH at 99th Percentile:
https://www.fflogs.com/statistics/17...set=99&boss=43
Their personal is 2948, already higher than my contribution WITHOUT factoring in Chain Strategem, and I had 41% Balance uptime.

You can't "Warp the balance" when healer balance in terms of DPS is already warped. And I am not even asking for some substantial DPS increase because personally, I feel Healers are fine right now regardless of how much damage SCH contributes. I'm asking for a way to avoid hard clipping my GCD.

[Rawrz]

Alright, apparently I need hard numbers.

Which i answered by saying that yes, you could have a spell like stella or break be instant cast, but the overall DPS potency of Malefic III would be nerfed to keep AST exactly where they are DPS wise.

[Kurando]

Going back to the original post, please don't waste Lightspeed so you can insta-cast Malefic or any other damage spell. LS itself reduces damage output whilst active, not to mention you might need it for other healing things in a pinch. (That's how i read it anyway, unless you meant to LS Support stuff).

The thing with AST is although it might not have major DPS potential like WHM and SCH, they have the means to affect the output of everyone else in the party with the cards. Essentially your insta cast actions will come from your allies and not the AST in a sense.

[Risvertasashi]

Way to completely go off track with a strawman. Yes, M2 has situational uses. At best, this puts it on par with WHM and AST, which have the benefit of their regen/shield being an instant GCD, but that's still not the point.

A high potency instant nuke every 2.44s or so is a significant buff to AST (and would be a big buff to any caster). You seem to think AST is somehow lacking or falling behind the other healers. It's not; On account of its strength, it gets a slot guaranteed far, far more than the other two.

Oh, it's not topping the DPS charts on FFlogs? That's the price you pay for the abilities to give out crit and damage buffs, among other things, and this is called 'balance' -- when a job maybe isn't the best at one thing because it's very good at another thing. If you want higher personal DPS, play another healer. They don't need indirect nerfs. (if anything, as pointed out, perhaps M2 could do with a bit of a cost cut). If you really want GCD clipping reduced, there's no reason AST should get special treatment over the other healers.

[IllyaPrisma]

Going back to the original post, please don't waste Lightspeed so you can insta-cast Malefic or any other damage spell.

Lightspeed is optimal for the AST opener. Malefic III goes down to 165 potency, but you can fit 5 in before trick. Without Lightspeed, you can only get 3 in at full potency. If you don’t feel like using LS, you could potentially use this http://ffxivrotations.com/11zw, but it’s a potency loss.

Lightspeed is not some panic button that you should only use for healing situations. Just like tanking invulns, you need to plan it’s use strategically so that you will see the most value.

[IllyaPrisma]

Way to completely go off track with a strawman. Yes, M2 has situational uses. At best, this puts it on par with WHM and AST, which have the benefit of their regen/shield being an instant GCD

This is incorrect. SCH is not on par with WHM, it’s beating WHM in every instance currently while still having raid buffs. SCH is head and shoulders above the other 2 in terms of damage contribution. And for the last time, Miasma II is not situational. It should be used whenever possible for weaving.

https://www.fflogs.com/reports/jN2Xh...one&source=606

You see this top SCH? He has 26 Miasma II casts, compared to 5 Ruin II casts. It is better to minimize Ruin II count because Miasma II is such an impactful gain.