According to FFLogs, AST pDPS >= WHM pDPS in 4.3

[kittyn]

Who really just plays just 1 job anyways? That's the biggest appeal and hallmark of the FF series. You can change it up as the situation sees fit.

[Yuyuka3]

Who really just plays just 1 job anyways? That's the biggest appeal and hallmark of the FF series. You can change it up as the situation sees fit.

Might be because I don't want to be forced to play something I hate. That's not fun at all, you know. But apparently a really hard concept to understand for you.

And it's not even as if that's remotely true. I also play PLD (not to 70 yet due to a lot of work and rl), SCH, and SMN, plus some other jobs here and there when I want to. But at the end of the day, WHM is simply what I love to do, and I won't let myself be judged by someone like you for what I love.

[EaMett]

Actually, from a purely logical point of view, it would be best if all WHMs would stop raiding on that job since that seems to be the only thing SE notices when it comes to healer viability. So no, there being more WHMs than ASTs is actually BAD since it implies there is no problem at all. (It would also likely lead to all the wrong things getting 'fixed' since SE showed time and again they got no effing clue about healer balance, but that's a different can of worms.)

I suspect there's more to it. fflogs will not show the dataset in a manner that would be relevant to SE. It's hard to tell which percentiles carry the most bodies since percentiles are based on parses, not players. And then there's the blind spot comprised of all the players who just don't get parsed. It's possible that SE is interested in the highest population for balancing. And if that highest population resides within the 25 percentile then yeah it looks like WHM is way ahead and the AST buff suddenly makes sense. Nevermind that it screws the top bracket of players who actually care about fflogs and set meta trends.

[Yuyuka3]

I suspect there's more to it. fflogs will not show the dataset in a manner that would be relevant to SE. It's hard to tell which percentiles carry the most bodies since percentiles are based on parses, not players. And then there's the blind spot comprised of all the players who just don't get parsed. It's possible that SE is interested in the highest population for balancing. And if that highest population resides within the 25 percentile then yeah it looks like WHM is way ahead and the AST buff suddenly makes sense. Nevermind that it screws the top bracket of players who actually care about fflogs and set meta trends.

I mean, if we really would all work together, every single WHM, then it would send a pretty strong signal to SE. Sure, will never happen because people aren't smart enough and it's far too much of coordination unfortunately, but it is an interesting thought I think. I'm too mad right now to continue, though, and it's pretty late, so I will say good night and try to grab some sleep now.

[kittyn]

AST is/was certainly the least played of all the healers (at least from the data we have)

[Sebazy]

Personally, I don't think either side of the equation here is that far from the truth of the matter.

WHM is still the absolute champ of bursty aoe damage and dungeons. It's also still the safer easier pair of hands for scrappy groups and rough PFs, even in the last few weeks, I've had a number of Tsu Pony farms where I just couldn't keep things on the rails as AST but managed just fine after switching to WHM.

I don't think it's a broken or unviable job by any stretch though, a moderate single target DPS bump would be plenty to tide things over until a hopeful Lily gauge rework for 5.0 if you ask me.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

I don't understand this misconception where people think that only the hardcore statics should care about balance or only the hardcore can benefit from anything.

I pug all content in this game and I'm still hitting 80-90%. I also run content as soon as it comes out (with the exception of this tier as I wasn't subscribed for a few months) and the balance of jobs certainly does matter here. Why should a WHM have to go around doing anywhere from 50-100 less personal dps and over less 300 raid DPS than an AST? Even if it's a job that's easier for casual groups to play, you should have a chance to excel if you put the effort in. You can't do this with WHM. Our best is AST at 75% of their potential.

How can you honestly not see anything wrong with this? Just because people play it? You're never going to see 0 people playing a job because of balance, that doesn't mean it's issues should be ignored.

[kittyn]

Nah….300 rdps + 100 pdps is not 25% of AST's output...re-think your maths.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Nah….300 rdps + 100 pdps is not 25% of AST's output...re-think your maths.

It was an exaggeration, what I'm trying to say is a WHM can't beat an AST in personal or raid DPS. And since I have a feeling this will be countered by "they have higher heals", AST heals are just as efficient as a WHMs, possibly more so now that Aspected Helios is faster and Earthly Star/Essential Dignity can be used without clipping.

Two players playing at a high skill ceiling should be able to match eachother in raid contribution in some way, but all WHM does is bring Cure III.

[MoroMurasaki]

I don't think it's a broken or unviable job by any stretch though, a moderate single target DPS bump would be plenty to tide things over until a hopeful Lily gauge rework for 5.0 if you ask me.

I came here to say this, but it probably would have taken me 3 paragraphs. Thanks for the help!