AST change

[Gemina]

People keep saying this, but what exactly did AST steal from WHM?

GCD heals?
A DoT and a DPS spell and an AoE DPS spell? So it’s only different from SCH in that it only has one DoT rather than two?
A oGCD cooldown AoE regen? That actually functions differently?
Benefic and Benefic II? So it’s just the fact that SCH doesn’t have a Physick II that makes it “stolen from WHM”?

These seem like healer basics to me.
The Aspected spells don’t work the same, Diurnal Benefic/Helios have a heal plus a HoT so it’s not the same as Regen/Medica II.
If anything it takes this from SCH, as Noct Benefic/Helios are basically Adloquium/Succor.

We can sit here and compare Benefic to Cure 1, and Benefict 2 to Cure 2, etc. etc. All that's doing is rearranging furniture on the Titanic. You are not seeing the issue as it exists today. They keep saying it because AST failed to bring a new form of healing into the game. It isn't called a SCH with cards because the majority of the time they a paired with SCHs which forces them into diurnal sect. There is not much reason for an AST to be paired with a WHM so they can be in noct because WHM brings absolutely nothing to a raid set up, which makes the whole 'fill the role that is necessary' dynamic a complete and total ruse.

Upon AST introduction in 3.0, it was useless. The devs couldn't figure out what to do with it so the buffed the schite out of it and in doing so, they shoved WHM into the dirt. Actually, that's an understatement: They buried WHM underneath the feet of AST. Some players such as myself still enjoy playing WHM. It's an AoE machine that shines on large trash pulls when the utility that SCH and AST bring isn't needed. In single target scenarios such as trials and 8-man raids, it's reduced to throwing rocks. SCH and AST spend a fair amount of time spamming Broil and Malefic respectively, but at least they can also provide utility, and have to monitor those CDs.

What else could AST have used?
Seems to me the problem isn’t that AST stole from WHM, but that WHM doesn’t have anything to it besides the most basic healer toolkit.
Fix WHM, give it an actual identity and a unique mechanic that isn’t 100% passive and inconsequential, don’t strip stuff from AST in order to bring it down to WHM’s level.

Again, healing kits are not the issue and hasn't been for a long time. The issue is AST is saturated with utility. Not only can it provide raid utility, but it also has it's own such as Lightspeed, Synastry, and Minor Arcana making them more effective than they are already. The job is ridiculously OP to the point of being broken. Having them in your group is akin to using a gameshark.

The problem with shields is they’re not an efficient form of healing unless they’re timed absolutely perfectly. A pure shield healer wouldn’t work very well in difficult single healer content.

Not true at all. I don't do savage, but I have solo healed EX primals and the chaos of 24-man with my SCH. Because DPS uptime for healers is around 90% of the encounter, I am quite confident SCH can solo heal savage without much issue. Shields are also OP in the game. Even though the shield restores HP at a low potency, the shield itself has more HP than what is restored to the player. Over-healing with shields also isn't an issue because they effectively increase the HP pool of the player it is casted on.

I don’t think this dichotomy like MT/OT would work, and they’ve specifically said they’re trying to balance three healers before they add a fourth.
If anything, they need to give all healers options to shield or regen, but have unique applications of those.
WHM needs shields in some form. Give it Protect back as an exclusive ability, add Shell to that, and have some kind of unique interaction with lilies.

I agree with you here. Giving all healers direct heals, HoTs, and shields as base kits is one way to handle them with diversity obtained through their DPS and utility kits. However, what they currently have with 2 of 3 healers being able to increase raid damage, speed, and defense cannot continue.

[PyurBlue]

Did I not say "roughly" and "educated guess"?

I may be off a bit, my understanding was that it was 1000 potency AT 20% HP, and assumed it went further as HP dropped lower than 20%.
But if 1000 is the maximum that it hits at 20% I accept my guess was wrong there.

I know of this test, which indicates 1000 potency:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ntial_dignity/

A bit old though.

[Seraphor]

I agree with you here. Giving all healers direct heals, HoTs, and shields as base kits is one way to handle them with diversity obtained through their DPS and utility kits. However, what they currently have with 2 of 3 healers being able to increase raid damage, speed, and defense cannot continue.

Add buffs to the paradigm.

Give WHM buffs that compliment SCHs buffs/debuffs, so that a WHM/SCH pairing can compete with AST, but not to much that either outclasses ASTs buffs.

Combined with the idea of dual card readings (debuffs in nocturnal sect) this could allow for buffs and debuffs to be balanced in a similar way to regens and shields. SCH gets sone debuffs, WHM gets some buffs, AST gets either/or depending on sect.

[ForteNightshade]

I would maybe by 900 I'm not buying 1200. In fact are you want to go lower than that I'm thinking 800 and here's why; if a tank pops holmgamg and is at 1 mp.
Benediction will bring them to full.
To lustrates will bring the tank to 3/4 health
One essential dignity the tank is about 50%.

I'm not sure what this rigorous testing involved but apparently it doesn't involve linking any proof to back up the numbers that you're putting down there for their fictitious. We know for a fact that lustrate is 600. To lust rates to bring the tank to 3/4 health at 1200 cure potency. Well then there's just no way that essential dignity can be the same if it's 1/4 less. So here's my simple mathematics 1/4 less of 1200 is 300. That's roughly a cure potency of 900 so I still think that that 1,000 is inflated.

I don't know who these people are that did this rigorous testing to get to their inflated number but I don't buy it. When Square Enix publishes a number I will believe it. And this right here is one of the biggest problems with the forums you're presenting something as fact with no proof to back it up other than was so and so did a test and well they knew what they were doing. That doesn't cut it and even if had they had meters to show me I still wouldn't buy it. I only trust and rely on the numbers Square Enix has provided.

Since my healers all possess relatively the same ilvl; AST is actually the lowest. I opted to test this myself. Essentially did 10,000 more than Lustrate and roughly 8,000 more than Tetra. Keep in mind, this is based on a healer who quickly swapped from a crafter back to AST. ED would be even higher on a tank. Now since you insist on comparing ED against Benediction, let's estimate ED heals for a conservative 25,000 (it's usually much higher but we're going to lowball it). Over a three minute duration, that means you'll have four uses of ED (100,000 healing) in the same span of time. Much like why Holmgang is considered widely superior to Hallowed Ground, the sheer availability makes ED a significantly better cooldown because outside panic moments, you never need Benediction. Is it a nice CD to have? Of course, but even Living Dead can be healed pretty rapidly through a Lustrate + ED combo.

Actually I'm new to forums and I would like all of my comments removed I find all the people in the forms here not helpful you offer opinion,and everyone here wants to fight and get off topic. And then the community wonders why they cannot retain new blood we show up once in awhile but then have to listen to the bickering and arguing like what's happening here over off topic stupidity. Fact: the dev said there needs to be a balance that the healers are not balanced. So instead of everybody that's here trying to make an argument saying that the healers are balanced maybe you should sit down and read the letter from the editor that outlines specifically why we are not getting a forth healer and that is because the developer says there's imbalance in the healing and it's going to take this amount of time to be able to create that balance. But thank you everybody for ruining my forum experience. But mostly thank you for the misinformation and fictitious numbers associated with some of the skills.

Perhaps people would be more receptive if your attitude didn't amount to "I'm right and you're just dumb." Whenever someone disagrees or even offers advice which counters your opinion, you insist your experience has been ruined or our numbers are fictitious. Alright then, may I request your extensive healing experience in this game? Do you theorycraft, analyse, or even complete high end content at a solid level? No? Then how can you so confidently claim your numbers are factual when arguing against players with said experience? If this is an example of the "new blood" we're supposed to welcome. Once again, I think we'll pass.

[Maltothoris]

Late but lets not forgot patch 4.5. There were specific buffs to the WHM despite the fact it's the end of expansion and usually this never happened before because the next one is around the corner and it will be changed then. (patch 2.5 and patch 3.5) However, they did the enmity changes, the HUGE buff to assize and the buff to PI. There wouldn't of been a need for it unless the situation surrounding the WHM was precarious.