5.0 AST is a failure

[Thoosa]

AST seems to be a chore to play in the level 70+ dungeons.

I find you can’t use diurnal because tanks take so much more regular damage, so I have to use noct.

If the tank big pulls I have to use light speed and if they don’t use any cds or the dps is bad I find I just end up losing my MP even after using lucid and everyone just dies because I can’t do anything (no mp).

Celestial op seems to be incredibly weak plus having a long cool down, so I’m left with earthly star for emergencies or lightspeed (which kills mp if you’re desperately trying to keep the tank alive with shield and heals).

I did the level 75 Dungeon and before the second boss, the tank big pulled but then didn’t wait for my mp before pulling the boss, so we wiped because I had no mp left - I felt like a right idiot because I couldn’t do anything :P

Divination looks nice when you cast it but the cool down is crazy.

Handing out cards is still fun for me, but they don’t seem to feel like they make an impact much now plus the dps spells just seem very weak.

I’m scared to try scholar now haha.

[lordcruxis]

AST seems to be a chore to play in the level 70+ dungeons.

I find you can’t use diurnal because tanks take so much more regular damage, so I have to use noct.

If the tank big pulls I have to use light speed and if they don’t use any cds or the dps is bad I find I just end up losing my MP even after using lucid and everyone just dies because I can’t do anything (no mp).

Celestial op seems to be incredibly weak plus having a long cool down, so I’m left with earthly star for emergencies or lightspeed (which kills mp if you’re desperately trying to keep the tank alive with shield and heals).

I did the level 75 Dungeon and before the second boss, the tank big pulled but then didn’t wait for my mp before pulling the boss, so we wiped because I had no mp left - I felt like a right idiot because I couldn’t do anything :P

Divination looks nice when you cast it but the cool down is crazy.

Handing out cards is still fun for me, but they don’t seem to feel like they make an impact much now plus the dps spells just seem very weak.

I’m scared to try scholar now haha.

Noct AST is pretty mp inefficient compared to Diurnal, the only reason to really be in Noct stance is if you're with a WHM or another AST and they're already in Diurnal. You should really be using Lightspeed, Earthly Star, and Lucid Dreaming on CD. CO is okay for Diurnal, if it was a 45-60s CD it would be fine, but it's very weak on Noct.

It also sounds like you're spamming Aspected Benefic, when things go south you should be spamming Benefic 2, Aspected Benefic is expensive and not really designed for spam usage.

[xDaemianx]

Minus Ewer and Spire which honestly wouldn't serve any purpose with today's game balance. As far as I have seen no job really has any struggles with MP.

To be fair, WHM's Assize and SCH's Aetherflow help them recover MP (along with LD, but that's one they all share). Also, WHM's Thin Air is comparable to AST's Lightspeed. Then, someone could say "Hey, SCH should get a 'free cast' ability, too!", but the thing is that Aetherflow helps then use no-cast abilities (Indomitability, Excogitation, Lustrate) + they have a Fae to heal (also including Fey Blessing and Consolation). All of these being instant casts. So, then, why is AST not able to keep up in terms of MP, especially when Nocturnal Sect doubles the cost of Aspected Benefic?

[LalaRu]

...why is AST not able to keep up in terms of MP...

Tbh, in the expert duties, just using Lucid on CD made me not worry much about MP. The only thing I still worry is healing potency not keeping same pace as the trucks hitting the Tank. Got some some double pulls that still wiped tank.

And, to add, I just got things running much easier after I got past the IL430. Gear matters and when you get there with still on your journey for gear, you AST have hard time even if you do everything right.

[Miiu]

Ewer does have purpose with todays game balance, especially since AST has the worst MP management out of all the healers even more so with Noct Ast having to spend 10% of its MP to throw up a shield that gets shredded easily.

Spire would need to be reworked, but people always called for spire to be reworked because it was too niche.

But are you running out of mp as AST?
Using Lucid Dreams on CD and LS in certain situations I have never even gotten close to being OOM at any of the available content at 80. (Same as on the other healers)
When lvling 70-80. This was another story when the tanks pulled Wall-to-Wall. But after that mp became a non issue.

[Crushnight]

Noct AST is pretty mp inefficient compared to Diurnal, the only reason to really be in Noct stance is if you're with a WHM or another AST and they're already in Diurnal. You should really be using Lightspeed, Earthly Star, and Lucid Dreaming on CD. CO is okay for Diurnal, if it was a 45-60s CD it would be fine, but it's very weak on Noct.

It also sounds like you're spamming Aspected Benefic, when things go south you should be spamming Benefic 2, Aspected Benefic is expensive and not really designed for spam usage.

To add to this once you get Neutral sect you want to avoid Nocturnal more as for whatever reason while Neutral sect is active Aspected Benefic still costs 1k mp in Nocturnal while Diurnal costs 500 mp for the exact same effect, i really hope this was an oversight because that is so lopsided to Duirnal it ain't even funny.

[Seraphor]

To add to this once you get Neutral sect you want to avoid Nocturnal more as for whatever reason while Neutral sect is active Aspected Benefic still costs 1k mp in Nocturnal while Diurnal costs 500 mp for the exact same effect, i really hope this was an oversight because that is so lopsided to Duirnal it ain't even funny.

They really do seem to overestimate the efficacy of shields.
They seem to balance it around mitigating tank busters, but in Noct Sect, you're using them for every pull.

[xDaemianx]

Tbh, in the expert duties, just using Lucid on CD made me not worry much about MP. The only thing I still worry is healing potency not keeping same pace as the trucks hitting the Tank. Got some some double pulls that still wiped tank.

And, to add, I just got things running much easier after I got past the IL430. Gear matters and when you get there with still on your journey for gear, you AST have hard time even if you do everything right.

LD on CD works perfectly fine. The problem is when you need to heal more than what you are used to, either because it's an 8-man instance or because people choose to ignore incoming damage or because it was an accident. And while I do agree that all healers would need to deal with these situations, what I'm trying to convey is that other jobs can do it more easily than others. And yes, I know it also costs something but that something is not MP (Indomitability - Assize / Lustrate - Tetragrammaton or Afflatus which, by the way, both have the same potency, one is 3 charges if you have the Lilies and the other one is Lily-free but on a 60s CD and us ASTs get a Lv60 spell that has a 100 potency spell and THAT begs the question: Why?).

At the end of the day other jobs get abilities/spells that help them heal at the expense of no mana AND also have more MP Regenerative spells whilst ASTs only have one and fewer spells/abilities to cope with damage that easily.

[Crushnight]

They really do seem to overestimate the efficacy of shields.
They seem to balance it around mitigating tank busters, but in Noct Sect, you're using them for every pull.

Which is unfortunate as tank busters/raid busters are not frequent enough or hit hard enough where you need Noct shields, Duirnal shields are more than sufficient to deal with all current content.

[Seraphor]

LD on CD works perfectly fine. The problem is when you need to heal more than what you are used to, either because it's an 8-man instance or because people choose to ignore incoming damage or because it was an accident. And while I do agree that all healers would need to deal with these situations, what I'm trying to convey is that other jobs can do it more easily than others. And yes, I know it also costs something but that something is not MP (Indomitability - Assize / Lustrate - Tetragrammaton or Afflatus which, by the way, both have the same potency, one is 3 charges if you have the Lilies and the other one is Lily-free but on a 60s CD and us ASTs get a Lv60 spell that has a 100 potency spell and THAT begs the question: Why?).

At the end of the day other jobs get abilities/spells that help them heal at the expense of no mana AND also have more MP Regenerative spells whilst ASTs only have one and fewer spells/abilities to cope with damage that easily.

I'd rather Lightspeed had a cooldown reduction more than anything else.
AST needs all the help it can get with double/triple weaving its cards skills, and it would bundle an MP cost reduction too.