Quote Originally Posted by Valic View Post
I guess what I mean to ask here is... Is this how AST is supposed to feel right now or am I missing something? Where do healers get their "high" from in playing the healer role in this game? Is there a reason they changed astrologian so much and is this change why people have been complaining about AST right now(if so, I kinda see it and I haven't even played SCH or WHM)?
I can't really say to help you on AST, but let me share some history: Scholar used to have a dps class in it's base and boy did it show. The "high" you describe came from pre-emptively shielding, mitigating and find the pauses where everyone is safe to switch stances, put up five dots, one with melee range, able to refresh the core resource out of combat, hardcast 3s for a damage field, able to apply stats down, slow and blind, switch between two fairies for either increased healing or haste and look after it like it was a party member and much more.

Because most of the time I didn't have time to do all that, I was there to make sure nobody died, but the system above ensured I always had something to work with and towards, BOTH in parties and solo. Coming from DPS and tanks, can I wager a guess you also apriciate the feeling of finally manage to just use that right ability or apply a hit at just the right moment. Scholar was that. Always shielding, buffing and debuffing for unavoidables, using the seperate hotbar to manually target the fairies heals even when casting, the making sure I had all five dots up and always judge if I can safely enter Cleric Stance and apply dots for the hard five second cooldown before I could leave it again. Always on the lookout to make use of the whole arsenal. That was my high and what made me play the job.

All that stuff above? It's gone now. Removed and imprisoned in 4.0 and 5.0, for which I can only guess theirs was the crime of being too fun. It's conjecture because SE isn't in any hurry to share details about the design behind ast, whm and sch.

I can still shield and mitigate but it's all for naught because only reward is to press Broil III one more time. All those dots, damage variety, separate fairy hotbar and second fairy and support abilities all gone with the wind. People take damage, I press a oGCD, and resume pressing the same button until everything stops moving. What used to be a fully-fledgded job is now no more than it's role. There is no high anymore, only numbness.