Astrologian Speculations! How will it fit in?

[Dragonsoad]

To be fair, In all my years on (That Which Shall Not be Named), I played a Resto Druid, which is all about the HoT effects, and it functions extremely well.
A lot of party damage happens in bursts, which HoT effects would be amazing for healing.
And it synergise amazingly with SCH Shields, Succor the party while the AST ticks healing on all the things.

Might just be a pipe dream for me, But i would absolutely love having a HoT based Healer in XIV.

Same here man, the fight mechanics would have to change for a HoT healer to be viable I think but it could end up working really well. It's all dependent on how the fights in heavensward work out.

[Ephany]

I can't see it being a HoT class.
WHM pretty much does that job with Regen and Medica 2 etc...
So giving a new class the normal single target heal and then some HoTs, would make it really similar minus a few added spells.

[Brightshadow]

I think the Astrologian will be a mixture of a gambler and time mage. They would focus mostly on healing overtime, and delayed cures; however, they will have some short term enhancements (8-10 seconds) for those people that do not like to DPS. It could also have combo cures with different effects.

So what if they heal mostly with "Healing Overtime" usually in endgame there is 2 healers so they could act more like the assistant healers, with enhancements that change the pace of the battle. Currently Scholars act this way but instead of enhancing the party capabilities they do DPS.

Here are two example of how I think they would function:

1.) Design Idea A
-Basic Cure: Low Potency + Decent Regen
-Secondary Cure: Delayed Cure that heals pretty strong. (Cure II or Lust but delayed by 5-10 seconds)
-Emergency Cure: Recall (Instantly recovers the target to full health but deals the damage recovered overtime)
-Provides AOE buffs for a very short duration 8-10 seconds. (Limit 1-3)

2.) Design Idea B
-Basic Cure: Combo Cure (Different effect based on what cards you combo) (For instance Card of Heart + Card of Shield might heal + give a small shield)
-Secondary Cure: Regens (Like White Mages) or delayed cure
-Emergency Cure: Incredibly powerful regen effect or Incredibly powerful delayed cure.

[Dyvid]

I do think gambler mechanics will play a part in Astrologian were cards act as a roulette type buff. Judging from the picture you have from left to right; fire, water, earth, ice, wind, and thunder. Each element could act as a different buff from defense bonus to attack power. As for the actually healing will I guess HoT is the logical choice since we have direct heal and barrier heals.

[desufin]

Well the PAX presentation mentioned something about stances. I'm suspecting AST will have some form of supporting stance and healing stance (Cleric Stance will most likely be cross-classable and work with either). Similar to how SCH has Selene and Eos, the stances will determine effects of certain spells but instead of being reliant on handicapped pet AI it's all in the players control. I don't think there will be much (if any) RNG involved in it because if there is odds are it will either be completely useless or overpowered compared to SCH+WHM vs SCH/WHM+AST.

RNG in things that needs to be reliable such as tanking and healing are incredibly bad.

[Selli]

Whatever Astro is like, I hope at level 60 the 3 healing classes can share their buffs at the same strength. I would love to see them compliment each other differently (ie, Astro and SCH are a DPShealer power house, or Astro and WHM are very good for unavoidable damage, ect, ect). I main WHM and I would not be happy watching my static SCH sit there and decide if he wants to be Astro or SCH for raid, while I'm stuck WHMing everything because I'm the only one with good Stoneskin and Protect. I would like some flexibility.

[Faelandaea]

I think I mentioned this somewhere else, but my all-time favorite healing role would be DPS based. Rift has a healer like that - you DPS, and the more damage you put out, the more supportive heals your party gets. It was very powerful as DPS and all of the heals were basically massive AoE heals for the entire party.

Of course those NOT familiar with the game would sit there and think "By the gods that would render WHM and SCH useless!" . . . . far from it. It would compliment them because the heals would be small party-wide constant heals and the SCH/WHM would still be needed for those massive big heals that are absolutely needed on a run. The healer I am referring to would be invaluable on runs that have a LOT of constant, endless AoE pounding on the party and supplemental heals would be needed to keep the healers from having a heart attack and running out of mana.

I had SUCH a blast playing that class (Chloromancer was what it was called). The ONLY reason I quit Rift was they went Free to Play. Soon afterward FFXIV won my heart - especially with the ability to play everything on one character - we truly are VERY lucky players in this game!

[Roxas_Andrade]

I think the AST will have 2 stances, a heal/support and an attack/support.
If SE maintain the 2 classes crossable, AST will get the skills from BLM and SCH. In the ATK/SUP stance they will have their version of stoneskin and 3 cards to use their mudras (!!!). In the heal/SUP stance they will have a protect-like spell and 3 more cards to use more mudras, while sharing basic heals and attack spells with ATK/SUP. If they really work this way, AST will mostly have the biggest set of skills from the game...

[Picori]

Thinking they will use cards for everything, like some cards are dps moves and others is cures and buffs.
Also with the dark knight MP base, it's very possible Astro is TP to use cards.
So they can have a MP regen on a party member like goad is for TP, to work well with dark knight.

[Picori]

Thinking they will use cards for everything, like some cards are dps moves and others is cures and buffs.
Also with the dark knight MP base, it's very possible Astro is TP to use cards.
So they can have a MP regen on a party member like goad is for TP, to work well with dark knight.