Your thoughts on Astrolgian so far?

[jars]

Diurnal Aspected Benefic is only 790 potency, over 18 seconds...where are you getting 850 from? Nocturnal Aspected Benefic is an "effective" (ie, heal + shield) potency of 525, but doesn't require nearly as long to see that effect (in fact, it works instantly >_>).

To prefer one is fine, but at least have some clue of how the other works.

haste affects hots/dots now. have a clue how the other works etc

nocturne is horribly inefficient and not even a good emergency heal since benefic 2 does that better while still being more mp efficient

[Imdesyda]

haste affects hots/dots now. have a clue how the other works etc

nocturne is horribly inefficient and not even a good emergency heal since benefic 2 does that better while still being more mp efficient

Skill/Spell speed affect how hots/dots work NOT Haste. It's the reason why Fey Glow/Fey Light were changed from Skill/Speed speed to Haste. WHM PoM does still increase Hot/Dot healing and damage however since it increases Spell Speed.

[loreleidiangelo]

haste affects hots/dots now. have a clue how the other works etc

nocturne is horribly inefficient and not even a good emergency heal since benefic 2 does that better while still being more mp efficient

Haste only affects your cast times...you're thinking of skill/spellspeed, which is not the stat that Diurnal modifies. Hence, your earlier comment about the throughput being as equivalent as Nocturnal's throughput was also inaccurate. Please research carefully before spreading misinformation.

[Arcana]

Atm im AST 51 and I really like the Nocturnal system to heal. I have both SCH and WHM lvled and as i saw in the high lvl dungeons (lvl 50), AST in nocturnal is like a SCh while in nocturnal mode. We can't do so much dps but i'm feeling comfortable healing and buffing this dungeons.
These days i'll start with lvl 51+ dungeons and i'll check if AST is in troubles to heal.

If SE fix a bit the card system i'll really love this job.

[Krixus]

I hear alot of dps complaints, but in any dungeon 52+ you should be doing just fine. I most my parses so far I've been at 100 dps over the course of the dungeon, which is about half the tanks. Same as sch or whm would be. Just combust I/II + aero on high hp targets if under 2 mobs, or spam gravity on groups. Drop cleric during global CD, use insta heal + aspected benefic, then go back to dps.

If the tank is speed running I will admit it is harder to dps than whm with their divine seal regen, but we can't have it all.

[Kaerline]

Level 60 astro who used to be whm/sch here! I was reading through this post and decided to contribute my experience since I'm really enjoying this class at the moment.

I think some of you might be a bit too picky about the cards system, or are looking at it in a way it's not supposed to be considered. I healed through all dungeons and trials and while I know this doesn't count much - need to test the class in proper raids - I still think it helped me get the hang of the class. Cards buffs are not supposed to be game breaking, and honestly I wouldn't want them to be. They're there so you can give the party that little more oomph, and in turn they need to be reactive to make good use of it.
When I first started I was getting pretty pissed whenever I was drawing what I considered useless cards (dem spears), then I simply started realising that every little bit helps. I don't consider myself to be OMG BEST PLAYER EVAH or even a good theorycrafter, but I'm pretty sure that rather than going *draw* "naah" *shuffle* "meh" *have card sit there and go to waste*, it's best to balance the amount of royal roads and play them. If I draw a balance towards the end of any fight, I just spread it and use it later. If I draw bole towards the beginning of the fight, I might use it on the tank to add something more to his cds and use that time to dps, or maybe I can decide to RR it because I have a balance waiting to be used in my spread.
What I'm trying to say is, sure, you hardly ever get the cards you really want, but that doesn't make whatever you get useless. Try experimenting, try being more loose with them in short fights and use the downtime as the fight is about to finish or as you're running to the next enemies to try and prepare a nice RR. You'll have more fun and the others will spend more time with some buff up and less wondering what the hell this new class is doing, sitting there spinning the cards wheel.

As for Sects, I tend to use Nocturnal on trash and Diurnal on bosses, though that might change for different boss fights. I do admit that as a fresh 60 a couple of days ago I was almost traumatised trying to clear the new dungeons, but as I got more gear and as the people started learning how to avoid unnecessary damage, even with only a very few blue pieces, I can now safely speed run all of them while dancing in and out of CS to throw in dots and gravity and help with boss adds. I think the biggest issue at the moment is that everyone needs to learn how to play with both brand new classes and old classes who got major revamps. Instead, people who haven't rerolled, hit 60 and expect to faceroll new dungeons while still being in toilet paper armor, just because that's what everyone used to do until a week ago, when highly overgearing the content.

This said, I only have one issue with cards. When you read that Draw has 30s cd you think "wow, amazing, that means A LOT OF CARDS". Well, nope. 30s in a normal boss fight is actually a very long time, not to mention you will want to RR some cards as well. I'd love some kind of tweak to RR, something like reduced cd on Draw when used within x seconds after drawing a card.

[Risvertasashi]

Instead, people who haven't rerolled, hit 60 and expect to faceroll new dungeons while still being in toilet paper armor, just because that's what everyone used to do until a week ago, when highly overgearing the content.

So much this. Even on WHM, oversized pulls while we're still barely geared is the biggest source of grief.

To the rest of your post... I would say the learning curve for WHM is, to me, relatively shallow. Mostly our abilities just make us better at what we already do and fill in some weak spots.

Compared to AST which is completely new. That said, I have not been having trouble with AST so far simply because I accept it for what it is: A high mobility, very support focused healer. It's not supposed to be "WHM, but with cards!" or even a card-dealing SCH. Yes, if the tank overpulls AST can't pop divine seal to deal with it, but SCHs have always had that trouble and Cure II spam... WHMs still run out of buffs and in not too long, MP.

Emergency Tactics can only be used once every 30 seconds, by the way, and they have no equivalent to "benefic II".

[Krixus]

Instead, people who haven't rerolled, hit 60 and expect to faceroll new dungeons while still being in toilet paper armor, just because that's what everyone used to do until a week ago, when highly overgearing the content.

Ty for pointing this out, most significant thing said in this thread. Last dungeon I did the drk was pulling as if it were WP hard mode, over 10 lvl 57 mobs at once while he was in i133 gear and I'm in i135. I barely kept him alive and started to question my job
But you are right people are treating it like speed run lvl 50 dungeons.

[RuneVirtua]

I just want to say, Collective Unconscious is really fun to use in the Moby Dick fight when standing on him.

That is all.

[Kaerline]

That said, I have not been having trouble with AST so far simply because I accept it for what it is: A high mobility, very support focused healer. It's not supposed to be "WHM, but with cards!" or even a card-dealing SCH.

Exactly! I get the feeling some people were expecting astro to have all the big green numbers of a whm plus cards in diurnal and all the shielding and dps power of a sch plus cards in nocturnal. Well nope. It's a tradeoff. Whether it's worth or not will be tested once proper raids are available AND as people get more confident with the class. But you can't have, as an italian saying goes, a full wine barrel and a drunk wife :3