Revamping Astrologian

[PetiteMalFleur]

It sounds like there was more issue going on then just you. Were the tanks up to date on gear or just winging it?

Of course they were not up to date. DKN was 164 with str acc and our PLD was 165. We were doing Bismark so this isn't dismal though. However, I know what it is to heal an undergeared tank. My group cleared T13 in January with a MT who would only raid log--with really bad rng for tank drops--so he was ilvl 118 when we cleared and str specked for attributes. I think he had about 8300 hp. This was not a pug group. Overall the derp mistakes were very minimal and it was just painful to ask my whm to help where I was falling behind when I never would have needed to on my scholar.

Look at ast at level 50 compared to a 50 whm and sch. We have no aoe dps skill. We have no crowd control management at all. Whm has an aoe stun and repose. Scholar has Shadow flare which is a 5% slow on all mobs--great for damage reduction--and bane very early for great aoe in dungeons. We don't start getting skills like this until level 52 and imo the card system just doesn't make up for it with how long the cd is on draw and the rng of drawing bole. At 52 the other two healing classes get amazing healing buffs while we get two dps skills whm already essentially had by level 45. Disable is great but with only giving us mitigation on one attack the only reliable time to use this is during a cast with high damage and not on normal trash like virus for that 10 second breather, which both other classes have.

We have one mana refresh while whm now has 2. Sch never had mana issues because of how aetherflow works With Luminiferous Aether we restore a flat amount of mp. In progression content when trying to clear below the minimum ilvl a healer must dps. With how weak my healing spells were this falls on me, yet my mana pool just cannot handle it without self buffs. We are losing potential raid buffs to fill the gap in tools a 60 whm and scholar have.

Scholar has a lot of healing buffs with shorter cds. Selene buffs are overall better than ast cards for the dps buffs. They are more consistent making the fairy buffs better than the card buffs. Our instant heal is on a 40 second cd with a lower potency than scholar's. As I mentioned before I used this on cd to help with mana management. Whm tetra is 60 seconds but it's 700 potency and they still have bene. With higher potency heals overall whm support is amazing. An astro has very few tools to make up for these discrepancies and since I'm filling the scholar role in my static my group really feels the loss of emergency patch heals and dps my scholar would have at 60. So many times I find myself reaching for a healing buff when we were falling behind in keeping up the tanks and it just wasn't there. Eos has one that buffs both healers. Whm has divine seal. But astro has nothing.

I can't say the class is totally unviable. It can work with a solid healing partner. The class is also super fun and I love playing it. Does it bring enough to the table to justify replacing a whm or scholar in progression? It doesn't. You have lower dps, less raid buffs, lower healing potency, fewer patch-up skills and less mitigation skills overall.

Parse your healing vs the whm's, Im curious cause divine seal isnt make this gaping difference you lay on.

I don't have parses. Parses cannot be posted here anyway.

[AlphaFox]

Indeed it does, ended up testing this last night with my watch, enhanced spear before Aether 84secs, so I am certainly throwing spear into my spread and holding that. However even with Spear and Aether, doing the two new dungeons I found my MP running out. Only reason we beat (dont recall name, Vanu dungeon?) the final boss was because the bard was able to play his song and I am sitting at 12.4k MP. The other dungeon my MP ran out last second as he died overall I am happy but could use a few tweaks.

[Vlady]

Lol. If any of these asinine ideas go through goodbye any other healer. It's good to know that you cleared all turns. Glad I can see that people who can mechanically learn jump rope mechanics can still have not a single clue on balance.

[Spoekes]

Lol. If any of these asinine ideas go through goodbye any other healer. It's good to know that you cleared all turns. Glad I can see that people who can mechanically learn jump rope mechanics can still have not a single clue on balance.

oh the irony.
Vlady, Master of Balancing Threads, heres one example: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...n-real-content

[Damianqq]

Lol. If any of these asinine ideas go through goodbye any other healer. It's good to know that you cleared all turns. Glad I can see that people who can mechanically learn jump rope mechanics can still have not a single clue on balance.

Please list why you are so against any of these changes. I like constructive criticism and all but right now your comment is kinda useless since its aimed at me on a personal level, rather than the topic at hand.

[Lastelli]

Having to reserve Spread for Spear to shorten Luminiferous Aether CD is just silly. It basically doesn't allow for any rng control over other buffs, making AST completely unreliable as a buffer.
A lot of skills need to be fixed, anyone saying otherwise have no clue how powerful SCH and WHM are with post LV 50 skills. Also MP management is a real issue. I reach the end of the new dungeons with full MP with my SCH while also doing dps, with AST I have to use Lum. Aeth. every time it's available and I cannot DPS unless the party is decent and can dodge aoes.
I'm not saying AST in useless of course, it's simply less efficient than the other to healers in every possible way.

[Donarudo]

What?

You should not be reserving it solely for that to begin with. Secondly its pretty clear AST's are not the dps type that WHM/SCH can be. AST very well is the one healer that highlights other people not being able to dodge. You even said yourself, you can't "dps unless the party is decent and can dodge aoes". I only use lumi once during tougher trash pulls, and maybe twice during boss fights the rest of the time I am buffing the party with buffs that help down the boss faster due to the buffs. The problem isn't the draw system either. The problem is people thinking certain cards are useless at any given time so they either royal road it or shuffle instead of making use of it at that time.

[Lastelli]

Start levelling SCH and you will soon realize that you can basically achieve the same results spending less MP and without having to rely on RNG.
Atm AST is a good healer compared to WHM and SCH only if you do NOT consider post Lv 50 skills. Indomitability alone is more useful than any oGCD skill of the AST.
Still, I'm waiting for hardcore parties to give some info about the average dps increase thanks to AST's cards, but I suspect it will be very very little, probably around 2%.

[Arcana]

The problem is people thinking certain cards are useless at any given time so they either royal road it or shuffle instead of making use of it at that time.

Buffs likea spire card > Shuffle > spire Card > RR or use > another draw > ewer ftw!

Sometimes sh it happens and we get useless buffs, no matter how pro do you think you are. That means a lot of combat time without any real buff.