Revamping Astrologian

[PetiteMalFleur]

Are you using Luminiferous Aether.

Yes, I use it very early then on CD. Just like many posters here I use it with spear to shorten the CD. I can clear the content on my astrologian and manage my mana but I have to let my Whm partner take care of the bulk of all raid healing with very little assistance. My raw healing output was not enough to keep the tanks up while he handled aoe healing either and he had to emergency bene then tetra the second tank after a medica 2 at one point. This was alarming to me as I was actually much better geared with only an earring and ring left at i170 while he had upgraded his weapon only. At any point if he died it was a wipe. I could not solo heal long enough to recover even if he was rezzed right away. Even if there was no other damage besides tanks and no derp dps eating avoidable damage.

In 4 man content and story primals the class is really fun and works fine. I have no issues with mana or healing and it will be fun to switch to once progression is done and we overgear the fights. When comparing a level 60 astrologian to a level 50 whm or scholar it is on par. But a level 60 astrologian should be on par with a level 60 whm or scholar and it just isn't. Even when getting great rng with ideal buffs to the group an astrologian still falls short in what they can bring to the party when compared to the other two healing classes.

[Dyvid]

snip

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

[Krixus]

Yes, I use it very early then on CD. Just like many posters here I use it with spear to shorten the CD. I can clear the content on my astrologian and manage my mana but I have to let my Whm partner take care of the bulk of all raid healing with very little assistance. My raw healing output was not enough to keep the tanks up while he handled aoe healing either and he had to emergency bene then tetra the second tank after a medica 2 at one point. This was alarming to me as I was actually much better geared with only an earring and ring left at i170 while he had upgraded his weapon only. At any point if he died it was a wipe. I could not solo heal long enough to recover even if he was rezzed right away. Even if there was no other damage besides tanks and no derp dps eating avoidable damage.
In 4 man content and story primals the class is really fun and works fine. I have no issues with mana or healing and it will be fun to switch to once progression is done and we overgear the fights. When comparing a level 60 astrologian to a level 50 whm or scholar it is on par. But a level 60 astrologian should be on par with a level 60 whm or scholar and it just isn't. Even when getting great rng with ideal buffs to the group an astrologian still falls short in what they can bring to the party when compared to the other two healing classes.

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

[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.

[KokoKrunch]

How to fix the Astrologian: KokoKrunch Version

Draw: Let Draw go on cooldown after a card is drawn not after used but reduce card holding time from 15s to 10s.

Royal Road: Allow AST to decide whether they want to use RR buff on the newly drawn card or not. Card from spread always force to use RR buff.

Spear: Place a buff with 2 spear stack on target with 60 second duration. Any oGCD skill used will consume 1 stack and reduce the CD of that skill by 20%. May place some restriction on some skill like Hallow ground, Living Dead, etc.

Ewer and Spire: change effect to regen.

Allow card buff to stack on same target.

Shuffle: Prevent shuffle into the same card.

Light Speed: Change to 15 or 10% reduction but only effect Benefic, Benefic II and Helios.

Essential Dignity: add some regen or shield effect depend on sect.

Time Dilation: allow this to be used on self to extend Luminiferous Aether effect.

Collective Unconscious: Increase regen potency to 200 and damage reduction to 15% but reduce duration by half. Or keep the same potency and duration but allow AST to cast and use skill, only movement cancel the effect.

Celestial Opposition: Remove Stun effect, Add effect too fast forward all oGCD skill that is already on cooldown by 20%, effect capped at 15 second. Increase radius to medica radius.

[Khyan]

snip

Totally agree at 100%. My party lack the dps/mitigate spells from my SCH too, especially all the emergency skills.

AST 50+ skills are not really good, too much situationnal and not as usefull than the new skills from the other healers jobs. Ast have nothing for contribute to his heal potency.

AST is pretty, AST's skills are beautiful, but I think that's it. Purely decorative. So sad.

[Avalt]

Personally as a 60 AST I have had very little issue with MP management - it took a few dungeons to get used to post 50 however it's a simple case of managing your cooldowns/cards effectively.

Aside from possibly a slight potency tweak on the Nocturnal Sect stance, the only changes I would want for Astrologian would be;

Instead of having Shuffle (returning card to deck) would be something like;

Fold - Returns the drawn card to deck with a 50% (possibly too OP at 50%) chance to reset the Draw timer.

As much as I appreciate Astrologian being a RNG job, I think Draw gives more than enough RNG opportunity. Using Shuffle I almost always pull the same card again. You could argue that "Okay you've got Bole again and already have Enhanced Royal Road stored, just use the damn thing and reset the Draw timer damn it" however I'd predict much more effectiveness of being able to return that Bole card and possibly reset the Draw time.

Time Dialation I think is a wonderful skill, however I think it should be possible to use on ourselves. Luminiferous Aether cooldown can be shortened with the Spear card, however 15 more seconds could make all the difference in a healing intensive battle. Especially considering how AST lacks a healing buff such as Divine Seal or Rouse, they would likely need to throw out more heals to keep up. The same could apply to Celestial Opposition also and as well as extending your cards effect on the party, it could also prolong Luminiferous Aether.

[VitalSuit]

Instead of having Shuffle (returning card to deck) would be something like;

Fold - Returns the drawn card to deck with a 50% (possibly too OP at 50%) chance to reset the Draw timer.

That wouldn't change the problem though. What are the chances that you draw again and just pull the same card? It's not fixing the problem with Shuffle in that you still have a chance of drawing the same card.

[Rashammel]

The things they need to improve its:

Draw : let us get two cards before the skill go on CD, or reduce the CD, the cool thing about the cards its the RNG factor. When I got the right card, and use the rights skills, I can boost the dps of the party in 7~8%.
Mp in issues I do not have that anymore.

Lightspeed:A buff on the Lightspeed, reducing potency in 25% is to harsh for end game content. I use lightspeed as emergency, when I need heavy Aoe Healing or Essential Diginty still on CD and need to up the HP of the tank fast.
Collective Unconscious Let us at least move, because we can move whit the party and avoid AoEs
Celestial Opposition Aoe Stun? Pretty much uselles till now, maybe on the news raid content this will be useful, bur it's like Blunt Arrow from the BRD, if you need a right time for silence the boss you will not be using the skill for other things, so we can't use the 5 seconds improve on the buffs when we want to use it.

It's just my opinion

[Tevare]

One thing that I would like to see would be a change to the proc for Benefic II. I'm personally not a fan of it being instant cast. I was just randomly thinking in my head what if the proc made it so maybe a fourth of the heal is made into a regen effect or shield something to tie in with your stance. I don't do the number game, but I like that as an idea.