Astrologian Needs Changes

[Staris]

It is clearly not a scholar replacement because shields are poor in comparison.

However, I would say it is perfect alternative for a WHM for end game raids, the healing potency per time on the spammed abilities are near identical. The healing alpha on the hots is greater, and the mana efficiency for overhealing is better.

The main additions that make it possibly better for pushing progression content is
1. The two dps dots require no accuracy
2. The cards can be managed for specific situations, (when your pulling tens- hundreds of times during progression the RNG can be used as an advantage)
3. Better movement ability while healing.
4. 5 Second hard res. (Huge during cutting edge progression)

We can't predict what raid content will require, but history points to the healing checks being trivial in comparison to min maxing required for the DPS/HP checks for first kills.

I mean the best healers will have all 3 leveled, to take advantage of any situation anyway.

[DarkmoonVael]

a Friend of mine raids with SCH in high end content and has done so through all of coil up to T13, He's just replaced himself with an AST because parse for parse the party DPS increased by 500 with the AST there and not having the SCH. This isn't saying that the AST did 500 DPS but that party wide DPS was 500 higher on average over multiple runs. Yes AST healing potency is slightly lower than both WHM and SCH but in all end game content there is another healer in the party and that is the point. They are a little like the OT in a way, they don't need to have as much healing as the main healer their job is to strengthen the party. Stop looking at the individual and recognize that any buff to AST in serious content would likely mean there is no point in taking any other healer.

Are you being serious? Like actually serious?

This is a whole lot of nope. To say that an AST through buffs alone bring similar dps to a raid as a bard on a bad day is quite the claim indeed. I ran all of coils as scholar, switched to astrologian, and can say the numbers do not agree with you in any way, shape or form.

[Cynfael]

Are you being serious? Like actually serious?

This is a whole lot of nope. To say that an AST through buffs alone bring similar dps to a raid as a bard on a bad day is quite the claim indeed. I ran all of coils as scholar, switched to astrologian, and can say the numbers do not agree with you in any way, shape or form.

Yeah. The math on this says "no way in hell."

[Irohma]

As a former SCH that is now playing AST I can only completely agree with the OP. The class is awesome to play, I love the randomness of the cards, the two stances of healing is interesting. Everything is fun while you are playing a normal dungeon or a Hard or Normal trial. However, when I went back to some EX Primals and tried solo healing some of them as I did with my SCH things started to show their true colors.

[Avin00]

Only reporting back what the SCH was telling me and believe me he wasn't happy about it. However the 500 may be a bit of an exaggeration as he tends to be that type, but he wouldn't replace himself unless he thought that he was under performing in comparison to the AST

[GideonHighmourn]

Only reporting back what the SCH was telling me and believe me he wasn't happy about it. However the 500 may be a bit of an exaggeration as he tends to be that type, but he wouldn't replace himself unless he thought that he was under performing in comparison to the AST

Even if the AST were lucky enough to draw Balance every time through the entire fight, you're only looking at (MAYBE) 45DPS~ average increase over the entire fight AT MOST, on a SINGLE TARGET; remember, it doesn't have a 100% up time, and is reliant entirely on RNG, so actually drawing it every time is incredibly unlikely, and even if you do, you'll still spend around 50% of the fight without the Balance buff running. Combined with the two DoTs AST has, which may be 150DPS~. SCH can easily put out more than that with Selene and their own DoTs, on average. I'm averaging 300DPS on SCH alone from DoTs during Bismark EX, not including what Selene adds to the group every 60 seconds.

Your friend is grossly overestimating what AST is capable of adding in terms of DPS with their buffs, period.

[Crevox]

However, I would say it is perfect alternative for a WHM for end game raids,

It's not. AST gives the PIE buff instead of the MND buff to the party.

If you went with AST and SCH, you wouldn't have a MND buff, and you'd just be crippling the both of you even more than just being an AST.

On another note, now that I'm 58, things are starting to show even more. It wasn't so bad up to this point, but now I'm starting to struggle to keep a party alive. My healing throughput is extremely lacking. For example, on the last boss of Vault while on SCH, I had absolutely no issues, but now I just can't push out the heals enough sometimes, especially if people take hits they aren't supposed to. I'm also optimally geared, being item level 142/143 at level 58. My lack of healing power is extremely noticeable compared to my SCH.

[Jamez82]

Even if they just removed the healing potency reduction from lightspeed it would make the class desirable in raid content. The power to heal while moving would be huuuuuge.

[Crevox]

The power to heal while moving would be huuuuuge.

Not really, no. :| The cooldown is far too long regardless.

[SeraphicRadiance]

Not really, no. :| The cooldown is far too long regardless.

It'd still be a functional cooldown at least, as opposed to one that can actively contribute to deaths and wipes.