Thoughts from a 60 AST & 60 WHM

[SovereignAegis]

I think with the announcement of the buffs in the live letter that AST will become much more lucrative. Even the hinting of stance-dancing makes the class seem infinitely more appealing to me. The ability to pick and maintain HoT's while throwing up shields is... incredible.

But the mana issue is the biggest gate I see to this.

If mana issues + stance dancing is allowed for AST I see them being absolutely viable if not one of the more dominant picks.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts... as in allowing stance dancing (both) at the same time is much more lucrative and powerful than either shields alone or HoT's alone.

[Risvertasashi]

But the mana issue is the biggest gate I see to this.

The liveletter said they're looking into MP issues for jobs that are having a rough time with it, and planning adjustments. I'm cautiously optimistic ^^

[NorthernLadMSP]

Stance dancing was not mentioned in the letter, so I'm not sure where you're getting that from. They stated there will be AST like adjustments to Collective Unconscious and Celestial Opposition that will switch depending on the stance.

[Rajeme]

Snip

Reading back the live letter, I don't think they will allow stance dancing. Rather they will adjust/buff up things to fit more with the class. Fixing mp problem is promised though

[RoseM]

AST has a hard time recovering MP during low damage. At a 250-potency pace (about 6 Cures and 3 Regens per minute - or 15 Benefics in Noct), WHM is recovering MP twice as fast.
http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...ain_astwhmsch/

This is probably the most helpful post I have ever seen on the internet, regarding describing the tough healing situation AST is facing..

I have both a lvl 60 AST and a lvl 60 WHM, the speed their mana deplete are on entirely 2 different levels.
It is good to know they are planning to work on Lightspeed, do some QoL enhancements (Spread) and stuff. But the MP management problem is imo currently the biggest issue that's stopping AST from serious Raid contents: No mana => No fault tolerance + No healer DPS => Slow Progress. If they don't fix that AST still stands no chance competing against SCH/WHM for a raid slot.

In addition, I really doubt how far SE would go buffing AST so early into the expansion. It is more likely to be just a small buff (or half buff + half nerf) like they did to Brd/Mch. And wait til they receive enough feedback from Alexander Savage to do any significant buff.

The conclusion is, I am still not going to risk my static's progress speed by using AST in raids, this job is currently a joke, and it's unlikely to become competitive very soon.

[Kaizersan]

I recently played through all 4 Alexander floors as AST and I have found it very easy to clear fights with a WHM and AST in Diurnal by stacking all our regens so we could focus on the tanks without blowing mp and always saving CD for LA to extend my mp regen which allowed me to keep my mp from falling below 30%.