Thoughts from a 60 AST & 60 WHM

[UOdhn]

Question then from a non-high level AST...Doesn't AST have a shroud of saints clone? And if I'm not mistaken, doesn't it have a higher renew potency than shroud of saints? How are ASTs having mana issues between that and ewer then? The name of the game is adaptability, not rock-solid rigidity, so "oh ewer is only good for eating for royal road" doesn't cut it: If you have MP issues, and you know you have MP issues, save it?

Same potency as shroud of saints. 80 Refresh potency. WHMs not only have that, but now Assize (10% mana return every 90s) to help with their mana.

[Vill_Castiglioni]

AST really isn’t as inferior or as bad as everyone is making it out to be. Shuffle could be more reliable, sects changeable during battle, and the unfortunate boredom during synced content where I cant use Gravity or Time Dilation which I like to use with the Bole + regen on the tank so I can DPS longer.

Synastry is great to use appropriately in a long fight where you know you need to heal 2 targets at the same time. Essential Dignity has a short CD and can heal crazy amounts when people are low on hp. If you know someone is or will take a lot of damage and time everything right, youc an both buff them with a card and use Time Dilation with regen(s). Celestial Opposition can extend ALL your effect timers including regens, which can also help you save mana if you let them keep ticking. Collective Unconcious is also good, use during boss downtime to top off the party, pop that- effectively healing the party and giving you time to regenerate mana without using any more.

Even Lightspeed isn’t useless, it’s amazing during movement heavy fights in making it extremely easy. Like someone else said either in this thread or another, you will gain more HoTs during a movement heavy section of a fight using it than a healer who can’t heal at all or less during all that movement.

Basically, by knowing what’s coming, being preemptive, and being ready for any situation by paying full attention, AST plays just like I would play any other healers. Those are the methods I use, and I just think people don’t know how to use the class properly. I don’t know if I’ve just been with crappy healers in 8 man content, however there have been many instances where I was the one carrying and fully capable of doing so, without fear that things would go south.

[Risvertasashi]

AST really isn’t as inferior or as bad as everyone is making it out to be.

My biggest issue under 'viability' is that, healing the same thing, it just seems to run out of MP so much faster. I'm not exactly a new healer and do everything I can to maximize efficiency.

Kinda what I meant in my OP: Buffs may well be worth that drawback. It's something raid groups have to decide for themselves.

My other criticisms don't really matter as far as gameplay/raiding goes, I just personally don't like the bolted on feel of the card system. I'd still raid on it if I didn't think I would be making things harder on my team (and still might experiment with it a few times).

But I do think some people are being a bit overreactive, kinda like with BRDs/MCHs. Someone posted a parse on reddit of the MCH doing over 900 DPS in Ravana EX, for example...

[Leiloni]

Question then from a non-high level AST...Doesn't AST have a shroud of saints clone? And if I'm not mistaken, doesn't it have a higher renew potency than shroud of saints? How are ASTs having mana issues between that and ewer then? The name of the game is adaptability, not rock-solid rigidity, so "oh ewer is only good for eating for royal road" doesn't cut it: If you have MP issues, and you know you have MP issues, save it?

They do have a similar skill but it's just not enough sometimes. Our heals are not as mana efficient as WHM who has better potency per mana point, and they also save more mana with passive traits like Freecure. Plus since they have higher potency heals and better emergency cooldowns, they're not spamming as many heals to as we have to in order to keep people up. AST just uses up a lot more mana is all it comes down to. I've had a WHM since ARR came out and learned early on how to manage my mana, so it's not really a learn to play issue and a lot of AST's are in the same boat as me. The class is fun, but it needs a lot of tweaking.

[PetiteMalFleur]

They do have a similar skill but it's just not enough sometimes. .

Yes, this exactly. Our benefic 2 proc is not a free cure and it's more mana efficient to ignore it. Lower potency spells=more mana yet we just weren't given enough to offset mana spent. We have luminous aetherflow and time dilation to extend our hots. It isn't enough, especially in nocturnal stance where shields need to be reapplied to make up for the loss of potency of keeping a hot up. We have to use our cards to sustain ourselves nullifying any potential benefits the job can bring to a raid. There is just no reason to bring this class in over a WHM or SCH with all the tools the other two bring with them.

Ast needs a buff, or even an overhaul to be viable for a serious raiding environment.

[Ninimo_Babamo]

Question then from a non-high level AST...Doesn't AST have a shroud of saints clone? And if I'm not mistaken, doesn't it have a higher renew potency than shroud of saints? How are ASTs having mana issues between that and ewer then? The name of the game is adaptability, not rock-solid rigidity, so "oh ewer is only good for eating for royal road" doesn't cut it: If you have MP issues, and you know you have MP issues, save it?

Shroud of Saints and, the near clone for AST, Luminiferous Aether both have 80 refresh potency and 15 seconds of duration. The problem is that, in all i180 gear, Aspected Helios requires just over 10% of your mana. And white mage has far better tools to regain mana, like Assize. The main problem with the mana issues comes in because AST has lower heal potency and so to get to the same heals as SCH or WHM, they have to heal much more often, thus draining mana very fast.

Ewer is good, but only when you have to raise or when you are about to do AoE healing. It's not a great idea to save the card because, god forbid, you draw a balance card and do not have Extended Royal Road (aoe version), you waste the balance card completely.

Again, using Ewer and (being able to use) Time Dilation on yourself reduces the amount of utility you offer to a group; these are skills meant to be used for group utility, not self sustainability, and using them as such further reduces the reasoning for bringing AST to a group in the first place.

I agree with both of you. It would solve the issue, but it would not be the correct way to go about doing it.

[Xikaz]

I haven't leveled up my AST much but this thread basically confirms what I expected just looking at the skill descriptions.

1) Bad MP management when skills emphasize cast speed over potency, and MP regen is the same as a 50 WHM
2) Lack of emergency cooldown abilities, especially comparing 52-60 abilities of other healers
3) Buffs/cards being underwhelming and not making up for the obvious deficiencies.

I'll probably just level up my scholar since he's already 50.

[Rajeme]

If only we could buff Time dilation on ourselves, could solve the mp issue...

[GideonHighmourn]

If only we could buff Time dilation on ourselves, could solve the mp issue...

Again, using Ewer and (being able to use) Time Dilation on yourself reduces the amount of utility you offer to a group; these are skills meant to be used for group utility, not self sustainability, and using them as such further reduces the reasoning for bringing AST to a group in the first place.

[Aeliott]

This might be an unpopular opinion but I think AST's heals should remain as they are, nor should they get a buff to emergency situations. To me, AST is much more of a support class than BRD or MCH and I think they should focus on that. Keep AST's healing as risky thing to take - make them worth the gamble in what they can bring that the others can't. We have 2 dedicated healers - if we're going to judge or balance AST in relation to them then it will NEVER be as viable due to the Sect stuff. Why have Aspected Helios when you can have Medica II? Why have Nocturnal Shield if you can have Adloquium? They are at the end of the day a healing class, and their healing is passable in most situations, but they need to be thought of as the high risk high reward support healer, not the crappy in-between version of the other 2.

So the cards need to be stronger. Make it so that Selene's speed boosts don't make AST seem like a waste of time especially. If you want absolute safety in healing take the other 2, but I say give AST the niche of noticeable support at the expense of a healing safety net if things go wrong. The _only_ change I would make to AST's healing would be to make Nocturnal sect more viable somehow (more potency? Even if the shields rival SCH it's not like they're spammable and SCH has a wealth of other things to the point it will not be outclassed) - and perhaps an additional healing effect to Celestial Opposition - similar to how Assize works. Oh and make Lightspeed reduce GCD by a fair chunk at the expense of duration - run with the Time Mage theme.